MAC1 USFT Analysis/Overview

[Franklink]

Dawned on me a few weeks ago that I already have a simple version of a hamster. It came with a different gun, but was easily attached to the USFT, via a UIT to picatinny adaptor, that I also already had. Gotta say, the walnut and walnut and black and black almost makes this look like it was supposed to be. This is a big improvement over the heavy MAC1 hamster. For Open class, yeah, id prefer the MAC1, but when all that weight is otherwise a liability, and the adjustment isn't necessary, or helpful, or allowed ( Hunter class) than this simple riser is the better of the two options.

Here was the first attempt ..

Realize I needed it back a couple more inches for balance point/preference/ergonomics so did just that...

Had a little session with it this evening, shooting 3x10 or 11 shot groups at 30yards, from offhand position. Nothing to be too horribly proud of, and certainly some room for improvement. There's an interesting point where muscles get fatigued and the sight picture becomes more and more of a drive by. I'm embarrassed to say that was less then the 30ish shots I took from offhand during this session. I'll need to get in offhand shape for the summer matches.

The orange stickers are 1" if I remember right. Lol, yeah, nothing to be proud of here.

 

[Franklink]

This weekend I had my third match with it in Hunter class and as a .20....

But first, the silhouette from field target position on Friday evening before the field target match. 40 shots, 1/10th scale silhouettes out to 70 yards. out of the 6 guys we had shooting that match, the USFT was overall high score, with a 37/40.

Wind conditions were really challenging, for both the silhouette match on Friday, and the FT match on Saturday. This was taken from the Mormon Lake weather station, just a few miles from the match site, and felt like about what we probably dealt with....Far right is wind speed, pink is the gusts.

So, sustained wind speeds around 15mph, gusts up to 30.

Not only was it a lot of wind, but it was extremely variable wind. Big gusts, and then it would die, right before another big gust. Time your trigger break wrong and....miss. Some of the gusts contained blasts of cooler air. Me and my squad-mate talked about whether the chillier air was from the next over shady spot in the woods, or from downdrafts from stratified air higher up. Not sure which was right. And on top of the wind speeds, the course was a big U-shape, so we had to account for a slightly different angle to the predominate winds for each lane. Due to the wind, it was a very challenging day of field target.

But it was a fun day of field target.

The .20 USFT was good for 45/48. First miss was when I held high on a shot that was a direct head-on angle into the wind, expecting the pellet to get pushed down slightly, nope, it hit on the upper edge of the kill zone, right where I was holding. Second miss was on the opposite side of the U, with mostly a tail wind, but also an angle slightly quartering away from the right shoulder. This one was on the side of a tree, about 4-5 feet high. Reset string was limp and hanging straight down on the first shot, held dead in the middle and target went down. Seemingly same conditions the second shot so I repeated what I did the first time, and missed, not being able to see where the miss went. Not sure what happened, but I think I may have caught some wind that wasn't appreciable. Third miss was on a looongg target, most of, it not all of 55 yards. And this one had the predominant wind at a 90 degree angle to pellet travel. I held off, and had the first shot lift up and left, impacting the edge of the kz at about 1030-11 o clock. I adjusted accordingly and knocked it down on the second shot.

That 45/48 was good for second place in Hunter, and overall second. @steve123 also shot a 45, but in the Unlimited class. The overall high score was shot by Kent, with a phenomenal 48/48. Due to the wind, one of the most impressive clean scores that I've seen at a field target match.

So that makes 3 matches with the USFT as a .20 in Hunter class. And my knockdown rate for those three matches works out to 135/148, or 91.2%. I averaged more in the 95% + range with the USFT as a .177 in Open class over a couple years. While I prefer the stability of the Open class shooting aids over the shooting sticks, I don't feel at much of a disadvantage in Hunter versus Open, And the slight difference in knockdown percentage is likely more due to small sample size and pretty windy conditions in 2 of the 3 Hunter matches.

I'm still quite fond of my unregulated USFT, I've just had too many field target successes over the last 8 years to feel otherwise. Some call it being a fanboy. I suppose if choosing to shoot a gun that gives me the best chances at winning is being a fanboy, then yep, fanboy it is.

 

[steve123]

This weekend I had my third match with it in Hunter class and as a .20....

But first, the silhouette from field target position on Friday evening before the field target match. 40 shots, 1/10th scale silhouettes out to 70 yards. out of the 6 guys we had shooting that match, the USFT was overall high score, with a 37/40.

Wind conditions were really challenging, for both the silhouette match on Friday, and the FT match on Saturday. This was taken from the Mormon Lake weather station, just a few miles from the match site, and felt like about what we probably dealt with....Far right is wind speed, pink is the gusts.

View attachment 572815
So, sustained wind speeds around 15mph, gusts up to 30.

Not only was it a lot of wind, but it was extremely variable wind. Big gusts, and then it would die, right before another big gust. Time your trigger break wrong and....miss. Some of the gusts contained blasts of cooler air. Me and my squad-mate talked about whether the chillier air was from the next over shady spot in the woods, or from downdrafts from stratified air higher up. Not sure which was right. And on top of the wind speeds, the course was a big U-shape, so we had to account for a slightly different angle to the predominate winds for each lane. Due to the wind, it was a very challenging day of field target.

But it was a fun day of field target.

The .20 USFT was good for 45/48. First miss was when I held high on a shot that was a direct head-on angle into the wind, expecting the pellet to get pushed down slightly, nope, it hit on the upper edge of the kill zone, right where I was holding. Second miss was on the opposite side of the U, with mostly a tail wind, but also an angle slightly quartering away from the right shoulder. This one was on the side of a tree, about 4-5 feet high. Reset string was limp and hanging straight down on the first shot, held dead in the middle and target went down. Seemingly same conditions the second shot so I repeated what I did the first time, and missed, not being able to see where the miss went. Not sure what happened, but I think I may have caught some wind that wasn't appreciable. Third miss was on a looongg target, most of, it not all of 55 yards. And this one had the predominant wind at a 90 degree angle to pellet travel. I held off, and had the first shot lift up and left, impacting the edge of the kz at about 1030-11 o clock. I adjusted accordingly and knocked it down on the second shot.

That 45/48 was good for second place in Hunter, and overall second. @steve123 also shot a 45, but in the Unlimited class. The overall high score was shot by Kent, with a phenomenal 48/48. Due to the wind, one of the most impressive clean scores that I've seen at a field target match.

So that makes 3 matches with the USFT as a .20 in Hunter class. And my knockdown rate for those three matches works out to 135/148, or 91.2%. I averaged more in the 95% + range with the USFT as a .177 in Open class over a couple years. While I prefer the stability of the Open class shooting aids over the shooting sticks, I don't feel at much of a disadvantage in Hunter versus Open, And the slight difference in knockdown percentage is likely more due to small sample size and pretty windy conditions in 2 of the 3 Hunter matches.

I'm still quite fond of my unregulated USFT, I've just had too many field target successes over the last 8 years to feel otherwise. Some call it being a fanboy. I suppose if choosing to shoot a gun that gives me the best chances at winning is being a fanboy, then yep, fanboy it is.

That was great shooting both days on your part!

Yeah it was tough to keep up with those switches, which I think was got me. It was a fun weekend and just interesting to try our luck guessing where to aim.

IMHO Kent's performance was "THE" top in FT shooting of all time that I've seen because of those silly Hellacious winds we had!

 

[beerthief]

This weekend I had my third match with it in Hunter class and as a .20....

But first, the silhouette from field target position on Friday evening before the field target match. 40 shots, 1/10th scale silhouettes out to 70 yards. out of the 6 guys we had shooting that match, the USFT was overall high score, with a 37/40.

Wind conditions were really challenging, for both the silhouette match on Friday, and the FT match on Saturday. This was taken from the Mormon Lake weather station, just a few miles from the match site, and felt like about what we probably dealt with....Far right is wind speed, pink is the gusts.

View attachment 572815
So, sustained wind speeds around 15mph, gusts up to 30.

Not only was it a lot of wind, but it was extremely variable wind. Big gusts, and then it would die, right before another big gust. Time your trigger break wrong and....miss. Some of the gusts contained blasts of cooler air. Me and my squad-mate talked about whether the chillier air was from the next over shady spot in the woods, or from downdrafts from stratified air higher up. Not sure which was right. And on top of the wind speeds, the course was a big U-shape, so we had to account for a slightly different angle to the predominate winds for each lane. Due to the wind, it was a very challenging day of field target.

But it was a fun day of field target.

The .20 USFT was good for 45/48. First miss was when I held high on a shot that was a direct head-on angle into the wind, expecting the pellet to get pushed down slightly, nope, it hit on the upper edge of the kill zone, right where I was holding. Second miss was on the opposite side of the U, with mostly a tail wind, but also an angle slightly quartering away from the right shoulder. This one was on the side of a tree, about 4-5 feet high. Reset string was limp and hanging straight down on the first shot, held dead in the middle and target went down. Seemingly same conditions the second shot so I repeated what I did the first time, and missed, not being able to see where the miss went. Not sure what happened, but I think I may have caught some wind that wasn't appreciable. Third miss was on a looongg target, most of, it not all of 55 yards. And this one had the predominant wind at a 90 degree angle to pellet travel. I held off, and had the first shot lift up and left, impacting the edge of the kz at about 1030-11 o clock. I adjusted accordingly and knocked it down on the second shot.

That 45/48 was good for second place in Hunter, and overall second. @steve123 also shot a 45, but in the Unlimited class. The overall high score was shot by Kent, with a phenomenal 48/48. Due to the wind, one of the most impressive clean scores that I've seen at a field target match.

So that makes 3 matches with the USFT as a .20 in Hunter class. And my knockdown rate for those three matches works out to 135/148, or 91.2%. I averaged more in the 95% + range with the USFT as a .177 in Open class over a couple years. While I prefer the stability of the Open class shooting aids over the shooting sticks, I don't feel at much of a disadvantage in Hunter versus Open, And the slight difference in knockdown percentage is likely more due to small sample size and pretty windy conditions in 2 of the 3 Hunter matches.

I'm still quite fond of my unregulated USFT, I've just had too many field target successes over the last 8 years to feel otherwise. Some call it being a fanboy. I suppose if choosing to shoot a gun that gives me the best chances at winning is being a fanboy, then yep, fanboy it is.

Nice read over first cup in the AM . Great shooting everyone .

 

[oaks1450]

A few weeks ago my brother came up from Oklahoma for a visit and hooked me up with a Mac1 Hunter #192 project gun. It was originally a tube gun that was converted to a 12ft pound bottle gun. It’s short, compact and holds fantastic when standing. As much as I appreciate shooting 12 ft pounds and the guys who shoot the WFTF class, my back is just not gonna let that happen. So I wanted to get the FPS up as much as possible. I started by setting the Ninja reg at 1800 psi which is what the tube limit is, then gradually increased the internal reg up to 1500 psi. In the middle of all of this I also took the entire trigger assembly out of my tube gun and swapped out with the bottle trigger. The tube gun had the newer style hammer which allows you to add weight by screwing various types of bolts and nuts to it. In the end I was able to squeak out a solid 16 ft pounds. I think that will be enough for me to have fun and do better at standing, we‘ll see? If all this works out, I will give it a major face lift over the winter.

 

[Franklink]

Does anyone have the oring specs for a tubed USFT, in order to do a complete reseal?

And since they're all hand-made and somewhat bespoke, have Oring sizes stayed consistent through the years?

 

[beerthief]

Does anyone have the oring specs for a tubed USFT, in order to do a complete reseal?

And since they're all hand-made and somewhat bespoke, have Oring sizes stayed consistent through the years?

Also needed , i have had a slow leak for years ( like 16 hours full to empty )

 

[TnCnDn]

Also needed , i have had a slow leak for years ( like 16 hours full to empty )

What...you have a Mac1? Dang now I need one.

 

[woogie_man]

Just open it up and see what the sizes are.

There isn't much to them. I would think they use standard sizes.

 

[Franklink]

Just open it up and see what the sizes are.

There isn't much to them. I would think they use standard sizes.

And let out the magic?!?!?!?? No way Jose. Lol.

A friend's USFT recently developed a leak and I'm going to try to reseal it and also spend some time with a couple barrels he's been comparing.

BUT, mine is staying as-is as long as it isn't leaking.

 

[woogie_man]

Good thing it is a friends then huh .... lol

 

[oaks1450]

Here are two bags of o rings that my brother gave me with #192 . I know that he resealed the entire gun while he had it. I’ll have to check and see what other orings were involved in that process.

 

[oaks1450]

Had the house to myself this morning , so is was an excellent time to get some hold overs for my new 16fpe MAC1 bottle gun. I simply took the Sightron off my tube gun and mounted on #192. My scope wheel already had my yardages and holdovers already marked on it from my 18fpe tube gun. My setup is a pretty quick one. It involves Measuring Tape some Garden Markers and some 3x5 index cards clipped to the markers. I also use a magic marker to mark the yardage and I try to smear it while it’s still wet to give me something to focus in on. Luckily, most of my hold overs were the same out to about 40 yards and minor changes from 45-55. There was little to no wind this morning and the sky had the feel like rain would be coming soon. Very happy I was able to get this done today before tomorrow’s event at PSA. After shooting today, I feel like I can confidently say that whatever happens tomorrow, it will not be the guns fault.

 

[davit66]

Love that Red, White, and Blue on #192.

 

[SAZ]

Borrowed this picture from @woogie_man's "For Sale" classified ad here on AGN.

Not a lot of help, but this appears to be what a set of 0-rings for MAC 1's looks like ?

 

[woogie_man]

If needed I can look at getting sizes if needed.

 

[SAZ]

If needed I can look at getting sizes if needed.

Let's save that as "Option B" for now.
Thank you for offering !

 

[Franklink]

Some USFT related updates....

#1
Tim McMurray was johnny-on-the spot this morning!!! I'm in the process of resealing @SAZ's #56 Hunter, and shot Tim a text about an oring kit. Within 4 hrs I had an email confirmation for shipment for a full set of orings. Not cheap ($40) but the convenience of not needing to trial-and-error my way through the various oring sizes was worth it, especially with the time crunch of getting this gun back to its owner at the next match that we're both attending in 4 weeks. So, paid for convenience. Oring kit should be delivered on Thursday.

#2
I shot my personal Hunter # 165 this past weekend at a monthly FT match. It's still a .20, using a repurposed LW barrel from an AirForce Condor and the .20/13.73grain JSBs at an average of 795-800fps. Used it to secure my first clean match in Hunter class (priors have been in Open). So #165 went 48/48, which included 4/4 on offhand and 2/2 on kneeling. It was not a hard course, as there were two other shooters that also cleared it, good friends Rex and Bobby. It was more a matter of being able to take 48 consecutive shots without a mental error, which is often not an easy task.

So of course we had a shoot-off to determine 1st, 2nd, 3rd. Dunno if the co-match directors decided to use up all the difficulty they'd held back for the course or what, but they decided on a 1/2" kill zone at 50 yards to be the tie breaker. A 1/2" KZ at 50 yards is a 112.5 Troyer factor target, without any wind factors applied.

First round of shoot-off: Rex shot first, and took it down. I shot next, and also took it down, although I believe I got lucky with a split. Bobby was third, and also knocked it down.

Second round of shoot-off: Same 1/2" KZ at 50 yards, but offhand!!! Yeah right-that's a 197 Troyer target!!! We all three missed, two of us drew faceplate at least, lol.

Third round of shoot-off: same 1/2" kill zone, but scooted the shooters back to 54-55 yards, and let us go back to stool and sticks. We're now looking at a 122+ Troyer target. We all missed the first round @ 55yards, but I thought I could see my and Bobby's hit on the right, lower edge of the kz, due to a little bit of wind quartering in from about 10:30-11:00 .

Fourth round of shoot-off: still 1/2" kill zone, still stool and sticks. Rex shot first, and missed. I shot second, held on the upper, left edge (again, about 10:30-11:00) of that teeny tiny little kz, and knocked it down!!! Bobby shot third and missed. So that put me in first for the Hunter class.

Firth round of shoot-off: still 1/2" kz, and still stool and sticks, but now determining 2nd and 3rd place. Rex got it, and Bobby missed, putting Rex in second place.

I love shoot-offs, even when they don't go my way. And will add that I was feeling like the biggest under-dog against Rex and Bobby.

Anyway, USFT Hunter #165 performed admirably, as it always does. Man I love that gun.

On a side note, Jessie, a local AZ FT competitor, had these super cool "clean sweep" pins made up, and awards them whenever someone pulls off the feat. I love the concept, and a big thanks to Jessie!

 

[beerthief]

Some USFT related updates....

#1
Tim McMurray was johnny-on-the spot this morning!!! I'm in the process of resealing @SAZ's #56 Hunter, and shot Tim a text about an oring kit. Within 4 hrs I had an email confirmation for shipment for a full set of orings. Not cheap ($40) but the convenience of not needing to trial-and-error my way through the various oring sizes was worth it, especially with the time crunch of getting this gun back to its owner at the next match that we're both attending in 4 weeks. So, paid for convenience. Oring kit should be delivered on Thursday.

#2
I shot my personal Hunter # 165 this past weekend at a monthly FT match. It's still a .20, using a repurposed LW barrel from an AirForce Condor and the .20/13.73grain JSBs at an average of 795-800fps. Used it to secure my first clean match in Hunter class (priors have been in Open). So #165 went 48/48, which included 4/4 on offhand and 2/2 on kneeling. It was not a hard course, as there were two other shooters that also cleared it, good friends Rex and Bobby. It was more a matter of being able to take 48 consecutive shots without a mental error, which is often not an easy task.

So of course we had a shoot-off to determine 1st, 2nd, 3rd. Dunno if the co-match directors decided to use up all the difficulty they'd held back for the course or what, but they decided on a 1/2" kill zone at 50 yards to be the tie breaker. A 1/2" KZ at 50 yards is a 112.5 Troyer factor target, without any wind factors applied.

First round of shoot-off: Rex shot first, and took it down. I shot next, and also took it down, although I believe I got lucky with a split. Bobby was third, and also knocked it down.

Second round of shoot-off: Same 1/2" KZ at 50 yards, but offhand!!! Yeah right-that's a 197 Troyer target!!! We all three missed, two of us drew faceplate at least, lol.

Third round of shoot-off: same 1/2" kill zone, but scooted the shooters back to 54-55 yards, and let us go back to stool and sticks. We're now looking at a 122+ Troyer target. We all missed the first round @ 55yards, but I thought I could see my and Bobby's hit on the right, lower edge of the kz, due to a little bit of wind quartering in from about 10:30-11:00 .

Fourth round of shoot-off: still 1/2" kill zone, still stool and sticks. Rex shot first, and missed. I shot second, held on the upper, left edge (again, about 10:30-11:00) of that teeny tiny little kz, and knocked it down!!! Bobby shot third and missed. So that put me in first for the Hunter class.

Firth round of shoot-off: still 1/2" kz, and still stool and sticks, but now determining 2nd and 3rd place. Rex missed, and Bobby got it, putting Bobby in second place.

I love shoot-offs, even when they don't go my way. And will add that I was feeling like the biggest under-dog against Rex and Bobby.

Anyway, USFT Hunter #165 performed admirably, as it always does. Man I love that gun.

On a side note, Jessie, a local AZ FT competitor, had these super cool "clean sweep" pins made up, and awards them whenever someone pulls off the feat. I love the concept, and a big thanks to Jessie!

View attachment 580050

This was one of the best reads with my AM coffee (first cu ) Thanks

 

[Franklink]

Reseal of Hunter #95

This was the first time I've disassembled a USFT, and it was pretty cool to see how it works. My take-away was that LD's naming his baby the "Simple Simon" was spot-on, cuz there's just not a whole lot complicated about them. Simply not a lot of rings, and no complicated parts. Elegant in their simplicity.

All the parts laid out...

First task was to file down (yeah, I groan inside just thinking about it) the raised bumps for the holes through the tube. For whatever reason, this particular USFT had some nasty ridges of sharp aluminum at the boltholes through the tube. In texting, @Arzrover speculated that perhaps A BUNCH of barrel swaps while pressurized could lead to this. I was wondering if over-torqueing the bolts could cause it. Dunno for sure, but it needed ameliorated. So, file. This was the before and after of the filing and then some alumiblack to try to touch up the filing. Of note, the distorted metal is mostly on the side of the holes that the bolts would be pushing on from the pressure in the tube. I inspected my personal USFT, and it doesn't exhibit any of this hole distortion. Again, was # 56 over-pressurized at some point in it's life? Problem is now solved. I did verify that there were no sharp burrs at the bolts holes on the inside of the tube (potential for cutting orings on reassembly).

End plugs for air tube...
Of note here is how three of the six oring grooves are un-anodized. Tim's reseal kit only contained 3 of the urethane 028s for this groove, and one of the black (viton/buna?) 028s, yet this particular gun needs a total of six. The non-anodized grooves and not enough of them in the seal kit made me wonder if these were added by some owner some time after it left Tim's hands. Regardless, I had ordered extra 028s in case I nicked one or had trouble getting it to seal so it worked out.

Tim is huge on urethane orings, specifically 90d. His old website talked about their longevity. My personal USFT was made in 2017 and still has the original orings. If I'm remembering correctly, @Arzrover told me his from the early 2000s is still running on originals too.
This is what some of the orings I took out of #56 looked like...this one was under the fill port, if I'm not mistaken.

The large 028s that seal the air tube plugs were black, not the typical opaque color of a urethane oring. They also felt soft for 90d. Leading me to believe that somebody resealed this gun after Tim.

Here are some close-ups...
The valve is removed through simply unthreading it, using the pin holes on either side of the exposed valve stem. A tool was sold by Tim for this express purpose at one point, but I had some pins that fit perfectly and worked just fine.

Poppet return spring sits in that small depression in the bottom of the threaded hole that the valve comes out of.

Swing breach removed from valve here. It rotates on those two parallel orings for opening and closing for loading/firing.

All said and done, I got it resealed and now holding air. But it did require a few baths and hair dryer/time on the trampoline in the sun a few times for the dry-out.

The pile of orings that came out of it. Those big black 028s were looking pretty ratty.

What I learned that could help anyone resealing one in the future...

• DO NOT fill your threaded bolt holes through the breech with grease. Whoever owned this thing before the last two owners filled the threaded holes with nasty, black, tarry grease. I can only presume they did this with hopes of making barrel changes easier. And since we're talking about steel bolts in aluminum threads, some grease is a probably a good idea. But I question their choice, and their excessive use. It was prodigious. I was reminded of greasing farm implements with a grease gun. Whoever did this to this gun had to have put three or four pumps from a grease gun into all four bolt holes. It was frankly, comical. Cleaning up the grease was a large part of the reseal process.
• Don't hesitate to dunk it underwater. It gave me invaluable information about where I had leaks after my first reassembly with new orings.
  • The biggest was the poppet. I was hoping to reserve the replacement poppet and spring that Tim included in the reseal kit for future use by this gun's owner. But the previous poppet didn't want to hold air so I put the new one in. I grabbed hold of it with an electric drill and gently pulled it against the valve seat and briefly spun it. This was to coax the new one into sealing. And it worked the first time.
  • I had a slow leak from the gauge and the fill port. Slightly tighter got those sorted.
  • I had a small leak from the front end plug. I pulled that and replaced one of the white orings with the singular black one Tim included in the kit. I don't know if that black one was supposed to go in any particular place, or if it was meant for a trouble oring groove, but that's what I did, and it worked.
• The inner air passageways of the valve require it to be in the correct orientation, which requires MUCH more force on threading the valve back in than I would have guessed. The correct orientation is that the disassembly pin holes of the valve need to basically line up with the barrel. If the pins are not in line with the barrel (think , the air passageways are blocked, and....no air makes it to the barrel when the trigger is pulled. Think of the disassembly pin holes as the handle of a ball valve for PVC pipe and you'll know what I'm talking about..."open" is when the handle aligns with the flow of water, and "closed" is when the handle is at a 90 degree angle to the flow of water (air).
• The tiny little oring in the check valve is a pain in the butt. Being 90d, there's just not much stretch. And being so small makes it even harder. I eventually got it, but it was a bit frustrating that such a simple little part of the process took so long. I was taking great care in not scratching or nicking the oring groove. And the check valve is just tiny to hold onto. No tips here, just be patient.

Shortly after resealing it I spent some quality time doing the fun part: shooting it.

Marginal gains and barrel/projectile choice

In our FT game, the ability to address the wind at the time of trigger break is usually what separates out the field. BUT starting with a combination that minimizes the effects the wind has on the pellet in flight makes perfect wind reads much less critical. As I've worked through various...

www.airgunnation.com

So now that it's holding air, I can address the owners next concerns, accuracy. The first step was a gun rule-out/control by dropping in a known exceptional barrel (explained in the link above).

Here are red and black Hunter #95 and my personal Hunter #165.