My NEW Taipan Veteran is inconsistent...

[Mink]

Hi all,

I recently purchased my first PCP airgun, a new Taipan Veteran Long .22 with laminate stock and LW barrel from TalonTunes. I decided on the Veteran due to its seemingly perfect record as a reliable, accurate, consistent bullpup. Unfortunately, after putting around 1000 pellets through it I have to say that I am slightly disappointed in its performance. Out of the box it grouped OK at 50 yards (1"-1.5") with JSB 18.1s. I did not have a chronograph at first, but I figured that the factory tune was a little hot as my shot count was not as good as advertised. After dialing the HST back with trial and error, I managed to shrink my groups to 0.75"-1.25". Not bad, but far from "pellet on pellet" (0.5" or better) like I was hoping for. 

Despite this, I noticed that my group consistency seemed to fluctuate day to day. One day 0.75", the next day 1.25". Last week, I broke down and bought a chronograph to see what was going on with velocity. Today was my first day shooting over the chrony and I was surprised by the results...

At first, I shot some groups with my "best" HST setting. Found out this was around 880 fps. My first 10 shots had spread of 6 fps, great! I then spent some time increasing HST by 90 degree clockwise turns. The velocities at each interval were consistent. I slowly worked my way up to 930 fps, accuracy not great there. 

I then shot a few magazines of NSA 17.5 slugs to see velocity difference from JSB 18.1s: slightly slower with NSAs, groups not great (1.25-1.75").



After this, I decided to dial back my HST to the 880 fps mark that I was at before with JSB 18.1s. First 5 shots: 864, 848, 892, 881, 868. Why is my extreme spread now 44 (and groups not nearly as good)? Confused, I checked my pressure gauge and saw I still had ~200 bar, but I topped off to 250 to see if this would make a difference. It didn't. 

I adjusted my HST up and down to see if I could get it to settle down, but no matter what setting I set it to my ES was 25-30 fps. I also noticed a strange fluctuation in velocities. Here is my last string of 16 shots: 876, 897, 876, 898, 878, 897, 880, 894, 878, 897, 878, 897, 876, 895, 883, 898.



Currently, this finding has me thinking that the previous accuracy inconsistencies that I was experiencing pre-chrono may very well have been due to similar velocity inconsistencies as I observed today.



Has anyone experienced this problem or have any opinions? I'm starting to wonder if I just got a lemon. 

What would you do if you were me? I am still in school so I do not have the funds to simply "buy a better gun". Was hoping this one would last me years.

Cheers.

 

[Franklink]

Possibly as simple as a pellet lot that the barrel disagrees with. Buy another tin and try that first.

 

[gendoc]

Taipan's have a history of poor results with slugs due to the choked barrels.

stay with the 18.13 jsb or either heavier jsb's.

do your testing / adjusting with 1 pellet type.

good luck, its a great gun !!

 

[gendoc]

also try polymags, my compact version loves them.....

 

[Mink]

Taipan's have a history of poor results with slugs due to the choked barrels.

stay with the 18.13 jsb or either heavier jsb's.

do your testing / adjusting with 1 pellet type.

good luck, its a great gun !!

Thanks for the suggestion. I should clarify though that I am experiencing the large velocity fluctuations with the JSB 18.1s. I just shot a couple mags of NSA slugs because i was curious. 

 

[gendoc]

have you cleaned the barrel ?

 

[Mink]

Thanks for the suggestions regarding pellet selection. But judging by today’s experience of going from good fps consistency to very bad (with pellets from the same tin), I am doubtful that the ammo is at fault. Also this is my 3rd tin of JSBs. One was from a tin I got in 2012 for my springer. Same results...

 

[Mink]

have you cleaned the barrel ?

I cleaned it after the first tin I shot. It was pretty dirty. Correct me if I’m wrong but barrel fouling would impact accuracy/poi but probably not cause of 30-40 fps spread shot to shot, right?

 

[gendoc]

what i would do next,

clean barrel throughly and try its performance.

if still tits-up, send it back for warranty repair

 

[Vetmx]

I agree with gendoc. You are leading up that choke with your intermittent slug testing. 

 

[elh0102]

I would take off the barrel and clean it thoroughly with a rod and brush. If you have any JB paste, lightly polish also. Frankly, I think you are correct in doubting the barrel for such an extreme spread, but I would still do it. If that doesn't correct it, two possibilities come to mind; first, a bad regulator, which would be unusual with a Taipan, but it can happen; second, a dirty hammer/spring assembly. I experienced the same velocity inconsistency in my RAW one time, and the maker recommended cleaning and lubing the hammer assembly, and that fixed it. Contact Tony at Talon to find out what Taipan recommends regarding lubrication for the hammer, as it varies with different rifles.

 

[clgraham82]

If you aren't getting same results as sample card that shipped with the gun...send it back. 

 

[Mink]

I agree with gendoc. You are leading up that choke with your intermittent slug testing.

Interesting. I didn’t consider that slugs foul the barrel faster/differently. However, I'm wondering how this could be the culprit for that last 16 shot string in which every consecutive shot had 20 fps difference with the last. And a perfectly fast, slow, fast, slow, fast, slow,... pattern. 


Not saying you’re wrong, just doesn’t seem to explain that behavior. Then again, I have a lot to learn. Appreciate it. 

 

[ackuric]

Your variance in fps has nothing to do with leading of the choke...certainly not to the effect of 40~ fps...Sorry I don't know enough about Vet's to help further but I know enough about lead, chokes, barrels, and fps variance possibilities...

 

[Why]

Some Veterans do have crazy regulator spikes but usually have no adverse effect in accuracy. I would just try a different NEW screw on tin of JSBs including the 15.9 and a tin of H&N Baracuda 21 grain pointed and give it another go before returning it.

 

[Georgia Airguns]

Mink, I strongly suggest you do not use a cleaning rod and brush. Airgun barrels are generally of a softer steel and you could do more harm than good. The best way I have found to clean and polish the bore of a PCP is to remove it and use a Crown saver pull through device with a patch that has a little oil and Flitz polish on it. Using this recipe for about ten to fifteen passes then start cleaning with just oil on the patches until it is all clean. Pull from the breech end, exiting the muzzle in one smooth pass with a patch that has a pretty tight fit.

Also, I would try the Air Arms Diabolo field Heavy 18 grain and the Edgun West 18 grain as well. These are all made by JSB but have a different shape. I have seen many a gun that did not shoot the JSB the best, but would yield much better results than you are getting with one of the other pellets. 

I know this has nothing to do with your FPS variances, but try shooting your gun without the shroud to rule out clipping.

Good luck.

Charlie Frear, Georgia Airguns

 

[octavius]

I have had similar bad experiences with the veteran right out of the box. 

This string is with factory set of regulator 

and this one is after tighten regulator for 5 dots!!!!

I have habbit from the cricket for deviation +-2ms not like shown me veteran at first!! 

 

[octavius]

Also I suspect the pressure gauge is not correct and I have doubt isn't wika. I had already opened it and there is any label on side of manometer with sentence about information "pressure relief do not remove"

Its funny when I'm filling the gun and look on the gauge I see 200bars still filling gauge still shown 200bsr and suddenly is there 240bar.... 

 

[rangur1]

I agree with gendoc. You are leading up that choke with your intermittent slug testing.

Interesting. I didn’t consider that slugs foul the barrel faster/differently. However, I'm wondering how this could be the culprit for that last 16 shot string in which every consecutive shot had 20 fps difference with the last. And a perfectly fast, slow, fast, slow, fast, slow,... pattern. 


Not saying you’re wrong, just doesn’t seem to explain that behavior. Then again, I have a lot to learn. Appreciate it.

i had similar results. after a ran slugs through and switched back to pellets. cleaned the barrel out of all the excess lead and gun went back to normal. gun is also sensitive to pellet head size. average jsb tin has 2-3 different head sizes. your taipan loves 1 more than the rest. once you find that head size just about ANY pellet in that head diameter will shoot lites out in that gun. other issue is possible reg is a bit screwy. rare , but it does occur. 

but one step at a time. clean barrel and chrony only one pellet. your spread should be 10 fps or less. if your getting 40-50 fps variance then your reg is probably culprit. that's the power issue. 

secondly - you will find pellet sorting greatly rewarding for your accuracy. my taipans shoot no worse than nickel size groups at 50 yds with 25-34g jsb pellets in 6.38mm head size. 25 cal sorted with pellet gage. also shoots polymags or H&N barracudas in same head size very well. other sizes - ehh. 

 

[Mink]

UPDATE: 

Cleaned the barrel this morning and shot the following string between 240-220 bar:

872

878

844

869

876

851

870

876

852

872

875

855

872

879

854

873

878

856



Accuracy again not great (as expected).


Frustrating. Because I’ve only had the gun for 1.5 months I’m thinking I’ll try to take advantage of the 1 year warranty. Not worth tearing it down myself and risk screwing something up.

Would this be something I contact the dealer for or the manufacturer?