New to me 430L

[Guest]

I received this gun today from a classifieds add earlier this week. Thanks Jim. It's everything as described. After a couple hundred rounds of a few different pellets and figuring out the hold I'm pleased with the performance. Here's a target with a 10yd 5 shot group, and 30yd 12 shot group. Also I cronied both the AA 10.3g, and 8.4g pellets. 

10yd 5 shot group.

30yd 12 shot group. The 12 and 2 o'clock fliers were me. 

8.4g chrony results.

https://youtu.be/euCS6nrlOMc

10.3g chrony results.

https://youtu.be/Zt3ZapbHGi8

This is going to call for a new FT stock. 

 

[Guest]

A couple pictures of the gun. 

 

[Pavesi]

Congratulations and welcome to the 430L club. I think you will really end up liking that rifle and I wouldn't be surprised if the accuracy continues to improve. One thing to keep an eye on is the breech seal. Mine failed after about 250 rounds or so, but replacing it wasn't too bad, as it seems to be an easy gun to work on. Replacing it also gave me a chance to give it a bit of a tune by polishing the spring ends and deburring in places. The 430L was a real steal when AOA was letting them go for $150.

 

[Guest]

Thanks. I hope to be able to spend the time needed to shoot the gun better. I can feel the difference when shot properly and not. The trigger isn't very good right now either. At least not for me. A-Lot of first stage take up then an inconsistent sear break. For someone who likes a surprise trigger it's perfect. I like a well defined, predictable transition then break. The trigger adjusting will start tomorrow. 

 

[Michigander]

Nice! I sort of wish I had picked one up on sale, but I can hardly keep up with the guns I have now. Let us know how it works out.

 

[Pavesi]

My trigger wasn't very good out of the box either. Mine had no 1st stage and just a sudden break on second stage. But, I was able to adjust it to be perfect for me. Now it has a fairly long smooth and light 1st stage up to a well defined second stage wall and then just a little more pressure for a clean break (no creep at all). I didn't have any experience with two stage triggers prior to the 430L, but I knew what I thought it should feel like and I was eventually able to get there. Mine was so light to start, I ended up dialing in about 4 turns on the weight screw just to get a bit more weight to it (maybe I was just too used to cheap heavy triggers on lesser rifles) Once you get it adjusted it should be a dream to shoot and it will certainly help with accuracy. I don't know if you have experience with the T06, but I found that you can cock the trigger group in the gun without having to cock the gun itself which made trigger adjustment much easier and faster. As it comes from the factory, you will probably be stuck with a long 1st stage take-up. Personally I like the long 1st stage as I consider it a good safety feature. But, if you don't like it I've seen some descriptions on how a set screw can be added to the trigger group to reduce that 1st stage length. My final setting were. 1st stage screw 0.5 CCW from full in, 2nd stage screw 1.5 CCW from full in, and the 3rd screw (pull weight) 4 CW from factory to get the weight up. Of course your settings may vary, but this might give an idea of a starting point.

 

[Guest]

Thanks for the tips. I'll give those settings a try and see how it works out.

 

[cahil_2]

Mine likes 7.9 grain cpl’s out of the box. 

 

[phillip]

I was fortunate enough to buy one of these rifles when AOA had them on sale for $150. A great price for a pretty nice rifle. I took mine apart early on and installed a Vortek spring. I also made the breech seal modification Hector Medina (posts on GTA) came up with. The breech seal that comes with the rifle is awful - it’s hard and very plastic-like. Why they used the material they did I’ll never know.

It is, as many people have already pointed out, kind of beastly to cock for the velocity it produces. The firing behavior is mild, though, and the accuracy is good. One thing I might point out is that the relatively loose breech of these rifles demands that you make sure the pellet doesn’t fall out while you’re inserting the pellet or closing the action. It has been my experience that if the pellet falls out of the breech, Murphy’s law comes into play and it will invariably lodge itself into the cocking linkage. This is where everything comes to a screeching halt while you fish around for a pair of tweezers to remove it.

These are mild concerns, and for the money, these rifles are truly little gems.

By the way, I’ve found that the two rifles I’ve had experience with both performed well with the h&n sport pellets.