P Rod advice

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LeadandAirFun

LeadandAirFun

Member
Oct 23, 2021
68
9
North Carolina, United States
So i just got my first PCP! Special thanks to sensiesmash for the gun, hand pump, and goodies. Reasonable price and great communication! I had to resort to you tube to figure out the magazines ha ha. What are some good tweeks? Im not looking to go too crazy with the mods...yet but i'd like to get the most out of each fill. I found it does take a little effort to pump the gun up. What are other options on filling? I cant spring for an electric pump quite yet. I understand paint ball tanks can be used? What are the costs involved as far as valves and fittings or would I be better off to save up for a pump?
 
If you don’t like pumping then you’ll definitely want to steer clear of power mods. If the gun is shooting right around 600fps with 14.3gr pellets, the previous owner might have it set where it should be. The best tune for a stock Prod is from full CCW, 6 turns CW with the hammer spring. From full CCW, 1 turn CW with the hammer throw. If you don’t have a chronograph, you will have to rely on faith. You should get 3 mags with that tune if you fill to 2,800psi. 
 
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I have a couple that are customized,also have a stock one,,it shoots so good I am leaving it alone!

I do not think they need anything but better grips.....I hand pump mine...ounce you get it up to the right pressure,do not let it fall ,say below 16,1800psi the hand pumping becomes easier....40-60 pumps... you will become better at pumping it up...I do not think you will need anything else to pump it up....at first do 20-40 pumps at a time,rest some minutes and do it again....if you are really light or get winded easy...it for-sure can be hard....

To recap the Prod is good in stock form,just get better grips and maybe a trigger shoe......Then go from there as you get to know your Prod better.

Mine like the heavier 10gr or more pellet weights.....hand pumping can be a workout and treat it as such...
 
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Handpumping is all about technique, you'll get there quickly and soon realize it's a breeze,



Been handpumping for 15 years, I'm only 145 pounds,....it's tedious but not hard, cannot beat air independence :)



Think about it this way if you're used to springers ;



with a springer you need to pump each shot as well as load a pellet each shot, with a PCP you do all your pumping and once and then you shoot with no interruptions.



Also timewise, for me it's faster to handpump then to get the Nomad II set up and fill the gun with it.
 
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I use a Hill hand pump on mine, as others have said, it's not too much effort, portable and relatively simple, equiment wise, compared to a conpressor.

The two most useful mods I did were to add a cheek rest to the stock and polishing the barrel.

For my barrel work, I brushed the bore with a bronze brush and JB bore paste for 20-30 complete passes. I would probably make 100 passes if I were to do it again, then pull patches through with Flitz polishing compound. I noticed some resistance when cycling the bolt and pushing pellets into the breech, si I wanted to ease the pellet entry a bit. I used a tapered cone Dremel stone bit in the cordless drill at slow speed to chamfer the breech a little (with the breech oring temporarily removed!). Then I chucked the muzzle end of the barrel into the drill and pushed the breech end into the corner of a Cratex polishing block to polish it with a couple of drops of oil. This works well - Cratex blocks are kind of like thin rectangular erasers with polishing grit embedded in them. I flipped the barrel around and polished the crown to a mirror finish the same way.

See the attached pics for the cheek rest mod. I sawed a piece of pvc pipe in half, glued on a piece of neoprene pipe insulation, and mounted it using two long #10 machine screws and extra nuts. This allows you to adjust the heigh for best eye position through the scope. This was also a perfect place for a Crosman pellet pouch, which has a velcro belt loop closure. The weight of the pellets geive the pistol very good balance, pretty much centered on the wrist.

I bought an adapter and small moderator (Sumo) from DonnyFL. Amazingly quiet, all you hear is the action clicking and the pellet impact! I think I tried the smaller Tanto model too, and it did just fine. Note that you have to unscrew the moderator to attach your air pump for filling, a minor inconvenience.

Good luck and have fun!

P-rod Cheekrest 1.1643399243.jpg


P-rod Cheekrest 2.1643399271.jpg


Marks PROD w DonnyFL Sumo Suppressor 20171202.1643399291.jpg

 
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Congrats! First thing i suggest is make good notes of the currrent hammer spring and striker settings. That way you can return the gun to near its original tune, i say near because Hammer adjustments can shift and springs can weaken over time. A chrony is your best friend. I have a few p-rods, some modded to the hilt but the stock one gets the most trigger time ironically and does sit at about a 3 mag tune. They can be tame little plinkers or a beast, depends what you want. For air saving look into the B-Staley o-ring mod, works great, super cheap and saves air but wont be at the top of the power curve. Still need a chrony though to tune. For my pcp journey there was way more value from buying a chrony before a compressor. Some other cheaper mods are a striker change or a shorter hammer spring. Hillairgun.com is my goto for those parts. Buck-rail.com makes a cheap but well made ergonomic forgrip with a pic rail, makes a big difference in grip and supporting off-hand. Trigger can be shoed too, adding a nice feel. Hand pumping did me well for the beginning and will again when shtf. I ended up shooting and tuning alot more and moved to a Nomad style compressor, works great for filling guns directly, still putters along after a few years, but not designed for serviceability or tank fills like others. I now shoot more than the compressor can support, so tanks are in the mix now, but carbon fiber is $$$ and the compressor still tags along on hunts, as does the pump as a backup. If you can get tanks filled, a used recert 3k psi tank from a scuba shop might be a future consideration for a lower cost. You can top off the gun to 2800 and tether when near there. I think it all comes down to your purpose, both gun and air. Hand pump may be just fine for your shooting frequency/volume and just keep filters and orings on hand and add a compressor for convenience when you can. If i were in your boots, would find a chrony first, learn that gun inside and out, as it is, and get the most suitable and efficient tune you can out of it with whatever pellets you are using, then add a compressor or tanks. Fortunately you have a very well documented pistol that has parts galore had all mods and problems virtually exhausted and solved over the years ( precisely why i have so many marauders) so any issues or tips are readily solved or found. Just my 2cents. Happy shooting! 
 
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I hand pumped my Prod until after I bought my Avenger. The Prod was not bad to pump up but the Avenger takes a lot more strokes. Now I use an expired SCBA tank and a Yong Heng compressor. You cannot take an expired SCBA tank to a shop to have it filled but you can refill it yourself. Expired tanks are much cheaper. But the pump/tanks setup cost me more than the Prod or Avenger.

I wanted more power to put squirrels down quicker. I initially did that by turning up the hammer spring. Later I did a B-staley tune (O-rings around the valve stem to stop hammer bounce) which required, for my power level, a stiffer hammer spring. I now get 24-30 shots at 16-18 fpe. About 30 fps velocity variation over those shots. I got a few less shots without the B-staley but the velocity variation was 60 fps. I found I could raise the power up to about 20 fpe but I only could get one magazine of shots at that power level.

I have two different chinese chronographs. They are inexpensive and work well. I have one that clamps to the gun and one that sits in front of the barrel. The clamp on shifts POI a little so I prefer the one that sits in front of the muzzle. Either of these is about $30. I think they are a must to understand the impact of making changes.

I initially attached a small piece of a 2x4 to raise the comb. But I now have a butt stock made of a piece of aluminum tube with a 5/16 fine thread bolt in one end to screw to the gun and a 1/4 t-nut in the other end to attach a butt plate. I put a piece of PVC tubing over the aluminum tube to raise it slightly and make it more comfortable when cold. It is lighter than the stock my gun came with and works very well.
 
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anyone have a good prod tune with a regulator added?
Click to expand...


I have one i keep regulated, but shot count suffers, all depends on your settings how many you will get. Reg’d does make it a different gun, but not necessarily better. I had set out to make a specific p-rod build for FT ( ~20fpe) At the time its all i had to shoot FT with so I wanted it as consistent as possible. It pushes GTO’s 875 for ~7 shots, <1 ES. Ports are bored out, Hill parts kit, prototype hammer ( all i can say is, its blue), #7 valve spring. LW barrel wrapped and bonded w carbon fiber cloth, shimmed PEEK striker. Huma reg is set around 120 i think, have to look at my notes, i know the hs is 1.3 turns in and the gauge was removed for headspace. Its fun, shoots almost lights out all the way to the 50 yd targets but filling up every lane was a pain. I regulated another one for a bit, that was set about 100bar, Hill hammer and springs, stock striker, had a consistent and solid 2 mag tune from it with the gauge block. That one’s the operating table now getting a cf bottle. Besides the FT build, im not regulating any more in tube. I say that, but this is airgunning. For most of my purposes with the other p-rods, some o-rings, springs and tuning worked perfectly enough and with better shot counts. 
 
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I think I opened a can of worms buying this gun! Originally I wanted a pistol but now having shot it with the stock I'm starting to lean toward the carbine set up. It feels a little front heavy as a pistol, I think the 2240 will be filling that niche from now on. That's a great idea with the pipe and foam Feinwerk. I have those parts laying around in the garage right now. I was shooting last night thinking a little more something to snug up against would be good. That's some beautiful woodwork MileHighAirGunner. I always prefer wood over plastic and have made wood grips for all my airguns. I really appreciate all the information guys, I'm on my own with this little obsession since none of my friends or family are into air gunning. A chronograph will be the next item to buy. I can see the wisdom in knowing how the gun reacts to changes in pellets and tune. I have yet to go into the gun, anyone have an exploded diagram and parts list link?
 
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@LeadandAirFun I could never take any credit for Tom West's work. On a good day I have the woodworking skills of a rabid beaver. 

The Prod (and 1720T) are way too big for what I consider to be a proper pistol. I like the Crosman 1701P as a pistol. It's still large by pistol standards but much better balanced. It's not very powerful but does what it's meant to do well. The 1701P isn't as easily modified for more power as the Prod and I wanted a .22 caliber repeater pistol so I married the two together. It's got a SST in it in this picture but the iron sights are usable even with the magazine. She barks like a p!ssed off Rottweiler though and definitely not backyard friendly without the TKO moderator I use with it. The TKO is very light so doesn't weight the muzzle down and doesn't throw the balance off and it's small enough in diameter I can use iron sights ,which is my preferred way to use a pistol. 

Prod.1643465978.jpg
 

The Crosman rabbit hole goes as deep as you want. 
 
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