Tuning Tuning My FX Maverick Is Harder Than I Anticipated

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So I received my Maverick VP .30cal yesterday, thanks to PyramydAir's fast service and shipping. Doing initial sight in with JSB Exact 44.75gr had me quiet excited, as I never had an airgun with such accuracy before 😃! The only thing was lacking was the velocity was right around 850 fps, and although the accuracy was insane, I needed to tune for higher power levels.

Out of the box, the rear reg was at 100 bar, while the front reg was at 145 bar. So I raised the front reg to around 180 and the rear reg to 145 bar.

After that, with my hammer spring on 7, my velocity went down to 730 fps. At this point, I think one of the regs is set to high to overcome the hammer spring, but which one? Should I reduce the reg nearest the bottle or reduce the reg near the power plenum?

Thanks for any assistance in advance! 😃
 
Estarkey7,

The maverick also has the internal hammer spring adjustment that willneed to be turned up. What are you targeting for speed? Might be able to help a little more on targets for settings.

I was shooting for 950-960 fps with 44.75 JSB Exacts. I also just ordered the slug power kit so I can get the heavier hammer spring, as well as having the correct pin probe for caliber switching in the future.
 
To get to 950-960 with the 600mm barrel you are definitely going to need to be at least 145 probably 150 bar on the rear reg. It would probably be better if you had the dual transfer port. I was able to get 950 from mine, but i had the hammer spring maxed out and the reg set at ~150 bar but started to plateau from there. It seemed the gun in its stock form is much more comfortable in the 910-930 range.
 
To get to 950-960 with the 600mm barrel you are definitely going to need to be at least 145 probably 150 bar on the rear reg. It would probably be better if you had the dual transfer port. I was able to get 950 from mine, but i had the hammer spring maxed out and the reg set at ~150 bar but started to plateau from there. It seemed the gun in its stock form is much more comfortable in the 910-930 range.

From what I understand, the .30 cal doesn't have the Dual Transfer Port because of the size of the circular port. I'll have to take it apart to see if that's the case.

I will probably just go back to the factory tune until the slug power kit and my carbon fiber liner sleeve come in next week. Then I'll give the power tune another go. Maybe I just need to recalculate my velocity expectations and look into heavier pellets and slugs.

I'd really love a 100 fpe coyote gun in a small package. I already have 200 fpe Bulldogs, but they are quite long for nighttime woods work.
 
I'm not aware that there is a slug power kit for the .30 Maverick. All that I've found are for the .22 and .25 and they don't include a heavier hammer spring, though the heavier hammer weight will help you out. I'm don't know what hammer weight that the .30 ships with. I know that the .22 ships with the lightest one. With the 600mm and the heaviest hammer weight, I had mine shooting the FX hybrid (44.5gr) at 915 fps for a muzzle energy of 84 ft/lbs. I think (I really need to keep better records!) I had the regs at 175 and 140

Moses in PA
 
I'm not aware that there is a slug power kit for the .30 Maverick. All that I've found are for the .22 and .25 and they don't include a heavier hammer spring, though the heavier hammer weight will help you out. I'm don't know what hammer weight that the .30 ships with. I know that the .22 ships with the lightest one. With the 600mm and the heaviest hammer weight, I had mine shooting the FX hybrid (44.5gr) at 915 fps for a muzzle energy of 84 ft/lbs. I think (I really need to keep better records!) I had the regs at 175 and 140

Moses in PA

I purchased the slug kit for the .22/.25 cal so I could use the heavier hammer for my .30 cal. I also wanted the probe kit for future caliber swaps.
 
I was able to get some success by adjusting the hammer spring 1/3rd turn tighter, and setting my rear reg to 105-110bar, and that gets me 890fps from JSB Exact 44.75gr pellets, 875fps with FX Hybrid Slugs 44.5gr, and 812fps with NSA 54.5gr slugs.

I will wait for the heavier hammer spring and my carbon fiber insert install before I try and tweak totally.

I appreciate everyone's insight, a many thanks to you all. 😀
 
Here is my answer (from my exact same experience) from receiving a .30 VP a few weeks ago and owning a .22 Maverick Sniper for a year. I also struggled with tuning at first, on both, but I have learned a lot about the platform in the last year, and quickly was able to get the .30 VP sorted out.

Anywho -The VPs are coming with a 12g hammer, confirmed on both mine and my friend's new .30 VPs we received in the last few weeks. Unfortunately this will not be enough hammer weight to smack that valve open at 150 bar. You need a 13g hammer weight. You do not need a dual transfer port. You do not need a stronger hammer spring. You don't even need the slug probe (I just used the stock probe for now).

Now, your two real options for getting a 13.25g hammer are either 1) buy the FX Maverick Slug Power kit solely for that hammer; or 2) buy the Huma hammer weight kit (13.25g & 14.5g), which I'd recommend as the better option. Myhighpressureair.com has them in stock.

To get the exact power you are looking for I simply set my regs to 175/150, PW7, HS 6mm out, 13.25g hammer weight. Seems 175/150 or 180/150 is the sweet spot for the 30's if you want to make pretty high power. 

I documented what I did in this thread, if it helps:

https://www.airgunnation.com/topic/maverick-vp-in-30-my-2nd-maverick-now-gimme-a-tune-bois/

I also received the Huma slug/pin probe with my kit which I think I will end up doing a video on, pitting it up against the stock probe to compare if it actually adds any power. But for now, only the 13.25g hammer was needed

Hope that helps. 
 
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@AirShootist this is awesome, thank you so much! I did get the slug power kit for .22/.25 cal for the hammer weight and future caliber swaps, so that should be perfect with those regulator settings!

I also just received my carbon fiber liner today, but I'll wait until the slug kit comes and just do all the mods at the same time.

Them yotes are breeding as we speak, and groundhogs have just arisen, and I want them murdered before they even give birth!
 
You should install that sleeve ASAP. Installing the hammer as nothing to do with the sleeve, and you will already be close to zero at higher powers if you just install it and zero it now. Be forewarned, sometimes sandpaper is needed with the .30 sleeves. It will stiffen up your barrel quite a bit. Great upgrade for 30 bones!


Let us know how that ATN scope works out. I was trying out the Oneleaf units, but they don't like the Element Helix. Didn't wanna go full digital and get away from using an FFP scope for daytime, plus I had heard a lot of folks having some glitches with the ATNs. The Oneleaf works fantastically on my lower power scopes, shame it doesn't do well on my Elements. Would have been a great solution for me on this .30 VP and its purpose as a yote destroyer.
 
You should install that sleeve ASAP. Installing the hammer as nothing to do with the sleeve, and you will already be close to zero at higher powers if you just install it and zero it now. Be forewarned, sometimes sandpaper is needed with the .30 sleeves. It will stiffen up your barrel quite a bit. Great upgrade for 30 bones!


Let us know how that ATN scope works out. I was trying out the Oneleaf units, but they don't like the Element Helix. Didn't wanna go full digital and get away from using an FFP scope for daytime, plus I had heard a lot of folks having some glitches with the ATNs. The Oneleaf works fantastically on my lower power scopes, shame it doesn't do well on my Elements. Would have been a great solution for me on this .30 VP and its purpose as a yote destroyer.

Thanks for your valuable input. I have received everything, and I will get to installing it next week (just too busy right now).

I have owned the ATN X-Sight 4K Pro and ATN Thor 4 Thermal for awhile now, and I run them both with the ABL laser rangefinder add-on. I also have QD mounts on both scopes, so it is easy enough to swap the scopes to whatever gun I am using. I can say without a doubt, the ATN scopes are by far, one of the best investments an airgun shooter can make! I will list just a few of the qualities that I believe make these scopes the bees knees for airgun shooters.

The Pros:

  • Specific profiles allow you to have zeros for different ammo or for different guns altogether. It allows 6 profiles to be stored in the scope, but you can also save the scope profiles to an SD-Card, so you can keep an SD-Card with profiles for each gun you have. 
  • The amount of information available to the user is phenomenal. Being able to see how many degrees you're pointing up or canting right through the eyepiece is a great feature. When you range with the ABL laser rangefinder add-on, that is also visible in the screen.
  • The scopes have an extended magnification range, which gives you a big zoom boost at the cost of resolution. The X-Sight 4K Pro 3-14x extended zoom goes to 37.6x, while the 5-20x scope goes to like 57x! Quality is not ideal, but it most definitely can help in a pinch.
  • The scope and take photos and videos. It can also take video in high frame rates up to 120fps, which is great for slo-mo action. This is awesome from a training/learning perspective, as you can oftentimes see your shot in mid-flight. One of the issues with this mode, is it doesn't save the recticle and other icon information to the video recording unless you are at 60fps or lower.
  • There is a feature called recoil activated video (RAV), and it continuously records video, and when it detects the recoil from your gun, it will save video a predetermined amount of time before and after the shot. The only issue with this feature, is it doesn't work when recording in 120fps mode, so I don't use this.
  • The absolute greatest feature of the scope is the Ballistics Calculator. It's like having Strelok built directly into your scope! After I setup my profile, I enter in the ammo weight in grains, the ammo velocity, the ammo ballistic coefficient, my scope height and my zero distance. After than, when I range to a target, it will move my scope reticle to the new POI. No holdover, hold-under or scope dope required! Just point and shoot! Wanna shoot 44.5gr Hybrid slugs, then swap over to 65.6gr NSA slugs, just swap profiles, zero and shoot! Shoot from 20 yards to 120 yards with just a quick range.
  • Awesome battery life! The 18 hour figure is not an exaggeration.
  • I don't use the Night mode on the scope much at all, because I have the Thor 4 thermal. ATN Thor4 Thermal is a game changer! Imagine being able to see game in the distance 500 yards away in the dead of night. Has multiple thermal color profiles to choose from. I use Black Hot and White Hot the most, but occasionally I will use one of the color profiles for better identification.
  • This is some next level tech, only available to LEO and the Military. Everything the X-Sight 4K Pro does the Thor 4 does, except record in 120fps.
  • If you forget to charge it, you can use a USB battery brick to charge it or to actually power the scope.

Cons:

  • The scope is heavy. Add the ABL Rangefinder add-on, and it's really heavy, like 2.35 pounds or so.
  • It's complicated to set up. It's a computer on your gun, so sometimes they lock up. Stability has improved with firmware upgrades.
  • Thermal is Expensive. They do make a lower tier Thor LT scope that starts at $1000, but it doesn't record video and doesn't have a ballistic calculator. or the ability to add the ABL Rangefinder add-on.

Slo-Mo example:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Eo03LwwEuc

Extended Zoom 37.6x example. Ballistics Calculator enabled this 105 yard shot with ease:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-4mo_p1tPXs

Thor 4 Thermal Example:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9z6H5Joxsaw
 
Well, that's a sub from me! Very cool videos. Will definitely stay tuned for more. 

Thanks again for your detailed reply on this. I really want to buy an ATN 4k. Seems like a pretty sick piece of kit. I'll have a look at the Thor4, also. I have a real vendetta with the coyotes around here. The Oneleaf isn't really cuttin' it for me on the Helixes.