Vulcan 3 / 700 in .22 cal. - Let the Experimenting & Learning begin

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RadarMan

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Oct 15, 2022
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Palm Beach, Florida, USA
Just received my new-to-me Vulcan 3 in .22 cal. with the 700mm CZ pipe. This is a gun that was new in Dec. so about 6 months old. Arrived in mint condition and seller is here on AGN with a big post count and travels for matches.

Gun came with a Regulator Tester Gauge as well as some convenient little extras. Since I am a tinkerer & always looking to improve my weapons’ smoothness and maximize accuracy I am definitely cranked to start this “project”. In this rifle the regulator is required to come Out of the Air Plenum Pipe and be put into the tester to get an accurate value, No “reg. pressure gauge” on side of rifle like many others today. The reg itself is a pretty large aluminum machined part and nothing like the little one in my Crown II.

In Previous life it was set to drive 34 gr. slugs at over 900 fps for long range target shooting. By owners account it was about 30 rnds. until time to refill. REG. was set at 130 Bar with Loads of Hammer-Spring pre load so not the nicest for Cocking smoothness. I brought hammer cap Out by 1/4” to flush with receiver and also greased the bore that the Rear of the pellet probe rides in during cocking stroke. It is a hidden path but made a very big improvement in the smoothness of the cocking cycle.

I don’t want to be pushing that heavy so I would like to Tune for 22-26 gr. Slugs and 25.4 JSB-RD’s at best accuracy I can achieve for 100 yd. Group shooting. Want to keep shot count a lot better than 30. The bottle alone is 580cc and the plenum is quite large too.

The Vulcan has an interesting design in that you can literally “Flip” the long Plenum Tube below the Action to Place Regulator in Forward end or Rear End of this Pipe in Relation to the “Popette Valve” at hammer. In doing you create Either a Huge Power-Plenum with Tons of Power capability OR a smaller sized plenum for more efficiency and higher shot count, but less horsepower.

** So far, after full disassembly (quite a busy disassembly if going all way down) and deep cleaning of barrel I set Regulator to 110 BAR and Changed its Location to the the Rear of the Plenum as described above so Not as much Power Capability.

Results at 1st Setting:
110 BAR, Small Plenum, Hammer Spring cap FLUSH with receiver and 25.4 MRD’s. = 661 fps
same, same, Harmer Spring Turned IN 1 Full Turn……. 25.4’s. = 845 fps.
Same, same, Hammer Spring Turned In 2 Full Turns ……. 25.4’s = 895 fps
Same, Same, Hammer Spring 3 Full Turns In …….. 25.4’s. = 910 fps

So Tomorrow I’ll Swap Reg to Large Plenum config and Keep at 110 Bar to See What Happens.???

After That I’ll be looking to Configure to be able to shoot 24 gr slug @ 1,050 fps. with the Hammer Spring Turned in 2-3 full turns SO I have the “Backing-Down Room” to get the ammo into Mid 800’s to 1,050 fps range just by adjusting the Hammer Spring tension easily in back of receiver.

Probably will need to Go Up a little on Reg Pressure but Don’t Know What the actual Velocity Effect will be when Kept at 110 Bar and just Swap Ends of Plenum. (good experiment)

Once things start to shake out in the Garage Tuning I will mount a new 8x34-56 Athelon on top and go Punch Paper. Can’t wait…
 
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MODERATOR can you please MOVE this to PCP section of forum. Sorry, dropped it into “General”

Vulcan Update: (What a Machine...)
So I did bump regulator back up to 130 Bar but Kept it in same "SMALL Plenum" location to see what I would get.

The Numbers: Small Plenum - 130 BAR - 4 Turns In on Hammer Spring
- 25.4 g. MRD's were at 940 fps
- 20 g. ZAN's were making 1,000 fps.
So this Regulator Bump Up 20 PSI + 1 More Hammer Spring Turn from 1st post Added about 45 fps in SMALL Plenum from before.

Flipped Regulator to LARGE Plenum Position - 130 BAR (no change) - 4 Turns In on Hammer (no change):
- 25.4 g. MRD's were at fps 995 fps.
- 20 g. ZAN's were making 1,053 fps.

Wow, the gun is working NO Harder than before at a very modest 130 BAR but the increase in the Volume of that "Regulated Pressure Chamber" Plenum has pushed Velocities 55 FPS Higher all else the same. (this much of change surprised me)

I have to believe that the ZAN's can be made to fly accurately Somewhere between 950 & 1,050..(??) so I'm close I think.

Also the 25.4 MRD's should be easy to tune down to about 970 fps with about 1 turn of Hammer Spring. I say 970 on the MRD's because the previous owner mention that this speed showed excellent Accuracy with those pellets in this Barrel from His previous use.

No Surprise to anyone here, there ARE several inconveniences with this rifle platformIF You are a "Self-Tuner / settings-fiddler type" (Like Me) that are plain to see.

1.) The requirement to Disassemble & completely Remove the lower Air Cylinder with the bottle attached from the receiver and then Remove the End-Cap nearest the Regulator for any REG. Adjustments. (Reg. is then pushed towards that end with a dowel or grabbed with a threaded bolt to get at it.)

2.) You DO need to have a Regulator Tester (short hi-pressure cylinder with a Gauge on top and Screw-On Bottom that youput the Reg. Into and Pressurize to see changes on Gauge after adjustment). Aft adjustments and testing to set pressure you Push the Regulator Back into the Plenum and re-asseble all.

3.) Maybe the biggest bummer is the need to De-Gas the entire gun to Zero, obviously, before you can access the Regulator inside the Plenum Tube. The Ends(s) screw off quite easily / no special tools, BUT the Waste of AIR (if you only have 1 SCBA tank at home) is unfortunate.

The actions described above only takes about 15-20 minutes after all the air is out (10-15 min), but is a little tedious.

However, AFTER you get things set to where you're Within Your Desired Velocity Ranges by just adjusting the Hammer Spring Cap at the end of the receiver, you have an awesome, hi-quality, hi-powered PCP with a 700mm CZ hammer-forged barrel and extremely rugged / rigid construction.

This Vulcan 3 does Not have an elegant "Traditional Rifle" profile that I am usually drawn to. My Crown II is the "traditional & pretty" and crazy-accurate out to 50 yds. rig, but I don't want to Crank It Up so much to be a 100 Yd. Gun with heavy pellets & slugs. Furthermore, It can Never Even Be "Turned Into" the Power-House the Vulcan can be tuned to.

What the Vulcan 3 Does have, however, is a Great reputation for Long Range accuracy and Power Expandability with it's Huge Regulator & Plenum into the area of an absolute Beast of a rifle. IF You Want, (and go to very hi Reg. settings, etc.), you Can push this Machine up to probably shoot 40 Gr. Plus Slugs in .22 cal at over 1,000 fps. That's Not what I'm after right now, but it's nice to know the Capabilty is there. Next year maybe I get a "Wild Urge"...who knows

Next Stop needs to be the Dive Shop for AIR and the Range for some shooting. Unfortunately, now getting in to the Nasty Florida Summer of heat and humidity, so it dent's my enthusiasm a bit to go out and "soak & roast."

We'll see, I'll report back afterwards.
 
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Hello & Thanks, it is quite a rig and I’m just getting me head around it. I will post after 1st range session. The Chrony numbers from the “garage test range” so far have been pretty impressive and the standard deviations are always in the 1.5 - 3 fps range. Says to me a very good regulator.
Stay “Tuned” for results to come… ha-ha.
 
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I've been working on a slug tune for my RTI Prophet II Performance using FX Hybrid 22 gr. I finally have the reg pressure set at 150 Bar and the hammer spring set where I am getting consistent velocity. Extreme spread is 1004 fps - 1018 fps with the majority of the being between 1011-1014 fps. smallest grouping at 50 yds were just under 3/4". So the FX hybrid might not be the one. I have some JSB knockouts coming 25.39 gr hope they work. Really need to get some AVS slugs.
 
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GoinBroke said:
I like your write up, would like to know the results you see at the range so please post it. I'm looking at possibly a Vulcan 3 in .30cal from tony at Talon Tunes.
Click to expand...
I highly recommend buying from Krale rather than Talon tunes. You'll save a few hundred dollars. I ordered both of my V3's from them, they shipped from The Netherlands and delivered in the US in less than a week.
 
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It looks good however the barrels on the ones from Krale are not CZ barrels don't know it that makes a difference. However what does make a difference to me is buying from someone with great customer service and willing to run a shop that is continually losing market share to internet sales from an overseas company. Tony of Talon Tunes will answer any question that I have quickly, and with courtesy and abundance of knowledge even though it might be a stupid question because I'm just now learning. I appreciate you trying to save me some money but I will stick with Tony and I am only stating what works for me not lashing out or anything.
 
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GoinBroke said:
It looks good however the barrels on the ones from Krale are not CZ barrels don't know it that makes a difference. However what does make a difference to me is buying from someone with great customer service and willing to run a shop that is continually losing market share to internet sales from an overseas company. Tony of Talon Tunes will answer any question that I have quickly, and with courtesy and abundance of knowledge even though it might be a stupid question because I'm just now learning. I appreciate you trying to save me some money but I will stick with Tony and I am only stating what works for me not lashing out or anything.
Click to expand...
All V3 barrels are CZ now. Krale was one of the first dealers to stock the V3 back when first batch still had the Alpha Precision barrels. They just haven't updated their product description accordingly.
 
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GoinBroke said:
I seen his work up on the .30 making under dime size 5 shot groups with AVS slugs at 50 yds. I don't know if the .30 has a choked or unchoked barrel. I know Radarman who started the thread is dialing his in and I hope he has had time to test it. Can't wait to see what all he finds out. I like the post so far.
Click to expand...
my U-1 in .30 has the CZ barrel and after DW got thru with it, it easily takes crows outpast 100yrds
with KO slugs at over 100FPE.
very accurate machine !!
 
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grackleblast said:
It is my understanding that all of the 700 mm barrels are un - choked. I may be wrong, but it seems that the 500 mm barrels are choked whereas the 700 are not.
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from what i have seen, the AP barrels where unchoked, the cz barrels are choked.
according to tony's email to me the other day.
the AP barrels are no longer offered.
 
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After cleaning my barrel thoroughly the other day I can say that I Don't "Think" the 700mm CZ it is choked. All the Patches and then a couple Pellets and Slugs all felt like they were a nice Even Push all the way after leaving the Chamber and to the Muzzle.
I gotta' get out of the House and get this rig to the Range! Unfortunately, at 61, I am now such a "Wussie" when it comes to going out and Melting in that heat it takes a good kick in the butt. Don't have a piece of property to just go out the back door (I wish) so have to pack all the stuff and drive down to a shooting club.
I can't believe I used to go out and roast my brains dragging baits and pounding beers for 8-10 hours on the Gulf Stream all summer in open boats 30 years ago. ;-), ;-)!!
Some recent You-tubes I watched are showing Nice results when pushing those 25.4 MRD's very close to 1,000 and that is what my 130 Reg. / Lg. plenum tune is showing now on the chrony in the garage.
Fingers Crossed...
 
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Hello Gents, Spent some time at table with the Vulcan and eventually worked my way into Polishing the bore with Flitz for a one time exercise. (Man these Air Rifles bring out the ultra-hyper gun tweaking in me🤣🤣)

Observation with a Teslong Borescope in the 700mm barrel on this rifle… This bore is as nice as a $650+ heavy custom Bartlein cut-rifled & hand-lapped Ultra Premium barrel I have for a powder gun.

The CZ Cold Hammer Forged and Polygon Rifle “hybrid” style barrel in this thing is absolutely Spectacular in its surface. I say Hybrid polygon because it isn’t like a hammer forged Glock, HK or Walther pistol barrel that actually Looks like squared “Facets“ at the muzzle. This thing Looks like a “Round” bore, but the rifling “lands” are rounded and smooth, No “walls” on them, and the bore “Flows as one Surface” with raised twist.

Zero tooling marks, Zero imperfections (that I could see), Beautiful & Uniform Crown, Uniform lead into the rifling at chamber and Bright-Shiny surfaces everywhere. MAN, what a pipe!

I guess it shouldn’t be a surprise with the Accuracy some have demonstrated. It IS nice to see the surfaces in there as a point of satisfaction and quality.

I still have Not shot it Outdoors. I gotta’ suck it up this coming weekend and just Go in the Heat. Nuts!
 
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Tuning Question for the Pros. / On my new (to me) VULCAN 3 in .22 - 700mm with the Regulator set at only 130 Bar and in the LARGE Plenum position in front of air tube.

IN House testing of Velocities and the Response To Hammer Spring changes as follows:

- MAX Hammer Spring at 4.25 Turns INTO block with 24.5 MRD’s the V is about 985.
- Backing spring OUT a full 1 1/2 Turns (almost 2) really Does NOT have much effect, maybe 10-15 fps, In Decreasing V.
- Backing Out 2 full Turns Starts to then SHOW a Gradual / Incremental decrease in V until the Flush with Receiver point.
- So last 2 full Turns go from High 900’s to high 600’s (300 fps Down)

Question: I take this to mean that I just Plain Do NOT even Need to Apply those Last 2 Turns INTO the receiver Because the REGULATOR is Not Set HI Enough to take advantage of the “ Harder Hammer Strike”, YES???

Secondly: I think this Indicates that the Vulcan 3 is showing Me it has Lots of ROOM to go UP in its REGULATOR Pressure Set Point Without worrying about the HAMMER Spring Not being Able to Cope with it., YES????

I am Not looking to turn this .22 into a Deer Rifle, but I do want to Understand well the dynamics going on.

Anyone want to chime in…THANKS!

Pellets & Slugs are arriving so some Outdoor testing this WE I think.
 
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