Other Which specs have the most impact?

[intrepidaf]

I have a few questions:

In the pursuit of ultimate accuracy with a PCP air gun, what combination of factors do you believe has the greatest impact: the quality of the barrel, the consistency of the air pressure, or the precision of the trigger mechanism? Something else altogether? Brand name? How do you prioritize these factors in your setup, and why?

How do you approach the fine-tuning of your PCP air gun to achieve the perfect balance between barrel harmonics, regulator settings, and trigger sensitivity? Do you rely more on empirical testing and adjustment, or do you prefer a more methodical, data-driven approach? Share your tips and techniques for achieving optimal performance.

 

[bchannell]

I'm not going to change barrels on any of mine, so I do some accuracy shooting to see what a good starting pellet would be. Then I go to the chrono and sort out consistency, hammer spring, reg setting, xfer port. Then accuracy again. If it's where I like it, I'm ready to shoot, If not then the next pellet is up. It doesn't take long, in most cases. I have eight pcp rifles and I can't think of a single one that pellet picky. I usually tune, at least one, to shoot cheap pellets, like CP's or some such, that way I can stockpile them and band away. That's not to say I don't shoot a lot of expensive pellets too, it's just that I shoot a lot of everything and that's just a way of saving a buck or two. You'd be surprised how my Katran will shoot Crosman bulk pellets, and the new Single Die pellets also, but they're as expensive as JSB or H&N. To me tuning is the real adventure and fun. Taking a gun, like my R10, that leaked, had a faulty regulator, and bringing it back to life, and tuning shot count and accuracy is a real sense of accomplishment. I'm getting 915avg, for 10.5gr pellets, and 61 shots on a string with an ES of 9-12fps with JSB pellets. That's a %ES of 1.0%, which in anyones book is phenominal.

 

[dan_house]

I prioritize putting rounds on target. All the factors youve listed are very important, but they are single factors in a large group of things that have to interact together. Airguns are mechanical systems. All the parts of the system work together to produce the results (hopefully ) that you're after

You can drive ourself nuts running down each of these elements to tweak/tune each of them to the Nth degree. Should really only need to tune/tweak to the point where they are interacting correctly/efficiently with the rest of the components of "the system".

And the weak point of ALL my airguns is me. So to get optimal performance, Dan has to be on his game

 

[Corvid_hunter]

Depending on the availability of ammunition, .25cal and .30cal don't have a lot of choices, pick the ammo and then tune for velocity/group size. You could then sort your ammo if you wanted to go further.

 

[dizzums]

the over-all design and precision of componenets .. what ive seen in lower end/priced guns is mainly the design itself can flex under varying gun pressure, and also the overall machining isnt smooth and precise, no way the firing squence will move all the parts consistently .. you could put the best barrel on the planet in it, sort all the best pellets you can find, and it will never be consistently accurate .. if you 'do' understand the factors going on its possible to promote much better accuracy with smoothing parts and keeping pressure within a narrow range and that will produce real results .. things like sorting pellets and trying different pellets, getting a better barrel etc, generally will not ..

 

[RM100GUY]

OK...In that opening statement of questions the words "you or your" was used 8 times, so from my chair with 64 years of "pulling triggers" a couple thing specifically about PCP's I've learned and internalized...works for me. Any of the better known brands, (I don't wouldn't never will go cheap) than try to make a silk purse out of a pigs ear. Companies like Daystate, FX, Kalibergun, Taipan, all guns I've owned and various models, In my experience, these companies know something about setting up their guns...the regs hammer springs ect at least close enough out of the box...WITHOUT RIPPIN' 'EM APART with out even giving them a chance by breaking them in and getting to know the platform, something I feel is very understated could take weeks or months only than more often than not I only tweek the Hammerspring and trigger externally, only ever messed with the reg on an Impact X with excellent results. Simply stated great trigger (Taipan Veteran) is paramount, be wastin' my time with unpredictable triggers AND getting to know my platform, practice shooting the thing, can't say I've never had a reg issue but that's the exception. Send me a new unmolested example of the afore mentioned examples and give me a couple weeks with it and historically sub half inch groups at 50y were the normal just trigger and hammer spring adjustments....My Veteran and Bobcat are years old and never even thought about messing with a reg. Not a lot there but for me less.is more with PCPs. Note 10shot group (30y) from two days ago shot from my chair...no.bench...THATS what a great trigger will do for you (me.)