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Wildcat's slow first shot!?

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After sitting for hours my first shot is slower than average. From what information I have gathered so far, is it may be: A) leaking regulator, B) assembly lube being sticky in the regulator, C) atmospheric thermal variances causing varying pressure (not my issue here, shooting indoors), D) shooting below regulator operating pressure and filling too fast, causing initial fill of air to be hotter, this could be my problem, will watch this.

​Plan; 1) fill gun slowly, 2) dry fire 2 shots, 3) wait 2 hours, 4) Chrony a magazine. If I still have an issue, it is most likely a leaking regulator or sticky regulator, I then plan to vary the "wait time" after filling and 2 dry fires to see if I can ascertain if it is a leak or sticking issue. It's a hunting gun and really really need a good first shot.

​Thank you for your insight.
 
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I have that problem with my WC-22. It's first 2 shots of the day, then rest of the day it's right on. I just burned two shots in the morning. I always fill my guns before storing for the night. One night I didn't and filled the next morning and it didn't do it. First shot dead on. Have changed now to filling in the morning and problem has gone away. 
 
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Did some testing and I have discovered if I set my gun down for 15 minutes or 12 hours, (on a full tank), the first shot after I pick it up is about 55 fps slower then the following shots, which average 900 fps with JSB 25.39

​If my issue was a leaky regulator I would expect the first shot to be slower the longer the gun set, therefore it seems to me the regulator is "sticky" and a reasonable solution is to A) increase hammer spring tension or B) shoot it more and see, C) disassemble regulator/clean and reassemble or D)...?

​Does anyone have a link to a tutorial on how to adjust hammer spring tension? Didn't find it for a Wildcat on YouTube.

​What do you think?
 
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Is sounded like the guy in the video was saying that there is a number of different reasons why it happens that are mostly beyond your control. In other words, his advice is just fire a few shots before you start and don't worry about it because it's normal and to be expected. 

I'm not clear why it doesn't happen to everyone's regulated air gun given the explanation. Could it really be possible to tune away the variance in air pressure? Are some regulator good enough to avoid the problem? It's so confusing. 

Firing a few shots off before you start is fine at the range but not so practical when hunting. Firing shots will alert game to your presence and there is a limit to how soon you can fire the two pre-shots to prep the reg. If you fire the shots as you got out the car and then headed to the woods, it could be 30 minutes to an hour (or more) before you go to fire a hunting shot at live game. It sounds like that could be enough time to reset the problem and cause the first shots to have a lower poi again. 

Might be better to make a mental note of how much the poi shifts for shot one and two and adjust for it in your shooting if there is no reliable fix that covers all of the possible causes. If it happens every time then at least you can adjust for it. If it happens only sometimes then you wouldn't know if you should adjust your aim or not. 
 
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"zebra"

Are some regulator good enough to avoid the problem? It's so confusing. 




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Yes there is. I deal mostly with regulated bottles. The Ninja regs are WAY better then any of the Chinese ones I have seen. The JDS Airman, PE Reactor, Generic "EBay" regs are all notorious for slow recovery and creeping. With a Ninja I can put my tester on it and a quick open/close of the valve reveals a recovery to the set pressure in under a second. By the time the gauge needle responds it is already back to it's pressure. I had a JDS Airman reg that was set (according to my gauge) at 1900 psi. It would take like 6 seconds for the pressure to return to 1850 and then a total of 35 seconds to get back to the 1900 psi. If I let it sit for a couple of hours it might go to 2000 or 2100 or sometimes as high as 2200. I replaced the piston with one from a Ninja and the reg is working perfect now.
The only issue I ever had with a Ninja reg was a used one I picked up from a paintballer. Now think of how they are used. Thousands of shots right after one another. My reg would "creep" up about 50psi over night. I took the piston out, turned the ball seal over and good as new. No creep at all now, and has been like this for the past year.
If the regulator builders would use good quality materials I think they would be much better off.
 
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"just.neil"
I thought i read somewhere that dry firing is bad for a Pcp? But I'm new to pcp and fairly new to air gunning in General. Edumicate me please...
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Dry firing is bad for springers, because without the resistance of a pellet in the barrel, the piston may slam into the end of its tube and damage the seal. Dry firing a PCP just wastes air. (A lot more, it seems, than a normal shot.)
 
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I have one for you guys then! FX Maverick, first two to three shots out of “each magazine change” low fps 40/50fps giving me inaccuracy, then spread gets closer together, 21 ES at the moment but still tuning. I will mention this is a conversion I have done from SUB 12 to FAC in .177/500mm. I have stripped, sealed and ever replaced suspicious o rings and the gun doesn’t appear to leak after full fill beyond the normal 20/25bar pressure drop due to temperature etc. starting my tuning like this. First reg, 105bar (fx regulator) second reg 80bar (Huma low pressure 60-135bar regulator, refill time appears to be slower at 80bar but 2-3seconds at 100 bar). Hammer spring at 0 before 1/8 turns to get 860fps with JSB 10.34 heavy’s. 18fpe. After several take apart’s and rebuilds, using silicone oil, silicone grease and moly grease on the bottle threads, I’m confident the gun does leak but like to be proven wrong in order to fix this issue! 


after the hype of the Huma reg I’m not having much confidence in its performance over a standard FX reg. but it maybe working as it should and something else is the issue. 


i looked at the valve pin seat and it doesn’t seem to have any imperfections, nor does the FAC valve pin/delrin.


any ideas would be greatly appreciated. 



 
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