.25 Wildcat Tune

Hello Berky,
I have a .25 Wildcat also and from your chrony numbers on both the 25 grain & 34 grain JSB's I can tell you that your gun is shooting perfectly, and needs no hammer spring adjustment even. And with that in mind I am writing to encourage you to enjoy shooting your gun, and otherwise leave it alone! 

I have had my Wildcat since last February...and after adjusting my hammer spring in conjunction with shooting it over my chrony my numbers almost exactly mirrored yours. I prefer to shoot the JSB Heavy 34 grain pellets as they seem to buck the wind better that the 25 grain...And like yours it was absolutely lights out accurate...how accurate you say? Well it won't do it every time, and it won't do it when its too windy and gusty, but my very best 4 shot groups were shot on Mothers Day at a 100 yard range, under picture perfect conditions, were 1/2" at 100 yards...But could I leave it alone? 

I saw Ted's video a few weeks ago about his new .25 Impact shooting the JSB Heavy 34gr. at 860 ft./s and thought, "I wonder if my gun will do that". To make an agonizing story shorter and less painful suffice to say I wish I had left my gun alone! I borrowed a reg. tester from a friend up north, who also made me a heavier brass hammer...and by the time this was all over I ruined one regulator, bought a brand new one and installed it but couldn't get velocity above 530 ft./s...turns out the heavier hammer beat the valve pin and seat assembly to death, and at that point I sent what was left to Airguns of Arizona to have Steve put it back in "as new" condition. I have been hopping around on one leg trying to kick myself in the ass, but I keep falling on my stupid face! I should be the poster child for NOT messing around with your Wildcat!  

The good news is that I spoke to AOA and found out my gun is fixed and has been shipped back to me today...on that subject let me just say that I have nothing but praise and gratitude for the guys out there at Airguns of Arizona. I learned this expensive and valuable lesson the hard way...and am sharing it with you free of charge! Anybody care to pass the hat to help this crash test dummy pay for these repairs?

Best regards, Chuck

Hello again Berky, 
That is a beautiful 80 yard group...3/4"! I would like to tell you one of the things I do to get the kind of accuracy I talk about. First I use only the JSB Heavy MKII 33.95 grain pellets, because the wind moves them much less than the JSB 25.4 grain pellets. The first thing I do with new pellets is clean them with acetone. This removes any oils, graphite, waxes, or other lubricants used during the manufacturing process. Acetone is as completely clear as air...but look at it after cleaning a few cans of pellets...you won't believe how dirty they truly are. Anyway, after the acetone wash, I pour them through a screen and then onto a soft old t-shirt to dry. Then I put them in an old bowl and spray a couple shots of Napier pellet lube on them. This is the very minimum treatment for my pellets.

However, if I am going for the absolute best accuracy I weigh and sort my pellets after I clean them with Acetone, and then I spray a little Napier on them. Don't over due it with the Napier...a little dab will do ya! I weigh my pellets on a digital grain scale while watching TV...I can weigh about one thousand in an evening. After weighing a lot of pellets I end up with a bunch of piles that are 1/10th of a grain different...the piles will be like 33.2gr, 33.3, 33.4, ...33.9, 34.0 ... 34.4, 34.6 ... up to say 35.4gr. Then I put all the pellets of the same weight in plastic baggies with a note showing the weight those. So that when I shoot them at a target everything in the magazine is exactly the same weight, to within 1/10th of a grain.

So after cleaning, weighing, throwing away the ones with deformed skirts, and spraying with a little Napier, I let them sit for a few days before I shoot them. Because the cleaned pellets seem to absorb the Napier...they are still slick to the touch but are not oily. I began doing this a few years ago with my .25 Sumatra and still do it for my .25 Wildcat. To prove the effort is worth the time involved do what I described above, then go to the range and shoot from a concrete bench rested position with some of these pellets through a clean barrel. Then clean the barrel again and shoot some pellets straight from the can...you will see what I mean when you go down and look at your target! 

By the way, if you think the pellets in the can from any manufacturer weigh exactly what it says on the lid, then you are sadly mistaken. For example: when weighing a thousand JSB "25.4 grain" pellets MAYBE 100 actually weigh 25.4 grains...the other 900 will weigh anywhere from 24.0 grains to 26.5 grains. So imagine loading a magazine with pellets that are not the same weight and expecting them to go to the same place on the target. For example: imagine having a magazine loaded with one pellet that weighs 24gr. and one that weighs 25.9 grains, do you think they are going to hit the target at the same place? If you do, don't shoot against me for money...but if you do what I do your groups will shrink significantly, and you will be just amazed at how much more accurate your .25 Wildcat just became! Good luck Berky!

Best regards, Chuck

Berky, you make me smile...I finally found someone who loves their .25 Wildcat as much as I do! I get mine back this coming Thursday so I should be shooting on Friday if the weather is nice. I will let you know how my chrony numbers stack up to yours with the MKII pellets. I really like them best of all for accuracy, and the fact that a heavier pellet actually retains more velocity and energy downrange than a lighter one...so I always recommend shooting the heaviest pellet possible if it gives the best accuracy. I would very much like you to try lubing your cleaned pellets with some Napier Pellet Lube. (get the spray bottle) I experimented with many different things and proved to myself that it works the best of all.

The only thing I found that works slightly better is hBN...(hexagonal Boron Nitride)...it is used by competition shooters to impact plate copper plated bullets for reloading. Comp. shooters normally use hBN particle size 5 microns for coating the bullets for reloading, but I bought the hBN in particle size 70 nanometers. To use it I put about 1/8th of a teaspoon of it in a plastic baggie, then I put my acetone cleaned and dry pellets in the baggie and shake it around. (yes like shake and bake) They come out really beautiful with this very light coating of white powder...I tell the guys at the range it is "fairy dust". If you would ever like to try some send me a pm with a way to contact you and I will send you some. The place in Canada where I got it only sells minimum sample size of one pound...that's enough to coat about one trillion pellets...so I have plenty to share. Even if you take your pellets out of the baggie and rinse them with denatured alcohol they still retain the microscopic hBN down in the pores of the lead pellets, leaving them so slick and slippery, but with no oily greasy waxy residue to build up in your barrel over time. One thing you will notice is that your velocity will increase slightly because there is just so much less friction on the pellet on its way out of the barrel. Starting to think I am interested in accuracy Berky? Well my .25 Wildcat is the only platform that gives me the kind of accuracy I am interested in, and will be the standard by which I measure all other air rifles in the future. Glad to find a kindred spirit!

Best regards, Chuck

Here are a couple links to check out hBN if you are interested: 
http://lowerfriction.com/hbn.php
http://www.davidtubb.com/bn-boron-coating

hey Chuck, woud you sell an ounce of fairy dust?

Hey PlanB, no but I will send you some for free. Just pm me your info...
Best regards, Chuck

Hello Berky,
I am happy to hear that you have finally gotten your grain scale so you can weigh some pellets and prove to yourself what I have been telling you and others for some time now. For some people good enough is good enough... But for certain people like us if we can ring one eighth of an inch tighter groups by cleaning, weighing, lubing, etcetera, then we are going to do it! just because it is fun to us... If I wasn't having fun I wouldn't be doing any of this. As a matter of fact I can't even tell you the last time that I took my Skeeter out to the Everglades bass fishing.