American Air Arms rifles not serviceable by owners ?

I believe every manufacturer says the same thing but most shooters work on their own guns.

For me that would be a hard question to ask yourself. If your gun is still under warranty and the gun develops a leak, should you or should you not send in the gun. If you had to pay for shipping, I would just work on the gun yourself. If you plan on staying in hobby, you will eventually learn how to fix leaks.

I usually work on most of my guns except for two instances. One was a sumatra. I looked at that gun and decided I would rather pay someone who knows what they are doing. Another example was an r10 I had. I couldn't for the life of me why I couldn't get more then 80 shots before falling off the reg. I sent the gun to a tuner and got back the gun shooting over a 110 shots. Money well spent.

 One of the most important things I take into consideration is the simplicity of design. A simple, durable, accurate, gun that you can work on can be more important than complexity and extreme adjustment ability. I believe wyshadow is correct. You should think about doing self-service, if you can. All the seals in AAA are standard size, I've heard. I'm pretty confident that by the time your o-ring need replacement, your warrant will be well past it's expiration date. When the time comes, order them, and sit down and slowly teach yourself to learn how to replace them. 

If you really don't want to void you warranty or replace them yourself, I believe AOA, Pyramid air, Pittbull Airguns will service it for you. I've sent guns with issues that were over my head to all of these three, and had no problems. Some of the guns I sent them were not even ones they carried, either. Also, I believe AOA will be carrying and servicing AAA in the future. I've see Evols on their self last time I was there, and I thought they announce at EBR that the will be carrying them. Don't quote me on that.

Here in the uk, manufactures don’t just discourage people from serving their guns (big list of things that void the warranty) they make it difficult to gain access by fitting anti tamper devices, This includes, screws that require special tools to remove them, screws that once fitted have heads that snap off and plugs that are either pressed or glued into position.

To give an example, I have just bought an fx impact, the reg has a plug glued in place to stop adjustment, the valve control knob has been pressed into position, the hammer tension screw is glued in. 


None of these stopped me servicing my gun but they certainly slowed me down and definitely destroyed my warranty.



Bb

Yea, you poor sub-12 fpe UK boys. I am soooo blessed to be in America. Everyday I thank the Airgun Gods for my unlimited power and freedom to tweak my own gun the way I want. 

As a general answer I agree. I have seen people with skill to change orings or repair an airgun, an others without it. 

The evol has like 4 oring only, so it should be not complicated at all. ( i plan to get one soon)

Liability. Every manufacturer of a potentially dangerous product requires you to take it to an authorized repair center and states this in writing so absolve themselves of liability in the event you harm yourself, someone else, or their product while trying to service it yourself. Also, returning it for service or taking it to a repair facility helps the manufacturer work through design flaws and produce new improved models.

If it's under warranty, I would usually send it back.

The caveat to that is what kind of turnaround time is the manufacturer ACTUALLY providing vs their promises. Most take multiple times more than they claim.

As an experienced Jack of All Trades, I was not afraid to take my first airgun apart and found that usually they are fairly easy, if you can get an exploded diagram and have the correct tools.

On the AAA designs, Tom has really uped the game and gone way past the competition. I have not done anything with an EVOL but earlier this year I bought a used Slayer that would completely leak down in eight hours. With the diagram it took me an hour to figure out how to take it apart the first time and just 20 min to replace the o-rings I had purchased before the teardown and reassemble. I was not going to send my gun off and have it take a couple of months to get it back! And then, using an indoor workbench with a rifle cradle, chronograph (and lights) and a rubber mulch bullet trap I figured out the tuning.

Since then, three other individuals sent me their rifles and I resealed them and tuned them with one week turnarounds. Each individual I told them I could guide them through the teardown on the phone, they did not have to ship them... They could do it themselves, it just took jumping in and after they finished they would have developed the confidence. They all said "I'd rather you do it this time, I'll try it next time". One if those guys drove a couple hundred miles to bring me his rifle and in front of him I disassembled, re-sealed and reassembled in less than 30 minutes because I'd done it a few times. And tuning only took another 1/2 hour because of doing a couple of Slayers before. It's just confidence and experience and you have to DO IT to gain that. You should plan on being able to service any airgun you own, they are not rocket science. The guy that watched the overhaul of his rifle left knowing he could do it himself next time.

Safety first: COMPLETELY DEPRESSURIZE THE RIFLE BEFORE WORKING ON IT!

Just use the right size screwdriver or Allen wrench and when reassembling, don't overtighten the screws. Look up what torque they should take, it's on the Internet or ask here.

Yep,in your position the RAW would be my choice for a new gun, the theoben rapid for S/H.



Good luck whichever gun you end up with.



Bb

I wanted to turn up the HST just a tad to get the velocity up just a few feet where I think it will shoot a little better. Just doing that is pretty cumbersome. I'm not sure why they would design the gun with the mindset of "don't touch anything". Everyone knows that when the temps drop, so does the velocity. And a small tweak on the HST can solve the problem. Why wouldn't you make that an easy thing to do?

Crusher

Tom designed the gun as a take out of the box gun and go. No need to tinker with and that's what it's marketed as, not an adjust everything to your liking but a field gun that can take a beating and keep going. He's stated so in videos and such before. But I'm not sure how hard it really can be to adjust the HST. I heard you just remove the butt stock and it's there. Anyways I ordered mine with the intent to not change a thing. But also ordered a Raptor Mini which is made for high adjustability to keep that tinker side of me happy.

It does seem a bit odd that its difficult to adjust the HST. Although, I know some Daystate guns like the Renegade are hard to adjust the HST, plus have anti tamper stickers on the screws to get to the HST. Its odd like Crusher said since temperature and pellet selection play a big deal in the ideal speed for the gun. There are also otherwise very knowledgeable builders and tuners out there that think if you increase the speed the pellet will "cut through the wind" better, and that's a myth that has been scientifically debunked...

https://hardairmagazine.com/ham-columns/the-external-ballistics-of-diabolo-pellets/

Before the Benjamin Marauder there were no easily adjustable airguns. Be thankful.

It does seem a bit odd that its difficult to adjust the HST. Although, I know some Daystate guns like the Renegade are hard to adjust the HST, plus have anti tamper stickers on the screws to get to the HST. Its odd like Crusher said since temperature and pellet selection play a big deal in the ideal speed for the gun. There are also otherwise very knowledgeable builders and tuners out there that think if you increase the speed the pellet will "cut through the wind" better, and that's a myth that has been scientifically debunked...

https://hardairmagazine.com/ham-columns/the-external-ballistics-of-diabolo-pellets/

Click to expand...

This is amazing info. Best article I read in a long time. It always seemed that this was correct with 18gr JSB, 860fps. Any higher speed over 860fps lost accuracy and not seem to do anything beneficial with wind.

But... with the 25gr Redesigns, it seems to be different. The sweet spots for them, in term of resistance of wind drift, seems to between 970fps--up yo 1000fps. 

We should make a new topic on this.

We did a while back...

https://www.airgunnation.com/topic/is-faster-always-better-in-the-wind/

I still think the Evol is a great gun. I like the look of it and the feel of a good, solid, well made American gun. My idea to tune it slightly was not to "tinker" but to make the gun shoot where I need it to. 

When you remove the stock, you are pulling the plastic bits off what would be the buffer spring tube on let's say, an AR15. once you have that off, you have to remove that tube as well, by unscrewing it from the breech block. The piece the tube screws into is what is in the way. When you look in THAT hole, you can see the HST. But it is way off center and you can't get a tool in it. So, to actually be able to turn that adjustment, you'll have to separate the upper and lower halves of the breech block. Unless there is a way to remove the part the tube screws into. And I don't see how. So tuning is a doable thing. It is just pretty inconvenient. I suppose intentionally designed that way.



Crusher

Have you tried removing this bolt by the gauge?? Going onto the AAA page it looks like that whole piece is separate and removing that should get you access to said HST.

+1 Dairyboy. You have to take the lower pic rail off... 2 screws, then the one screw DB shows in front of the trigger. The whole lower/rear stock assembly slides downward and the hst is right there.

Easy greasy.

Bob