Last week, I posted the failure of the main spring in my .22 HW97K Jolly Rogers Edition, Motorhead tuned rifle. It was the original main spring and had experienced many thousands of shots - so it certainly didn't owe me anything. In review, it was still shooting at 588 fps/11.26 FPE, shooting groups at 18 yards indoors of +/- 1/2".
I tore the rifle down completely, removed all grease and inspected all of the components. The Motorhead polished components were still in perfect condition. The breach seal showed signs of deterioration. While the piston seal still looked to be in very good condition, I went ahead and replaced both with new Vortek seals. Lubrication was accomplished using the Air Venturi Tune-in-a-Tube lubricant, which I have learned to like much better than the standard moly type lubricants as it requires less of it, is not near as sticky, and seemingly makes my guns cock and shoot smoother. I installed the new PG3 HO tune kit, using the crude spring compressor I made after struggling to put my .177 Weihrauch 97 Blue Laminate together the week before without it. It worked perfectly, was much more safe, and less likely to damage the threads.
Once reassembled, I mounted the Hawke Airmax 6-24 on it for testing purposes (it will get a new Vortex Diamondback 6-24 FFP MRAD scope installed on it once it comes in).
For break-in/sight in, I shot 30 shots. The first two shots were 696/697 fps. Knowing that I was in the ball park, I turned off the chrono for the balance of the the break-in session.
Once I knew the rifle was close to where I wanted it and the cocking and firing session cycles were verified to be very smooth, I made up the target shown below, to accommodate three 10 shot indoor test groups at 18 yards. The results are as indicated, with the three 10 shot groups averaging .52" C-t-C, and chrono stats across 30 shots indicating a Hi of 711 fps, a Lo of 704 fps, an average velocity of 704 fps, an extreme spread of only 7 fps, a statistical deviation of only 2 fps, and a resulting average 16.28 ft lb of energy.
After each group, I obviously made a couple of clicks of adjustments to the scope, resulting in the last group being pretty much dead center.
As a final test, I utilized my two RX target set-up, running the 10 shots without a miss, including getting the pellets to pass through the two 10mm holes in the steel plates.
All in all, a fun rejuvenation project, not only for the rifle, but for me, too.....
I tore the rifle down completely, removed all grease and inspected all of the components. The Motorhead polished components were still in perfect condition. The breach seal showed signs of deterioration. While the piston seal still looked to be in very good condition, I went ahead and replaced both with new Vortek seals. Lubrication was accomplished using the Air Venturi Tune-in-a-Tube lubricant, which I have learned to like much better than the standard moly type lubricants as it requires less of it, is not near as sticky, and seemingly makes my guns cock and shoot smoother. I installed the new PG3 HO tune kit, using the crude spring compressor I made after struggling to put my .177 Weihrauch 97 Blue Laminate together the week before without it. It worked perfectly, was much more safe, and less likely to damage the threads.
Once reassembled, I mounted the Hawke Airmax 6-24 on it for testing purposes (it will get a new Vortex Diamondback 6-24 FFP MRAD scope installed on it once it comes in).
For break-in/sight in, I shot 30 shots. The first two shots were 696/697 fps. Knowing that I was in the ball park, I turned off the chrono for the balance of the the break-in session.
Once I knew the rifle was close to where I wanted it and the cocking and firing session cycles were verified to be very smooth, I made up the target shown below, to accommodate three 10 shot indoor test groups at 18 yards. The results are as indicated, with the three 10 shot groups averaging .52" C-t-C, and chrono stats across 30 shots indicating a Hi of 711 fps, a Lo of 704 fps, an average velocity of 704 fps, an extreme spread of only 7 fps, a statistical deviation of only 2 fps, and a resulting average 16.28 ft lb of energy.
After each group, I obviously made a couple of clicks of adjustments to the scope, resulting in the last group being pretty much dead center.
As a final test, I utilized my two RX target set-up, running the 10 shots without a miss, including getting the pellets to pass through the two 10mm holes in the steel plates.
All in all, a fun rejuvenation project, not only for the rifle, but for me, too.....
