My Sig Sauer ASP20 .22 has arrived! Some thoughts and some Chrony results.

Got my Sig today and did a little chronograph testing. Some thoughts on the gun first. Craftsmanship is beautiful on this gun. Both metal work and finishing of metal looks great. The beechwood stock is darker than I thought. More black than brown. The stock is a little bulky ( especially in the forearm) which may help with holding gun secure resulting in better accuracy. I fired a total of 20 shots or so without shouldering the gun. Firing behavior ( recoil, vibration, etc ) is what you expect for a magnum springer. I would say it's close to the Theoben Eliminator in .22cal that I use to own. I will probably lighten the trigger release point sometime in the future. And now the results.

Weather

62 deg, Barometric pressure of 30.24 in/hg, Altitude 85ft ASL.

Sig Sauer Crux 10.3 gr. 5 shots (unsized)

LOW ..1013fps, HIGH...1032fps, AVERAGE...1023fps,  FPE...23.94



Crosman Premier 14.3 gr. 5 shots (sized to .217")

LOW...826fps, HIGH...839fps, AVERAGE...834fps, FPE...22.10



I then used the sizing die I made ( I do some lathe and mill work ) and did five more shots with the Sig Crux pellet. Results were better.

Shot #1...1029fps, Shot #2...1031fps, Shot #3...1033fps, Shot #4...1032fps, Shot #5...1033fps....Average of 1032fps and very good velocity consistancy! 24.36 FTE.



The die I made is brass and I used a #4 tapered reamer to get my desired final diameter of about .217". I am going to make a holder out of a brass 3/4" brass pipe nipple. The plunger will also be made out of brass. Right now I am just pushing the pellets through the die with a small drill bit shank.

This gun likes the pellets seated just flush with the breech face. Seating them deeply results in velocity loss. Yes, the pellets are hard to push in by hand. The head goes in easy at first but then you feel the resistance when the head starts engaging the rifling. Thats about midway before the pellet is fully flush. I used the flat end of my seat (about 5/16"...I made it to) to get the skirt end pushed into the bore. I am going to try more of the Premier pellets when they come in. I only had a few from my Theoben days. By not sizing the next Premier's I expect to see greater pressure behind the pellet. Maybe velocities in the 840-850fps will be achieved. I will post more results later. Unsized Crosman Premiers and the Sig Sauer Wraith 12.35gr (sized and unsized) will be next. Soon I have to mount my Hawke Airmax 3-9 40 AO scope. Wayne










 
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Loved the foam insert the gun came in. There is a removable piece if gun was to be shipped with scope



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My home made .217" die. Pellet drops in about half way before the sizing begins. Turned out nice.
 
I recently took delivery of mine as well. I like the way the stock looks if you turn it side to side, the dark stain almost turns smoky in some spots. How does the welding look on yours? I will post pictures of mine, but it looks as though the robot got a little wonky on mine. I don’t know, maybe I have been spoiled by the Air Arms craftmanship of the TX200. I will chrony mine later but the first initial pellets that I loaded in mine didn’t seem that hard to push in. I used some cheapy crosman piranhas that I had laying around. Seems like a good all around gun from what little I’ve tested it. Thanks for posting and have fun getting to know the new one!
 
I recently took delivery of mine as well. I like the way the stock looks if you turn it side to side, the dark stain almost turns smoky in some spots. How does the welding look on yours? I will post pictures of mine, but it looks as though the robot got a little wonky on mine. I don’t know, maybe I have been spoiled by the Air Arms craftmanship of the TX200. I will chrony mine later but the first initial pellets that I loaded in mine didn’t seem that hard to push in. I used some cheapy crosman piranhas that I had laying around. Seems like a good all around gun from what little I’ve tested it. Thanks for posting and have fun getting to know the new one!

The welds look good on mine. I am probably going to pull the stock, degrease both screw threads and female threads, and then use Loctite 242 to secure all fasteners. Like Mark B. mentioned over at his thread, the rear trigger screw is not very tight. From what I recall during my Beeman days that screw is not supposed to be beared down tight. I am going to contact Sig about torque recommendations for their fasteners. 

I now git to find a case for this thing. My Beeman case is a little small. The large muzzle brake/sound baffle is too fat for my case.
 
In case you haven't seen it Tom Gaylord is currently reveiwing the ASP20 and had this to say about stock screws.(becarefull with the rear triggergard screw as it is not a machine screw but a woodscrew)

LINK TO THE REVEIW

Stock screw torque

The reader who calls himself The Other Mark B asked the following.

“Did anyone from SIG mention whether or not stock and trigger guard screws will never come loose? I ask (facetiously) because I called SIG SAUER customer service earlier today to request torque specs for the ASP20 stock and trigger guard screws. They refused to provide the data as it is considered “proprietary”. When I asked what I was supposed to do when the screws loosened up, they said that I should send the rifle to them as it has a five year warranty. I asked the service rep to check with his supervisor about this. I was put on hold and when the rep came back on line he repeated that the data is proprietary.

Do you think you can get SIG to provide the data or does it look like we’ll all be sending our rifles to them every few tins of pellets?”

I told him I didn’t think there was a torque spec for those screws, but that I would ask. Well, shut my mouth! Dani Navickas of Sig told me that Sig does indeed torque those screws to 30 inch-pounds during assembly, but they recommend that their customers just tighten them with a standard Phillips screwdriver, and don’t over-tighten them. Dani worked at Beeman back when Dr. Beeman owned the company, and in those days all spring gun powerplants were very buzzy. They loosened their stock screws regularly. So Beeman told everyone to tighten the stock screws tight, and then turn them 1/4 turn further, just to be sure. DON’T DO THAT WITH THIS RIFLE!

The ASP20 powerplant is smoother than most springers that only have half the power. It doesn’t need its stock screws tightened by a fanatic.

Dani also warned me that the rear triggerguard screw is just a wood screw and should not be tightened this way. It will hold on its own, and if you crank on it you’ll just strip it out.
 
Mounted my Hawke Airmax today. Shot a few rounds into a wooden block. At 25-28ft the first shot low and right. Adjusted three clicks to the left and shot the three shot group you can see. About 3/16" ctc. The center line of my scope sits about two inches above the bore so the last shot I held over to the first cross hatch mark. I knew when I shot I pulled high and left. Sure enough, high and left.

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I fired a few more chrony shots today. Shot three Sig Crux 10.3gr for an average of 1025fps. Temperature was only 56 deg. today compared to the 62 deg of yesterday. Still 24 FPE. Also shot two heavyweight Sig lead pellets that weigh 21.14gr. 675fps. 21.4 FPE. Better energy levels are obtained with lighter pellets.
 
Doesn't the sizer make the skirt and head size the same since the pellet passes through the sizer? Or does that even matter?

Depends on the pellet. With my .217" die some heads don't even get touched. Some get just a slight marking on the head. Skirts are generally larger diameter than the head. That's because the skirt does the bulk of sealing compressed air (or gas) during firing.
 
Got my Sig Sauer Wraith 12.35gr pellets today. Thought the performance would have been a little better but not to shabby. The sized results were better than expected. Probably going to make a .216" die and see if more velocity can be achieved. 5 SHOT STRING.



WEATHER

60deg. BP 30.09 in/hg. 79% RH 85ft ASV

SIZED .217"

AVERAGE....883fps. ES....9fps 21.4 FPE

UNSIZED

AVERAGE...852fps. ES....18fps 19.9 FPE

I thought for sure I would be in the 900fps (or better) with this pellet. The fact that the sized pellet gave me a 30fps increase tells me I might get that 900fps with a either bigger or smaller die. I'm going to start with a smaller one. .216". If no improvement then I will go to a .218". Was also pleased with the sized extreme spread versus unsized.

Don't know how many of you watched the Airgun Depot review of the ASP20 ? I now know the test gun they used was a hybrid freak. No where near a gun with production balistics. They averaged about 902fps with the same Wraith pellet that I am getting 883fps. That test gun was shooting better at 4500ft above sea level then mine at 85ft above sea level. Sig sent them a gun that allowed for their elevation. I kind of understand why they did it. Sig knew that AGD would be advertising their product and many people would make a purchase decision based on the YouTube review. If Sig sent them a normal production gun they knew velocities would probably be 30-40fps lower than the rating. That would be a advertisement blunder. It's still kind of funny that the guy doing the review mentions the element of velocity drop related to higher elevation. He even says something like " we are at 5000ft ASL so your numbers will probably be better". At any rate.....enough rambling on my part.






 
Made another die this afternoon. Tad smaller and probably in the .215-216" range. Takes a little bit more energy to push the pellet through. Shot 5 Sig Sauer Wraith 12.35gr pellets under same weather conditions.

High....891fps

Low....875fps

Average....883fps

ES....16fps

FPE....21.4

Basically, No change ! Had one shot creep into the 890's but also had a new low of 875fps. Extreme spread of 16fps is close to the unsized pellet. Conclusion.....going smaller in diameter is not the answer. Kind of sceptical if larger will see improvement either. To large will net results similar to the unsized pellet. I may try a .218" just for the heck of it. I think I may have reached the point of diminishing returns. I may have found the "sweet spot " with my first die.
 
that's a really neat pellet-sizer ! did you make that yourself - o - i should read more closely.... brass , huh.... you must have a really cool shop.... so - not only is the bore a bit narrow ( so forget using english .22 calbre-types like ely wasp) , but the lands and grooves are not at all honed a bit at the breech (loading) area....that is a bit of a conundrum ! i'm thinking that even if a person buys softer lead - like jsb lites , which are sized at 5.50 mm , the very end of the skirt would crimp upon forcing it into the barrel... is that a decent portrayal ?