Mid October in Upstate N.Y. - weather in the mid-50's, bright blue sunny skies - these days are going to be far and few between over the next few months. {sigh} I took advantage of the day to get out and finally do some testing / evaluation of some mods that I recently made with my .22. I purchased the plenum for it a few months ago but have been sitting on it waiting for these new barrels to come in. They did and mine finally got delivered to the house last week. (via Tony @Talon Tunes) I've got a huma reg in this thing too set at around 140 bar. This gun has been shooting .217 H&N 23g slugs like a laser over the past couple of months with the stock LW barrel - super accurate well out to 120 - 130 yards at 947'ish fps. I was really kind of "dreading" taking it apart to fit the new barrel & plenum because it has been shooting so well - but I went ahead and did. I'm glad I did too. The jury is still out on what ammo I'm going to run with it now - I do believe it likes the .217's also as I was using those same ones in it today and after tuning it down back to about the same speed (948 now) -- the accuracy came back.
Turning it down. Yeah - holy crap -- I sort of expected it to gain some horsepower with the longer barrel and plenum - yowza! I can EASILY exceed 1000 fps with those slugs now - I was shooting them at 1050 for a little while @my 40 yard zero with pretty decent / consistent accuracy but that speed didn't hold up so well ( it was horrible actually ) when I tried it at 100. I don't know . . . (to fast - those little light slugs spinning, spiraling, unstabilizing? - don't know - but I couldn't hit the side of a barn with them at that speed - which was kind of a bummer ) I backed it back down to upper 940's where it was laser like with the original barrel and it immediately came back on song. I had to REALLY turn it back down too on the hammer spring which also led to (an apparent) more frugal use of air per shot as I was able to squeeze out more rounds per fill than before - nearly an additional 2 magazines - and it's easier to cock. So -- I believe that the combination of longer barrel and plenum is making it more efficient BUT . . . .
. . . . the principal reason for a pwr increase is to shoot heavier ammo. ;-) I've got two H&N sample packs coming in ( wish they were already here - today would have been an ideal day to test & learn ). I've got a .217 and .218 pack coming in as well as a tin of .217 JSB KO's. I'm pretty sure it's going to like the .217's - but - who knows - maybe it'll like the .218's . . . . we shall see.
What else did I learn today? Oh yeah - my little car inverter works.
The shooting range that I'm able to use has no available electricity. Those of you with "old school" chrony's know that they can be finicky - they actually 'prefer' overcast skies to work best - the operative word back there being 'finicky'. I *really* like my chrony and I **really really** like it with the lighting kit I picked up for it a year or so ago. Using the lighting kit - the thing just.works. Every.single.time. For real - it doesn't miss a shot. In the included picture you can see the red lights indicating power on the strips.I've been speed tuning and zero'ing into pellet traps in the back yard at home where I have available electricity and then going out to the range to take the shots out to longer distances - 50, 75, 100, 125 yds . . . I've really wanted to be able to just do everything at the range for quite a while though so I googled and found this thing on Amazon - it only costs $20 bucks or so - it plugs into one of the cigarette lighters on the car and converts 12v DC to 110 AC. Today was the first time I've used it and it worked flawlessly - easy peasy - plugged it into the car - plugged in an extension cord I brought with me and then plugged in the lighting kit.
I'm hoping to be able to run 27 or maybe even 29g slugs at 900+ - they should hit plenty hard next summer on the wood chucks. We shall see.
