What makes a side-lever / bolt action smooth and can I improve it on my PCP guns

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Z

zebra

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Sep 29, 2015
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New York
Does anyone here have any insight into what specifically makes some guns feel super smooth and light when you pull back the side-lever while others feel just functional or even gritty?

For example, the side lever on my Cricket feels ok (it's just not great). The Mutant is a little better but it isn't exceptional. My old Hatsan and Career rifles feel gritty but I expect a few burrs on entry level guns.

My Ataman, on the other hand, has the nicest feeling cocking motion I have ever felt on an air gun. It feels better than anything I have felt from Daystate, FX, Kalibrgun etc. It's just so light and smooth and the satisfying click it makes when the hammer goes back is just so reassuring.

I haven't opened it up but, from what I can see from the outside, the design does not look radically different to my other guns. The side lever pulls back a bolt and pushes the probe forward on it's return. It does use auto-indexing mags, but so does the Marauder and most FX or Daystate guns. 

I have been able to significantly improve the feel of the Cricket side-lever by lubricating the relevant parts, but only for a few shots and then it goes back to normal. 

So I was wondering... does anyone know of any mods that would permanently make a side-lever motion feel lighter and smoother? 

I guess I am asking generally and not for a specific gun. I.e. Is anyone putting their gun's moving parts through an extra round of deburring or polishing etc, or any other mods to achieve an improvement?

I was thinking something along the lines of maybe: polishing the bolt until it looks like a mirror, adding bearings, switching to lighter hammer and valve springs. If anyone has done anything like that, what sort of improvements did you see?

I don't know if there is any truth to this but my assumption is that a smooth, light and precise bolt / probe motion is going to be better for accuracy through less pellet damage and consistent positioning, It is certainly better for not moving your gun out of position when trying to make it group. 



 
I'm going to give the slick 50 a try. How long does the improvement last? The improvement from silicone lube is only noticeable for a few shots...

I want all my side-levers to feel like the Ataman's. It would go on my ideal Frankenstein gun (you know.. if you could take your favorite features from each gun and make one supreme air rifle). I'd take the Ataman side lever.

There has to be more I could do to the Cricket to improve the side-lever motion than lube though. If lube was the secret then the Ataman side lever would lose it's charm quickly. I haven't added a thing and it's still just as smooth and light. 

The more I think about it, the more I think lighter springs has to be a part of it. A lighter hammer spring on it's own would lighten it up but it would reduce power so it would need a lighter spring in the valve poppet. 

 
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In my opinion, many factors come into play regarding the feel of a side lever action. The general design: pivot points, hammer spring weight, tolerance fittings, etc plays a large part to how a side lever "feels". I have felt some that were loose and wobbly and gritty and tight all the way to super smooth and precise out of the box. You can only improve the factory feel of a side lever so much by using lube. Careful polishing of all the mating surfaces can make a world of difference in my experience, and then I try to use lube very sparingly.
 
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Some items I polish on my lathe, but you can also chuck up cylindrical parts on a drill, or you can hand polish rough metal mating surfaces with fine grit sandpaper, very fine steel wool, and finally sometimes I use some 3m polish compound to shine it up even more. I use some very small files I bought from Harbor Freight to file down sharp edges or corners and knock off burrs, tool marks, or casting marks, etc. If you watch the sidelever actuate very slowly and carefully you should be able to ID places that can cause the lever to hang up or "get that nasty gritty feel". Sometimes you just cant get away from a heavy pull on a sidelever, but you can sure do a lot to smooth it up without using excess lube and grease. A lot of it is trial and error as I have found out, sometimes I have wasted time for minimal improvement, but nothing is more satisfying than a smoothly functioning action that was gritty and rough from the factory......just my 2 cents!
 
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Hi airgunners,
I have the FX impact and used molybdenum disulfide (Moly Metal-to-Metal Paste.made by Air Venturi, one brand there are others.)on the side lever and cocking block, where it slides back and forth and also where it slides on the barrel. I grabbed a little on with a Q-tip. It doesn't take much at all.
Another thing I used was a Q-tip chucked in a Dremel tool with J-B non-embedding bore cleaning compound to polish with. Cheap and small to get into small/tight places.

Happy airgunning!
 
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The design of the side lever. The better they design leverage into the side lever the easier its going to feel and if they do a good job of polishing the points that rub on each other the better it feels. My S510 with the lightened hammer spring almost feels like its not even moving its so smooth and light. Even with the oem spring it was very nice. Hatsans at least my three on the other hand felt like they had dirt in them. Hatsan didnt do as good of a job with the pivoting points for helping add leverage or polishing them so they feel heavy and gritty. My evanix RS2 had a very smooth and light feeling side lever also. Every bit as good if not slightly better than my AA S510. The hammer and spring also play a role. If the hammer is made to slide very easy with little friction then you wont feel that drag either. If it has a spring guide then same thing if it slides smooth with the spring you dont get extra drag.
 
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