Springer weight increase

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cooper_dan
Posts: 8
Joined: Sat Apr 08, 2017 1:21 pm

Springer weight increase

Tue Oct 03, 2017 7:21 am

I'm sure this is very old news to some people, but worth repeating for beginners like myself.
I have a TX200HC which I have started shooting HFT with. After owning it for a few weeks I inevitably got a bit bored of the twangyness and vibrations, and though I might like less recoil. So I bought a drop in kit of guides and spring. The spring was fatter/stiffer than the original (to offset the delrin top hat) and to be honest I wasn't completely sold on the shot cycle. After about 50 shots the guide snapped. The place I bought it from were very helpful and sent me another one FOC. After about 200 shots this one snapped too.

Gun got a full strip down at this point and I found the stock bracket was cracked and slightly loose. This might have been the reason the guides were breaking and I wasn't enjoying the shot cycle. I think this would have the same effect as having the front screws loose. I thought about getting another drop in kit but decided I would rather keep the internals standard and not have to worry about them breaking. As it turned out I was able to swap the guides from my prosport which cured the twangyness for free.
So I started looking at adding some weight to the stock as a way of reducing the recoil. Luckily I keep all the lead that ends up in my pellet trap so I could use this for free.
I took the butt pad off and used this to make a mould using a couple of sheets of MDF. Melted the lead with a cheapo propane torch and just poured it straight in. There was a bit of smoke but molten lead isn't hot enough to ignite MDF so all good. Once i'd trimmed it down a bit and drilled some holes, it came in at about 450g.
This immediately deadened the shot cycle by a noticeable amount. But it had moved the balance point back quite a lot. It felt a bit more like my prosport which wasn't what I wanted. So I made an extra bit of shroud for the barrel. Turns out some copper water pipe I had in the garage was an almost perfect fit over the existing shroud. I trimmed it to length and made an angled cut so it would fit past the end of the stock, and another cut to fit the under lever bracket bit. Painted it black, then used a washer and the plenum insert to tighten it all up.

End result is 5.3kg (including scope), balance point almost the same as standard. The shot cycle is now more calm than some tuned guns I have shot. I shot in the first round of the Daystate Midland Hunter Series last Sunday and it performed almost perfectly. In particular there was a 45 yard shot, and a couple of 40 ish yard shots. I used to struggle with these but this time I got them all. The only reason I didn't score higher was my poor range finding on the 8y to 15y and 30y to 40y
shots, and a couple where the wind got me. I haven't had a chance to shoot some 45 yard groups on a calm day, but I get the feeling they would be quite good.

The next modification will be ordering a new standard spring (mine is a coil or two short) and swapping the steel top hat for the delrin one that came with the drop in kit. Will use washers to get it back up to 755 fps (10.7 ft-lb with 8.44 grain). Then add a bit more weight. I would like to get up to about 6kg if possible (trying to keep the balance point the same). However I also want to keep the gun looking as standard as possible because I'm a bit of a tart like that. I don't really like the skeletal/metallic look of modern FT/HFT guns. Give me a wooden sporter any day.

(Someone I was talking to on Sunday knows someone who has a TX at about 8kg and supposedly it is unreal how little recoil there is. Think this might be too much for me though)

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TenMetrePeter
Posts: 1043
Joined: Wed Jun 29, 2016 5:40 pm
Location: Luton Beds UK

Re: Springer weight increase

Tue Oct 03, 2017 9:22 am

Intetesting tale. Target rifles of any sort benefit from additional weight. Its why ISSF have a 6.5kg max on 10 metre rifles to stop the race to concrete stocks!. If you are going to carry it round to catch bunnies then weight becomes a hindrance of course.

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sherlock1963
Posts: 40
Joined: Thu Jun 18, 2015 9:35 pm

Re: Springer weight increase

Tue Oct 03, 2017 5:33 pm

There are 2 people I can highly recommend who supply kits and re-engineer TX200HCs. Longer TX barrels are more efficient and easier to tune.

Dave Price (also known as Wonky Donky) lightens the standard piston to about 175g, adds a longer latch rod to shorten the stroke and shortens the transfer port. Along with his bespoke spring and guides it transforms the rifle. (I have one of his kits in my HC)

Tony Leach (Airguntech and Lost Volume on FB)makes an ultra-lightweight 22mm piston (130g) and sleeves the compression tube. He makes bespoke guides using the standard TX MK3 spring. It transforms a TX (I have one in my full length TX)

The shot-cycles with both of these tunes is exceptionally quick with reduced recoil. MY HFT PBs are with these 2 rifles ( 2 points better than my highest PCP score)
Bullpup TX MK2- TX200SR- NJR100--TX MK1 TX MK3- Pro-Elite - RN10

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cooper_dan
Posts: 8
Joined: Sat Apr 08, 2017 1:21 pm

Re: Springer weight increase

Wed Oct 04, 2017 6:57 am

sherlock1963 wrote:There are 2 people I can highly recommend who supply kits and re-engineer TX200HCs. Longer TX barrels are more efficient and easier to tune.

Dave Price (also known as Wonky Donky) lightens the standard piston to about 175g, adds a longer latch rod to shorten the stroke and shortens the transfer port. Along with his bespoke spring and guides it transforms the rifle. (I have one of his kits in my HC)

Tony Leach (Airguntech and Lost Volume on FB)makes an ultra-lightweight 22mm piston (130g) and sleeves the compression tube. He makes bespoke guides using the standard TX MK3 spring. It transforms a TX (I have one in my full length TX)

The shot-cycles with both of these tunes is exceptionally quick with reduced recoil. MY HFT PBs are with these 2 rifles ( 2 points better than my highest PCP score)


The current weak point is the bit behind the trigger. My range finding is what lets me down, so for now I'm going to stick with the standard internals. Adding weight is free and gives me something to tinker with but possibly isn't needed either. My PB with this gun is 48/60 but my average is around 42. I tend to mess up on 35/40 yards and 8-12 yard shots

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Blackbaronfish
Posts: 3690
Joined: Sun Feb 15, 2015 6:20 pm
Location: Nuneaton

Re: Springer weight increase

Wed Oct 04, 2017 7:32 am

What distance and mag is you zero Dan
What size mounts and what ocular
BBF
Did I mention that I'm the only one to have attended EVERY meet since we started

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cooper_dan
Posts: 8
Joined: Sat Apr 08, 2017 1:21 pm

Re: Springer weight increase

Wed Oct 04, 2017 2:59 pm

Blackbaronfish wrote:What distance and mag is you zero Dan
What size mounts and what ocular
BBF


Scope is 4-12x40 Hawke Vantage Max (1/2 mil dot)
Medium mounts (objective bell is just clear of the action)
10x mag and 25 yard objective
Zero and aim points are roughly:
8y = -2.5
10 = -1.5
15 = -0.25
20y = 0
25y = 0
30y = -0.25
35y = -0.5
40y = -1
45y = -1.5

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