S410 Superlite Carbine .22 - Lost Accuracy

[MrCobraman]

Hi Guys
I was at the range yesterday happily knocking down targets at 50 yards, but suddenly the gun lost all accuracy!

Nothing significant had happened to the rifle
- Mid refill
- Same pellets
- Not dropped or knocked

I kinda get 2-3 pellets grouped, then one 3" wide right, then 2" wide left, up or down...lead is struggling to maintain 6" grouping, when I could previously put all pellets within a 1" group.

I have made sure everything is tightened up on the stock, removing mod makes no difference & made sure barrel ring is tight, checked the sights are secure, cleaned the barrel and finally chrono'd for consistency (all ok), but nothing is curing my problem.

Put it down to eye fatigue & got back down the range today and still crap. Shot with a HW100 & BSA Ultra & accuracy is back to 1" grouping on both, but my Superlite is still all over the place.

Any thoughts on what could be going wrong?

Cheers!

[poguemahone]

aye up mate, do the quick and simple tests first, as its likely to be a process of elimination
check that the stock bolt isnt too tight, if it is then accuracy goes out of the window. it just needs nipping up lightly.
undo the barrel band to allow the barrel to centralize itself then nip the screws back up. i dont think this is the problem, but it only takes seconds to do, and can then be crossed off the list
do the £5 note test.
takes about 2 mins to do these checks, but could save you hours chasing shadows
if you're still having problems post back.
might need 50+ shots to re lead the barrel after cleaning for any form of accuracy to return.
what pellets are you using ??? a recently bought tin of jsb's by any chance ????

[MrCobraman]

Will do the simples & report back later in week (travelling till Thursday).

Pellets were RWS Superfields which to date have been brilliant.

Many thanks for your help!

[gary martin]

i would also look at the scope. turrets moved? easily done, rings come loose, as stated look at the basics.ATB.

[DarrenC]

Have you mixed two lots of the same pellets together? I did this with AA Fields, same pellets, same weight, same size but different batch number so from different dies. Three pellets would be spot on then the next two would be two inches high and left. This went on and on for ages until I noticed that the rear internal profile of the pellets was slightly different and realised what I had done. I sorted the pellets and the problem disappeared. Just a different poi for each batch of pellets.

[poguemahone]

Have you mixed two lots of the same pellets together? I did this with AA Fields, same pellets, same weight, same size but different batch number so from different dies. Three pellets would be spot on then the next two would be two inches high and left. This went on and on for ages until I noticed that the rear internal profile of the pellets was slightly different and realised what I had done. I sorted the pellets and the problem disappeared. Just a different poi for each batch of pellets.

aye up darren, good point, thats why i asked if he'd recently bought a tin of jsb made pellets. apparently they were asked by a supplier/importer to keep their prices down, so they started banging em out on old dies and skimping on quality control, so the story goes jsb denied this, and have gone back to using the best dies and better quality control. however theres now some tins of jsb made pellets in circulation that arent shall we say, best quality, and have pellets from different dies in the same tin (i've seen em)
i've never had a problem with different batch/die numbers of jsb exacts, and although i always check the zero of a new tin i've never had to alter zero til earlier this year when i got a different batch number. luckily i only bought 1 tin, as they were crap. bought a tin with different number and they were fine, as usual

[MrCobraman]

Moved to a new tin of RWS recently, and could expect POi to change but still get a grouping. No grouping whatsoever now. Tried 3 different tins of RWS & all same. Previous 6 tins of RWS have been spot on. Indoor range so not wind affecting flight.
Be back on Wednesday to try £5 test and bolts/screws ... Will update then.

[poguemahone]

Moved to a new tin of RWS recently, and could expect POi to change but still get a grouping. No grouping whatsoever now. Tried 3 different tins of RWS & all same. Previous 6 tins of RWS have been spot on. Indoor range so not wind affecting flight.
Be back on Wednesday to try £5 test and bolts/screws ... Will update then.

i always save 50 or so pellets from a previous ''proven'' tin of pellets for sorting accuracy issues
rws superfield were made for rws by jsb originally, then i think they fell out or summat or had a dispute. not sure if they're still made for them by jsb now.
jsb make pellets for a fair few other customers, and a big problem is that the customers will sometimes TELL jsb how much they want to pay for pellets. jsb then make them for that price, usually with poorer quality material, and using old dies, or so the story goes

[DarrenC]

Sounds like the pellets are a likely culprit. Save yourself the stress of fiddling and buy some other pellets first. AAFields work very well in my S400 .22 but JSB Express and RS are even better.

[shaun5609]

Sorry to jump in on the post but I also have the same problem with an s410 carbine. Could someone please tell me what the £5 test is please?
Many thanks