Another late to the party thread----Taipan Veteran .25 Long

[mackeral5]

Did some early morning shooting with the STD this morning.  It is currently sighted in at 50 yards and if I do my part will consistently put 5 shot groups of King Heavies under an inch.  it will probably shoot better with that from a proper rest and putting more effort into the process. 

After plinking my 100 yard spinners to get holdover, I determined 4 mildots was close enough to shoot a few groups.  I started with the bottom right, then top right, and top left being the last of the 3 groups.  The last 2 groups were around 1.75-2", the first one was a bit larger, obviously...  I'll take that for now.



here she is wearing the gray laminate stock that came with the Long.



While walking back from the target I realized I had an audience.



I will likely make a new poppet with cobra chamber as I believe I can gain a little efficiency. 

enough for now....

[mackeral5]

Tried out the Long barrel in the STD today. 

With 125-130 bar reg had a nice snappy tune of King Heavies at 850fps prior to swapping barrels.  After going to the long barrel velocity went to 880fps with no other changes. 

Currently running my home brewed simplified balanced valve, trying to convince myself that it is worth the added complexity...It is indeed consistent with no first shot stiction.  The hammer is in free flight at these power levels.  But a small peek poppet performed similarly without all the extra hardware and oring in the plenum.....



After a few groups less than satisfying shooting, I finally got lucky and pulled the right series of 5 pellets out of the tin.  FX 34gr at 880fps, at 100 yards, 5 shots.




.270 throat, 2mm stem, and minimally sized peek poppet.  This is the simple formula to get a standard into the 55+fpe range at low reg settings, while requiring very little or no hst preload, and maintaining decent shot count.   No need for stiff hammer springs and 150bar reg settings....

[mackeral5]

I received a package from Luge007 up in RI, so back to the Veteran Long.... The package contained a missing link to the plan for this gun--a Taipan/FX adapter so I can test with the various liners that are offered in that system.   

I started out with a brand new never shot 700mm 1:16. Gave it a bit of prep and shot approximately 150 rounds of mostly ATP Smooths, shaking down a new to me gun that is made up of shipments from at least 1-2 members here and 3 or so over on AGN.

After work today I wanted to see what a complete shot string looked like on a full fill, starting with the first shot after filling. OG Veteran long ATP Smooth 49.5 @850fps, my 100 yard range. Leaning against the side of my truck, bipod rested on the bedcover.

5 shot groups working from top left (1) to top right (2) to lower left (3) to lower right (4) to center (5) to lower center (6) then when she was in that goldilocks zone of just before and after coming off reg, top center (7) 35 shots total. I put shot 36 over the chronograph expecting low 800's, it was 845fps.

Group 7 was the best 100 yard group I've shot in recent history, possibly ever.

I am not the best shot nor are these perfect groups, except maybe #7..  I guess I got a decent liner. 







The gun is rather loud with just the FX shroud, so I had to put some kind of moderator on and the Altaros was all I had, it is LONG.....  but with some of Peter's 3d guts, it is a very quiet ~80fpe.

[Racing]

As youīre familiar although old news by now i want to stress that Kral PB i put together with a 2mm stem on yours n RKRīs advice. It works SO well itīs mind boggling, never had i thought..
This too a 25cal and that 2mm stem does indeed change the stature of the entire thing, it really does. I still keep the gun and still use it.
I can not advocate the "2mm route" enough. It truly IS a game changer and the real neat part is how simple it after all is. Only imperative parts is to use hardened steel 2mm rod and in turn I at least use a "counterscrew" on the actual poppet head to kill any poss of the stem working itself into the PEEK over time.
Have had the setup apart a number of times and.. itīs just 100% stable. End of story.



Dunno if you recall but i opted to put a LW barrel on it and in doing so "went FX" on it. In short i turned a breech piece out of brass and then just cut and threaded the LW barrel to fit. Making that tossing basically any other barrel on there will be childs play from hereon out.
This has of course made me look into the "new" 700mm Kral offerings, from what i gather set on 1:16 as these are WAY more affordable than any FX liner system or LW barrel option will ever be.
If they turn out to work well, such a case scenario iīll be tossing them at everything in sight me believes.

[mackeral5]

As youīre familiar although old news by now i want to stress that Kral PB i put together with a 2mm stem on yours n RKRīs advice. It works SO well itīs mind boggling, never had i thought..
This too a 25cal and that 2mm stem does indeed change the stature of the entire thing, it really does. I still keep the gun and still use it.
I can not advocate the "2mm route" enough. It truly IS a game changer and the real neat part is how simple it after all is. Only imperative parts is to use hardened steel 2mm rod and in turn I at least use a "counterscrew" on the actual poppet head to kill any poss of the stem working itself into the PEEK over time.
Have had the setup apart a number of times and.. itīs just 100% stable. End of story.



Dunno if you recall but i opted to put a LW barrel on it and in doing so "went FX" on it. In short i turned a breech piece out of brass and then just cut and threaded the LW barrel to fit. Making that tossing basically any other barrel on there will be childs play from hereon out.
This has of course made me look into the "new" 700mm Kral offerings, from what i gather set on 1:16 as these are WAY more affordable than any FX liner system or LW barrel option will ever be.
If they turn out to work well, such a case scenario iīll be tossing them at everything in sight me believes.

Jesper, I do recall that build.  I really admire your creativity and almost envy your fabrication skills.  I have more than enough creativity, but have zero real fab skills so a lot of ideas go untested due to the level of effort/investment required to fabricate. 

The FX liner system----IMO, at 700mm lengths it is a very fickle beast to keep in check.  so many variables.  But to be able to change liners just by removing the 1/2-20 muzzle nut, that is very nice, especially with bull pup platforms that use the complex barrel band/scope rail/trigger assemblies.  Long term my Veteran long will likely end up with a solid, real barrel, once I figure out what I really want to do with it.  The Veteran Standard may live with a 500mm FX barrel system as there is not as much unsupported barrel to worry about. 

Glad to see those smaller stems working well for you.  They are not the end all solution for every problem, but they are a valid option for gaining port area while not increasing required hammer strike, often times, actually, reducing required hammer strike occurs. 

At this point I cannot count the guns/platforms I have used that mod on.  Amazingly, there has only been 1 failure due to the stem migrating in the peek poppet, and that was due to my not fully seating the stem into the predrilled recess during assembly.  Fully seat the stem with sufficient interference fit, and the stem never moves.....

I do not over complicate this process.  I buy 2mm drill rod from Amazon.  I rough cut to length with a pair of 9" lineman pliers.  I finish the ends chucked in a drill and spun against a belt sander/polisher.  I do not harden ends, I do not glue the stems in.  I do not add set screws, bushings, etc.  A 1/16 pilot hole and interference fit of .375 deep is all that is needed.  I used these in valve throats up to .315 or so and pressures up to 3000psi, to date with no failures..... 

Whether balanced valve:



Or traditional valve with return spring:



These super simple poppets seem to work well and hold up to abuse.

This is the 2mm rod I use:

[mackeral5]

My Veterans have consumed quite a bit of nitrogen and lead since the last post.  Many different configurations and tunes have been tested.  I believe I have a "final" configuration of my "standard", as a King Heavy pellet shooter. 



it isn't really a standard anymore as it is equipped with the OEM long barrel/shroud.  After many different combinations/tunes I settled on using a plenum extension.  The long barrel allows for sending King Heavy's 885fps at a relatively low 105 bar reg setting.  Even with full bore porting, cocking effort is at or below OEM levels and trigger pull is nice and easy with a very clean break.

here is a full fill's worth of 5 shot groups shot at 100 yards, a few days ago.  Sequence was left to right, top to bottom.  The 6th group clearly shows the gun coming off regulator, and the 7th group is 10 shots of me using holdover to stay close to on target.  Shot 41 went over the chronograph at only 745fps....  FX's version of 33.95gr, straight out of the tin. 



The second group is a recent best for me. 



This morning I quickly shot these 3 groups, I believe the tune is stable. 



The only problem with this setup is the gun is a bit heavy, weighing in at 9lb 11oz as pictured.  Later I will test shorter barrel configurations to see how close I can replicate this performance at a bit lower weight....

[mackeral5]

A package from Matt/Luge007 arrived yesterday containing a handful of custom parts he machined in recent weeks.  One piece was a shortened stainless FX barrel tube.  At risk of ruining a perfectly good shooting gun, i assembled call it a 20.5" barrel using a cut down STX Superior liner and custom sized carbon sleeve, along with one of Matt's FX to Taipan stainless adapters.  I then replaced the OEM Long barrel in the Standard with the stainless steel FX barrel assembly.

Velocity dropped from 885 to 870fps, due to a combination of the STX Superior's tight choke and slightly shorter length vs the OEM Long barrel.   

Weight dropped from 9lb 11oz to 9lb 3 oz.  Eventually I plan to make up a carbon shroud to see if I can get below 9lb. 

Accuracy seems to be ok, but needs further testing. 

[aluminumfetish]

That is a good looking unit. I hear you about the weight though. I imagine I will get a Vet .22 standard in the next year. I really like the form factor.