Gavin emailed me a selection of images. With his permission, I have attached the clearest ones, below. I cropped the images to show just the interesting aspects, and added notations to some. A very quick observation is that the breech cone has chatter marks all the way around it, that correspond with each land, in angular width. I can see how those facets could allow air to leak past the skirt of a seated pellet, and mimic a poor breech seal.I suggested that Gavin try deep seating some of the lead pellets that would not shoot at all. By deep, I mean, with the skirt just flush with the inside diameter of the cone.The breech cone may also have burrs at the ID; although what I am seeing may be lead flakes. Look at the edges of the lands I indicated with arrows in particular - click on the images to enlarge them. If the breech is wavy and constricted, both those conditions would reduce power and result in poor accuracy.The breech seals look OK. They should seal as intended against the rear face of the barrel and the receiver top (assuming the barrel face is perpendicular). Of course, the degree of compression against the barrel face and at the transfer port can't be judged by these images.The muzzle crown is what one might call, unusual.For reference, directly below are the breech and muzzle of my Baikal made MP-46M, out of the box. There are lots of fine circular machine marks, but the rifling is crisp and burr-free:Click on the attached images below to view enlarged pictures of Gavin's pistol:
I will certainly keep everyone posted on any new developments. I am also curious to hear other reviews- good or bad, hopefully folks will chime in. Also, the serial number on mine is #80. (I will double check it, but pretty sure that’s what it is).
Thanks Corky,The most striking difference is that the breech cone is blued - or dark (as is the one used in the AV promotional material). Unlike the problem pistol in this thread, where the metal is bright. Ditto for the original Izhmash and Baikal models.If the problem pistol started off with a dark breech cone, who recut it, and why? Could it be a customer who tried to "improve it", then sent it back because it would not shoot... The latter rhetorical questions could be answered by seeing if there are lot of bright steel breech cone AV 46Ms out there, or just one...
Hard Air says they have one for review, 000001 serial number.https://hardairmagazine.com/news/just-in-the-air-venturi-av-46m-match-air-pistol/
I called customer service at PA. They referred me to Air Venturi. Waiting for a call back. I have also contacted Mach 1 in California to see if they will upgrade/work on the AV’s. Corky
The AV pumps a little easier than the IZH but that could be two things. Tha AV is still a little dry (will work on that) and the IZH has been tuned by Mach 1.