Airforce Texan problem
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Airforce Texan problem
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Topic: Airforce Texan problem (Read 2113 times))
KarlH
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Posts: 43
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Real Name: karl
Airforce Texan problem
«
on:
September 24, 2021, 04:01:03 PM »
My 357 texan just developed a big problem. I just set up my labradar and was going to see if fine tuning my texan to the bullet I use, hornady cowboy 158gr SWC, could possibly save any air without losing velocity from where I'm currently set. Currently, I fill to 3050 and get two shots between 901 and 905 FPS using about 200 psi for each shot, if I fire a third shot the FPS drops like a rock so my Texan is a two shot gun.
I filled the gun to 3000 psi and I backed off the tuning wheel about 50%, I was almost maxed at where it ended up set since I bought it, and fired a shot. After removing the bullet from the bore.... which thankfully is easy since my barrel is finely polished, I reset the tuning wheel roughly 25% of the way back, topped to 3000 psi and fired a shot, 884 FPS. I conitinued adjusting the tuner, topping off and firing one shot 3 more times, last shot I was up to 911 FPS. At that point I topped off and it still was using just under 200 psi per shot and fired one more without adjusting the tuner. Would you believe it just kind of mouse farted and left the bullet in the bore? And I heard a very small air hiss. Opened the action and it was leaking out the valve. Removed the bullet from the bore and pulled out the owners manual where it says in trouble shooting:
Air is leaking from the tank:
Install the air tank on the rifle and fire several times without a pellet. If air continues
to leak after this has been tried, it will have to be repaired at the factory.
I did just that, first dry fire did not sound very strong, second more so, and third sounded strong. I dry fired 3 more times, refilled and shot a round at 909 FPS, opened the action and air was leaking again. Tried the dry firing thing again, it stopped leaking so I filled it and fired 2 times. It was leaking again after the second shot. Tried one more time and after first shot when it stopped leaking it was leaking again. Do I really have to send it in to be repaired? Or is that more general safety BS for the least common denominator lawyer talk?
The rifle has shot well over 2000 bullets since I bought it new, or rather the replacement air force sent me when the new one I bought didn't work out of the box. 90%+ of the shots have been various 158 grain bullets, most of the rest were 148 grain wadcutters of different design and a couple hundred powder coated hornady 9mm 147 grain xtp's run through my bullet sizer(those xtp's are very accurate in my texan sized to my bore and at 50 yards caused my 8 inch 4 foot long water filled pvc pellet test catcher to explode on the first shot it expanded so fast, if powder coating them consistently getting a thick enough coating wasn't such a pain I might use them exclusively). I briefly played with lighter stuff when I first got it, but gave up on that with less than a couple hundred lighter bullets ever shot.
I have my own compressor and it gives me clean dry air, I know this for a fact since recently my slow flow valve from Joe Brancato decided it didn't want to be slow flow any more. They gave me instructions for taking it apart which meant of course letting all the air out of my tank to take the valve off. The tank was perfectly clean and dry, the valve was perfectly clean and dry, saw zero corrosion/imperfections inside the tank. A touch of silicone lube put it back together and it works fine again.
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Loren
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Real Name: Loren
Re: Airforce Texan problem
«
Reply #1 on:
September 24, 2021, 04:30:52 PM »
I had the valve on my .257 Texan start leaking. I pulled the valve from the tank and disassembled the valve. The valve seat was cracked. I ordered up two new ones from Airforce for $4.95 each.
P/N GP10933 VALVE SEAT BIG BORE .308 AND .357 (OLD 457 CAL) is what was on their invoice. Reach out to Leah at Leah@airforceairguns.com for parts.
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KarlH
Shooter
Posts: 43
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Real Name: karl
Re: Airforce Texan problem
«
Reply #2 on:
September 25, 2021, 11:09:23 AM »
I have a "spare" tank courtesy of the mess I went through with airforce when I bought it and had to send the rifle to them straight out of the box. I didn't send the tank back with the rifle. According to them, the serial number of my gun was before they changed the 357 valve for better flow and I got them to send me one with the new replacement rifle they sent me. The new rifle was another nightmare, but I'll not go into that here, I fixed it myself. I have not taken apart the problem tank/valve yet since I had a brand new older tank to practice on. One noticeable difference between the two is the old one's 5 holes in the top hat are about .04 inches smaller in diameter than the new(broken) one. I'm guessing the part on the picture below that has a white line reflection from the flash is the valve seat? I cannot figure out how to take the top hat off so I can get to it. I see no screws/pins/anything that holds it together. How do I take the rest of it apart to get to the valve seat?
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Loren
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Real Name: Loren
Re: Airforce Texan problem
«
Reply #3 on:
September 26, 2021, 11:46:04 AM »
Yes that is the seat. Is yours cracked?
The seat is pressed onto the top hat stem and had a retaining groove on the stem. Mine pulled off, but it was cracked. I pressed the new one on.
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KarlH
Shooter
Posts: 43
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Real Name: karl
Re: Airforce Texan problem
«
Reply #4 on:
September 26, 2021, 01:34:13 PM »
I think we were talking about two different parts. I added to the picture what white flash line I was talking about, and what I think you are talking about. The valve pictured is completely unused, I filled the tank the day the texan was delivered, but the texan was completely non functional, it would not shoot period, the hammer would not move, the trigger did absolutely nothing. Airforce sent me a new tank and valve with a new rifle, it was a newer design than the one my serial number paper weight had and flows better according to them. The new valve on the new tank is the one that is fubar'd. I was just practicing taking it apart on this valve in case I decide to send the bad one in to airforce, that way they can't say I ever did anything to it. Taking apart the unused valve to this point is simple, but I pulled on the top hat and back end plastic thing to the point it was very painfull to hold on to. It did not budge.
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KarlH
Shooter
Posts: 43
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Real Name: karl
Re: Airforce Texan problem
«
Reply #5 on:
September 26, 2021, 02:32:10 PM »
Forgot to mention, I'm thinking about leaving out the brass piece that holds the spring in, leaving out the spring obviously, and cutting the ears of that plastic thing that the spring sits on and trying this tank and valve out that way. I'm thinking even with the smaller holes in the top hat of this one vs the newer design one that is fubar'd, leaving the spring/brass off and taking the ears off the plastic piece it may flow as good if not better than the valve that is fubar'd. I know without the spring it will dump once the pressure gets below a certain point, but I never shoot it past 2700 psi, actually not even that low.
My texan is a two shot gun with the bullets I shoot. When I have the patience and the eyes aren't bothering me, I average just under 2" 10 shot groups at 110 yards with the hornady 158gr SWC's run through my sizer, customized to .3575, literally 4/10000's over or under are both way slower and way less accurate in my texan. Most accurate bullet I've ever shot in it is just over 1.5 inch groups with hand selected by resizing feel powder coated hornady 9mm 147gr XTP's. If I don't get a thick enough powder coating on them, they don't really size down and shooting those undersized to my bore I'm lucky to average 2.5 inch groups and velocity differences over 15-25 FPS. Ones I hand select run between 921 and 926 FPS. I ran out of my XTP's well over a year ago, and decided it's just too much of a pain to powder coat them especially with a reject rate of nearly one in five even if they are the most accurate thing I've ever shot out of my texan, and they expand extremely well in water even at 110 yards, roughly 850 fps.
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Loren
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Real Name: Loren
Re: Airforce Texan problem
«
Reply #6 on:
September 26, 2021, 02:36:51 PM »
The yellow circled part is what cracked on mine. The crack was visible to the naked eye.
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Greg_E
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Posts: 1380
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Real Name: Greg
Re: Airforce Texan problem
«
Reply #7 on:
September 26, 2021, 02:53:56 PM »
Are you hunting with it or target shooting? The SWC may have a lower down range energy than something like a Lee 150gr round nose. The round nose probably won't deform as much if you are hunting.
I assume you are casting some of your ammo, I might have a couple of molds you might be interested in. They may not work well in my Bulldog without reaming the breach (need more testing), and with the power you are using might be good for you. Lyman 356637 in 4 cavity (147gr) and its hollow point brother the 9mm Devastator (125gr) single cavity.
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KarlH
Shooter
Posts: 43
yes
Real Name: karl
Re: Airforce Texan problem
«
Reply #8 on:
September 26, 2021, 03:54:20 PM »
Bingo. Thanks Loren, I just pulled it out of the top of the bottle on the bad one, and sure enough it is cracked. It also pulled off very easily. Looks the same as the good one, mics the same. The only difference between the two valves is the newer design has holes in the top hat approximately .04 bigger in diamater. I'm going to go ahead and try the other tank with the smaller holes in the top hat and leave the spring and brass spring retainer plug out. I'll order the part, probably at least two to have one spare, to fix this one from Airforce Monday.
Thanks again for replying.
Greg_E:
I target shoot/plink/and hunt with it. I don't cast and am perfectly happy with the hornady cowboy bullets. I have shot many different designs from matt's bullets and a couple others. None shoot as well in my texan as the hornady cowboy rounds. The Hornady's are knurled, no grooves. Whatever lube they use on the knurls works very well in the Texan. I tried cleaning a few, powder coating and sizing them and they were not as good as just sizing them out of the box leaving their lube on it. 40 ish years ago I shot my first 3 deer using 158 gr SWC's in a borrowed 6 inch S&W 38 special. My texan shoots a little faster than that borrowed 38 special 40 years ago, the smallest deer I shot with that 38 dressed at 160 or so pounds, the other two dressed over 200. No problem broadside lung shot with complete pass through and good blood trail. Know your capability shooting, take double lung shots only, and it works perfectly. Same with the texan, I've only shot 2 deer with it as I'm mostly a powder burner hunter 50/50 hand guns or rifle. Both deer I shot with the texan were close to broadside, one at very close range and off hand not 20 feet behind my house that was at most 15 yards from me. Last evening of season and I was going out to my woods to hunt hoping for a little more meat in the freezer. I cleared the back of the house and there it was. It was shocked as much as I was and hesitated just a split second too long to escape. The other was right at 60 yards and neither were big deer. Smallest was the one at the house, skinned and gutted was only 65 pounds probably right at one year old buck(deer around here can be and regularly are born 12 months a year), the one at 60 yards was a mature doe dressed and skinned out at 90 pounds. Deer are generally smaller in the south. Neither ran far, the small one probably the farthest all downhill, 60+ yards running, but only 20 as the crow flies. The doe ran maybe 40 yards in a straight line up hill. Both left easy blood trails to follow, but I didn't need to blood trail either. Heard the one at the house go down and knew it just made it to the bottom of the draw behind my house. The other one it was in the low 20's and I was dressed warm for sitting in a blind, so walked the 150 yards back home and changed into lighter clothes, grabbed a new toy and went out to look for her. Found her blood trail immediately, turned on my new toy and discovered Thermal absolutely will not see a blood trail that is nearly 1/2 hour old. Not cheap thermal either. Looked up hill with the thermal the way she ran and saw a white blob through the trees near the top of the hill, it was her. I followed the blood trail anyway to see how good/bad it was. Good enough I would have been on her in 3 minutes or less following the blood.
I don't know how good/bad/indifferent your bulldogs barrel is, but the replacement Texan I got from Airforce when the one I bought didn't work at all out of the box had the worst piece of SHi93(*()(_T barrel I've ever seen in my entire life. I've seen better looking black iron plumbing pipe, and that is not reall that much of an exaggeration. It was full of lead, I guess they test fired it a bit before sending me the warranty replacement. Took forever to clean it, and pattches NEVER went through the barrel without catching/dragging/undue pressure here and there. When it was completely clean, I shot one lead 148gr wadcutter and looked at the barrel. It was streaked with lead in several places, badly, very very badly. Cleaned it again and went to a friends house the next week to look at it with his borescope. I was torn between arguing with airforce for another warranty replacement or working on it myself. I had talked to them between finding the barrel was &^^& and looking at it with a borescope. My opinion was it would be a *(&^ of a fight with Airforce to get it replaced, last phone call with them got a little heated. So I said the *(&^ with airforce warranty, I fire lapped my barrel using hard cast wadcutters. Took quite a few, over a dozen didn't count them, course grit shots to get most of the barrel tight spots, and what only could be described as deep machining marks in the lands. Takes a long time too when you shoot at most two, clean the barrel spotless, shoot two..... At least my friend let me take his borescope home with me, otherwise it would have taken weeks. I shot at least 18 with medium grit, and 13 with fine grit. With the fine grit I was cleaning spotless every shot and inspecting. Then I hand polished with jb bore paste and finally flitz. I have as smooth of a barrel as you could hope for, plus it gave a good smooth transition from breach to rifling, which origially was virtually a 90 degree cliff. I can push through my sized hornady 158 gr SWC with there lube on the knurl with a long carbon fiber cleaning rod with relative ease, no tight spots, never grabs at all.
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Loren
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Sharp Shooter
Posts: 601
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Real Name: Loren
Re: Airforce Texan problem
«
Reply #9 on:
September 26, 2021, 04:15:28 PM »
Good deal! Glad the info helped out. Mine is a
.257
and yes I cast to feed it.
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KarlH
Shooter
Posts: 43
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Real Name: karl
Re: Airforce Texan problem
«
Reply #10 on:
September 26, 2021, 05:42:14 PM »
quick test on the smaller hole top hat bottle. I just removed the spring, not the brass plug as I would have had to remove the whole valve from the bottle to take that out. I don't know what this bottle and valve would do before since it has never been shot. From what I read you can expect a pretty significant increase in velocity removing the spring, I'm betting removing the restriction of the brass retainer would be better yet. Not touching my power adjustment and filling to same level as before, it shot the same sized 158gr SWC at 901 and 889. Close to the better flowing top hat but not quite there. That is also the largest two shot spread on those bullets I've ever seen by a long shot when filled to 3050. I shot a third for grins and it dropped all the way to 848. That's the end of any testing for a few reasons. One, I did some scope swapping to put what I had on my 22 uragan on to my 300 blackout, and the one I had on the texan including it's mount onto the uragan. I've known for a long time the picatinny section I have on the texan does not attach level so I took it off. So I have to mount what I had on the blackout onto the Texan and I'm in no hurry on that so I shot those three with no sighting other than looking down the texan rail. Not to mention, when filling the bottle, I barely had enough left in my SCBA to get it up to pressure and top it off after it cooled down from filling from empty. Got to refill my SCBA. And, I've been procrastinating putting my belly mower back on my compact tractor since taking the bush hog into the woods earlier this week, grass is long and growing quick with the cooler weather and rain, it's dry now and I've got almost 3 acres to mow. I hate that 500 lb belly mower, it's not a drive on/over or a quick connect. I hate getting older....
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Airforce Texan problem