Newbie/barrel bending/soft bed with good results

[MDDE]

First, thanks to all the contributors here at GTA! What a great forum! I have been doing a lot of reading here the past few months and have learned a lot. The other day I decided to bend the barrel and soft bed my xs-25 .22 (full tune from MM) with what I feel were successful results and wanted to share my experience. I'm sure there are plenty of folks like me here who are new to airguns and maybe looking for a newbie's experience when thinking about trying these. Bare with me because I'll probably ramble on but want to be as detailed as I can with what I went through in case it helps someone else.

After getting a bit frustrated with not being able to get the groups I suspect this gun is capable of using H&N FTT 5.54's and CPHP's in the tin I started to narrow down the possibilities. Being fully tuned with approx 1,000 pellets through it I was confident that the internals were good and it was broken in. Went over all screws and mounts too for anything loose and no leaks from the breach seal. So at this point I figured it was possibly due to the elevation being almost maxed out on the scope causing the tube to wander inside. I know my technique isn’t that great yet and there's still plenty of room for improvement on my end but I just felt something wasn't right. When I first mounted the scope, a UTG 3-9x40 fixed objective at 35yrds with a one piece UTG mount, my poi was approx 12-13” low and 3” to the left with target setup on my first zero at 16yrds. I first started by shimming the rear of the scope with 2 layers of aluminum cut from a soda can which brought it up by about 2” but had no positive impact on consistent groups. I was afraid to shim anymore for fear of damaging the scope so I took it all off and zeroed the scope using the rotating method. I read and reread the thread “barrel bending 101” and made a jig. It took a lot more pressure than I first expected so it took a few tries to get an initial result. On the 3rd attempt to bend I finally got a result of  2” and by the 5th bend I was 1” below the poa and windage was right on so I called it done. Funny thing was the windage corrected itself during one of the bends so that was good. One trick I used to help determine how much pressure to apply in order to get a result was to put a ruler behind the barrel and note how far  down the barrel was bending while under pressure of the clamp to achieve a desired end result. Also, I had to put a block of wood between the breach block and jig to keep the barrel from wanting to rotate, it almost popped out the first time by rotating, I'm sure releasing all the pressure so quickly would have ended badly. I did the same method for the elevation bend with a small block of wood that the original poster showed in their picture when they did their windage bend. Only took a few clicks to bring the elevation in so I feel confident that the scope is as close to center as I'll be able to get it. Now I'm getting the tightest and most consistent groups to date and finally feel that the gun is doing it's part....now it's up to me to improve my technique and get even better results. Targets in pic circled in green were while sighting in elevation, circled in red was with H&N FTT's before I ran out, circled in yellow was trying some JSB's, and the rest were playing with CPHP's at 30yrds. 

After getting such good results from bending the barrel I was very hesitant to mess with anything but thought hey I got good results from one method so why not try another and decided to soft bed it. I followed the writeup from Mike Hancock posted by TimmyMac1. I had a roll of 3/16” closed cell foam used for weather stripping on hand (the gray stuff) so decided to try it. I put down strips as suggested by Mike and trimmed as necessary to keep everything “floating” and not put pressure on the trigger group. I can't say for sure that it improved groups for me but it is definitely quieter and softened the recoil a bit so for that I'm happy with the results. It sounds like all I can hear now is the actual spring going through the cycle and there isn't that “thwack” anymore like 2 hard surfaces hitting each other. And now after the shot my scope view is still on target and can watch the pellet make impact...before I would get jolted way off the target and loose track of where I hit.

Again, thanks to everyone who shared their tips, I'm now gaining confidence with accuracy to humanly hunt with this gun.

Ryan 

[SpiralGroove]

Hey MDDE,  ---->> Welcome to the GTA
Nice post
1) Did you get a fully tuned XS-25 from Mike MelicK?  -> Great gun for the $$.
2) I'm in the process of soft bedding my Hatsan 135, hopefully if it will help calm her down.  Rubber "grey stuff" is in the mail now.
3) The post on bending the barrel is a Great One, to be used instead of shimming the heck out of your scope.  Once bent the problem is solved permanently  
4) Also, I'm sure you have done this, but make sure the scope is centered before starting to sight in.
5) I have found the H&N's, JSB's and boxed CP work nicely.

Good Luck,
Kirk

[MDDE]

Hey SpiralGroove.
Thanks!
Yes, fully tuned from Mike Melick. It is a great gun for the money! I wasn't sure if I'd like hunting with an air rifle since I've always hunted with black powder and shotguns so I didn't want to spend too much but also didn't want to get something so entry level that it would've turned me off. Now that I have it to this point I feel much more comfortable with it.

I'm pleased with how it worked for mine. From I've read the Hatsans have quite a recoil so hopefully you get good results. Yeah the "grey stuff" was all I had laying around... because it's a bit thick it took some manipulation to get everything compressed and in place initially. It helped me to compress and work the foam with my fingers once I laid the strips in before I reassembled...kind of needed it like putty and it stays compressed for a few seconds so you can drop everything in before it rebounds.

Yup, so much happier with bending the barrel versus the strain on the scope. And my groups have improved!

What do you mean when you say "centered"? Optically or inline with the barrel/muzzle?

The H&N FTT's in the 5.54 heads have been the best with CP's in the tin being a very close second. Any of the JSB I've tried have been way too small and fall right in. I wonder why they don't make a larger head size? The largest I see on their site is 5.52. I've noticed anything smaller than 5.53 just doesn't do well in mine. Boxed CP's are next on my list to try. Just ordered more FTT's and thought I'd try in a tin of H&N Spitzkugel in 15.74 grains to try out.

Good luck soft bedding your Hatsan. I'll be curious to hear your results.

Ryan     

[SpiralGroove]

Hey MDDE,
No, by optically centering, I meant to make sure the (crosshairs) Reticle was centered within the scope.  If you rotate the scope and notice the center point is moving up/down/left/right, you'll know the Reticle is not centered.  Centering the scope gives the highest potential accuracy from the scope.  Scopes do not do well if they are adjusted too far Up or to the Right.

You should be able to find many posts on this and likely you have already done it.  Also, this is why you bent your barrel, instead of rigging the scope

Kirk

[MDDE]

Gotcha. Yes I did make sure to optically center the scope before attempting to bend the barrel so I knew where my starting point was. Thanks for the heads up though! As you mentioned, having the scope maxed out is what made me go this route.

Ryan