Its looking up for my Trail!

[Laz]

It may be too early, but I was just about to call it quits on my Trail until further notice when I discovered something. I was just about to swap the Trail 'guts' into my Phantom to convert it to a NP. But I couldn't get the screw that connects the breech and compression tube off now matter how hard I tried! And my phantom is a really reliable, consistent AG. I was given advice not to over tight that screw but make it just snug. But that was way after I home tuned my phantom which I apparently made super duper tight.

So I went ahead and made that screw as hard as I possibly could and went to test it out. Thing is, its dark, cold, raining, really windy and just miserable here. So I could only stretch out the range to roughly 13-14 yards based on my parralax. I was in my car port, target was out in the extreme, wet weather. And my Trail gave me one ragged hole plus a flyer. Despite just barely being able to make out the crosshairs, despite my scope mounts being off center almost making me max out my windage and being in a hurry assembling my gun, my scope not parallel at a slight angle. 

But I'm happy because this is the first group that hasn't made a string of pellets going up and below my point of aim, but actually grouped. It may be a bit early to tell, I'll stretch the range tomorrow and see. So maybe, just maybe, if you're having trouble with your Trail, or any Crosman for that matter, try tightening your breech pivot screw as hard as you can.

[Roadworthy]

Laz, sometimes I'm a bit slow.  If I understand the post, your issue was VERTICAL stringing.  The cure was tightening the barrel pivot  screw which reduces HORIZONTAL play.  I'm just asking because I've experienced vertical movement and it would never occur to me that the barrel pivot would be the problem.

[Laz]

Gotcha, my mistake for not adding more details, it was shooting up, down, left and right for the past few weeks. The Trail was either shotgun patterning or stringing horizontally or vertically. Just frustrating. The vertical stringing stumped me the most and it was a bit more apparent than the horizontal. Like 8 inches vertically, maybe just a bit over half horizontally. But tonight gave me a glimpse of hope, although at a pretty short range so I'll test more at a farther range tomorrow. Hopefully the storm clears up 

[Laz]

But as for the vertical and horizontal stringing, do you think the barrel pivot screw was way too loose? I wonder if that was the case?

[uncle paulie]

It has long been known that there is an inherent problem with the pivot washers supplied by Crosman. The plastic washers tend to compress in a fairly short time and require constant attention. Switch them to brass ones which can be found at airguntoyz(check the mall) or at most hardware stores(which you will have to modify). Either way, you will have better performance with little ongoing attention.

pv

[Laz]

Yea I knew that happens with Crosman. Gene doesn't ship out of the U.S and don't have the tools or knowlege to modify. So I rigged up something for the Trail. Before my unexpected accuracy issue, I used 2 copper washers on each side which worked amazing for over a month. Maybe they wore down fast or screw just got loose, IDK. But I replaced the 2 on one side with 1 steel one for a snug fit, little moly and it showed improvement. Now its 1 steel washer on one side and 2 copper ones on the other side.

The steel washer is a perfect fit and the copper ones are a perfect ID & OD but are thin, hence stacking the 2. Too bad I couldn't just get proper brass ones from Gene 

[mobilehomer]

I have a Nitro Venom Dusk that was vertically stringing after I tuned and installed Gene's washers. After doing some research, I tried a suggestion. After loading, put you thumb or finger at the breech/tube junction across the top. GENTLY move the muzzle up and down. If you feel movement at the breech, however slight, the Live Jam is not locking properly. I ordered a new Live Jam, and spring from Crosman. The original jam was not machined properly (the chisel and cutout for the spacer were not parallel) and the spring was tweaked. The pocket where the spring goes is not flat-bottomed, just the drill point. When I reassembled I added a thin washer to the pocket in the Jam where the spring goes, to keep the spring from tweaking again. Make sure that the Jam is burr-free and smooth, then put moly paste on the Jam. This took care of the movement at the breech. It locks up as it should. No more vertical stringing!!!
The Crosman website has parts lists with exploded views for download. VERY inexpensive and fairly fast shipping. I had mine within a week. Good shooting!

[Laz]

Thanks for the tip, I'll try that today. Although my AG money is a little tight now after saving up for a HW97KT  Although, I will invest more into the Trail as it was a very nice, accurate shooter before this mishap with its preferred Jsb Heavies.