Calling experienced Vulcan owners and users. Massive air dumped !

[Gertrude]

Hello All,

Yesterday I was out at one of my shooting permissions with a few of my buddies. One of the guys has a .25 Vulcan that has experienced a problem with the gun dumping all of the air. This is the Second time this has happened.

 The first time was shortly after the gun was purchased, with less than 1000 shots fired.
 At that time, the gun was sent to a recommended airgunsmith for repair, and has recently been returned.

 The gun has had less than 1000 more shots fired, and the same thing happened again yesterday.
 When we were shooting the gun this time, it was tethered at 3000 psi. The gun was performing flawlessly, and is AMAZINGLY accurate... easily picking off chicken eggs at 75-100+ yds.

After a few clips fired, (and many scrambled eggs :wink: ), the gun suddenly dumped all the air.
 Again, to reiterate, this was with the gun tethered at 3000 psi, so it is not a matter of shooting down the pressure too far.

We tried to refill the gun slowly, using a JoeB tank, equipped with Joe's "Slow fill valve", and it just leaks immediately out through the barrel / breech. We then tried to refill it with the gun cocked, same thing happened.
 We then tried it a second time,... with the gun cocked,... and a very quick hit of air from my SCBA tank that has a much faster (standard) fill valve. (not a JoeB "Slow fill" valve). This was in the interest that maybe the valve was stuck and a quicker hit of air might un-stick it.
 well as you have already figured out, that did not do any better, and still,... the air immediately leaks out of the barrel/breech.

SOoooo,... Today, I started digging around on the web to see what I could learn, and to see if this might be a "Common Problem" (?) with these guns. I did find some discussions of this problem over on the TAG forums, but thought I would toss it up here too to cover the bases even better, in looking for others similar experiences.

OK, so I am certainly not a recognized "airgunsmith", and I admittedly have never "been inside" of a Vulcan, (yet :wink: ), So I AM a newbie to the Vulcan's "specifics",...but at the same time, I am no noob to tinkering, repairing, modifying, building several other types of AG's. I am often called upon when one of my buddies has any sort of problem with their guns. (lucky me, right ? :confusedn: :winkn: :biggrinn: ), LOL.

So now in my digging for info I see that this problem seems to be fairly common and I am wondering if anyone has determined the "Root Cause" of this issue, with the Vulcan guns?
 Is it a matter of inferior material being used in the valve poppet ? ... or might it be a design issue ?
 Has anyone come up with a better or improved valve poppet, or method of modification to correct the problem ?

I seem to have read that there are some issues with the poppet becoming damaged and causing the leak, and I have also read where some have said that their valve stem has even cracked or broken ? (is that correct ?)
 I'd like any experienced info or input from those who have anything valuable to share or give me some insight on this.
I have not yet opened up the gun myself, and wanted to bounce it off of you guys first.

 Also, I see where a gentleman named Ernest and another guy as having much experience and outstanding customer service, and would appreciate any contact info or links that you might be able to provide.
 We'd like to give this repair a go ourselves this time, rather than sending it off and incurring even more cost and lost time.

 BTW, the aforementioned airgunsmith, (who had previously worked on the gun), was NOT Ernest, and I'm sure he is great from all that read on the TAG forums,... But we would just like to give it a go ourselves, to better understand the internal workings of the Vulcan.

 Any and all help is greatly appreciated, and Thanks in advance.
Cheers, and have a great day,
Ron

[Motorhead]

Sounds like a shattered / fractured poppet valve

[Dairyboy]

I believe i read somewhere that a broken poppet is common and Earnest Rowe makes upgraded ones? Wouldnt hurt contacting him to see what he says

[Gertrude]

Does anyone have contact info for Ernest Rowe ?
I am trying to get in touch with him to possibly have him do some of his magic to a couple of Vulcans.

Can anyone tell me where he is located ?, and What is his phone number ?
Thanks for any info and assistance.

[Tweeter]

You can contact him through his website.    http://ernestrowe.com/

Or his youtube channel.    https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCYYaAkwKb0-KkaQtaY9tVnQ/feed

[Rocker1]

He has a nice website and very good looking parts. David