Walther LGU Varmint .177 spring change

[WHITEFANG]

The LGU is still one of the nicer built guns for the money esp.

Had no issues with the gun and it is still as new. The only thing it has had done to it was after a few shots I stripped it down. With the gun I ordered the LGV tuning trigger.  I order the JM LGV spring. I made my captured guide that fit the spring much better and my top hat. Shimmed the spring. Did a krytox build and back togather it went. I did not install the JM spring. The best I remember from others that have boththe LGV and LGU the springs are the same in both guns. Really the complete power Plant. Just a lever vs a brake barrel design.

Shooting CPHP 7.9 @ 920+ and dead nut laser accuracy at 25 yards. No twang and a solid thud. The weight of the Walther makes for a solid foundation for absorbing recoil. Topped the gun off with the UTG Weaver to dovetail mount and the Hawke Vantage 4-16x50mm AO scope. Great glass but I am so use to side wheel scopes and the 30mm Tube that it was an adjustment for me. One thing on the Walther I do not like is the shallow cut dovetail.

I have Unracked the LGU and have done a little shooting with it the last couple of days. Love the shot cycle and the effortless accuracy.

This afternoon I took the compression tube and barrel off for a look and see. All that one can see without a full strip down looks good. But I am thinking of installing the new JM LGV spring in the LGU.

JM LGV spring is like .125+- vs the factory .131+-  and both 33 coils. JM spring is set and is about 2-3 coils longer. I know the spring once installed and shot will set even more.

Knowing the smaller wire size can have different affects on power loss or depending on spring material composition a gain.

So, anyone tried the JM spring in a LGU or LGV .177. The gun as it is with the factory spring is great. Just ran out of projects and thought I might try the JM spring. Not like it is a big job changing out the spring on these guns.

For the last 6 months some know I have been playing with many builds of spring guns and little pcp shooting. I did aquire the Marauder. 177 and did a little work on it. Mainly the tactical stock change. It already had a Lane regulator, CF sleeved barrel and I installed the WAR ssg hammer. Got some MotorHead mods for it next.

[grimeszee]

Where did you get the LGV tuning trigger from? I would like one of those for my LGU.

[WHITEFANG]

The .177 LGU Varmint is not offered in the USA so I purchased the gun and trigger from Krales Schietsport.

http://s1326.photobucket.com/user/FANG59LOBO/media/20160706_152525_zps8qa9ui3f.jpg.html

[Mark 611]

well OC what did you do the gun! spring change or what? if so tell us what the results are?

[grimeszee]

I just purchased the Rowan Engineering trigger for the LGU, I will write a review after installing it.

[WHITEFANG]

Not done anything  as of now. I was hoping that someone had tried the JM spring and had some input.
Either  the LGV or the LGU. I know Motorhead has worked one or the other.
Being no body has the info. Hector did the detune with both Toms and Jims spring. Not looking for a real power gain but not wanting it down to 12fpe.

Looks like I will I stall the JM later this morning. Mark, you and I have talked about me doing this much. We both know how the guns shot and the accuracy is.

Really just a need to make the test of Jims spring. I know you have tested the waters on getting more power out of you .22.

[GP2004]

I just purchased the Rowan Engineering trigger for the LGU, I will write a review after installing it.

I have an LGV and I am interested in the Rowan trigger. Where did you get yours? What do you think of it? Is it worth it? Do you remember the cost? Thanks.

[grimeszee]

I just purchased the Rowan Engineering trigger for the LGU, I will write a review after installing it.

I have an LGV and I am interested in the Rowan trigger. Where did you get yours? What do you think of it? Is it worth it? Do you remember the cost? Thanks.

I just bought it last night from Rowan Engineering in the UK. I have not received it as of yet. It cost me $69.04 shipped to my door.

[WHITEFANG]

Spring is installed. The factory re install spring really did not require the sprung compressor but wisely use the compressor. The JM did require the tool. Much more preload on 1st install.

I left the spacing I has put in the gun for the factory spring of about a 1/4". Would have one way another gone back and tested it anyway plus if I do decide to remove it I will be able to see what set the spring takes.

Cocked the gun out if the stock which I do not recommend due to the cocking shoe design. Took 3 hands to cock it out of the gun keeping in mind the shoe set up. Shot cycle seems much faster. Cocking effort was not a true test effort being out of the stock but it did lock and load. Time to put the stock back on and do some shop testing. A cold 30 degrees here so outside bench testing and chrony may be limited for me. I know 30 is not cold to many but for here it us on me esp with these new titanium cobalt polyurethane knees. Lol I will say this second knee is coming along much better than the other knee.

Rowan has some neat aftermarket parts. Mark 11 has both the LGV Trigger and has worked a factory trigger with the single screw to perform as good or better than the 2 screw LGV tune trigger. I think as many triggers the 2nd screw could be added but I think if I remember right there was a difference in the config between the 2 triggers?

More to come!💀

[Motorhead]

Last spring i was fooling around with an LGV and installed a factory HW-97 spring ( .120 wire IIRC )
See: http://www.gatewaytoairguns.org/GTA/index.php?topic=106052.msg1006448#msg1006448

Frankly if I wanted a powerhouse tune in an LGV / LGU I would look at such a tune 

[grimeszee]

My LGU that I purchased last month from AGD is shooting 888 fps with FTT 8.64g for 15.1 fpe and 805 fps with AA 10.3g for 14.8 fpe. I am happy with those numbers for next years FT season for the Hunter division.

[WHITEFANG]

Thanks MH!! No issues with the power level and accuracy with my factory tune with the new guide, tophat, piston liner and the good lubes. A little shy of the advertised 16 fpe but the gun has not had enough run down it to really brake in. May gain or lose some power in the end. Really need to see how this new spring does on testing.

I have been using the bottle piston liner on many of my builds for a long time with no failures yet GETTO. The best thing is there are so many thicknesses of the material available that make fitting easy. That material will work on guides as well if one has no lathe to make guides.

I had looked at the HW 97 SPRING setup as well but with JM offering the LGV spring I just wanted to try it. Now that the stock is on the gun the cocking is much less and a bit smoother if that makes sense. Not that I was displeased with the factory set up.

The chrony and paper will tell the story of this spring. Many thanks for you help. I  had read your posting prior to my test and it made sense. JM spring on the shelve I just needed to try it. There are other springs available that can be used in these guns but the main thing I worry about if using a high sprung spring is the cocking shoe design and linkage failure.

These guns are well built and this Varmint .177 syn TH stock config makes this gun for me. Strange they have not offered the .177 varmint in the USA. This is the overseas FAC version.

[uglymike]

As luck would have it, I shot my above mentioned Motorhead tuned LGV .177 this morning. 5 shot groups @ 30 meters easily covered with a dime, with 5 different brands/weights of domed pellets. 

[Mark 611]

theirs no question about the accuracy of the LGU or LGV guns, from my understanding the OEM springs have a lead mix in the metal? which helps soften the shot cycle but doesn't do much justice to the spring life! IMO as with a few others with the lack of offerings on good wire being available other then the JM springs and V Mach some of us are looking to see what we can do with what's available to get the most out of what we have at this point, my 2ct 

[HectorMedina]

Once Wad's rifle was put back to US Specs, the gun yielded easily with JM's springs up to 17 ft-lbs (it is a 0.22" cal. LGU) in a custom/fitted guide.

You can get more, but the shootability of the gun suffers. Benched/rested I am sure they can perform well at higher powers, but for off the shoulder shooting and other field shooting, 16-17 ft-lbs is tops; perhaps a tad less in 0.177"cal.  IMHO.

The JM spring that was originally developed for the LGV will fit nicely the LGU and still take some spacing if you really want to explore higher powers, but the full length spring does quite well.

While the power plants may seem identical, the main difference between the LGU and the LGV is that the latter has a long transfer port and that negates some of the advantages of the piston and seal designs.

JM's spring for the LGV is already sold set. It should not set substantially more with use.

Keep well and shoot straight!






Héctor Medina

[WHITEFANG]

Thanks Hector! I did leave the spacing that I had given the factory spring. I went the captured guide design and lathe cut  for a good spring fit. Shorter in length for the top hat and spacing all at the top.

Not looking for the power house build. As said more power makes for a handful shooting. Bench shooting here bagged. Very few free hand shots.💀

Maybe chrony and paper time tomorrow.

[WHITEFANG]

Paper day. Warmed up so took the opportunity to test the paper.

Not a fair test on the paper due to I removed the end cap and did my thing on the LDC. Very nice free space cavity. I'll leave the LDC work at that.

The gun does have more snap in the firing cycle. Did not notice any more raticalness in handling of the gun.
The gun did shoot an 1" higher but the windage did not change. Bad thing when making 2 changes at once plus removing the stock alone can change the POI.

Once sighted in back to the ragged hole as before shooting the JSB Exact 7.8.

Much easier to cock. Got to say the gun stills has a thud sound and no twang at all. But now you hear the mechanics more and just the pellet impact. The pellet seems to hit the trap much faster now.

End cap is held on LDC by the attachment lever Allen. The end cap is a slip in fit with a hole threaded for the lever catch attachment.

No chrony time. Wet and heavy clouds here. This JM spring has not harmed the over all accuracy  and for now not really changed the handle on the gun. This was a bagged bench test and little to no forarm hand ficture. The weight of this gun really helps a bagged shot. Not much free hand shooting here.

Bad weather coming for here so not sure when I will get the chrony data. That will tell the spring story. Overall very pleased with the spring upgrade.💀

[wahoowad]

I have the gun Hector mentioned. He put the JM spring in and some other stuff. I'm very happy with it. I think he put my ghetto bottle spring liner back in - we never discussed it 😀. I'm getting 16fpe and it is noticeably quieter than my tuned HW98.

I just finished putting 100 downrange on my poor reactive targets...they are taking a beating as I stack pellets in the same spot.

[WHITEFANG]

I was close to the 16 fpe mark prior to the spring change. But that was with a new tight guide, sleeved piston and some spacing added.  What little the gun was shot out of the box it shortly started the twang. Very few spring guns have I shot much or just few times and in them I go.

I'll settle to the same fpe I had or slightly less. But overall again a big improvement on the shot cycle and for sure the cocking. Same great accuracy.

Fine guns these are. 💀

[HectorMedina]

I have the gun Hector mentioned. He put the JM spring in and some other stuff. I'm very happy with it. I think he put my ghetto bottle spring liner back in - we never discussed it 😀. I'm getting 16fpe and it is noticeably quieter than my tuned HW98.

I just finished putting 100 downrange on my poor reactive targets...they are taking a beating as I stack pellets in the same spot.

Hello Wadd!

Yes the liner is still there, just had to cut it a little to allow everything in there to fit  ;-)

Nice gun that one! Not all of them shoot inexpensive pellets as good as yours. Keep it close to your heart.

Thanks! it was a pleasure and a privilege to work in your gun.

Keep well and shoot straight!






Héctor