MRodAir Air Max Varmint in .177

[Wayne52]

Bill my sister does that quite a bit too, she's got a place here in Mi and one in New Orleans.

[avator]

I have a sister in Ohio and a brother in Wisconsin. They send pictures from the winter and that's all I need. We don't send them pictures of our winters because we like our little sanctuary.

[A.K.A. Tommy Boy]

I have a sister in Ohio and a bother in Wisconsin. They send pictures from the winter and that's all I need. We don't send them pictures of our winters because we like our little sanctuary.

Summer VS Winter !   

[avator]

LOL.... The Lake picture looks like mosquitos and the Winter picture looks like frost bite.

[A.K.A. Tommy Boy]

LOL.... The Lake picture looks like mosquitos and the Winter picture looks like frost bite.

                                                   
                                                                                  ^            Correct !

[MikeH]

I walked out of the door this morning and found that FedEx dropped off my MrodAir Varmint. 177 last night.  Ordered it Tuesday morning and got it Thursday evening!  Excellent service from Mike at MrodAir.

So I had about 30 minutes to spare before heading to work so I figured I would pull it out of the box and mount the scope I bought last week.

The aircraft mechanic in me couldn't do anything until I checked to make sure all of the fasteners are snug and everything functions.  Got out the Allen wrenches and immediately noticed that the three set screws that "hold" the barrel in the reciever, or "breach block" looked crooked and cross threaded.  Sure enough they were, and I was only able to get the middle screw to thread correctly and snug up.  The remaining two were completely stripped.  I also removed the rear sight to Mont the scope and found there were no barrel retaining set screws in the barrel band.  Has anyone else seen this?  I am thinking that if I install set screws in the barrel band, then it should secure the barrel just fine.

I also bought Hawke brand low height rings for my Hawke Vantage 2-7x32 AO illuminated reticle scope, but they are way to low and the magazine will not insert.  Any suggestions for rings?

[Wayne52]

Mike if you plan on fixing that gun I wouldn't use the barrel band to cure the bad barrel retaining screw's, I'd put bigger set screws where the stripped out ones are.  Otherwise it would'nt be free floating.

I use the medium high rings they're just what the doc ordered.  I recently put on a UTG 3-12x40mm EZ Tap(Big) on mine and had to do a little filing for clearance where the dovetail for the rear sight was.

Big bummer on the defective gun for sure.

[tomiboy]

What scopes and mounts are you guys using that fit around the rear sight and small mounting area that still gives proper eye relief? I'd prefer to keep it as close to bore line as possible. Don't want to do any filing until I know it is working properly.

My barrel appears to droop a bit. I need to try to measure

[avator]

What scopes and mounts are you guys using that fit around the rear sight and small mounting area that still gives proper eye relief? I'd prefer to keep it as close to bore line as possible. Don't want to do any filing until I know it is working properly.

My barrel appears to droop a bit. I need to try to measure

https://www.gatewaytoairguns.org/GTA/index.php?topic=129471.msg1274341#msg1274341
And...
https://www.gatewaytoairguns.org/GTA/index.php?topic=129471.msg1275760#msg1275760

[tomiboy]

I couldn't wait so I ran up to Walmart and bought a cheap 3-9 x 32 center point. I mounted it and sighted it in, in the basement about an inch low at 10 yards. Went outside and set up my silent pellet trap at 40 yards and zero'd it closer. I got pretty close and decided to shoot a couple of groups. 1st one about 1 1/2", second 7/8" C-C. I didn't clean the barrel so I have removed my Rocker1 LDC (very quiet by the way....suburban friendly!) and was going to pull some patches through. With springers you are limited with what you can clean your bore with, but with a PCP can I just use bore solvent?

I'd iike to go with a more powerful scope, that goes up to 12-16 power

Thanks!

[avator]

Which pellets?

[MikeH]

Mike if you plan on fixing that gun I wouldn't use the barrel band to cure the bad barrel retaining screw's, I'd put bigger set screws where the stripped out ones are.  Otherwise it would'nt be free floating.

I use the medium high rings they're just what the doc ordered.  I recently put on a UTG 3-12x40mm EZ Tap(Big) on mine and had to do a little filing for clearance where the dovetail for the rear sight was.

Big bummer on the defective gun for sure.

I understand about wanting the barrel to float at some point, but it appears to me that the barrel band which also supports the rear sight is not a floating type of fit design.  After removing the rear sight to mount the scope there were two relatively deep, nicely threaded holes drilled all the way through to the barrel, but there were not set screws installed in this location.

 Can anyone confirm or deny that there should be screws in the rear sight barrel band securing it to the barrel?

I would hate to have to send the rifle back if the barrel band screws will properly support the barrel.  The problem with my rifle is poor machining of the three screw holes in the receiver casing the screws to be cocked in the holes and loose.  These holes are very shallow due to the ridiculously thin material thickness of the receiver top to barrel dimension.  Add to that problem that the receiver is aluminum and that makes the hole dimensions and proper tolerance threading more important.

Maybe I just got a dud, But I sure do love the rest of the rifle!  It is a great design, and a very high quality piece even if the price was much higher.

[tomiboy]

Which pellets?

Some VERY OLD JSB 15.9s

[Ironman482]

My 177 varmint front site base / barrel band has the two threaded hole with no set screws. Not a tack driver but just shooting bucket and sticks. Hoping groups will shrink after some trigger work

[avator]

Mike if you plan on fixing that gun I wouldn't use the barrel band to cure the bad barrel retaining screw's, I'd put bigger set screws where the stripped out ones are.  Otherwise it would'nt be free floating.

I use the medium high rings they're just what the doc ordered.  I recently put on a UTG 3-12x40mm EZ Tap(Big) on mine and had to do a little filing for clearance where the dovetail for the rear sight was.

Big bummer on the defective gun for sure.

I understand about wanting the barrel to float at some point, but it appears to me that the barrel band which also supports the rear sight is not a floating type of fit design.  After removing the rear sight to mount the scope there were two relatively deep, nicely threaded holes drilled all the way through to the barrel, but there were not set screws installed in this location.

 Can anyone confirm or deny that there should be screws in the rear sight barrel band securing it to the barrel?

I would hate to have to send the rifle back if the barrel band screws will properly support the barrel.  The problem with my rifle is poor machining of the three screw holes in the receiver casing the screws to be cocked in the holes and loose.  These holes are very shallow due to the ridiculously thin material thickness of the receiver top to barrel dimension.  Add to that problem that the receiver is aluminum and that makes the hole dimensions and proper tolerance threading more important.

Maybe I just got a dud, But I sure do love the rest of the rifle!  It is a great design, and a very high quality piece even if the price was much higher.

Mine in .177 does NOT have screws.

[MikeH]

Thanks for checking on the set screws. The rear most hole in the barrel band is where the elevation screw threads in. The forward hole isn't used. 

A close inspection of the barrel band also indicates that it is not a "floating" type barrel band, but rather a split, or slotted clamp that positively locates and secures the barrel.

I would venture that the barrel band does more to locate and secure the barrel than the three tiny set screws in the breach block.

[MikeH]

What scopes and mounts are you guys using that fit around the rear sight and small mounting area that still gives proper eye relief? I'd prefer to keep it as close to bore line as possible. Don't want to do any filing until I know it is working properly.

My barrel appears to droop a bit. I need to try to measure

https://www.gatewaytoairguns.org/GTA/index.php?topic=129471.msg1274341#msg1274341
And...
https://www.gatewaytoairguns.org/GTA/index.php?topic=129471.msg1275760#msg1275760

Bill, maybe I missed it in you're post, but I couldn't find which brand or model of low height rings you used. My Hawkes are way too low.

[Ribbonstone]

Maybe they changed it, but the top of the barrel band-sight base does have two threaded holes (and the Plinkster is the same).




Any way, that same band/sight base is the limiter to scope mounting (at least with full sized scopes) as the objective housing tends to be right over it.

In this case, it's a 3-9X32mm AO scope...and the AO housing does take up some thickness that a side focus might not.




Did get a 40MM AO scope to work with just a hair of free space with mediucm rings, but I had to shim both rings (shim the bottom of each...didn't add any stress as the scope was still level).

[WesBob]

I'd still be rethreading those set screws and putting bigger ones in there, or be asking Mike to send you a new breech. Should be fairly cheap to take the breech off and exchange it for a new one and new screw free of charge. Mike should be happy to do that for you. He's only charging $24 for a right sided bolt breech on his site, so it wouldn't be costing him much, and cheaper than sending back the whole gun.

[Ribbonstone]

HAd a problem with two of the 3 screws holding the barrel down at the breech (two would "spin" rather than tighten past a certain point).  Swapped screws and they tightened down just fine.  At least in my case, the threaded holes were fine...the screws were "off".