MRodAir Air Max Varmint in .177

[avator]

If I have trouble with pellets cycling it's usually on the last pellet in the mag. That's where adjusting the tension mostly comes into play. I've also gotten into the habit of giving the mag a tap on the bench with the clear plastic side facing upwards once the mag is filled. This insures that the first pellet in is not binding the plastic cover from rotating freely. The shape of the pellet also affects how they are fed into the barrel.

[avator]

Sorry 'bout being slow on my projects. I feel like sometimes I'm juggling alligators. Cars sales being as slow as they are, I am left with two 3 days weekends per month for the duration of this year. I thought that it would afford me with more "play time". Not so much..... there is so much that has been put on the back burner around here that now needs attention.
I got up at 5:30am this morning in "work mode" to realize I didn't have to go. Betty Lou and Rambo were still "spooning" so I made some coffee and slipped off to the work bench.
I stripped down the CP-2 and the Varmint to a pile of bones and began with the assembly of the Varmint. These truly fall into the category of "lego" guns. The parts swapped just as though they were made for each other.
I also added the FD-PCP barrel band just to protect the free floating barrel in case "stuff" happens. I am prone to "stuff" happening. The barrel has maybe 1/16 clearance around the barrel but tightens snuggly around the air tube. I chose this second barrel band over the CP-2 spare barrel band for the simple fact that if I'm going to and a tactical device to a gun, it will most likely be on the long barrel version of the CP-2 so that is where I'll use the CP-2 band with the picatinny rail on it.

[anti-squirrel]

This is great news, Bill.  I don't mind playing with Chinese Lego- smells like intelligent engineering when parts can inter-swap that easy.

[Rat Sniper (AKA: PaulT58)]

When it jams/binds for me it's every pellet.  Pointing the barrel down when cycling the next round seems to be working without any further problems. so I'll just continue this method since it seems to work.

I'll give your suggestion of tapping the mag before inserting it into the AG a try and see if that helps, ut it happens on more than just the first round, and the rest of the pellets slide loosely within the magazine, so tapping does nothing for them.

I think it's because the Crosman Premier pellets are shorter and others and the pellets fit pretty loosely within the magazine.  I know I don't have this problem when I load a magazine with the H&N Sniper Magnums!

[Wayne52]

Bill I might even order one of the kit guns from Mike, looks like you're having a lot of fun with the stuff you have, I'd be getting mine in .22 though. 

What is the length of the long barrel in the kit gun compared to the barrel that comes with the Varmint

[avator]

This being a thread on the Varmint, I'll stay with the Varmint for now. I'll post the CP-2 conversion to .177 long barrel format in a different thread. But I would like to revisit my reason for doing what I've done.
My first venture into this SPA platform came by way of a trade I made with another member that left me with a CP-1 pistol in .177. When the Varmint became available from MRodair it just made sense to me to stay with the .177 due to the convenience of sharing mags. Then came the Plinkster, again in .177 for the same reason followed by the grip/stock set for the CP-1. My theory was to shoot the CP-1 carbine along with Betty Lou shooting the Plinkster. Not a compatible match, obviously. I reached out to Mike at MRodair again for options. What I thought was going to be a long barrel , barrel band and LDC in .177 turned into a complete CP-2 Master Blaster in .22. And Mike showed that not only is he generous, he also has a sense of humor. He sent the CP-2 addressed to Betty Lou creating yet another hurdle for me to jump. I cleared that hurdle and finished in first place....
My plan...
The goal was to ultimately end up with a gun that was compatible with the .177 Plinkster while keeping cost to a minimum. I could have simple bought another Plinkster but, how much fun would that be? For a lot of us, 50% of the "fun factor" in this hobby comes from tinkering. When I was a kid tinker came in the form of Lincoln Logs and an Erector Set. That was before even Legos were invented. Now we can build practical stuff that serve an actual purpose such as hunting and pesting. That being said, I planned to turn the CP-2 into a long C02 repeater in .177 to plink with Betty Lou and her Plinkster.
However, the Varmint conversion to .22 with that detachable, and very affective LDC from the CP-2 became even more exciting to me. I know have an effective, repeating, quite hunting tool. The Varmint, in my opinion is an awesome small game woods gun. I installed sling mounts on mine as soon as I received it. Problem for me was, in .177 it's almost a waste of potential power. No longer an issue....

[avator]

Wayne, as you can see, it almost looks like it was made for the Varmint.
Paul, tapping the mag seems to "set" the first pellet that we put in backwards. I found some (not all) of the pellet binding came from the first pellet riding on the clear plastic cover of the mag. This may not be true in your case.

[avator]

More later... I'm going to air this thing up and see what we got.

[Rat Sniper (AKA: PaulT58)]

Bill, does Mike stock just the barrel band and LDC?  I'd like to add those to my Varmint!

[anti-squirrel]

Bill, does Mike stock just the barrel band and LDC?  I'd like to add those to my Varmint!

I'd like 'em just to have them, but we can probably order by slow-boat from SPA, too.

Bill, I like where you went with this.  The Lego-ability of these guns just impresses the bleep outta me.  I'm also really liking that left-hand bolt.

[avator]

He don't stock them. We talked about breaking up a couple guns to create some spare parts and that's what I was going to receive when he sent the CP-2. I don't know if he still plans to break and guns up. Last I talked to him, he was trying to get SPA to send him barrels and such. He said it was like pulling teeth. As these things become more available in the US market it will be interesting to see what they will do about spares. I have a feeling that barrels will become more of an aftermarket item made here in the US. As some of us have already discovered, barrels cannot be purchased from SPA due to restrictions on importing certain gun parts. A work around may be to go through a registered gun dealer. I'm going to talk to my buddy that owns our local pawn shop. He is a registered gun dealer. Maybe he can order a few barrels from SPA.

[avator]

Peter..
You can order left handed breeches from Mike... he has them in stock.

[avator]

Minor setback....
I got a leak... the o-ring in the fill cap is leaking again. I'll let it bleed back down and replace it. The LDC will screw off to make clearance for the fill cap to screw out.... how convenient is that?

[WesBob]

Thanks for sharing Bill, great stuff! Mike actually mentioned a couple days ago in a thread that he is getting a big load of parts in from snow peak and had mentioned earlier that he planned to get barrels as well, so hopefully! Might be a month or two before things show up.

[avator]

Leak fixed...
Something I forgot to check... I was curious if the TP has the same ID in .177 and .22. I do know that I left the .177 TP in the Varmint and I just got 21 consistent shots from 2900 down to 2100 psi. 3 mags is plenty for a morning in the woods. I could probably get another mag if I filled to 3100 ish down to 1900 ish. This gun shot it's best between 2900 and 2100 in .177. I'm assuming that is still the case and I'm good with it. I was getting almost 4 9 shot mags when it was .177. Interesting to see what the CP-2 will get with the long barrel and in .177 now.
That's a story to be told after breakfast......
Notice the grin so far?   

[WesBob]

Yep!  Great stuff! Interesting what velocity you're getting!

[avator]

I'll bust out the chrono this afternoon. Betty Lou kinda threw a wrench in progress. She wants to go shopping. It's in my better interest to accommodate.

[WesBob]

Lol! Yep!

[avator]

Well, that wasn't too bad. She only wanted to check out a new dry goods outlet that recently moved into town. We bought 7 printed tee shirts for $15. I even got 2 Harley tees. Just so happens the this new outlet is right next to my local pawn shop  . I forgot to ask Duke about ordering the barrels from China. Probably because he offered to sell me a really nice NIB youth 22lr rifle for $120. It was called a "Chipmonk" resembling a "Cricket". Really nice walnut stock and a peep sight. I couldn't get low enough into the check weld so I passed.

[avator]

The CP-2 long gun is assembled. I need to decide on a scope for it and test it...... pics to follow. Looks like a Texas toothpick.