My new .25 SPA M16 (Air Max Dominator) thread... :-)

[smythsg]

John, hopefully you are going to get some shots fired from the Dominator today. Thanks again for all the pictures as you made your way through the dis-assembly and re-assembly. I expect as soon as we know more about tuning the regulator I will have mine apart also. I checked all the external bolts but have not checked tightness of the ones with the stock off. I will let you know if the locktite is holding the pivot pin, it seemed like it was working last night but the locktite needed to set up all night to be sure.

[shultz]

Now for some good news.

No leak, it's exactly where is was when I put it away last night. I ran some shots over the chrony, low 900's with H&N 14.3 ft pellets that I'm going to use for reg break in. I can already see the reg is working, and, I hesitate to say working very well! Once I get a couple hundred pellets thru I'll do some full strings.

I'm sighted in for ten yards right now,to dark for outside shooting yet. didn't take much to get the scope close and as of right now I have one hole groups. I hope that continues out to 25yds once the sun's up!

Single loading is easy even without a tray. I cycled my two mags twice each so far, feed and index perfectly.

[WesBob]

Great to hear! Looking forward to seeing some shot strings and targets.

[Wayne52]

Wes last night I dug up a scope I'd forgotten I had, also found some medium rings and used the 11mm adaptors to make them work

Six shots on the left are sight in and 5 on the right are 3/8ths center to center at 20 yards.  Yep these come with good barrels too.

[MonsterMaxx]

y'all want green loctite on that pin.  Blue won't do anything, red might hold a bit, but green should solve the problem if it's anything tight on the fit.

[smythsg]

Great news John, seems you are about in business. Wayne's results mirror my results, and I was able to get very good groups at 35 yards as well.

[avator]

Looks like a gun for those with a bit of savvy. I can surely see controversy down the road for those without. It appears that SPA has some issues in the design after all. Even more so than just poor quality O-rings. I must have been mistaken when I thought I heard that each gun was to be checked over before the retailer sent them out. I guess it would be ok if you go into it with the "it is what it is" attitude. So, far I've only heard of one SPA gun being returned with unsatisfactory results.
My question is..
If you open the gun to tweak and tighten... If you put Loctite on a pin... and afterwards find an issue that can't be fixed with duct tape and bubble gun. Will you be able to return it for replacement or full refund?

[keithd]

I have only been with pcp a short time but from what I have read there does not seem to be a pcp gun without some kind of issues. Maybe a RAW or WAR but pretty much every gun out there seems to come with an issue of it's own. I wonder is the the nature of the beast, or just bad QC in the industry?

[solder]

I'm a bit disappointed that a manufacturer would let such sloppy assembly out of the factory. Design flaws and R&D in the field are more difficult to correct. Building a business and brand loyalty should have a strong basis in QC. Has some airgun marketing become a matter of "You need to work on it before you shoot it"? Seems like a little better customer care and QC is in order. I have owned Chinese products that work as intended, some not so much. Is selling products that are not market ready or prototypes in process a legitimate way to do business? Sometimes I wish John Browning was alive and designing and building airguns.

[avator]

I know of at least one other Chinese gun retailer that would not let a gun out of his door with these types of issues. Too bad he couldn't get his hands on these.

[keithd]

I hear you guys and agree, I remember when I first started looking at PCP several years ago Norm had Disco here in NH and he used to inspect and check everyone before selling and I can only imagine he did this because there were issues with these guns.

[shultz]

Well, the H&N 14.66 FTT's shot gunned at 25yds

JSB 18.13's, JSB 15.89, AA 16.0, H&N 21.14 BCM, CPHP and CPDUM all shot EXCELLENT

Here's 15 shots of 14.3 CPDUM. The shots slight left were the last couple clicks of scope adjustment, 4 shots. I then shot a full mag, PULLING the slightly high shot These are going to be my backyard pellet. I'm only shooting them at 20FPE, plenty for 25yds or less shots that will mostly be on paper.... Not sure how many shots I'll get from a fill as I haven't shot a full string at this tune, it will be a BUNCH!!!

[smythsg]

Nice John, glad to see everything came together. I did shoot my .25 cal from a full fill to falling off the reg this afternoon and it shot 3 1/2 mags. You should get even more in .22 cal. at that power level.

[USAFANG6799]

Looks like a gun for those with a bit of savvy. I can surely see controversy down the road for those without. It appears that SPA has some issues in the design after all. Even more so than just poor quality O-rings. I must have been mistaken when I thought I heard that each gun was to be checked over before the retailer sent them out. I guess it would be ok if you go into it with the "it is what it is" attitude. So, far I've only heard of one SPA gun being returned with unsatisfactory results.
My question is..
If you open the gun to tweak and tighten... If you put Loctite on a pin... and afterwards find an issue that can't be fixed with duct tape and bubble gun. Will you be able to return it for replacement or full refund?

In theory and that's what MRod Air states on their web sites but that's not my experience. I won't elaborate on the particulars as to why this has been my experience because it's being contested.
Safe to say a warranty or guarantee is only as good as the company or person backing it up.

[Vee3]

Hmmm.... Glad I got my M10s at the closeout price, and glad I read about the M16s here before assuming that they would be just as trouble-free.

Looks like my SPA buying spree will have a gap in it, at least until the M30 is released.

[avator]

Well, the H&N 14.66 FTT's shot gunned at 25yds

JSB 18.13's, JSB 15.89, AA 16.0, H&N 21.14 BCM, CPHP and CPDUM all shot EXCELLENT

Here's 15 shots of 14.3 CPDUM. The shots slight left were the last couple clicks of scope adjustment, 4 shots. I then shot a full mag, PULLING the slightly high shot These are going to be my backyard pellet. I'm only shooting them at 20FPE, plenty for 25yds or less shots that will mostly be on paper.... Not sure how many shots I'll get from a fill as I haven't shot a full string at this tune, it will be a BUNCH!!!

Nothing better than a gun that loves inexpensive pellets. I hope the gun makes you happy for a long time to come. I have several that do and some that don't. Those won't be around long.

[shultz]

Overall, it was an OKAY purchase. No, I was not happy with what came out of the box. Luckily, everything that was wrong was a simple adjustment, bad O ring or simply tightening screws that should have been tight to begin with.

The gun shoots straight(don't use H&N FFT's ) The trigger is good after some tweaking of the adjustments. Mags feed perfectly. It's just, backyard friendly with the included LDC. if someone makes an adapter or air stripper with 1/2-20 threads I'll buy one, my SUMO would make this puppy near silent I think.

I changed up the scope ring placement, got my side wheel back on. As it sits, with the UTG 3-12 compact scope, medium rings, 60mm side wheel and bipod, the gun is 8lb 15.7oz.(8lb 3.7oz without bipod) Not bad, NOT, close to the 5lb weight Mrodair advertised either.(bare gun is 6lb 4oz)

I do not think its a $500 gun. $350-400 would be priced right IMHO.

[avator]

Overall, it was an OKAY purchase. No, I was not happy with what came out of the box. Luckily, everything that was wrong was a simple adjustment, bad O ring or simply tightening screws that should have been tight to begin with.

The gun shoots straight(don't use H&N FFT's ) The trigger is good after some tweaking of the adjustments. Mags feed perfectly. It's just, backyard friendly with the included LDC. if someone makes an adapter or air stripper with 1/2-20 threads I'll buy one, my SUMO would make this puppy near silent I think.

I changed up the scope ring placement, got my side wheel back on. As it sits, with the UTG 3-12 compact scope, medium rings, 60mm side wheel and bipod, the gun is 8lb 15.7oz.(8lb 3.7oz without bipod) Not bad, NOT, close to the 5lb weight Mrodair advertised either.(bare gun is 6lb 4oz)

I do not think its a $500 gun. $350-400 would be priced right IMHO.

No doubt, for $500 at least send me some walnut and tighten a screw or two... please?

[shultz]

One last thing,

Does everyone's Dominator have STINK butt? The recoil pad STINKS!!! weird chemical/rubbery smell. it's going bye bye if it don't air out some I cleaned it with some soapy water thinking it might have been a release agent, didn't help. I will say, SPA did a very nice job of fitting the smelly thing...

[smythsg]

I ate home made spaghetii last night with Italian sausage and an abundance of spices and it would have been hard to tell if it was the gun or me when I was shooting earlier today...    I did not notice the recoil pad smell until you said something but it does have a chemical odor if I smell it up close.

My gun with scope and sling weighs almost exactly 8 lbs so agree, the bare gun is not 5lbs, Mike should change that on his web page.