Dragonfly .177 arrived today (A progressive review in stages)

[avator]

I'm betting it's the TP.

[Relentless Holiday]

PA has seen the same photos of the pellets posted in the Chinese guns gate.  I offered to let them respond before I made any more posts here.  I have had great experiences with them for years.  They stepped up with senior management contacting me directly on Email. 

I was asked to return the gun for replacement with the promise that the new gun sent would pass trough their tecs. hands for inspection loading the specific wadcutters I got in bulk from them before the gun being sent to me. Also pellets used in sorting this out would be replaced. pretty cool offer.

A paid shipping label was sent to me shortly after by the returns dept. So it went back to UPS this evening.

Now the waiting begins.   But, two brown truck waits for the price of one.  Reminded me of the thread started by a guy wearing a hole in his carpet waiting for a new FX guy a few days back.  Time to go outside and fling some bigger lead in this nice weather.

[avator]

Right there is, and will always be, the difference in doing business with PA and and doing business with these other mom and pop shops. Customer service is a huge part of the whole experience.
I'll be the first to admit that in the beginning, I was kind of wishy washy with the whole rebranding thing and somewhat misleading marketing such as "German beech stock" suggesting the guns were made in Germany when, in fact, they were the same Chinese guns sold by other importers. (I know the thread is about the Seneca Dragonfly and not the Diana Stormrider but it the same basics) It's distributors like PA that makes the difference. Just because you're able to work a deal with someone like SPA and swing a deal on a ship container of airguns does not make you a top notch airgun distributor. It's what you do during and after the sale that makes or breaks you.
 In my 4 short years of being a member of the great forum I've seen the good and the bad in air gun retail and service. We've seen many come and go and it usually comes down to customer service. It only takes one or two bad situations to put a small upstart out of the game. You can paint your storefront any color you want, it's not going to change what's inside.

[Relentless Holiday]

I couldn't agree more.  Business longevity is about plan "B" not plan "A".  The "A" plan is where everything goes perfect.  Plan "B" not so much...

Speaking to that.  Well They sent a new gun That shipped within hours of the first going back.  Guess they trusted me...  They sent me a email saying that I earned $5 bullseye bucks for them shipping late...I suppose technically I am waiting for a good gun.  And they replaced two tins of pellets.  Great start if it's a shooter

I hope communication I had with management was effectively sent to the testers before it being sent,  It went out FAST!!   I had included pictures of the pellet clipping and a request that they make sure the RWS R-10's would feed.  I have never spent that much on pellets before!  And of course I got four tins...Not cheep.  I mentioned with the photo I packed with the gun that I wanted to be sure they would feed. Fingers crossed.

Tracking says it's due tomorrow, my day off....GO Pyramyd!!!

[avator]

It don't surprise me... with so many jumping into the game, smart business people will fight for your loyalty.

[Relentless Holiday]

Dragonfly V2.0 arrived super fast.  They sent me a beauty of a replacement.  It was much drier and what little was in the valve I learned to quickly remove by pointing the gun up and pumping without cocking until it stopped gurgeling, then cocking and pumping to fire.  Now to clean my ceiling ...

 The barrel was much cleaner, but still needed cleaning out. 5 patches instead of 60.  But I still say it needs seasoning with lead before any real accuracy judgments.  So grouping comparisons were just to check for absolute "NO GO" groups. In general It still grabs a hair. But it is WAY better!   We all know AGs are pellet picky, loading is part of that in my book.

 So trying everything fresh...

RWS R-10's are an absolute no go pellet for my V2.0. I think they are a super soft lead with a really big squared off head meant for $2000 guns. Damage was visible when magnified. They shot accordingly.

RWS Supermags are just almost going in clean.  I had to really search for the bind spot on pellets that went in ok. They are shooting much better...but every few shots (1 of every 8 ) one grabs more and is a flier. I am on the fence...

CPWC already are grouping well and the bbl isn't even seasoned from the cleaning. l got a gun that will cycle w/c pellets as Pyramyd promised. B)

CPHP, H&N Barracuda hunters and H&N Sniper Mediums showed promise.

No go's were Crosman Destroyers, Beeman Kodiak X Heavy... CPUMD I need to retest just not sure...fatigue factor.

This gun is a beauty. I think there is a chance they sent me one from a select sample lot that were chosen to be a test guns, sent to dealers, before an order was placed for bulk marketing.  Or, they hand selected it...or I got real lucky.  The forestock and butt were one piece with some really nice grain swirls at the cheek and nice straight strong looking grain leading up on the hand that bends to straight toward the pump. And the color match between the two is much better!  Very VERY nice looking!  i really needed a .177 to shoot wad cutters at paper.  But even if it only cycled domes well  I would definitely be keeping this. It is an excellent specimen I will not give up.

It is averaging about 10 FPS below V1.0 but I attribute that to the fluid present in the valve during chrony tests on V1.0 as suggested by others.

Accuracy to follow after break-in.

[RBQChicken]

Pictures!

[Relentless Holiday]

Pictures!

   Glady!

[RBQChicken]

Yup, that's some nice grain!

[Relentless Holiday]

Yup, that's some nice grain!

Thanks Randy.  Shot another 50 or so through it tonight.  It's not liking the premier domes much after all.  I may do a recrown because they are feeding just fine but all over the place as far as grouping.  I set a scope on it and removed the stock rear sight to use that band as a pumping point so it wont miss the front sight if I do need it off to do the recrown.  It's still gonna get an absolute minimum of another 150 at least before I decide.

[RBQChicken]

I wouldn't do a recrown based on results with Crosman Premier Domes.  It could be just a bad package of them.

My Hatsan 95 loved them, and then I bought another tin and they were all over the place.  Emailed Crosman about it and they sent me a replacement tin and they shoot very well.

Just sayin', just make sure it's not the pellets before you recrown.

[Relentless Holiday]

Got That... Maybe try the tin in another gun first, or at least sort some by some weights to check for wide variances.  I wouldn't work on most guns, but this is a nice one and if needed It may get some attention as a last resort.

[Relentless Holiday]

I have put a few hundred various pellets through it now.  By far the best wadcutter turns out to be the Crosman "competition" wadcutter,  Not the premiers but the ones sold as plinkers.  Probably a little smaller head if I had to guess. They just feed smoother and come out more consistently.  I would suggest giving them a try.  I plan to weight sort them and maybe get a sizer to try to squeeze the best of of them by setting up batches that match best.  Nice bonus is that they are dirt cheep.

[Relentless Holiday]

I'm betting it's the TP.

Almost two months later... I bought a bunch of $25 dollar guns to gain some confidence in pulling apart and reassembling different pumpers.  So after a very fun and satisfying trigger job and general smoothing on a SM900, a breakdown of a discounted new 880, and a really happy ending on a resealing job for the B10-50 (It's Baaaack  ) I decides to man up and figure out WTFrog was up with the breech bind and getting satisfactory groups with the 177DF.

This was the second gun from PA.  They sent this sweet looking replacement for one that just ate pellets loading....  This was better but not 100%.

So....Yep TP.

If it's not common knowledge (beyond me) you don't touch the receiver breakdown and just slack off the barrel band at the rear sight and release the three grubs atop the receiver.  They were hidden by the scope put on back at day one...Duh.  The barrel will slide out the front,   I used some dental tools and a Dremmel little round rasp bit and hand tooled the nasty grab. ...at least till I cold't feel a bite anymore and thought I'd angled it toward the muzzle side a bit. It's a much happier gun to say the least.

I am certain that smoothing/polishing that more will make the feed and groups even better,  I did course work for sure, but I am back on track for a good shooter.

What I also start thinking was that there was a chance the gun was ported for .22.  And whats so sweet from that, for smoking .177s downrange, also created a really wide TP for a .177 loading ...Still trying to figure it all out.  How the heck do ya hand shape and polish inside a .177 tube?!?!

But I made it way better already with a bunch of different pellets.  So I will figure a way to work in there for a super smooth feed and then start over with shooting it and knowing what to expect.

Been a couple fun weeks messing with the cheep stuff to get here.

[Relentless Holiday]

repeat post deleted

[xtred1]

I had my gun back to Air Venturi twice, after the seconded trip it came back loading smooth and shooting well. I am very happy with it now. I am glad you got yours soothed out and working.

[Relentless Holiday]

Glad you got ironed out as well.  I have heard much better of the .22 ver. So naturally I feel the need to bring a .177 there too.  It will be a beast pumper.  I mounted a weaver rail extension cut a bit shorter to the rear iron sight/barrel band rail.  It made a great forward  pumping brace above the gun.  I don't even touch the barrel when pumping now. The same rail facing back puts a bugbuster far enough back to sight well with a sold cheek weld .  Gotta put a few pics up of how it is set up some time. The mag just fits in there.

[Relentless Holiday]

I thought an update was due because a member reached out regarding the SSP potential of this and with time I'd learned more.

First off I'd say that now that all fluids have cleared, long ago actually,  It was time to revisit the SSP consistancy and accuracy.  I now have to agree with the Mfgr. recomendations of min two strokes.  I only tested with the known best paper pellets. They were CPWC AND CP DESTROYER.  Groups just don't hold at one pump any more.  Maybe it will with other pellets that didn't like more pumps.  One day I will check that too.

I presume it could be made into a dedicated SSP by reducing the valve volume like when it was wet.  But stock and just cleaned up ... it gets a no go on one pump.

That said pumping has mellowed a ton and two is no problem for my needs.

Also I don't remember if I put it on this thread but the TP did need to be debured.  The Barrel comes off so easy it's almost funny,  Loosen the band and grubs on the top of the breech and its off.  But it did need to be done on both the guns I received, so it needs to be said.  After that with those two pellets in this second gun it's one hole at 10m after about 500 pellets to season it.

To avoid relying on the top of the scope to pump and not wanting to pump off the floating barrel I did this with weaver rail attached to the stock rear sight rail.  It's not for me, but I'll bet if someone were inclined a peep could be rigged on there pretty sweet instead of a scope if the slot didn't work for you.

Happily the stock looks better in person than in this photo.  Light glare kind of makes it look worse here

[Horatio]

Looking at how easy the barrel is to remove... this gun seems like it would be easy to convert to a .25.

Didn’t someone do that here? I’m guessing barrel to fit, and open up everything involved in loading it?

[Horatio]

Can you measure barrel OD? Thank you.