Dynamic .25 cal PCP - First Impressions and Observtions

[TleVta]

Bottle gun project!!

[Gertrude]

Bottle gun project!!

all in due time     

[Wolverineshooter]

Great info, keep it going, I will need them for my yet to come 177 and 25

[Wayne52]

I don't need a heck of a lot of shots myself cause I'll be using them for hunting but if I was where Ron was at a bottled version of the .25 would almost be necessary for ground squirrels because they're just so infested with them there.

[ACHiPo]

Looks really interesting as a starting point for a project gun.  Subscribed!

[nervoustrigger]

Ron, just a heads up to check the crown if any of them are not grouping well.  This is what I just found with my .25 barrel:



Looks like I'll be taking about 1/8" off the end and recrowning.  Sadly this sort of incompetence is par for the course with cheap rifles.  I have seen crown defects with multiple Crosman and SPA barrels.  A notable exception has been the QB barrels.

[Gertrude]

Thank you for the heads up Jason.
So far mine are grouping extraordinarily well, (once I get them to hold air).
I will certainly check my barrels when I pull them back apart.
I see a lot of potential in these guns, and feel once the "bugs" are worked out, we will be seeing some impressive results.

[nervoustrigger]

Oh good, it sounds like yours must be better.  I suppose since mine held air, this was the universe's way of balancing things out.  Perhaps this will fare better...

[tracker1955]

Two of the three I was sent held air for a day, then woosh out the vent hole behind the front regulator o-ring. I hope yours holds up for you.

[Rat Sniper (AKA: PaulT58)]

Mines still holding air just fine, you guys need to get you some new #117 Duro90 o-rings on those regulators! 

I did some pellet testing this afternoon for accuracy and over the chrony.  I'm thrilled that it really seems to like the good ole Benji Domed pellets!  It did quite well with the Eunjin 35.8 grain pellets also, and those averaged 788 fps for an almost 50 fpe!

Pellet                Weight      Shot 1       Shot 2       Shot 3      Shot 4       Shot 5      Avg FPS    Avg FPE    Spread
JSB King           25.39   886.00   884.00   879.00   886.00   882.00   883.40   44.01   7.00
H&N FFT           19.91   950.00   944.00   951.00   939.00   949.00   946.60   39.62   12.00
H&N Grizzly   31.00   809.00   804.00   803.00   796.00   788.00   800.00   44.07   21.00
Benj Domed   27.80   860.00   858.00   852.00   854.00   853.00   855.40   45.18   8.00
Eunjin           35.80   792.00   788.00   789.00   788.00   785.00   788.40   49.42   7.00

I will say the .25 is quite loud!  I have a LDC Adapter coming from my friend in Serbia, it should be here in about 2 weeks.  I also reached out to David (Rocker1) with the dimensions of the baffles to see if he can gin up some of his special baffles to see how well they will quiet the beast.  I know he's got other more pressing things going on at the moment, but once he has that back to normal, I'm hoping he can work his magic!

[nervoustrigger]

Well, with the barrel all fixed up, I was excited to get it back together to see how it groups now.

On shot #2...



...the shroud ejected its guts all over the yard.  I spent an hour hunting the parts and found the baffles and even the small retaining ring but the end cap is nowhere to be found.

[Wolverineshooter]

Yike, that's not good. Is that due to pellet hitting shroud?

[nervoustrigger]

No, I don't think the pellet clipped anything.  It hit within 3/16" of the first shot at 25 yards and the slightest clipping will send a pellet wildly off course.  Also, I've noticed the first shot usually sails a bit high as if there is some regulator creep so shot 2 being a smidge low is what I expected. 

[Rat Sniper (AKA: PaulT58)]

Holy &^^&, any idea what caused it?  It doesn't look like any of the baffles or the retainer disc is damaged from being hit by a pellet.  How much did you shorten the barrel and did that effect how that little square looking piece sat on the end of the barrel? 

Interestingly, my .177 had a small o-ring between the lip on the barrel and that little square thingy, but the .25 did not...  Not sure if it needs it or not, or what it's supposed to do there...

[nervoustrigger]

Yeah, the anodizing is untouched on all the baffles and retaining ring.  It just gave out under the pressure.

I only took 1/8" off the barrel, and the way the square piece fits against the first baffle, that didn't change any relationships to the retaining ring or end cap.

Mine didn't have the O-ring either.

[mackeral5]

You guys are making it very hard to not buy one of these.....I am thoroughly enjoying your efforts.

[crosman999]

I had the opportunity to spend some time with all 5 of the rifles Ron had brought to our group shoot. My first impression of the rifle was wow, nice and short, lightweight and looked good. I shot the rifle and was impressed with the accuracy although yes the trigger was very heavy. For me the trigger was not as much of an issue as the slop in the sidelever. Ron disassembled "his" rifle in front of me at the table and saw some good things about the design. The QC is obviously very poor, oring grooves shallowed by teflon tape, sharp burrs on machined parts. The regulator looked well made, the valve poppet is wrong material and spring is ridiculously stiff. I think for the price point the gun could be a great tinker project if one does not go overboard on improvements. In my opinion the gun may be best left to lower power levels with the focus on the valve, sidelever and some smoothness to the trigger. The design really is good, has all the components to make a great field gun, just executed very poorly and with horrid quality control. I'm willing to bet these guns will be hit of miss as they have signs of tooling that is worn. Parts are run and run with nobody to adjust for tooling wear.     

[nervoustrigger]

And the icing on the cake.

From the other room...

PSSSSSSHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH

The sound of air finding its equilibrium.

[rsterne]

Jason, pack it up and send it to me....  …. I like a challenge.... 

Bob

[Wayne52]

I don't own another PCP that's any easier to work on than these guns, they're super simple to work on and replacing the reg and airtube o rings is basically a 15 minute job if you're savy to the gun. I used 70duro o rings on both ends of the airtube and 90duro on the regulator, both my guns have had quite a few rounds through them as well as taking them both apart and reassembling to adjust the reg, hammer etc.  I'm still using the same o rings I installed with no leaks since.

here's a five shot group using my cast pellets at 40 yards

not too shabby for a $300 gun