Shortening a springer barrel?

[superchikn]

My 34P is as others have described a tall girl.  I also have an LDC approx. 6" on the end.  I know ymmv but would it typically hurt to take a few inches off the end?  It is a 177.  I would not want to lose any accuracy and I do not suspect power would change much if at all.  It is just long (a bit unwieldy).

What do you think?

Thanks

[Motorhead]

cut the barrel you LOSE the choke ... while accuracy with some pellet "May" remain, overall your likely to lose accuracy doing so.

JMO ...

[superchikn]

I had seen a thread by I believe Knifemaker had lopped the choke off of one of his PCP iirc with excellent results and the following discussion about chokes and some guns need them but most have them just in case. 

Thanks Scott

[DanD]

I just did my first home chop this week. I did it on a .177 Crosman springer barrel- knocked it down to 12 inches. I used a hacksaw, file, square, a steel ball with valve grinding compound, and a gun blue touch up marker.  The barrel was reasonably accurate with JSB RS before the chop and still shoots them just as well after.  So... yahoo!
Years ago I had an R9 barrel chopped, choked, and crowned to 12 inches by Paul Watts. It shoots great, and I can hang different length muzzle brakes off it to adjust the length for cocking leverage, compactness, noise level, etc.
If you're not happy with the results of your home job, you could always send it to a smith to get it choked.
Shorter is better!
Have fun!

[onet12]

RWS diana barrel has a tight choke and cutting off the couple of inches of the barrel increases with accuracy of some pellets. Also when the barrel is short the pellets leaves the barrel faster before the piston hits the end of the chamber - which also helps with accuracy.
Some of the very accurate airguns doesnt have a choke eg: slavia 634. The barrel cant be too short because it will be difficult to cock it

[anti-squirrel]

I've shortened several springer barrels with varying degrees of success.  The wildcard "chop" was a .22 Crosman Optimus that acted like a shotgun before the chop and now shoots at an easy "double" it's cost-only cut an inch off though.  Still twangy, but it can print dime-size groups at 20 yards with iron sights, which is about the best I can manage without optics with any gun.

I have also cut down  couple B-1 springers.  One became a 20-yard squirrel-killer with Crosman CP domes, so it became "perfect".  The other went from abyssmal to trash-can after the chop, and I spent some serious time re-crowning and polishing on that dang gun.  Actually, it hit a couple trees and the ground a few times en-route to the trashcan.

I've also noted that the Meisterschutze D-34 has a very short barrel compared to the "regular" D-34, and that particular sub-model is known for accuracy.  And now that I think about it, wayyy back in the day the old Beeman catalog mentioned the first 9 inches of barrel were critical to prevent dryfire but otherwise was good for accuracy due the decreased barrel "dwell time" before the pellet exited the barrel.  Maybe circa 1985-ish?  I'm pretty sure the Beeman C-1 was on the cover of that particular "issue" of the catalog.

[Novagun]

The shortening of a barrel is often a trick to more accuracy for reasons espoused elsewhere. I have done it with Hatsans and Gamos as much as 150 mms. They just shoot better than out of the box, much better.  It is better to cut at the centre of a tight spot to generate a choke but not essential. Not hard to do but the cut needs to be square . dead square and neat.  An angle grinder or hacksaw will just not do.

Dianas, and Weihrauchs - no I would not cut those barrels. The makers make well. If Motohead says they have a choke then they have, I have never bothered to check but maybe I  should. For all the benefit you are going to get from a LDC, if there is any, I suggest you are better doing away with the LDC.

There may be and likely is some benefit to having a muzzle brake to steady barrel oscilations. A try will tell. That can be made out of Delrin to a light hammer tight fit and might do the principal job that the LDC is doing. Barrel length with a brake only needs to be extended by 5 mms.

[nced]

My 34P is as others have described a tall girl.  I also have an LDC approx. 6" on the end.  I know ymmv but would it typically hurt to take a few inches off the end?  It is a 177.  I would not want to lose any accuracy and I do not suspect power would change much if at all.  It is just long (a bit unwieldy).

What do you think?

Thanks

About a dozen years ago I grew tired of the .20 barrel on my Beeman R9 so I replaced it with a used .177 Beeman R1 barrel bought used "fer cheap". I used the R1 barrel "as is" for about a season and found that it was longer than I liked so I used a hack saw to ;lop off about 4" of the muzzle, squared and crowned the muzzle with my mini-lathe, then did a home choke using a home made "choke clamp" (made from head of 1" grade 8 bolt) and heavy vise to do the choking. To gauge the choking I would push through new pellets one at a time till the tightest restriction in the barrel was at the muzzle. Worked a treat and that R9 with chopped and choked R1 barrel is the only .177 HW barreled springer that would shoot Beeman FTs pellets (rebadged H&N FTTS) without fliers..............



Anywhoo....there was no degrade in velocity or accuracy after shortening the barrel and doing a home chop & choke!

As a side note, I also did a muzzle choke using a modified heavy pipe cutter. I replaced the cutting wheel with a home turned roller made of O1 tool steel and procedded to "roll on a choke"..........

This actually worked well to choke the muzzle, however you can see from the pic that the metal was also displaced and the barrel finish was marred (the reason I went with the "clamp approach").

[Onebaddj]

Ive done a couple one on a rws 350 in 177 and several other cheapo springers, pumpers and pcps. Makes sure you cut it square! Then recrown the barrel. Velocity and poi changed on all but none had to be scraped after the chop. Rock it out.

[superchikn]

Hmmmm, lots of info on this. 

If this was a cheap gun I would try it in a minute.  As this is my most expensive gun even though I got it for a great price I am hesitant.

I was just out shooting it and my neighbor challenged me to shoot the flame off a candle.  I did it in one shot at 30 yds.  I'm pretty sure i should leave this one alone.

[HueAirgun]

Hmmmm, lots of info on this. 

If this was a cheap gun I would try it in a minute.  As this is my most expensive gun even though I got it for a great price I am hesitant.

I was just out shooting it and my neighbor challenged me to shoot the flame off a candle.  I did it in one shot at 30 yds.  I'm pretty sure i should leave this one alone.

In brazil there is a say, "em time que ta ganhando não se meche". or "In a team that's wining, you dont screw with it". So if its that darn good at 30 yds, dont bother changing the barrel. As you said, pretty expensive gun

[stevevines]

I have a .22 caliber 34P with a 13" barrel, done by the previous owner. I installed a M48 barrel sleeve that extends a little past the muzzle. You do have to give the barrel a good slap to cock her, but other than that she'a a shooter and likes the cheap Crosman pellets at Wally World.

The only pellet she doesn't like is the JSB Express in 14.3 - almost a dry firewith those, but not sure what the head size was -

http://i120.photobucket.com/albums/o189/slvines/MLKDay2014Match001_zps1ba49488.jpg

[bandg]

Lots of good information from many in this thread.  Seems like there is no clear trend supporting cutting or not, choke or not.  Seems the only way this might ever be answered definitively would be for several rifles that shoot well at standard length to then be shortened and retested against original performance across as many pellets as possible.  I'll check back in an hour for final results.

[superchikn]

Lots of good information from many in this thread.  Seems like there is no clear trend supporting cutting or not, choke or not.  Seems the only way this might ever be answered definitively would be for several rifles that shoot well at standard length to then be shortened and retested against original performance across as many pellets as possible.  I'll check back in an hour for final results.

Well that’s what I was thinking. I put it out there and i’m waiting for someone to do the research. LOL

I’m not afraid of doing the job, I just would not want to ruin my best shooter and since there  is not definitely a majority consensus telling me yes it will improve or at least not reduce performance of this rifle I can not afford this experiment on this one.

[Motorhead]

Want shorter ... loose the LDC which on a spring gun with such a low muzzle report anyways, is IMO not required.

[bandg]

That's me as well, Ray.  I would love to know the answer if there is a generic one but getting there isn't practical.  Could be that it is dependent on the gun and the pellet in each case. 

[eeler1]

buy a cheap springer at a cummins truck sale or the like, practice on that. 

A choke gives you more pellets that shoot well.  Without it, you may have to try lots of pellets to find the one that is accurate. 

Agree with Scott that a ldc on a springer doesn’t yield much in terms of noise reduction.  It’s more for marketing than effective.  That’s where I’d lose length first.

[Branden O'connor]

I'm my opinion, a choke on the D34 is not needed at all. I use jsb 8.44`s and the rifle I have modded is insanely accurate. Here a link to my fully modded D34. Just make sure you crown the barrel properly and you'll be shooting cloverleaves all day!

https://www.gatewaytoairguns.org/GTA/index.php?topic=144295.0

Cheers