Duk IL Hunting Master 2 - Nuances?

[VaporTrail]

A new Korean mistress has been added to the stable. A HM2 in .22. A.Z's Hunting Master caught my eye, and miraculously, I was able to find one. Huge shout out to A.Z. for setting me down the path. I unboxed her when I got home from work, so I havent fitted anything on yet.

Initial thoughts?
- she's light without a scope. I'd say maybe around 6-7lbs. Stock is nice, the metal work looks nice. I'm digging the revolver action; followups probably won't be as fast as my Sumatra, but I think with enough practice I should be able to get another shot off in a little less than a second.

- Sound? Probably not backyard friendly in an urban environment. Probably as loud as my Gamo Magnum, but it seems to have a deeper tone in terms of report, if that makes any sense. It definitely sounds like it's moving a decent amount of air.

- No accuracy, chrono or air consumption tests just yet. Probably gonna have to wait until the weekend to do that. Looks like I might get to do a range day at the ranch.

Overall? Feels light and just a hair on the cheesy/toy side. Maybe I'm just used to heavy rifles, but that's where it seems to be at the moment. Probably going to set up the BugBuster on her and see how it goes.

- Nuances? The seller told me to leave the hammer cocked when I fill, otherwise the air is just going to rush out. That's exactly what happened. Cocked the hammer and fulfilled to 100PSI; but it wouldn't retain air. After shutting off the valve on SCBA, the bleed valve released all the air in the reservoir. Tried that twice and and got the same result. Odd.

HOWEVER...
When I turned the rifle upside down with the muzzle facing the ground, guess what? It filled properly.  Bleed valve released only what air was in the line. Put 6 Skenco Big Boys in the clip and shot them all out and then tried filling in the conventional "muzzle up" position. Same deal: tank bleed valve released all the air in the reservoir again. Turned it upside down and it held air. Weird.

I filled it up to about 25-2600PSI, so I'll let it sit for a couple of days to see if it holds air fine. I'll keep my fingers crossed. Anyone have any ideas as to what's going on here?

Also, I'd like to get a LDC, but the muzzle brake seems to have one of those press fit pins holding it in place. Before I drill it out, is the tip the barrel threaded? Anyone know the pitch? 

Thanks in advance!

[Nomadic Pirate]

Pictures ?.....c'mon man you should know better

[VaporTrail]

Ah, yes...let's see about that. Hopefully this works.

[Nomadic Pirate]

WOW, look at that beauty, wander if this is pre times when Evanix made them

[VaporTrail]

Forgot to mention: it looks like it dropped about 100BAR overnight. Hopefully I can find a manual or schematic soon...that way I don't end up with a paperweight. 

[VaporTrail]

WOW, look at that beauty, wander if this is pre times when Evanix made them

I think these are from before Evanix got involved. Or, maybe Evanix simply bought out Duk IL and continued their designs. That seems to be the trend for some of these Korean guns. Career, Shin Sung, Sam Yang, Seneca; they all seem to have that Sumatra design. Or, should I say that the Sumatra has the design of all it's predecessors.

[Nomadic Pirate]

Anytime you buy a used Korean gun from the mainland, end even more so old ones get the seller to send directly to Will Piatt,....takes a bunch of headaches away

[VaporTrail]

Yeah, I think she's going to take a trip out to Will. I'd like to give her a whirl before sending her out though. Just so I can compare.

[A.Z. in SC]

Congrats on the new rifle. I have filled my RS and King Hunting Master. I haven't had to do that with either. They usually lay flat when being filled. I do remember that when folks would have trouble getting Career airguns to fill, folks would recommend filling the gun with it cocked or barrel down. That usually seemed to be when the gun was completely empty. Or they'd recommend filling quickly to start to with a blast of air to get the check valve to seat. Any stock Korean airgun would benefit from Piatts work. These are the predecessor to the Evanix guns from what I understand. You can see the gun is branded an AR6 like the Evanix AR6. Your seller would likely know the pitch or WP.

[VaporTrail]

Thanks! She's a gem and a beauty! As for the filling process, even after the reservoir had air in it, I would still have to face the barrel down for it to retain it's fill when I press the relief valve on the tank. Maybe it's a bad check valve?

And it also looks like I not only have another proprietary fill probe, I also have to use the fill whip that came with it. The probe is a different size from all of my couplings. It doesn't screw onto any of the QDs I have, and the QD that's on the whip doesn't fit on the male Foster on my tank. So when I need to fill it, I need to unscrew the female QD on one fill whip and put it on the fill whip that came with the rifle. 

I need to go down to the hydraulic shop and get some fittings.

[VaporTrail]

Ok...so as per the seller, its completely normal to fill the gun with the barrel facing down as there is no spring on the valve. He also said that it was holding air fine before he sent it off, so he recommended shooting it a little to see if the valve would re-seat itself.

I was also told that the barrel was not threaded, but that I could thread the end cap/muzzle brake for an LDC. I think I'll remove the endcap and thread the barrel instead.

[VaporTrail]

Just a little report back on the HM2:

After a trip to the hydraulic shop, they didn't have any of the fittings needed to convert that wonky fill whip and probe to something more conventional. They did have fittings that were rated for 2500PSI. Their advice? "I think you'll be fine. Anyways, they have a burst rating of 5000, so you should be ok." Uhm...what?  Not wanting to blow myself up or risk a chance of losing the plums, it looks like I'll have to check JB and see what kinda contraption we can come up with to make this safe.

The gun is nice and light, and it balances well. Loud, too...definitely not backyard friendly. Pull is a little longer than I'd like, but it's not a dealbreaker yet. Definitely need medium scope rings at minimum for the weld, unless it's my face that takes up too much room on the stock.

I did a short chrono session and some accuracy testing.

Chrono Work:

3000PSI fill
26gr Skenco Big Boy Predators (pointed)
836 (first) 842 847 831 839 833

3000PSI fill
28gr Eun Jin
801 (first) 803 803 804 797 807

3000PSI fill
35gr VK Huben slugs
635 (first) 635 633 631 628 624

I didn't take pics of the accuracy testing; plenty of fliers and no consistent groupings yet. The only thing consistent was the 2" groupings at 30.  It's technically a new gun (old new stock), so I'll give it a chance to break in. What really bums me out is the energy level. If I'm being honest, I was expecting more. Maybe I just need to go through it and freshen things up? There's nothing in the way of a hammer spring adjustment; if I want more beans I'd probably have to shim the hammer spring.

I'll mull it over and figure out what to do. It may possibly take a trip out to Piatt; maybe he can work some magic.

Ennyhoo, that's what's going on so far. Sorry its uneventful and somewhat underwhelming.

P.S.
If anyone has a link to a schematic or parts diagram of sorts, I'd be most appreciative. If not, then I guess I'll have to take my chances with Piatt. It'd be nice to have an understanding of how the rifle is put together though.

[KnifeMaker]

The fill method seems odd. Every AG I've seen with no return spring has to be filled muzzle up. Muzzle down would open the valve poppet and muzzle up opens it.


Knife

[VaporTrail]

I know, right? Well, it'll fill just fine when it's on it's side or even with the barrel up; it's when you stop the fill that you need to point the muzzle down. Otherwise, when you press the bleed valve on the tank, not only will it drain the air in the fill whip, but it'll also drain all the air in the gun's reservoir as well. If I turn the muzzle down, then only the air in the whip will drain and then I can remove the probe.

I think yesterday's shooting session helped the valve out a little, though. Now it seems to be holding air better. I didn't check this morning before I left for work, but I'll check when I get home to see if there's any air loss.

[VaporTrail]

Update: still having air loss. It's slower than before, but it's still leaking. I'll give it another shooting session this weekend and then see what I feel like doing with it. Probably ask Mr.P  if he can work some mojo on it and possibly convert the fill to a Foster to make life more simple.

Hopefully Piatt can get her to 70FPE with the 34gr Beasts.

[VaporTrail]

4 days later update: lost more air. Looks like I'll more than likely send it off to Piatt and hope that the full tune (however much it costs, since I don't see any mention of this rifle on his site) will be worth it.

[Habanero69er]

He does show a Hunting Master pistol under "Other Korean Guns". Hopefully he can get you fixed up.

https://sites.google.com/site/saddlemountaingunsmith/home/other-korean-guns

[VaporTrail]

Thanks Dave. Hopefully there's room for much improvement on this platform.

I'm crossing fingers he'll be able to get it into the 70+FPE range, but curious if that's actually  achievable with valve work alone, since there's  no HS adjustment.

Thanks for saving me some time with the link! Much appreciated.

[Habanero69er]

Yeah, 70fpe might be a stretch for a .22.
I’m getting 50fpe+/-, depending on the ammo used. I believe Manny was getting similar power levels with a .22 Korean if I remember correctly. 50fpe isn’t too bad for a .22.

[Habanero69er]

To clarify, 50fpe is from my Will Piatt tuned .22 Rainstorm-I.