DAR Gen II is now available

[Firewalker]

Jason, any pictures of the hammer removal?

[nervoustrigger]

Jason, any pictures of the hammer removal?

I checked my pictures and no I don't, but you're 90% of the way there once you have the trigger out.  Just two pins to remove to get the hammer out.  To remove the first one (the one that points down and latches against the sear), loosen the grub screw in the back of the hammer.  The second one is the pin in the bolt...reach up between the trigger plates to remove it.  Out comes the hammer. 

A little tip:  before reinstalling the sear pin, drill or grind a slight dimple for the grub screw to seat into.  That pin is apt to fall out otherwise.

[Firewalker]

I was able to replace the .177 barrel with one from Aimsports and that one was beautiful inside but still shot like a cut off shotgun. I pulled that one and installed a second one from Joe, (Thank You Joe!) and am starting to get the groups to come in. One thing to mention: I got some really bad clipping due to the oversize on the shroud. I had to tape all the cones on the moderator together to keep them centered to eliminate the clipping.

I am going to send the barrels back this week and swap out the shroud with the .22 and see if the cones fit better like the .25 and .22.

Yes, I am still in LOVE with my DAR's, she just woke up with a case of bad breath, a little Listerine and she is kissable once more! 

[Firewalker]

Jason, any pictures of the hammer removal?

I checked my pictures and no I don't, but you're 90% of the way there once you have the trigger out.  Just two pins to remove to get the hammer out.  To remove the first one (the one that points down and latches against the sear), loosen the grub screw in the back of the hammer.  The second one is the pin in the bolt...reach up between the trigger plates to remove it.  Out comes the hammer. 

A little tip:  before reinstalling the sear pin, drill or grind a slight dimple for the grub screw to seat into.  That pin is apt to fall out otherwise.

Got this post saved, than YOU for the info, it helps a lot! 

[rkrr20307@comcast.net]

Hello. I removed all but the pin in the bolt-does it unscrew or pull out? Also the hammer seems to slide loosely until it gets close to the valve then gets tighter- need to use a rod to push any farther. Is that normal?

[nervoustrigger]

The pin in the bolt is threaded in.  If memory serves, it has a hex recess for an Allen key but it might be a slot for a slotted screwdriver.

[rkrr20307@comcast.net]

Hello Nervoustrigger. I disassembled the rifle again but that pin in the bolt is stripped either from factory or from previous owner? I inspected everything again  and all looked ok except the valve pin stuck out about 4 mm on 1 tube and about 4.5 mm on the second. The tube that was 4.5 mm I tapped with a mallet several times and stayed at 4.5 mm. Reassembled rifle and now works. Do not know what I changed- any ideas? Maybe a bad poppet in the tubes?

[Firewalker]

Hello Nervoustrigger. I disassembled the rifle again but that pin in the bolt is stripped either from factory or from previous owner? I inspected everything again  and all looked ok except the valve pin stuck out about 4 mm on 1 tube and about 4.5 mm on the second. The tube that was 4.5 mm I tapped with a mallet several times and stayed at 4.5 mm. Reassembled rifle and now works. Do not know what I changed- any ideas? Maybe a bad poppet in the tubes?

Richard, can you post a picture of that for us?

[rkrr20307@comcast.net]

Hopefully this works- this is the tube with the valve stem only sticking out 4 mm but if you look close the brass fitting is screwed in further than flush. Do not know if this has anything to do with it. Already assembled rifle with other tube and seems to work fine. Does anyone make peek poppets for these? Also is the .25 a good candidate to convert to .30 in your opinion? I have 3 .25 and 2 .22 and a .177. They are nice rifles.

[Firewalker]

Hopefully this works- this is the tube with the valve stem only sticking out 4 mm but if you look close the brass fitting is screwed in further than flush. Do not know if this has anything to do with it. Already assembled rifle with other tube and seems to work fine. Does anyone make peek poppets for these? Also is the .25 a good candidate to convert to .30 in your opinion? I have 3 .25 and 2 .22 and a .177. They are nice rifles.

Good question! I sure would lime to see what you come up with.

The stem and guide look fine.

[rkrr20307@comcast.net]

So your stem only protrudes about the same? Can not understand what could have been wrong- both tubes hold air forever.I  am going to call Joe and see if he can sell or send me a couple poppets.  I need to find where I can get a .30 barrel from. I can sleeve the probe with brass. I converted a .22  Akela to .25 but FuzzyGrub was undertaking the same project so I am waiting to get all his final numbers before I cut springs and tune. Also I am converting 1 of my Kratos .22 into a .177 waiting for Crosman to get the barrel and probe in stock. I will post as I convert my DAR to a .30 if I can find a barrel. I would also need to come up with a magazine also. Thank you for all your help. Have a great Holiday.

[nervoustrigger]

Regarding stepping up in caliber, the .25 cal plenum is somewhat anemic as is.  Unless your goal is a low and slow .30 cal, consider bypassing the regulator and tuning it as an unregulated rifle.  In which case you will almost certainly want to make a PEEK poppet so the hammer will be able to crack open the valve at the elevated pressure...you know, without having to swap the hammer spring with one from the suspension of a Ford F250  

A longer-than-OEM barrel will help you make velocity...which means either making a new shroud or using a more conventional LDC. 

You already noted the bolt modification and what to do about a magazine.  But do be advised a magazine in the space available is likely to be quite limiting of ammo choices in .30 cal.

One change begets another, which begets another, which...

[rkrr20307@comcast.net]

Thank you for the info. I would only shoot pellets as I have an AEA and Rainstorm (that was Will Piatt tuned) for slugs. Any idea who or where to source a barrel from?

[Firewalker]

Thank you for the info. I would only shoot pellets as I have an AEA and Rainstorm (that was Will Piatt tuned) for slugs. Any idea who or where to source a barrel from?

I am not aware of any barrels that are plug-n-play in the DAR receiver. I was going to get a barrel from Lothar Walther, the .30 runs $150.00 from them right now. https://www.lothar-walther.com/gun-barrel-blanks/airgun-barrels/?p=1&o=1&n=12&f=6480

[rkrr20307@comcast.net]

Thank you for the link. I would still need to have a machine shop do it up. Worth thinking about.
                              Thank you

[Firewalker]

I know this thread has been dormant for 2 months or so but I wanted to update some information on my .177 and the journey it has taken to get where we are today. I also want to share some good news going forward.

I started out with a DAR in .22 and fell in *love! I then bought another in .25 and felt I had a great stable of guns for plinking and pest control. The .177 beckoned from afar to join it's sisters in the gun rack so I ordered one up from Joe at Aimsports and thought I had the Trifecta!

Sadly, this was not to be. The .177 was horribly inaccurate, 4" groups at only 10m and burping poppet wasted as much air as a shot did all while reducing pellet speed. I though I just needed to find the right pellet or it really needed an SST to get the BUUURRRPP to stop. I pulled the hammer spring out, clipped off a loop and made an SST for it, reassembled it and sure enough, the bounce had stopped but the speeds were all over the place and accuracy didn't get any better, still minute of grapefruit at 10m.

Of course, I had to open the gun up to explore and find out what was wrong and how to fix it. When first pulling the valve section out, I noticed that the stem retaining nut had backed out but since I had already changed the regulator setting, I thought perhaps I had forgotten to tighten it but no, this was only the first time the nut would come loose.

The poppet stem was very tight in the retaining nut so off to the lathe to sand and polish it, burnished the poppet seat and got a good seal. Now the speeds leveled out but the groups were still very much a shotgun pattern. By that time, I had received a couple barrels to try from Joe but both of them shot as bad or worse than the original so I set to cleaning and polishing them all up.

After getting a very wide assortment of pellets from the classifieds here, I tried to find one the DAR liked best but they all spread wide and there was no real winner. On a whim, I took the barrel off and rolled in on a sheet of glass and I found it was very bent, I took it over to the lathe and measured overall runout and it was nearly 0.25" out!

I thought about the others and one was out 0.040" and the one that came with the gun was just under 0.010" out. I can live with that so I spent a couple hours cleaning this barrel with every chemical I had (and I have a few) and then I finished with water based cleaners. I than used polishing compound followed by Flitz and then a swipe with silicone oil.

Reassembled it all and was hoping for a nice group but that was just not to be, still shotguning...

Following the same train of thought, I took the shroud off and rolled that on glass as well, almost 0.320" of runout front to back, Banana! I then loaded the magazine with CPHP's and it shot a .45" group! HMMMMMM?

I found severe clipping on the cap and as luck would have it, I found a stock, shroud, baffles and cap in the classifieds and that shroud has a very slight S curve that had an end to end runout of perhaps 0.005". Since the baffles and cap were for a .25, I was in luck with an oversize set to see if I could dial in the gun now that I found all the issues.

I went through all the pellets again and found that the RWS Meisterkugeln were by far more consistent than any other pellet and the 2nd place winner was (obvious to me) was the CPHP. I put the new shroud and baffles in and shot a card last Sunday, I got a 200/200 with 13 bullseyes! Outstanding!

I was Golden... until I shot some targets on Monday, the hammer bounce was back. 

I pulled the gun apart and wouldn't you know it, the poppet stem retaining nut has come all the way out and was getting slammed into the stem. The threads were damaged but a trip through a 10x1.5 nut straightened them out and after a drop of blue locktite, i reassembled it, removed the SSG and installed a spring from McMaster Carr.

Now, the gun shoots well, not as well as the .22 but close. It will get another good cleaning and then a few tins of pellets and I hope it will settle down even more.

Bottom line: I would buy the .22 and .25 again without hesitation, they are both great shooters and have plenty of power for any critter takedown.

* I had a leaker on the first round and sent it back. The new one was good to go! 

[BigMike1]

Wow Firewalkwe I give you Two thumbs up for the diligence!!  Great Job !  They are good guns my 22 will one hole at 25yds . my 25 has taken a little love  lol 

[Firewalker]

Wow Firewalkwe I give you Two thumbs up for the diligence!!  Great Job !  They are good guns my 22 will one hole at 25yds . my 25 has taken a little love  lol

I am indeed fortunate that I have all three working as well as they do, for $300 guns, I'll take the tinkering and work in trade for accuracy. The .25 piles pellets up on the same spot at 50y, the .22 will do hole in hole like a bench rest gun up to 50y with no wind.

I am planning to do a complete teardown of any new DAR's when I get them. I'm no reviewer or influencer by any means but I do understand quality machining, good design and function. I can also spot shoddy quality assurance and am willing to call it out. My reviews will be brutal, I will buy them, no gifts, just like the last three, my cash.

In the end, I still recommend the .22 and the .25, get some o-rings and shoot to your hearts content! I have yet to see any magazines approach the quality of the DAR mags except for the JTC guns.

The MAX is my next gun, period. The thumbhole stock and twin gauges along with the generous laver vertical handle speak to me! 

[Back_Roads]

 Strange, how one gun can be such a bugger to get shooting good. The only DAR I Bought to date is the .177, and it has been a NSA slug shooting laser, along with most pellets I tried.

[avator]

Mine was in .25 and was a shooter.
If the 'cudas' get pushed to the back burner I may have to get a DAR in .22.