A.E.A. the gun of the moment ?

[Ironman482]

My better six shot group from yesterday at 50 yards, 222 grain HP NOE BBT .457, AEA Challenger Bullpup. The left and right fliers were all my fault, and trigger squeeze related.

  that's not a bad group at all for 50 yrds. I wonder if you had some slugs that measured. 461 if the groups would tighten up some , my .45 bull pup's bore is .461 and I've cast some 290gr at 459 and they shoot better than all other slugs that were smaller, haven't taken it to 50yrds yet but at 35yds they are the best so far , I need to get back to casting for it.

[Spacebus]

My better six shot group from yesterday at 50 yards, 222 grain HP NOE BBT .457, AEA Challenger Bullpup. The left and right fliers were all my fault, and trigger squeeze related.

  that's not a bad group at all for 50 yrds. I wonder if you had some slugs that measured. 461 if the groups would tighten up some , my .45 bull pup's bore is .461 and I've cast some 290gr at 459 and they shoot better than all other slugs that were smaller, haven't taken it to 50yrds yet but at 35yds they are the best so far , I need to get back to casting for it.

I have made a tighter group using NSA slugs, which are .457-.458 in diameter. I have tried the slugs as cast and get no difference compared to sizing down to .457 or .458, but I have dies for .457 up to .460. With the NSA slugs I make a bit more power too, but the ones I have are on the heavy size. Seems like 225-ish is perfect for this platform, I'm sitting at 950+ FPS with my cast slugs.

[lorka42]

I'd like a 37mm tube/picatinny clamp so I can use a bipod on my 30 cal challenger.

this may work for you its 35mm but may work ok.

[Get some mustard]

all the latest HP models use the same receiver as the semi-auto's, which means it looses a puff of air with each shot that, on the semi autos, is used to cycle the bolt.  So they're not as efficient with air as the older models.

Where does that air come out? Could it not be plugged?

I thought the muzzle blast  was used to cycle the bolt but maybe not

I pulled the barrel (to remedy a burr in the crown) and didn't see any way of muzzle pressure being used to cycle the bolt.  I didn't fully disassemble the receiver, but it appeared to be coming from the valve area.  Thinking I might have had a bad breech o-ring I contacted Bin Yan and he told me the "puff" was normal and why.

The action is cycled by the pellet probe being blown out of the barrel in combination w/muzzle air blast forcing the plunger and rod attached to it back. The puff of air is probly coming from the breach as the probe leaves barrel.

That's why If u remove all the semi auto stuff and make it a bolt action, u get more power. Bcuz air isn't wasted pushing the pellet probe out of the barrel. The probe is locked in.

Before I sold my semi in .30, I had it shooting at 70fpe with extra hammer tension. But I had to remove the baffles, bcuz the force on the probe was more than enough to cycle it, and more would cause it to cycle to fast and cause jamming.

[Wayne52]

[Bob Pratl]

Wayne, very nice shooting off hand. You should be well equipped for next deer season.
I just received my NOE 458-244 mold so I will be able to shoot my .458 MAX, but I'm still
waiting for the Neil Clague custom LDC so I can shoot in in my back yard, if suppressed enough.
He did design it for 300 FPE so it ended up to be 2" x 9" long. Big Pickel .

[Wayne52]

Bob I'll probably get back out with it some more, it really is loud and the first shot puts a ring in my ear but it's not as bad as shooting a 45 ACP.  I did get a red squirrel with my Challenger .22 also but I'll be getting out this morning again, it's really warm out there today so I might even spot a ground hog while I'm at it.  I'll top off both the 45 and the 22 again but I'll start out hunting with the 22 first.  Later on I may try blasting (literally) something with it.  I'm tempted to bring along a ram rod so I can tap the slug out of the 45 because it's so loud.

[bear air]

Thanks for the suggestion Chuck but I just checked out how close the tube and shroud are and I dont think there is enough room for this part to be installed. Bummer.

[Spacebus]

I think these .357 and up HP Max guns would make fabulous arrow slingers with the short barrel. I wouldn't mind getting a .457 HP max some day since I'm already casting .457 slugs. Anyone figure out if the valve in the Challenger is different than the HP Max?

[magicmatt]

I have the 50 cal hp max and I opened her up yesterday, she is basically the same as my hp ss .25 but just a bigger all metal valve pin and bigger ports on barrel. I haven’t weighed the hammer but looks identical to .25 cal hp ss.

[Mr.P]

My max is finally shooting like I hoped it would.  No hammer bounce, less waste of air, more power, at slightly lower fill pressure.

Seems like no one else is having this issue but I can share the spring information you can get one from Amazon.  And for some of you all out there who are amazed how loud your max is, some of that may be hammer bounce and wasted air.  Mine quieted down while yielding the same power once I fixed the bounce.

[RVaughn]

My max is finally shooting like I hoped it would.  No hammer bounce, less waste of air, more power, at slightly lower fill pressure.

Seems like no one else is having this issue but I can share the spring information you can get one from Amazon.  And for some of you all out there who are amazed how loud your max is, some of that may be hammer bounce and wasted air.  Mine quieted down while yielding the same power once I fixed the bounce.

My 357 max seems fine to me.. but it is extremely loud.

Pls do share

[Mr.P]

In my case I was getting extra loud shots that used 2-3x more air than a regular shot.

I fixed it by clipping ~4 coils off the main spring, which reduced power obviously, and then threading a similar lighter spring through it to make a double spring and get the power up again. I then tried different lengths of the lighter spring to find the power I wanted.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B08KQJSC9L?ref=ppx_pt2_mob_b_prod_image

Looks like the 8mm OD spring is no longer in stock.  There were four left a few days ago…



 

[Spacebus]

In my case I was getting extra loud shots that used 2-3x more air than a regular shot.

I fixed it by clipping ~4 coils off the main spring, which reduced power obviously, and then threading a similar lighter spring through it to make a double spring and get the power up again. I then tried different lengths of the lighter spring to find the power I wanted.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B08KQJSC9L?ref=ppx_pt2_mob_b_prod_image

Looks like the 8mm OD spring is no longer in stock.  There were four left a few days ago…

Impressive that you settled it down without anything irreversible or even that difficult. How many shots per fill now? FPE per shot?

[Wayne52]

I might take mine apart and clean everything up really good but that's probably it, basically I'll be using it for hunting only,
I'll probably bring it over to my brothers house and let him take some shots with it because he's always been a gun nut
himself.  I think I'll fill it to 3800psi because it seems to shoot really good for six shots at that pressure, if it's getting hammer
bounce I can't tell, it's really loud though.

[Mr.P]

In my case I was getting extra loud shots that used 2-3x more air than a regular shot.

I fixed it by clipping ~4 coils off the main spring, which reduced power obviously, and then threading a similar lighter spring through it to make a double spring and get the power up again. I then tried different lengths of the lighter spring to find the power I wanted.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B08KQJSC9L?ref=ppx_pt2_mob_b_prod_image

Looks like the 8mm OD spring is no longer in stock.  There were four left a few days ago…

Impressive that you settled it down without anything irreversible or even that difficult. How many shots per fill now? FPE per shot?

Thanks.  I’m just relieved to have a gun that shoots consistently. 

I need to collect more data.  Here is a recent shot string with 82 grain grizzly slugs.  It’s hard to make a call as far as the number of shots per because it’s just a steady slope down.

[Greg_E]

I wish a bunch of this stuff had been out before I bought my Bulldog, 200fpe in a short barreled carbine? Yeah that would have filled a niche.

Now here is something that AEA should consider, make a long barrel kit for those times when you want more power. Even 24-26 inch should bring a nice power increase.

[sicumj]

Not sure about the Max but my TD carbine has about 3/4" of threads on the stock shaft that screws into the receiver that could act as a spring tensioner.  I keep mine screwed all the way in but I would think there is some adjustability there instead of changing springs.

[Mr.P]

For sure - this worked for me just fine and the on the Max makes a very noticeable difference. 

If you back it out too much the spring guide ends up not being firmly anchored - free to rattle forward and backward along the main axis of the gun, and perpendicularly as well to some degree.  If you try this and start getting some random weird shots like I did, this might explain it.  It would be possible to make a little part to keep the spring guide firmly anchored even when backing out the nut a bit.

Attached is a shot string with the clipped spring and about 4200 psi fill.  This makes me want to experiment a little further and see if  I can get the upside of that curve to be a little less steep it might be possible to get four or five shots that are very close to one another. 

I have a couple more springs coming, one with slightly thicker wire so I can experiment with even shorter stiffer springs and see how a projectile hammer works out.

[Spacebus]

Since these big bores are so air hungry, I have been using a SST for my .45 Challenger. No point in using the magazines when you only get 2-3 shots at peak power. Maybe when hunting it's a different story and having that second shot with just a cycle of the lever is worth it.