Tuning AEA challenger, .30 caliber

[bear air]

Nice work Charles. I've enjoyed watching your continued determination to really dial your challenger in. Great results in power and accuracy. Maybe look at the gx4 . I'm not sure how much they are selling for now but I'm happy I got one. It handles a 300 bar fill to a 9l tank very well knock on wood. I feel more confident in this compressor than the others I've had. Mostly because of it's higher pressure ratings.

[2A Georgia]

Nice work Charles. I've enjoyed watching your continued determination to really dial your challenger in. Great results in power and accuracy. Maybe look at the gx4 . I'm not sure how much they are selling for now but I'm happy I got one. It handles a 300 bar fill to a 9l tank very well knock on wood. I feel more confident in this compressor than the others I've had. Mostly because of it's higher pressure ratings.

I'm enjoying casting so much I feel like there's a big bore in my future so I'll have to budget for molds and a GX4.....
I'm also enjoying the total hobby of AG so right now the Challenger is the learning hobby and the Notos is the boring ES=0 near factory pellet stacker
Cheers

[2A Georgia]

So I'm in heaven with the Accurate Molds 30-62A mold.  Drops beautiful 64gr truncated cone slugs with less than 1.5% weight varriance.
Thikgirl seams to like 4,000PSI fill so I will need to rebuild the GX-CS1 and or upgrade to the CS4 in the future.
6% ES with a 100-114fpe bell-curve.  RotoMetals 40:1 arrives Saturday so hopefully they drop at .303 and group like the NSA 61.5s.
Been trolling bottles and regulators on AliEx and Amazon.  The Chrono report was a 4,000psi fill ending at 3,400.  Pondering a 3,000PSI output regulator, which probably needs a 4500psi fill to get 9 shots (one mag).  We'll see how she groups unregulated.

[bear air]

Great work Charles. I m enjoying the heck out of you adventures with the challenger.

[2A Georgia]

Great work Charles. I m enjoying the heck out of you adventures with the challenger.

My pleasure.  Every time I get a nice chrono like this one...squirrel....I see another rabbit hole entrance and......
Google took me to another forum with a gentleman who radiused/ported the six orifices in the TP area and was hitting some impressive fpe numbers through a 32" barrel with a 100-120gr .308 projectile.  I think I'm going to skip on the longer barrel and 100gr SST slugs, but I might try the radius/porting......
Stay tuned :-)

[bear air]

Very interesting Charles. I definitely agree that the aea line up are power houses and rather crude. However part of my hook is to do little things to improve them.

[2A Georgia]

Shot groups with the Accurate Molds .3037 64.6gr 40:1 truncated cone slugs.  Had a decent group at 4100psi.
Thinking I might need to give up 5-15fpe and turn back the TP adjuster a little more to tighten the group.
Gonna hold onto the 2x25x63mm spring for the 46gr pellets as the 70mm spring with shim is definitely for 110fpe slugs.
Picture of the best group at 4100psi and what 100fpe+ does to a 1/2" pine between my stuffed cardboard and backstop...

[Back_Roads]

 Oh yeah the energy a .30 or .35 can deliver down range is impressive, vs a .22 LR with the same energy at the muzzle, but ony 1/2 the weight.
 See what they did to a target rated for .22 lr, I used .30 an .35 , 60 - 90 gr LOL This was at 100+ yards.

[bear air]

How far was the target Charles?

[2A Georgia]

How far was the target Charles?

15yards is the backyard range.
All goes well will test groups at 24yards at LGR this week.

[2A Georgia]

Had a decent group at 4100psi.
Thinking I might need to give up 5-15fpe and turn back the TP adjuster a little more to tighten the group.

Turned the TP back to 10:40 and shot the groups pictured.  The NSA .3034x61.5gr are stacked
I lubed the Accurate 30-62A and group was still about 2" at 15 yards.
The Hatsan 46gr Pellets I just used the leftover air.....A 4100psi fill for slugs leaves about 3400psi which apparently is close to right for pellets (maybe half a mil high) as they left an acceptable ragged hole with 1 flyer.
You've heard this before, but I think after a slug sight in at 24yards indoors I'm done with "adjustting" this AG...lol.
I can shoot 9 NSA HPs and carry 9 Hatsan Pellets as backup on one 4100psi fill (18 MOS shots/fill)
IIRC Steve had tuned for pellets and had like 5%ES with a 3200psi fill and 10:15 TP setting
Looking at the NSAs they have a longer continuous driving surface...and being HP they are slightly longer in general and have a dished base...

[bear air]

You've taken your time with the challenger Charles and really put it through the paces. I've enjoyed your journey with thick girl and how well you documented it. Hats off bud. Job well 👍.

[2A Georgia]

You've taken your time with the challenger Charles and really put it through the paces. I've enjoyed your journey with thick girl and how well you documented it. Hats off bud. Job well 👍.

and just when we thought I was done I emailed Tom over at Accurate Molds to see if he can clone the NSA 61.5ish
It won't be HP or dish based but I think thikgirl likes one fat driving band.....Also based on today's results I'm going to BOLO for an NOE 300-46-RF which should be a clone of the Hatsan Strike 46gr that grouped pretty good on the "reduced air" tune...was that a squirrel or another rabbit hole?....lol

[bear air]

I cant imagine what a freak I would be if I got into casting my own ammo. Mine seemed to do okay with those strike pellets too.

[2A Georgia]

The PO is a GTA member and had NSA 46x.303 and Strike Pellets in the "goodie bag."
We had a good laugh months later when we met for a woods walk and he told me he bought a .303 Challenger to shoot Pellets 50yards stacked......

[2A Georgia]

I've got three projectiles I'm running with,  44.5 hades,  44.5 predators,  and,  of all things, .311 lead balls! The groups definitely shrunk,  and the shot count more than doubled. Power wise, it'll still consistently go through a 2 x 4, and it's quieter, partly because of the depinger, but the regulator has an effect,  too.

Curious what .311 round ball mold your using and assuming you're "sizing down the barrel."  My challenger loves the .3034 NSA 61.5grHP.  I have my Lee sizer die polished out to .3035ish not sure how you would size a .311 round ball down to .3035 so tracking your thread...
When exactly did Bin sell you the regulator as I can't find them anywhere?

[bear air]

I went with the hades in mine too. Although it sounds like I should try those heavy Nielsen slugs

[2A Georgia]

I went with the hades in mine too. Although it sounds like I should try those heavy Nielsen slugs

IMHO if you can get your hands on a BinTac regulator I would shoot the Hades for two mags that should expand at just under 100fpe and stack at 50 yards.  The "Heavy" hammer spring and 4000ish Psi fills should give you a 9 shot ragged hole group at 110+fpe with the NSA .303 61.5gr HP
DO NOT buy .300 slugs of any brand unless you want shotgun groupings...ijs
My current rabbit hole I am considering porting and shooting the Accurate Molds 80gr slug bespoke at .304 estimating 120fpeish and possibly 4100psi fills

[bear air]

Thanks Charles. I had heard a long time ago these like .303. I've just accepted it's a one mag wonder lol. For what it does I really like it. What do you suppose the 80 gr slugs would be doing velocity wise? That's some oomph at 120 fpe.

[2A Georgia]

Thanks Charles. I had heard a long time ago these like .303. I've just accepted it's a one mag wonder lol. For what it does I really like it. What do you suppose the 80 gr slugs would be doing velocity wise? That's some oomph at 120 fpe.

On the "other forum" someone enlarged the six TP holes to twice diameter while porting them.  He was using a 100gr 308 slug and getting 150fpe.
I'm assuming since I can hit one teens with the 62gr slugs.  Then a mild porting should get me to around 125+fpe back calculating on PA's tool I get around 835fps.  Since the Accurate Molds are not HP I want to push the largest slug that will fit the mag to just under 850fps.  The 80gr drawing is .009 clearance for my AEA magazine.  If I went to a single shot slug length I would just buy a Texan....A one mag wonder is all I need for my woods walks so I'm tuning for a "decent" mos group over 9 shots playing with hammer tension and starting fill (old school).