Why not more Cometa love

[Sqwirl57]

Hey guys, hate to ask an ignorant question, but, learning here. What is this top hat thing I hear spoke.of?

A top hat is a small guide (that looks like a top hat) that sits on the piston side of a coiled spring. Its main purposes are to perfectly center the spring inside the piston as well as give a bearing surface so the spring can twist freely when compressed and decompressed

[JimT66]

Thank you Jon. Way above my knowledge level yet.

[Kragman1]

Finally had a little free time, pulled out my RWS 94 (Cometa 400) and gave it a quick chrony check.
750, 749, 751, then back to 750 (RWS 14.5 Superdome).  No need to shoot any more pellets, it's doing just fine.

It's always been very accurate, but I've only had it on paper out to 25 yards.  Looking forward to getting some time in at 100.
Could be as soon as next Saturday, depending on how things go.

[Mark 611]

More COMETA LOVE! out of the 4 Cometa rifles I have, which are all good once you get them tuned up the way you like them, I'll have to say my 220 compacts are starting to be my favorite little guns, for the Cometa's, for short range shooting, I have not tried to shoot them much past 25yds, yet! Their accurate enough to shoot the little white heads off the stems of a dandelion @ 15 to 20yds, with either my .22cal or my .177cal rifles I have! as far as the Plastic trigger in the 400 series rifles, not a thing to worry about! IMO their a more solid trigger blade than the old Diana T05 triggers! and a lot more adjustable with a 1st and 2nd stage adjustment and with further modifications even better! but I will say I'm going to purchase a new 400 USC at some point and let Jon tune it and add the metal trigger blade just to see what he does! I don't need him to do that, but I want to see what I get from him? all in all these rifles are not Dianas they're not HW's but they are solid guns, I would rate these at Diana quality or just a tic under, not even close to HW, but their still nice rifles for the money! especially the 400 series! parts are available for them so you can tune them yourself if you want? 220's and 400's all take the same piston seal, the springs in the 220's are shorter than the 400's but they're basically the same spring! you can cut a 400 spring to length to work in your 220 gun! my 2ct

[triggerfest]

Nice write up Mark and do you favor the 220 more in .177 or .22 ?

[Mark 611]

My 220C in .22cal really likes the Crosman Pointed hunting pellets, 14.3gn, it is very accurate with these pellets, I need to run them across the CHRONY and see how fast their shooting, I have tried the 14.66gn HAMMERS pellets and the H&N 14.66gn 5.53mm, I did run these across the CHRONY awhile back, and they shot just under 500fps, I have also tried RWS SD and a few others, I have shot a few starlings with the .22cal and it drops them like lightning! @20yds and the pellets pass right thur them! I like the .177cals as well but they do not kill like a .22cal pellet from these rifles, I use my air guns for pest elimination for the most part, so the .22cal will always get the vote over a .177cal gun, especially with a lower power gun like this, not saying the .177cals don't work I have taken some birds with these, but like I said the .22cal is my choice! I'm waiting on a LEEPERS off set mount to show up today, I have a new LEEPERS Bug Buster 3x12x32SF scope to mount on the .22cal gun, I have had some issues with the .22cal gun holding a scope mount in place, their no stop pin hole in the receiver of the COMETA rifles, if this problem continues? after the new mount, I'm going to set everything up and mark the tube and drill my own stop pin hole in the tube! and fix this once and for all! and Thanks Rudy for the kind words! just trying to give you guy's my experience with these guns,

[Sqwirl57]

My 220C in .22cal really likes the Crosman Pointed hunting pellets, 14.3gn, it is very accurate with these pellets, I need to run them across the CHRONY and see how fast their shooting, I have tried the 14.66gn HAMMERS pellets and the H&N 14.66gn 5.53mm, I did run these across the CHRONY awhile back, and they shot just under 500fps, I have also tried RWS SD and a few others, I have shot a few starlings with the .22cal and it drops them like lightning! @20yds and the pellets pass right thur them! I like the .177cals as well but they do not kill like a .22cal pellet from these rifles, I use my air guns for pest elimination for the most part, so the .22cal will always get the vote over a .177cal gun, especially with a lower power gun like this, not saying the .177cals don't work I have taken some birds with these, but like I said the .22cal is my choice! I'm waiting on a LEEPERS off set mount to show up today, I have a new LEEPERS Bug Buster 3x12x32SF scope to mount on the .22cal gun, I have had some issues with the .22cal gun holding a scope mount in place, their no stop pin hole in the receiver of the COMETA rifles, if this problem continues? after the new mount, I'm going to set everything up and mark the tube and drill my own stop pin hole in the tube! and fix this once and for all! and Thanks Rudy for the kind words! just trying to give you guy's my experience with these guns,

I have been using UTG one piece mounts on all of my Cometas without a stop pin installed and have not had any scope creep. I tighten the base rings in an inside out pattern over several passes. I think UTG recommends 20inlbs but I definitely go a bit tighter than that. Hope it helps!

[Mark 611]

I agree. 100% my new mount showed up since my last post, and it has not moved in any way! I got the rifle re zeroed in about 10 shots mostly windage, all of my other rifles have the LEEPERS mounts and have had no issues! so theirs my extra 2ct in this post! Jon, I cannot wait to buy a rifle from you! 

[mikeyb]

Hey guys, hate to ask an ignorant question, but, learning here. What is this top hat thing I hear spoke.of?

see image below...

471 = piston seal
477 = piston
504 = "tophat"
534 = steel coil spring
489 = steel washer
490 = polymer washer
498 = spring guide

While a tophat can keep a spring centered inside the piston, the piston ID on my rifles does that job quite well without a tophat. The tophat can be a bearing surface for the coil spring to freely rotate on. Again, the piston on my rifles can do that job very well without a tophat.

For MOST of the air rifles I work on the tophat can have 3 functions which are usually more significant towards improving performance.

1) The tophat "shoulder" adds pre-load to the spring and will increase muzzle energy (up to a point).
2) A steel tophat can add significant MASS to the moving piston-spring system. Theoretically this can improve performance towards heavier pellets, but this depends on several other rifle attributes.
3) A SNUG FITTING tophat (and spring guide) will help reduce spring vibrations that tend to travel back & forth along the spring during a shot event. Those longitudinal traveling waves back & forth along the length of the spring (like a slinky) are typically referred to as "spring twang".

Hope that helps :-)

[Mark 611]

More info, guys, if you're interested in these guns? like all air guns they need to be tuned, and sometimes it takes some break in time of a few hundred pellets after a tune before they start to shoot, I've had HW guns do the same as far as accuracy, keep in mind I tune my own rifles, that said I use ARH/JM's parts when available, he has no springs for sale at this point, for any of the COMETA guns, but he does have piston seals, now I'm going to say I have been shooting my 220 compacts for a minute, I tuned them with the factory springs because their still new as far as usage, even tho I have had them for over a year or longer, I have not had the time to shoot them a lot, I have a newer 220c .177cal I purchased about 3yrs ago and a .22cal I purchased about a year and a half ago,  neither of these gun has 300 pellets thur them, as they break in with new seals and my tuning on them and trigger mods, these rifles are turning in to tac drivers! as accurate as my much more expensive air guns, quite impressed! spent the day today shooting these newer rifles happy happy! I also ordered some TITAN XS springs for them going to retune them with better springs, Cheers

[sekiar]

I really like the Cometa line of air rifles and have 5 here and a new 400 Star coming this week.  A lot of shooting fun for the little spent!  Charles

[BigDean]

I have a usc premier walnut in .22 coming

[10Gauge]

Not sure that gas ram cometas have reach nz yet. That would be a game changer for me. Here we go again  Do I need another airgun?

Yes