Another Hatsan Jet 1 thread

[Wbldon]

After reviewing a number of threads on the Hatsan Jet1 & seeing the sale at MidwayUSA I decided to move ahead and purchase one in 25 Caliber (my caliber of choice).

A couple of things I notices right away upon receiving the gun.
1. The gun came well packed.
2. It included a small box that included a quick release extended fill adapter, 2-Single shot sleds, 2 magazines, a bunch of extra o-rings and an adapter for attaching a moderator (20 UNF male threads on both ends).

The Leak:
I proceeded to clean the barrel which was not overly dirty and then filled the gun to 200 Bar and set it aside to see how well it held air.   I wasn't disappointed after 24 hours the pressure dropped by 50% and 24 hours later it was empty.  From previous posts I kind of expected this.  At the price I was prepared to do a bit of tinkering, for me that is half the fun! To make a long story short, I replaced the o-ring in air resevior using a little silicone grease and alot of patience, put Silcone oil in the foster fill adapter & refilled the gun to 100 Bar, removed the air resevoir and set it aside for a couple of days to make sure it held air, with this isolated it told me there wasn't a problem with this.  I reinstalled the resevoir, filled to 200 Bar and let the gun sit a couple of days without a drop in pressure.  To make it a little easier to get the resevoir on and off I used some antiseize compound on the threads, this does help with installation and removal of a partially charged cylinder.

Changing Charged Cylinders:
I have seen folks wanting a way to charge a spare cylinder to change it out in the field.  I am not sure about you but if the cylinder is charged to much over 100 Bar I can't get it on or off the gun.  In my opinion if you need more air you will need to change gun over to a bottle as some have done or carry a small bottle to use for filling.

Sights:
In looking over the gun & as  others have pointed out the sights are very nice.  I had seen others comment on how it would be nice is there was some way to adjust for windage. I found it hard to beleive Hatsan would spend that much time designing flip up sights that were elevation adjustable without designing in some way to adjust windage.  After looking the front sight over carefully I notices a phillip head screw just behind the sight screwed into the rib.  If youj loosen this screw you can move the front sight to the left or right givng you windage adjustment then tighten it to hold it in place.  Once loosened I was able to move the sight with thumb pressure, not precise but adequate.

I have included the first couple of groups shot with the gun off bags with shoulder stock at 25 yards.  Groups shot with JSB Match Diablo Exact King 25.4 grain.  I did hang a 3-9 scope on the gun for shooting groups, my eyes aren't what they use to be.  Blue dots are 3/4" in diameter.  I shot these two groups after sighting in the scope (about 6-8 shots) and with the gun starting at 200 Bar.  After the sight in shots and both groups the gun had 100 Bar left in the resevoir.  The first group was me getting use to the trigger, the second group is low due to the pressure dropping.  I feel these will improve with some more trigger time.

More to follow as time allows.

[JPSAXNC]

When you opened the reservoir to change the o-ring, did you find any metal swarf in the reservoir? Thanks

[Rat Sniper (AKA: PaulT58)]

Nice writeup Don!  I polished the barrel and dressed the crown on my Jet 1 yesterday, it seemed to tighten the ground a little.  I also polished the contact points on the trigger mechanism and added a little moly grease, that did wonders to smoothing it out.

I am having the same experience with trying to hot swap air cylinders, there's not enough to grab on to so removing a cylinder with more than 100BAR is quite the challenge.  I even tried it when I had the barrel off and could wrap my hand comptelely around the cylinder and still could not get it to budge!  And, with no way to charge a cylinder off the gun, the claim of being hot swappable is really a misnomer because unless your a lowlands gorilla, you're not getting an air cylinder off the gun once it's fully charged, especially if you are in the field and don't have ready access to a vice and pipe wrench! 

[Wbldon]

James,  The o-ring I replaced was at the base of the threaded hole in the resevoir, I did not disassemble the resevoir.  There was no swarf in that area.

Paul,
I thought of cutting a slot in the rib to let the strap on a strap wrench slide thru it but after some thought I figured I wouldn't be able to get enough leverage to break the tube loose.  I remember when I first got into PCP I bought a used scuba tank.  I noticed I could turn the valve off by hand so when I took it in for it's first fill I informed the person at the shop about it and he told me that is the way it should be and that it tightens up when it filled.  He said once you get 1,000 psi in it you cannot turn the valve and when full at 3,000 psi you would damage the tank trying to remove it.

Since I do all my shooting off the bench at targets I have gone to "tethering" my guns to my tank and a regulator.  This works great for my purpose and no stopping to refill.  With my carbon fiber tank I can shoot all day.  If I was to use it for hunting or in the field I would probably convert it to a tank like others or convert one of the smaller tanks like they are using for the conversions and use this to fill the gun resevoir.  You could carry this in one of those "holsters"  used to carry those large water bottles.

As far as the trigger, I no longer have a gauge but based on 55 years+ of shooting experience I would estimate the pull weight to be between 2 & 2 1/2 pounds which for me is more than acceptable on a $150 gun.  There is some take up but the release is crisp so for now I  will wait to pull it apart and polish and lube it.

Overall I have been very pleased with the gun.  Only negative I have is that the gun is LOUD.  I would say it is as loud, but not quite as sharp, as  a .22 LR round out of a rifle and I would advise muffs when fired at 200-250 bars, it is much better down around 100-150 bar.

I was amazed at the accuracy with the short barrel.

Thanks for the responses and kind words....

Don

[EdinGa]

Mine is a .25 and it is wearing a regulated bottle, but I've been very pleased with the accuracy as well. From the conversations I've had with other Jet owners, I believe this is the best caliber to choose for out of the box accuracy.