Finally Tuned my Striker

[Raizer]

So I finally worked up the courage to strip my Striker and clean it up.
Do not try to do this without a spring compressor, my spring had between 3 and 4 inches of preload on it!
Also of note is that mine had flattened and semi polished spring ends, a steel top hat instead of a plastic washer in the piston and the piston button is the same size as the mod 125/135 piston (the first seal Pete made for me took 100+kgs of pressure to get over the button and then the button sat flush with the edge of the seal and hit the end of the tube)

In bits:

Have polished the trigger sears, spaced it out to take all the slack/creap out of the pull and ditched the trigger spring then lubed it all up with Honda moly paste.
Also stripped the latch spring chisel off the breach and polished the chisel and lubed with moly too.


Polished the piston and top hat.
Deburred the tube and crosshatched with 400 stones,




Made some shims for inside the spring and piston, nice smooth fit and polished the ends of the spring a bit more too.


This is what happens to the piston when the muck metal scope stop screw snaps off and the remaining thread turns into the chamber a little bit!

The new seal from Pete arrived today and after spending a while sizing it I got the gun back together tonight using Honda moly 60 on the seal and piston etc and some good thick moly grease on the spring.
I only got to put 5 pellets through it since it was dieseling a little and I didn't want to annoy my neighbors too much after dark lol

But all I have to say after those 5 shots is WOW!!
Cocks smooth, fires smooth with really light and crisp trigger action! No spring noise at all that I can hear over the dieseling and pretty much all the recoil is gone!
I'm really really happy with it so far and regret putting it off so long!

[Mike 4888blues]

  Sounds and looks  like you did a great job.
 One thing I do, after any tune, is I keep cleaning the barrel , usually after every five shots at first, until I see it relatively staying clean. Then I'll check it  after more shots like 30. until I am satisfied any excess lubricant is gone, I do this because I use a little more molly then what I seen in other tune post./  and  if the barrel gets dirty  then obviously  the shots will spread causing inconsistent groups
 

[Raizer]

Thanks for the tip! Will run a few patches through it now.
I will admit that I used a little bit more moly than recommended too, only because the seal was dry and starting to squeak before it even got to the chamber the first time I put it in.

[Johnny Z]

Great job, Photos are excellent.  Is that a plastic sleeve in the spring for the top hat?  Do you touch up any of the exposed/deburred outer metal with gun blue or just external gun lube?   

thanks
John

[Raizer]

Yeah I sleeved both the inside of the piston and the top hat, seems to work well I can't hear any spring noise at all now.
I didn't have any blue at all, so all the bare spots on the outside of the tube got a thin wipe of oil, there all hidden inside the stock so as long as I can keep the rust away I'm not overly worried about them.

[LAalex]

Raizer,  if you don't mind my asking, what did you use for the sleeve inside the piston and spring?

Thanks,
Scotty

[Raizer]

I cut them out of a coke bottle lol
http://www.gatewaytoairguns.org/GTA/index.php/topic,8330.msg68150.html#msg68150
http://www.gatewaytoairguns.org/GTA/index.php/topic,22452.0.html

[Johnny Z]

Thanks, I used a thin layer of oil, I'll have to keep an eye on it for any rust.

John

[Raizer]

Got another 50 shots through it today, dieseling has stopped and I am absolutely loving it!
Ran patches through the barrel every 5 shots for the first 10, little bit of moly on them, ran another through when I got home and it was pretty much clean.
Have got some 8.44gr 4.52mm JSB Exact Diabolo pellets on the way, should be better than the Gamos I have been using.

[Johnny Z]

Any pictures of this gun and chrony numbers?  I've been looking at coke and #2 recycleable bottles in a whole new way.

thanks
John

[Raizer]

Older pics



I haven't got a Chrony yet so no numbers, am going to get one of these when I've got some spare $ http://www.chronoscopes.com/ (the cheapest Chrony here is $200!)
The coke bottle works really well, no metallic sounds at all just a nice thump followed by the louder sound of the pellet hitting the target (the stock is filled with expanding foam too)

[Johnny Z]

That's a sharp looking gun, very nice.   I order my green chony from Wallys, shipped to the store for pickup.  I think total was about $75.  It is the low budget version, but I think it works well.  Do you have a red lens for the flash light?

[Raizer]

The green chrony is $179.95 + post here in New Zealand (thats $147 in US dollars!)
I didn't have a red lens for the light, but it only handled the recoil for 20 odd shots before dieing lol, teach me for trying to cheap out and use a $20 light!

Oh and trigger pull now:


Its about half factory length and really crisp and light.
Still would like a CDT trigger if they had a longer blade!

[Johnny Z]

Wow, that is a lot, I guess you have to justify funding it or something else. Enjoy the within

cheers.

[Raizer]

The courier dropped off a tin of 4.52mm JSB exact 8.44 grain pellets the other afternoon, heres 5 shots from just over 15 meters


I think I have found my Strikers favorite pellet!

[Mike 4888blues]

  Thanks for posting the plastic sleeve, I will share that with another member/ and  definitely do all mine like that.
on my hatsan 95 the piston is thick and the I D is much smaller so that there is not a lot of room for the spring to flex, at least not like crosmans or other Chinese pistons  that are fully open/  so the plastic will work even better

[Rickey]

I tried using a milk jug for my plastic sleeve in my RWS 34 but I still get the spring sound.  I did as was written and put molly on the inside of the sleeve next to the spring but to no avail.  I was thinking about getting some clear hose that will fit in the same place like what is used in PCP depingers and put that in there.  Ant thoughts?  The gun is doing well would just like to get away with the spring buzz.  Polished the ends of the main spring and lubed it.  The ends with molly and the cocking slot with white industrial grease.  I can't remember the name White something.  Seems to stay in there pretty well and you don't have the feel of the cocking lever sliding over the spring.  Deburred the inside of the compression tube with a dremel and a fine grinding wheel.  Couldn't find the rubber grinders buty it seemed to do alright.  Had to use an extension piece to reach down to the cocking slot at slow speed so as to not heat up the steel.  The only thing I didn't do is polish the piston.  I'll have to get me some more cotton wheels to use with my jewelers rouge.

[Raizer]

It sounds like you did everything right to me, but I'm certainly no expert!
I used a thick moly grease on the outside of the spring including between the spring and the outer sleeve, it wasn't a thick coating just "spider webbed" over the outside of the coils with a old paint brush.
And then Honda moly 60 on the flattened spring ends and between the tophat and the inner sleeve (Since your in the US JM moly is meant to be the best)
The plastic fit snugly between the outside of the spring and the piston and the inside of the spring and the tophat. Milk bottle plastic was only a hair thicker than what I used but was just too thick to fit, so if your spring is still loose on the top hat or in the piston then I would try a thicker plastic to take up the gap.

[z28rod]

 Raizer, That is one serious group there and at 15m to boot, most are at 10m. Thats a real eye popper for sure.

[Raizer]

I was cheating a bit though by resting the action on the corner of my BBQ table to help steady the gun 
Will try 10m while standing tomorrow
The grouping is definitely tighter than what I was getting from the Gamo and Daisy pellets I had been using!