Brand New R9

[oakey]

Twing Twang Buzz Bang. I think this gun needs some love. To buzzy for me. Any suggestions?

Thanks

Oak

[thekid]

 Flatten and sand the spring ends, then light coat of moly, a thrust washer coated with ptfe,placed  inside the piston before the spring is put back in.
Heavy tar on the spring, that remains inside the piston.
Or a vortek kit or a Air rifle headquarters kit.
The lubes come from Air rifle headquarters .com

[jdub]

Vortek PG2 kit.  Killed all the twang in mine.  It now has a very smooth shot cycle. 

[Protos]

Congrats Oakey,

Put up some pics,  how was your fit and finish ?

[oakey]

I was thinking about sending it out to John Thomas in PA for the works. I spoke with him today it's gonna cost about $230.00 with shipping.  I might not be able to do that. I looked at a Vortek HW95-PG2 Tune Kit about 100.00 bucks shipped it comes with spring lube. I can swing that 100.00. I swapped out the trigger on my Benjamin XL1100 for a Charlie da Tuna it was cake. Just wondering if this job is too much for me. Does anyone know if I need a spring Compressor for a new R9? Or anything outside what is in this kit to smooth this beauty out. 

Does anyone have an opinion on what kit would better serve my needs or which kits you have worked with I went to both Vortek and Air rifle headquarters kit? Suggestions, opinions and facts greatly appreciated.  Also I am not sure how to put up pic's?

Thanks
Oaks

[Rico14]

Both of my R9's have the Vortek kit. Shot cycle is nice and crisp now. The Vortek kit will also give you a little extra fpe. If you have any questions shoot Tom an email at Vortek. He will answer all your questions

[Kailua]

Some have stated working on the R-9 is pretty easy.

[oakey]

Kailua thanks I was just watching this. I wanted input from folks on the board who had experience with this gun. These three videos are very helpful. Really I would love to send it out to John Thomas because I have heard so much great stuff about his work and to boot I spoke to him today he is a quality individual and I believe from what is said he is very good at what he does.   

[jdub]

Some have stated working on the R-9 is pretty easy.

I think they're easy to work on but please be aware that the rifle in the posted video is the lower powered UK version.   I would (and do) use some kind of spring compressor for the US version

[oakey]

I am shipping it off today to John in PA

[oakey]

The R9 is shipped! The check is in the mail.

[Petey]

Congrats on the new shooter.....
Just a word of advise ....Before you get too involved in it .. Break it down and inspect your compression tube for pitting.
It appears some units in this latest batch have some issues.  I know it  because it was evident in the last two units I received.
PA made it right, but the issue is still something HW has to address.  When all is said and and done, I love my R9.

Happy shootin to ya!
Petey

[oakey]

Sure John in PA will be checking over this gun with the utmost of care. But I am praying there is no damage like this.


Thanks
Oaks 

[nced]

Twing Twang Buzz Bang. I think this gun needs some love. To buzzy for me. Any suggestions?

Thanks

Oak

I've owned, tuned, sold a bunch of R9s (tuned and sold two to my brother and one to my uncle) and I currently own a recent R9 with the new design cocking shoe and barrel latch detail. After receiving the new R9 last year I also noticed that it was a pretty twangy and rough cockier straight from the box. Perhaps all my R9s through the years were that way when new but I didn't notice the roughness as much since I've only shot home tuned R9 for a couple decades, and I hadn't bought a new R9 for years. LOL, prior to my newest R9 I paid "only" $339.99 for the previous R9 as this pic of the first patch pulled through the bore before shooting shows......

While the previous R9s were twangy I used to shoot a few groups in "factory twang mode" and found that while the shot cycle was a "BOINK/BUZZZZ", the accuracy was always excellent and EVERY R9 I owned would shoot five CPLs into a 1/2" diameter circle at 30 yards. Since I prefer a "boinkless/buzzless" shot cycle I broke down my later R9s for a home tune without even shooting a few "before tune" groups.

Anywhoo.......back to my newest R9............
LOL..... I didn't even do a chrony test so I have no idea what the velocity was from the box. As mentioned, previously I home tune all my springers using tight fitting Delrin guides and I also have been fitting oring sealed piston caps to my HW springers (I use both a HW77 and the R9). After fitting the new R9 with a spring kit based on an old Maccari light wire spring (34 coils of .120 wire) and the oring sealed piston cap I was getting an accurate CPL velocity of around 870fps, plus after shooting a box of CPLs (1250 count boxes) I found that the cocking action of the new R9 has smoothed up very nicely, and the home fitted spring guides have killed all twang and vibration. By the way, you can get the same "twang/vibration" killing by installing a Vortek or Maccari spring kit without the need to "roll your own" if you have a bit of mechanical ability and can follow a few instructions.

Recently I did switch from the traditional "tar and molly paste" lubing system I used for decades. I stripped my new R9 of all "traditional lubes" and relubed with the newer, expensive, NON-DIESELING "high tech lube" called Krytox GPL205. and after a couple thousand shots the cocking action has gone from "rough and gritty" to "smooth as butter"! Personally, i attribute most of the smoothness gains to simply shooting the gun, however the cocking action has improved with the Krytox application.

Personally, I prefer the design and function of the new R9 vs the older models, but I've used the older designed R9 for decades with no issues as long as they were properly lubed!
Here a pic of my new R9 Hunter Class Field Target rig that I also use for everything from plinking to squirrel hunting........

[nced]

Here are a few pics of my most recent .177 R9............
             

[oakey]

Thanks nced. I like that rifle she is a varmint killing machine you have her in .22?
The squirrels were running all over my back yard this morning. With a can of JSB EXACT JUMBO Diabolo's and my XL 1100 .22 sitting next to the sliding glass door I couldn't do a thing with the kids in the kitchen and by the time they were up and gone so were those furry little rats.

I shot maybe 500+ through my R9 before sending it off to be tuned. I am new to high end air pellet rifles. I am very mechanically inclined but I figured John from PA will do a better job then me. I am going to start by tuning and lubing my XL. I swapped the trigger out of that one with a Charlie da Tuna GRT-lll made a world of a difference.

You use the Krytox GPL205 instead of all the other lubes or do you use a combo?

I know there is a lube kit on the Maccari site.

Thanks
Oaks     

[nced]

Thanks nced. I like that rifle she is a varmint killing machine you have her in .22?
The squirrels were running all over my back yard this morning. With a can of JSB EXACT JUMBO Diabolo's and my XL 1100 .22 sitting next to the sliding glass door I couldn't do a thing with the kids in the kitchen and by the time they were up and gone so were those furry little rats.

I shot maybe 500+ through my R9 before sending it off to be tuned. I am new to high end air pellet rifles. I am very mechanically inclined but I figured John from PA will do a better job then me. I am going to start by tuning and lubing my XL. I swapped the trigger out of that one with a Charlie da Tuna GRT-lll made a world of a difference.

You use the Krytox GPL205 instead of all the other lubes or do you use a combo?

I know there is a lube kit on the Maccari site.

Thanks
Oaks     

Oaks.........I started with .177 HW springers a few decades ago, then had a one year shooting/hunting session when I used both the .20 and .22 barrels on my R9 (the .22 was a R1 barrel that I had chopped and choked), then reverted back to .177 cal which I preferred for all my shooting and have used since.

I can pretty reliably "brain shoot" a squirrel at 40 yards under field conditions with the flatter shooting .177 pellets, however with either the .20 or .22 cal pellet in a springer of the R9 power level I had issues with guessing the proper hold over past 30 yards to compensate for the loopier trajectory. I do have to say that out to 30 yards it didn't make a nickles difference what barrel I used, but past 30 yards the .177 was more reliable for ME.

I guess it's different strokes for different folks because there are many that praise the R9 in .20 and .22 cal, I'm just not one of them.

[oakey]

all three of my rifles are .22 cal. When I first ordered the R9 it was .20 cal but Pyramid Air kept changing the delivery dates so when  they put the delivery date off for another month I canceled the order and got the .22 which was in stock. The R9 is now on it's way back to me. PA John finished it. It's now sitting in the Post Office in PA waiting to get shipped out to NYS. Excited!

Oakey 

[nced]

Thanks nced. I like that rifle she is a varmint killing machine you have her in .22?
The squirrels were running all over my back yard this morning. With a can of JSB EXACT JUMBO Diabolo's and my XL 1100 .22 sitting next to the sliding glass door I couldn't do a thing with the kids in the kitchen and by the time they were up and gone so were those furry little rats.

I shot maybe 500+ through my R9 before sending it off to be tuned. I am new to high end air pellet rifles. I am very mechanically inclined but I figured John from PA will do a better job then me. I am going to start by tuning and lubing my XL. I swapped the trigger out of that one with a Charlie da Tuna GRT-lll made a world of a difference.

You use the Krytox GPL205 instead of all the other lubes or do you use a combo?

I know there is a lube kit on the Maccari site.

Thanks
Oaks     

Ooooppppssss.....I forgot to mention that my newest R9 is internally and externally lubed with only Krytox 205, except for the RemOil for wiping the gun down after use. Matter of fact, before re-lubing with the Krytox I stripped all existing lubes with brake cleaner, then applied the Krytox GPL205. Really wonderful stuff that won't diesel, it's wonderfully slick, and it's longer lasting than the molly paste I used to use.

[oakey]

Just got back the R9 from PA tuned. The shot cycle is amazing no more twing twang. No more funky circular reverberations durning shot cycle. It is crisp and clean. I have not checked it for accuracy just got a few shots off out the back door. 

Before tune stats: with 14.6 beeman F.T.S pellets
Average was 654.0.
High was 660.2
Low 648.9 
the gun was super accurate prior to tune.
Trigger pull average 2lbs 3.4oz

After tune Stats
Average was 725.3
High 729.5
Low 721.9
Did not check accuracy yet.
trigger pull average 1lb 1oz very light

can't wait to slap up some targets and accuracy test. John said accuracy was good.
Excited
Oakey