Newbie question on R9 in .177, .20 or .22 format

[AJK 547]

Newbie needs advice on new R9 and which format that makes sense...

Currently, I have a Stoeger X20S (.177) that is stock, but will add the CharlieDaTuna GTXIII trigger, one-piece mount, etc. to extract better consistency.  This rifle will be used for both casual tgt. practice and small game hunting. . Next, I bought a Ruger Air Hawk, added a one-piece mount, Bushnell Banner 4-12X40 AO scope, shot ~ 1,200 rnds. through it.  It destroyed the scope in about 700 rnds...  inconsistent accuracy due to action screws constantly loosening up (even with Loctite Blue).

Soooooooo, I'm upset with my prior airgun decisions and like some honest opinions on the Beeman R9 in .177 or .20 or .22 format.  Again, I'm a stickler on 'consistent' accuracy, will use the air rifle for target and field work in the 10 - 35yd. range. Also, I'm getting used to the 'artillery hold' for these springers.  I also realize that the .177 format gives me by far the best pellet selection, but I'm open to either the .20 (hardly any pellet selection available it seems) or the .22 for better knockdown capabilities.

I expect/need this R9 to perform in the 0.25" CTC range @ 25 yds. for humane kills.

If you had the opportunity to purchase a new R9 (combo) and use it for target practice and small game hunting up to 35yds. what format would you select and why???


Art (Newbie)   

[palonej]

Hello Art and welcome!!
I have a 98, same action different furniture, in 177.
I chose 177 for that power plant for the trajectory, pellet choice and I mostly target shoot at 40 yards out to 75.
The rifle is just amazing!
The difference will be seen and felt the second you pick it up.
Extremely well made and built like a tank!
I had a Vortek HO kit installed with a tune and you just can't ask for more!
The .20 would be great if there was a better selection of pellets.
The .22 might suit you well also because of the shorter distances you'll be shooting.

Whichever cal you choose this rifle will have a silly grin stuck on your face!!
Good luck and let us know what you decide!
Joe

[AJK 547]

I appreciate the info. palonej!

Question, does your R9 in .177 format have the 8 land or 12 land bbl.   I heard somewhere that a while back RWS was trying to save costs and outsourced their bbl. production to China (12 land) and got into quality control issues with respect to accuracy on the D34 models...  I just want to be sure I'm getting a German quality bbl. on the Beeman R9 and no Chinese repop!

Also, is your R9 less harsh on scopes?  The Ruger AH simply destroyed a new Bushnell Banner 4-12X40 AO after ~700 rnds.

Art 

[JimL911]

I would go for the 95 as it gives you the option of using sights. At full power I did not enjoy my .177. Dropping it to 12 fpe it is a dream to shoot.
.20 is easier to load and would be smoother to shoot at full power. All you need for pellets are FTT's or JSB's.
Both my .20's shoot great with either.

With the Air Hawk did you change the seals? If it is loosening Loctite I would look at them.

[grauhanen]

Question, does your R9 in .177 format have the 8 land or 12 land bbl.   I heard somewhere that a while back RWS was trying to save costs and outsourced their bbl. production to China (12 land) and got into quality control issues with respect to accuracy on the D34 models...  I just want to be sure I'm getting a German quality bbl. on the Beeman R9 and no Chinese repop!

Also, is your R9 less harsh on scopes?  The Ruger AH simply destroyed a new Bushnell Banner 4-12X40 AO after ~700 rnds.

The RWS or, more accurately, the Diana barrels -- whether German or Chinese -- are not used on the Beeman R9.  The Beeman is made by Weihrauch and is the same as the Weihrauch HW95; the Beeman has no iron sights and has a muzzle break or some such thing.  RWS/Diana and Weihrauch are very different.

The HW95/Beeman R9 will both do the trick for you at 25 yards.  I would be choosing the .177 myself as it has plenty of power and has a excellent selection of pellets that are less costly than in .22 cal.  The .20 doesn't have an adequate variety of pellets available.

A Weihrauch-made rifle is inherently easier on scopes than the typical Chinese manufactured air rifle.  The Ruger Air Hawk has a harsher recoil and it's not surprising that the Banner scope, which is at best suitable for light to medium recoil, didn't last long.

[palonej]

I appreciate the info. palonej!

Question, does your R9 in .177 format have the 8 land or 12 land bbl.   I heard somewhere that a while back RWS was trying to save costs and outsourced their bbl. production to China (12 land) and got into quality control issues with respect to accuracy on the D34 models...  I just want to be sure I'm getting a German quality bbl. on the Beeman R9 and no Chinese repop!

Also, is your R9 less harsh on scopes?  The Ruger AH simply destroyed a new Bushnell Banner 4-12X40 AO after ~700 rnds.

Art 

Art!!!
The R9 is made by Weirauch!!! The 34 is RWS.
HUGE difference and no chance of a Chinese barrel.
I put around 60,000 rounds thru her and never had a scope issue. I mounted a 6-24x56 Sidewinder on top of BKL double strap rings.....never budged.

[Booger]

I know you are asking about R9 in .177 .20 & .22, which I can not help you with, but I have had HW97K in both .22 & .177 and the .177 was more accurate in my situation. I shoot targets from 30 to 70 yards and occasionally up to 100 yards. At 30 yards they both will take pests well with the .22 offering a bit more power.

[Yak54]

Hi Art

I am the rather recent owner of the Beeman R9 and from what I've seen so far the 1/4" CTC groups are doable at 25 yds when the shooter does his part.  I only have around 200 pellets thru her so far, but I've had a couple of groups like this.  I'm still learning how to shoot it, and trying to find what pellet it likes best and I fully expect to get many more 1/4" CTC groups as I progress.  I am the weak link in the equation, not the rifle.    Perhaps our friend Ed Canoles will chime in and show you some of his shot up targets, which will verify the accuracy of the R9.

[wimpanzee]

I really like the R9 in .177. Mines hitting 14fpe, and shoots very well with baracudas and polymags. I prefer the smaller caliber at this power level for better trajectories past 40 yards.

A few hundred rounds in, I'm now debating whether it needs a pg2 kit or not, it has smoothed out considerably - it was a bit twangy at first.

[nced]

Newbie needs advice on new R9 and which format that makes sense...

Currently, I have a Stoeger X20S (.177) that is stock, but will add the CharlieDaTuna GTXIII trigger, one-piece mount, etc. to extract better consistency.  This rifle will be used for both casual tgt. practice and small game hunting. . Next, I bought a Ruger Air Hawk, added a one-piece mount, Bushnell Banner 4-12X40 AO scope, shot ~ 1,200 rnds. through it.  It destroyed the scope in about 700 rnds...  inconsistent accuracy due to action screws constantly loosening up (even with Loctite Blue).

Soooooooo, I'm upset with my prior airgun decisions and like some honest opinions on the Beeman R9 in .177 or .20 or .22 format.  Again, I'm a stickler on 'consistent' accuracy, will use the air rifle for target and field work in the 10 - 35yd. range. Also, I'm getting used to the 'artillery hold' for these springers.  I also realize that the .177 format gives me by far the best pellet selection, but I'm open to either the .20 (hardly any pellet selection available it seems) or the .22 for better knockdown capabilities.

I expect/need this R9 to perform in the 0.25" CTC range @ 25 yds. for humane kills.

If you had the opportunity to purchase a new R9 (combo) and use it for target practice and small game hunting up to 35yds. what format would you select and why???


Art (Newbie)   

I can only give me experiences with R9s over a couple decades shooting .177, .20 & .22 cal. There are KNOWLEDGEABLE airgunners that disagree with me, however these are MY personal opinions!


I started out my adult airgunning with a .177 HW50 in the mid 70s and then sold it to finance a .177 HW35. After the HW35 I bought a .177 Beeman R10 using it for a few years! Then I bought a .177 Beeman R9 and I was perfectly content with the .177 pellet, however I read a lot about how the .20 cal was "mo bettah" for squirrel hunting so I bought a .20 R9.

I used the .20 cal with Beeman FTS pellets (JSBs didn't exist back then) and even did pretty good with it at a couple DIFTA field target match shooting the "hunter class". The problem I had with the .20 was that the pellet trajectory was very loopy compared to the .177 R9 unless the gun had a VERY high stress and jumpy tune (FTTs @ 825fps)! Problem is that I didn't find it was any more effective on squirrels than the .177 cal I used previously. The .20 pellet did bust up the squirrel more than the .177, however squirrel with a bit off the mark hit still travelled quite a few yards after the hit to get into a "tree hole".....just like an off the mark hit with the .177 pellet. I guess I shouldn't have bee too surprised because I've had more than a few squirrels that were drilled by a 100+fpe hit from my rimfire and still travel several yards to get into a "squirrel hole" to die. Then I read a post claiming that a .20 cal Beeman Crow Magnum pellet in excess of 14fpe ME would enlarge the killzone size by 50%. Well....I tried the .20 CM/R9 combo at 17fpe (a jumpy high stress R9 tune) and I used that setup for a whole week of WV squirrel sniping! While a solid double lung hit with that rig was "pure poison", I also noticed that my "hit to retrieve ratio" for the week was a pitiful 50% compared to 90+% with the .177 cal and moderate tune level. What the week long hunting with the .20 CM proved was that the killzone WASN'T expanded by 50% as claimed by the "guru" since the accuracy of the CM pellet was rather poor past 25 yards and I had a lot of "off the mark" hits which tested the "increased killzone size"!

Next I bought a .22 cal R1 barrel because I thought the larger pellet might be more effective on squirrels than the .20 cal. I first sent the barrel to be "chopped and choked", then used it for squirrel hunting in WV. Again, the trajectory was very loopy which made the correct holdover really critical past 25 yards, plus again I didn't see where an "off the mark" hit was a .22 pellet was any better than a similar hit with a flatter shooting .177 pellet. I guess this shouldn't have been surprising since Ive had more than a few squirrels truck it for rather long distances after being smacked with 100+fpe of 40 grain rimfire power in my PB days!

With my .177 R9 I can pretty reliably brain a squirrel at 40 yards under field conditions, however with my range guesstimate/holdover accuracy skills using the .20 and .22 pellet my max distance was pretty much reduced to the zero distance (due to the loopy trajectory I suppose), so I see no reason to hamper myself with only "zero distance shots" using a R9 powered springer! I sold both the .20 R9 barrel and the chopped/choked .22 R1 barrel reverting back to the .177!

Anywhoo......I gave up on the .20 and .22 cal barrels for my R9 a couple decades ago never to look back, however I've read quite a few posts touting the advantages of the .20 & .22 cals, but that hasn't been my experience with a R9 power level springer!

Actually......my experience is that out to 30 yards with the R9 it doesn't make a nickels difference what cal you choose!

Concerning the need for 1/4" ctc grouping at 25 yards.......IMHO, even 1/2" ctc at that distance will give adequate accuracy for "squirrel head sniping" at 35 yards! Here is a casual target I shot checking the trajectory of a certain tune level for one of the R9s I owned. This target shows 175 consecutive shots at distances from 10 yards to 50 yards shot hunter class field target style (sitting on a bucket resting the gun on cross sticks) with the same rig I use for still hunting.......
Uploaded at Snapagogo.com
Multiple 5 shot groups were done at each distance to get a better idea of my actual accuracy level when casually shooting. Casual since I was only checking out the pellet trajectory. The heavy dashed lines are 1" apart, the light dotted lines are either 1/8" or 1/4" apart, the larger bull diameter is 1/2" and the smaller bull diameter is 1/4".

[nced]

Hi Art

I am the rather recent owner of the Beeman R9 and from what I've seen so far the 1/4" CTC groups are doable at 25 yds when the shooter does his part.  I only have around 200 pellets thru her so far, but I've had a couple of groups like this.  I'm still learning how to shoot it, and trying to find what pellet it likes best and I fully expect to get many more 1/4" CTC groups as I progress.  I am the weak link in the equation, not the rifle.    Perhaps our friend Ed Canoles will chime in and show you some of his shot up targets, which will verify the accuracy of the R9.

Hi Art

I am the rather recent owner of the Beeman R9 and from what I've seen so far the 1/4" CTC groups are doable at 25 yds when the shooter does his part.  I only have around 200 pellets thru her so far, but I've had a couple of groups like this.  I'm still learning how to shoot it, and trying to find what pellet it likes best and I fully expect to get many more 1/4" CTC groups as I progress.  I am the weak link in the equation, not the rifle.    Perhaps our friend Ed Canoles will chime in and show you some of his shot up targets, which will verify the accuracy of the R9.

Newbie needs advice on new R9 and which format that makes sense...

Currently, I have a Stoeger X20S (.177) that is stock, but will add the CharlieDaTuna GTXIII trigger, one-piece mount, etc. to extract better consistency.  This rifle will be used for both casual tgt. practice and small game hunting. . Next, I bought a Ruger Air Hawk, added a one-piece mount, Bushnell Banner 4-12X40 AO scope, shot ~ 1,200 rnds. through it.  It destroyed the scope in about 700 rnds...  inconsistent accuracy due to action screws constantly loosening up (even with Loctite Blue).

Soooooooo, I'm upset with my prior airgun decisions and like some honest opinions on the Beeman R9 in .177 or .20 or .22 format.  Again, I'm a stickler on 'consistent' accuracy, will use the air rifle for target and field work in the 10 - 35yd. range. Also, I'm getting used to the 'artillery hold' for these springers.  I also realize that the .177 format gives me by far the best pellet selection, but I'm open to either the .20 (hardly any pellet selection available it seems) or the .22 for better knockdown capabilities.

I expect/need this R9 to perform in the 0.25" CTC range @ 25 yds. for humane kills.

If you had the opportunity to purchase a new R9 (combo) and use it for target practice and small game hunting up to 35yds. what format would you select and why???


Art (Newbie)   

"Ed Canoles will chime in and show you some of his shot up targets"
Ooooooo....thanks for the chance to post some of my targets AGAIN all shot sittin' on a bucket restin' tha R9 on cross sticks!
Shot last November. 4 out of 5 JSBs went into a 3/8" ctc group at 50 yards with the second shot opening the group to 5/8" ctc
Uploaded at Snapagogo.com

15 out of 20 CPLs through a 3/4" killzone at 50 yards.......
Uploaded at Snapagogo.com

3/8" x 1" wide at 50 yards.......
Uploaded at Snapagogo.com

Next 5 shots on paper from the same shooting position........
Uploaded at Snapagogo.com

Notice the CPL group in the upper left hand corner of the target. The squares are 1" x 1"........
Uploaded at Snapagogo.com

LOL....I do believe that my .177 R9 is up to the task......but certainly not necessarily the shooter (ME) at all times!

[AJK 547]

Thanks to all for the excellent info. and advice!  I was leaning towards the .177 format for the same reasons as pellet selection, flatter trajectory, etc. vs. the .20 or .22 variants and everyone's insight is certainly leaning me in that direction.

FWIW, my 'field' work is done in a very dense natural forest on my property and clean shots over 35yds. is nearly impossible, hence the 10 - 35yd. working field range.  Also, I demand 'humane' kill on everything I take and enjoyed seeing nced's 'trajectory' target testing his R9 tune.   

nced - Your tgt. states you set 'zero' on the scope @ 30 yds.(for your tuned R9) but I see the 17yd. POI's at a nice zero, then elevate and fall back to 'zero' at the 30yd. distance.  The reason why I ask is after I reviewed some .177 ballistics charts, I zeroed the scope on my Ruger AH @ 17yds. then let it give me reasonable trajectory results over the 12yd to 30yd. range very similar to your own results.  I'm just trying to understand everyone's thought process!


Below are a couple tgts. @ 21 yds. (Ruger A H) but the 'flyer' is unacceptable to me:






Again, I'm a newbie to air rifles and really appreciate everyone's thoughtful responses!

Art     

 

[nced]

Thanks to all for the excellent info. and advice!  I was leaning towards the .177 format for the same reasons as pellet selection, flatter trajectory, etc. vs. the .20 or .22 variants and everyone's insight is certainly leaning me in that direction.

FWIW, my 'field' work is done in a very dense natural forest on my property and clean shots over 35yds. is nearly impossible, hence the 10 - 35yd. working field range.  Also, I demand 'humane' kill on everything I take and enjoyed seeing nced's 'trajectory' target testing his R9 tune.   

nced - Your tgt. states you set 'zero' on the scope @ 30 yds.(for your tuned R9) but I see the 17yd. POI's at a nice zero, then elevate and fall back to 'zero' at the 30yd. distance.  The reason why I ask is after I reviewed some .177 ballistics charts, I zeroed the scope on my Ruger AH @ 17yds. then let it give me reasonable trajectory results over the 12yd to 30yd. range very similar to your own results.  I'm just trying to understand everyone's thought process!


Below are a couple tgts. @ 21 yds. (Ruger A H) but the 'flyer' is unacceptable to me:






Again, I'm a newbie to air rifles and really appreciate everyone's thoughtful responses!

Art     

 

You're a real good shot with your Ruger Air Hawk! Last Christmas I bought a Remington Express with the hope of turning it into a low cost hunter class field target rig.....so far it's too inaccurate no matter what modifications I've made!

My zero is very close to the apex of the pellet trajectory so I have two zeros....a near zero and a far zero with about 1/8" rise above the aimpoint at roughly 26 yards. This means that from about 18 yards to 30 yards I don't have to mess with holdover aiming, simply "aim on" and "minute of squirrel head accuracy" will do the rest. This explains a bit why the .20 and .22 cal fell out of favor with me. The loopier trajectory "squished" the "near zero and far zero" together in a rather short range forcing me to be REAL ACCURATE guessing the holdover for shots closer or longer than the two zero distances.

I also shoot field target matches in the hunter class where only holdover type aiming is allowed and "rangefinding finding by scope" is allowed at 12x max. The targets are placed at unknown distances from 10 yards to 55 yards having killzones from about 3/8" diameter to 2" diameter. There is als a 20fpe power limit in FT to keep the targets themselves from being destroyed too quickly. The object of the game is to put a pellet through the killzone which trips the paddle causing the target to fall, thus earning a point. Focusing the scope when shooting FT gives the shooter a clue to where to hold for different distances to compensate for the pellet trajectory. Some folk in other than hunter class mark their score AO or Side Wheel with the focus distance when the target is in sharp focus, then refer to a "dope sheet" to know how many mill dots high to aim. This is almost like the military snipers do and I like to think of FT matches as "10th scale shooting". While most FT shooters mark their AO/Side Wheels with yardage I only mark my SW with aiming points to get a handle on how many mil dots to hold.

A couple decades ago my brother and I started shooting field target with only one purpose in mind......get som off season practice for the fall West Virginia squirrel season and actually have fun doing it by shooting with other airgunners. The normal "sitting position" used for most FT shooters had little in common with my squirrel sniping so my brother and I only shot "standing class" for a couple years. Then I discovered the "hunter class" where the shooter was allowed to sit on a "bucket" and use terrain features between the lane markers (or the lane markers themselves) for aiming and the hunter class became "and instant hit" for my brother and myself.

The point of all this is that I use the exact same equipment and techniques for hunter class field target shooting as I do for STILL HUNTING  squirrels in the late season and it's tough to stalk due to bare trees and skiddish squirrels from being hunted and chased by redtail hawks. For still hunting squirrels in WV I woulf set up my "sittin' bucket" at the base of a comfy tree trunk, scope rangefind all trees around my at 40 yards at 12x, rest the .177 R9 on my cross sticks, and then wait till the squirrels crossed the "magical 40 yard line". I hardly ever shot squirrels at 40 yards preferring to wait till the squirrel got within my "near/far zero" before taking a shot. Point being..... I set up my R9 to have the widest spread between the near zero and far zero.

Here is the side wheel marking I'm currently using for my hunter class field target shooting......
Uploaded at Snapagogo.com
Not fancy but after focusing at 12x if the split between the top and bottom half of my scope mount lines up on or between the "+" marks I aim "dead on", if the split lines up with "." I know to hold "one dot high", if the split lines up with ".|." I know to hold between the first and second lower dots, if the ".." lines up then I know to hold "two dots high"......so on and so forth. At only 12x the depth of field past 35 yards gets pretty deep so the exact holdover is rather imprecise, however up to 25 yards when the pellet is rising rapidly to the line of sight the scope "range find" is more precise than a LRF that rounds off the range to 1 yard!

By the way....this is the reticule I'm using with my 3-12x44 Optisan Viper scope......
Uploaded at Snapagogo.com
The mill dot and half mill dot slashes make it easy to aim between the first and second lower "dot". Here is the mill dot reticule of the cheap 4-16x40 Center Point scope I've used in the past........
Uploaded at Snapagogo.com

Concerning the H&N FTT pellets, a lot of shooters like them but those from the 4.52mm size tins I bought were rather inaccurate (quite a few fliers) from my .177 R9 due to the very insistent fit in the leade. I spent a week individually measuring the head sizes of 2500 FTTs and I found that the heads varied as much as .005 in diameter. I also had one tin of 4.50mm FTTs and some pellets in the 4.52mm tin were SMALLER than those in the 4.50mm tin and some in the 4.50mm tin were larger than some in the 4.52 tin. LOL....made me wonder why H&N even put them in differently labelled tins!
Uploaded at Snapagogo.com

For a couple decades I shot only lubed 7.9 grain Crosman premiers from the 1250 count die lot marked and dated boxes, however the last two cases I bought had excess parting compound on them which necessitated washing prior to lubing since the hard lead allot CPs tended to foul the bore quickly unless lubed. After the last two "dirty cases" were used up I started searching for a pellet that didn't need to be washed yet still gave the same accuracy from my R9 as the CPL. The first pellet alternative tried was the H&N FTT which didn't pan out too well, then I tried the 4.52mm JSB Exact pellets and I've been using them ever since!

[AJK 547]

nced - many thanks for taking the time and explaining your logic! 

I'll be looking at an R9 in the near future and was wondering what the air-rifle 'prep' is for the R9's?  Normally, I carefully clean the bbl., torque tune the action screws, adjust the trigger pull wt./travel/etc., carefully mount the scope, Loctite all action screws, then do a series of pellet tests and determine rifle 'hold sensitivity' of these springers.

Anything important I'm missing when I break in a new R9???

Art

[Yak54]

OK Art, now you should be all set to get that R9 !  Give Kevin or Craig a call at Straight Shooters.  They have them in stock, both with and without a scope.  You will have a good experience, I'm sure.   

[ptpalpha]

Late to the party as usual, and with Ed's input there's not much to add since he's done literally decades of research with R9's.
Like most responders, I'd go R9 (I don't use iron sights and prefer the stock of the R9 over the HW95) in .177.  .20 cal is something I see myself getting down the road, as I honestly think it's the perfect marriage of the .177 and the .22, but for now, at least, I'm all .177.  Chances are that a .20cal HW/Beeman is going to like JSB or H&N pellets, so once you figure out which variety it likes the limited pellet selection wouldn't be a factor as those two brands are readily available online.
Back to your .177 R9...once you get it, if you're comfortable breaking it down, I'd recommend a quick lube tune to get rid of any over or under lubing from the factory.  While you're in there, check for any sharp edges (cocking slot, compression tube entry, etc) and hone those down.  Relube with Maccari products or full-on Krytox, and you're starting with a smooth, non-dieseling, no-twang springer.
Or you can just give the bore a good scrubbing and shoot her till the dieseling and twanging disappear....your choice.  The R9 is a superb platform to build from; it'll do anything you ask of it, and if taken care of will last a lifetime.  Great, great rifles.
Here's a link to some incredible customized R9's for you to drool over:
http://www.springgunning.com/Gallery.html

[nced]

nced - many thanks for taking the time and explaining your logic! 

I'll be looking at an R9 in the near future and was wondering what the air-rifle 'prep' is for the R9's?  Normally, I carefully clean the bbl., torque tune the action screws, adjust the trigger pull wt./travel/etc., carefully mount the scope, Loctite all action screws, then do a series of pellet tests and determine rifle 'hold sensitivity' of these springers.

Anything important I'm missing when I break in a new R9???

Art

So far I haven't had a .177 R9 that wouldn't shoot the 7.9 grain CPLs accurately, however the one I currently own will shoot the 8.4 grain JSB Exact as accurately as a CPL, plus they don't need washing and lubing like the last two cases of CPLs I bought.

I do have to mention however that the R9 I currently own was a rather "rough cocker" straight from the box and it twanged like a West Virginia screen door in a wind storm. The twang didn't seem to affect the accuracy too much....the noise was simply very annoying to me when shot. Now, after 10s of thousands of shots, the gun cocks smoothly and with a nced home turned fitted guide there is absolutely no twang or vibration! The factory R9 spring guide fit to the spring is real loose so they twang when shot due to the oscillation of un-dampened spring coils. As mentioned.......I haven't found that the twang affects the accuracy much (if at all) but it is really annoying to me! I do know that there are a couple folk on the GTA that have shot my R9 so perhaps they can vouch for the shot cycle.

It seems that part of the "sales pitch" for the current crop of springers from most vendors is "1000 fps". Well....the R9 is "rated" at 935fps but I haven't owned a R9 that lived up to that billing with "normal weight pellets". That's just fine with me because I deliberately detune my R9s to shoot at 13 1/2ish fpe (8.4 grain JSB Exact at 850fps) because the shot cycle is really nice at the lower power and the gun isn't excessively hold sensitive. That's just my personal preference and I'm not advising you to mess with the power level till you have some R9 "shootin' time" under your belt.     

One thing I do have to mention is to check the barrel pivot tension when you get the gun! EVERY R9 that I've bought over the years has had a much too tight (IMHO) barrel pivot tension adjustment! An excessively tight barrel pivot tension will tend to gall the thin barrel pivot shims if not properly lubed and cause rather quick seating on the shims even when properly lubed. Years ago Beeman used to give advice to adjust the barrel pivot tension tight enough so the cocked barrel would just HOLD at any position in the pivot arc. Well....I personally believe that this is too tight and I adjust my barrel pivot tension till the cocked barrel will just FALL from any position in the pivot arc. The poi WILL be affected by changes in the barrel pivot tension and the looser setting I use maintains the pivot tension over a longer period of time.

None of the R9s I've owned "liked" to be bench rested on solid shot bags (they shot "patterns" at 30 yards), however if I put my hand between the stock forearm and bag making sure that the butt of the stock is on my shoulder without touching the bench I could shoot some pretty good groups. You obviously are a pretty good "springer shooter" so all this "gun support advice" probably isn't very helpful.

[AJK 547]

Well, I took a long hike to the only Beeman distributor in the area where he had a .20 cal R9 to look at.  To make a long story short, I spent a bit of time reviewing the rifle, and came away with the impression that it certainly is worth the asking ~ $550 for the R9 in .177 in the Elite package with scope.  The bluing wasn't deep but still nice, the stock seemed to be make out of beech??? and had good CNC'd checkering, etc. etc.  Breaking the bbl. open was certainly smoother and with significant better precision feel than the Ruger AH or Stoeger X20S I'm learning on...  Now, to my question:

How in the world do you put the R9 back on 'safety' once you've taken it off to take a shot and then don't take that shot???  The only way I could put the R9 back on 'safety' was to break open the bbl. again, hold onto the bbl. .... pull the trigger... and decompress the spring which seems to reset the rifle back on safety!  Is this Newbie missing something very obvious???   

nced - I too noticed the bbl. pivot tension was very light but noticed some 'galling' on the block holding the bbl.  I'll need to follow your advice on extremely light tension adjustment on that pivot assembly.  Also, could you let me in on what you set the 'torque settings' for the action screws to start with?

Art   

[grauhanen]

How in the world do you put the R9 back on 'safety' once you've taken it off to take a shot and then don't take that shot???  The only way I could put the R9 back on 'safety' was to break open the bbl. again, hold onto the bbl. .... pull the trigger... and decompress the spring which seems to reset the rifle back on safety!  Is this Newbie missing something very obvious???   

Once the safety is off it cannot be reset.  It is possible to get a resettable safety for the Rekord trigger system.  The question is from where?

[BigTinBoat]

  Now, to my question:

How in the world do you put the R9 back on 'safety' once you've taken it off to take a shot and then don't take that shot???  The only way I could put the R9 back on 'safety' was to break open the bbl. again, hold onto the bbl. .... pull the trigger... and decompress the spring which seems to reset the rifle back on safety!  Is this Newbie missing something very obvious???   

You should be able to just re-cock the barrel and it resets. Don't think you should have to pull the trigger in between. I'll check my R7 tonight, but I'm certain that's how it is.

Seems the way you did it the safety might be on, but the gun is not ready to shoot.