Question for Mycapt65 on HW30s & HW50s

[Oquossoc]

Good to hear the mechanical procedures were un-eventful. Very possible you killed the bushnell. My HW30 with OEM springs killed a 4X Hawke Vantage, sadly. I went back with a Hawke Airmax 2-7X32. Did you shoot a good long string of one certain pellet before you called it dead? Sounds like you have a good accuracy standard to compare to with that Williams peep sight.

Yes I shot at standard targets 10 to 20 shots each pellet, The weather today looks good and I am going to give it another go, but I think the scope died. The last time I chased a dying scope was on my deer rifle. I had changed the bullet in my handloads and wanted to check it out. The scope, unknown to me was dying and the new bullet caused a small amount of copper fouling in the bore. I chased poor groups through a couple shooting sessions with a lot of head scratching before concluding the scope died. New scopes, right back to great groups with new bullet! So now I may have a dead scope concurrent with a new tune kit. At least I have the previous iron sight groups with the gun with the same pellets as a bench mark. I don't have a chrono (yet), I believe I picked up some power. I don't think it is the tune. The shooting is improved, I wouldn't say by a lot, because honestly it was good before and the OEM seal was perfect and the spring looked good, The pellet does hit the backstop now with a more audible smack. I have ordered a Hawke 2-7x for the HW30s and a UTG bug 3-12x for the HW50s and am selling the Williams peep. Unfortunately my eyes are just not what they used to be!! LOL.

 

[Mycapt65]

If you're doing that much better with peeps than scoped, it's something with the scope or it's mounting. If lock up was an issue the peeps would suffer equally to the scope.

I hope you lubed the cocking slot after you installed the piston. Otherwise your piston seal picked up lube on assembly and is dieseling. Dieseling would affect accuracy with both sighting systems equally so I'm not saying this is why your groups fell apart. I'm just giving general assembly tips.

 

[Oquossoc]

If you're doing that much better with peeps than scoped, it's something with the scope or it's mounting. If lock up was an issue the peeps would suffer equally to the scope.

I hope you lubed the cocking slot after you installed the piston. Otherwise your piston seal picked up lube on assembly and is dieseling. Dieseling would affect accuracy with both sighting systems equally so I'm not saying this is why your groups fell apart. I'm just giving general assembly tips.

No dieseling, yes lubed cocking slot after sliding piston in. As always tips welcome. Hope new scope comes soon, over run with red squirrels around here!!

 

[Mycapt65]

I'm jealous that you live in a target rich environment

 

[Oquossoc]

I'm jealous that you live in a target rich environment

I live deep in North Western Maine on the back side of a large lake. 11 miles in on a gravel road. If I was to walk out my back door I could walk about 40 miles and hit the Canadian border. I would cross exactly one tar road. My town has 198 souls. We have it all up here coyote, lot of bear, moose, deer, lynx. bobcat, fishercat, pine marten, ermine, etc, etc. Wouldn't think there'd be any squirrel left; but we are overrun with reds. very few grey as we have no oaks this far up. It's real quiet this time of year, summers get busy with all the folks from away coming up to the lakes. There are a dozen or more townships up here owned by timber management companies without any year round residents. The hunting opportunities are endless. It is not easy country though, pretty mountainous and thick cover.

 

[PEP3]

I had to send my HW50s back to have the barrel droop taken out. It was way too high on the elevation adjustment and the reticle was bouncing around in there (brand new gun). If it grouped good with the peep sight, that's probably your problem. My gun would stack the pellets with my see all sight but gave me a shotgun pattern with the scope. Kinda sad for a $400 gun but they do that for people that want to use iron sights or peep sights, my eyes are way too old for those. BTW my 30s had no droop.

 

[Oquossoc]

I had to send my HW50s back to have the barrel droop taken out. It was way too high on the elevation adjustment and the reticle was bouncing around in there (brand new gun). If it grouped good with the peep sight, that's probably your problem. My gun would stack the pellets with my see all sight but gave me a shotgun pattern with the scope. Kinda sad for a $400 gun but they do that for people that want to use iron sights or peep sights, my eyes are way too old for those. BTW my 30s had no droop.

When I put a scope on the 30 it took very little adjustment to walk in the zero. The 50 took considerable more as it was several inches low at 10 yds, indicating droop. So how much droop is considered problematic??

 

[Mycapt65]

The last two new Hw50s I received from someone had significant barrel droop. One had a fatal defect and sent back so the droop was never addressed. The replacement had significant droop as well. I looked for obvious issues that might not allow it to fully lock up and couldn't find any. I bent the barrel upwards to where it was within the scopes healthy adjustment range. The bend is slight enough not to be visibly noticeable. Still disappointing to need it. The two 50s I bought around 2018 didn't have droop issues as was the couple others I've tuned.

See if you can get a Sportsmatch droop compensating mount. That may get you in the ball park. As far as problematic goes it depends on the scopes adjustment range. I know on the 1" Hawkes I try to keep the zero close to one rotation up as possible. At two rotations up it can be problematic.
Feel free to reach out to me privately if you want.

 

[PEP3]

When I put a scope on the 30 it took very little adjustment to walk in the zero. The 50 took considerable more as it was several inches low at 10 yds, indicating droop. So how much droop is considered problematic??

Yours is problematic. Call whoever you bought it from, they typically have a press and can fix it (bend it up)for you. Like Mycapt65 said, you will not notice the difference in appearance because the bend is so slight. He was also right about the adjustment, more than one full turn of elevation will destroy your accuracy with a springer.

 

[Oquossoc]

Yours is problematic. Call whoever you bought it from, they typically have a press and can fix it (bend it up)for you. Like Mycapt65 said, you will not notice the difference in appearance because the bend is so slight. He was also right about the adjustment, more than one full turn of elevation will destroy your accuracy with a springer.

Well this is a bit underwhelming. I'm not sure what I'll do here. First the galling issue on the 30, which I have fixed and now a droopy barrel that is shooting pretty low. So that is what happened to the Bushnell scope, I pushed the adjustments too far. I wonder if I dial it back in if it would still be OK to use as a back up on some of my other guns? Will have to check that out. Maybe its dead, maybe its not. Don't know, might just send this HW50 back to PA, and just keep the the little 30. Have to sleep on it. It seems the air gun community just accepts this droopy barrel stuff. I am used to better quality center fire rifles and good shot guns I guess. Maybe I would be better off with an underlever, but there seem too heavy to want to hunt with.

 

[PEP3]

Well this is a bit underwhelming. I'm not sure what I'll do here. First the galling issue on the 30, which I have fixed and now a droopy barrel that is shooting pretty low. So that is what happened to the Bushnell scope, I pushed the adjustments too far. I wonder if I dial it back in if it would still be OK to use as a back up on some of my other guns? Will have to check that out. Maybe its dead, maybe its not. Don't know, might just send this HW50 back to PA, and just keep the the little 30. Have to sleep on it. It seems the air gun community just accepts this droopy barrel stuff. I am used to better quality center fire rifles and good shot guns I guess. Maybe I would be better off with an underlever, but there seem too heavy to want to hunt with.

You sound just like I did when I realized how much droop mine had, I was so disappointed. Call PA, they should fix that barrel for you, they're very good with customer service. The Bushnell is tough, it's probably fine. All scopes will act like that on a springer with that much elevation adjustment.