I have a. 177 Venturi Avenge-X and I can't get any decent groups at 50 yards. I have tried pellets weights from 7.56, 8.4 to 10. At 10 yards, I can get a 10 shot the size of aspirin. This is my first PCP rifle. Help!
Air Venturi Air Venturi Avenge-X. 177 grouping problems
- Thread starter Rodwdavis
- Start date
Are you shooting it as it came out of the box or did you do any adjusting to the regulator and / or hammer spring?
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Both. I will only go down to 2000 psi. I have also pushed it up to 2700 psi. I can get great groups at 10 yards only.
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Do you have a crono? Without you’ll never figure it out. If you have 1 shoot the 10.3 to 880-900 and see how it shoots.
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I am on my first pcp as well. One thing I knew from the beginning is not to start adjusting if you you don't know what you are doing.
First watch this videos about tuning before trying to tune it by yourself. I can try to explain what I did but there will be flaws in my inexperienced way of doing it. And besides, why try to re-invent the wheel / tuning ?
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Another thing, don't get stuck on the speed that works for others. Once you know what you are doing, experiment outside the norm. At first I tried to stay in the popular speeds but could not get consistency. Then I started to push up the speed and the groups got smaller. I then tried the lower speeds again but at the end I realised that my rifle with the pellets it shoots best, must shoot at 940 fps. Each rifle and projectile combination will have its own speed it shoots best.
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Most pcp's will do that, even when out of tune. In tune it will group the size of the pellet.
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I do have one. They range from 974 for 10.65 and 984 for 10.5. Then 1050 for 8.44. This is with the hammer spring at the lowest.
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I think you are pushing that too hard / fast way up there in the end 900s is too hot at least in my maverick
Have you tried to shoot something really heavy like beasts ?
Originally 600 mm beast was the only pellet my Maverick would shoot well / pretty damn well at speed, dropping down to 13 grain MRD pellets and of course less pressure / speed i had to go really far like under 600 FPS before those would fly well.
I think you need to go slower high 800s maybe very low 900s ( i am not familiar with this rifle )
Have you tried to shoot something really heavy like beasts ?
Originally 600 mm beast was the only pellet my Maverick would shoot well / pretty damn well at speed, dropping down to 13 grain MRD pellets and of course less pressure / speed i had to go really far like under 600 FPS before those would fly well.
I think you need to go slower high 800s maybe very low 900s ( i am not familiar with this rifle )
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Yep try some 13 or 16 gr or else drop the pressure some those speeds are too fast for the light pellets. My ghost shoots 13 mrds to 950 fps well or try 13 gr slugs?
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You can set the regulator really low, like 1200 psi. If you lower the regulator you may find the hammer spring is too strong, however. If you cannot decrease the hammer spring and get the velocity to go down then the hammer spring is too powerful. You could also try 1500 or 1800 on the regulator. You may be able to find a weaker spring but another way to reduce force is to shorten it.
I only have one 177 but it is much more sensitive to even the slightest amount of wind. My 22s and 25s are noticably less sensitive. Especially if the group size is bigger laterally you may need to try in really calm conditions. I can't shoot at 50 yards in my yard where I usually shoot. The maximum is 35. Even at 30 or 35 it is hard to shoot small groups with my 177.
I only have one 177 but it is much more sensitive to even the slightest amount of wind. My 22s and 25s are noticably less sensitive. Especially if the group size is bigger laterally you may need to try in really calm conditions. I can't shoot at 50 yards in my yard where I usually shoot. The maximum is 35. Even at 30 or 35 it is hard to shoot small groups with my 177.
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make sure all your screws are tight. check the barrel band, shroud and make sure the screw under rifle that holds stock to action is tight.....also consider your scope screws or try another scope. perhaps yours failed? good luck. ps ...also make sure cap at end of barrel is tight....jsb and H N pellets your best bet for acurracy/grouping.
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IMHO, those fps ranges are too high for accuracy in .177 pellets. My first thought was to lower the regulator pressure, but you said the HST is already at the lowest. So... Note that I shoot FX 10.3 pellets at a maximum of about 850fps with my Akela and 750-780fps with my Fortitude.
With the Akela, when I approach 870fps, I experience spiraling. I have not pushed past that speed because I like the lower noise level.
So, you may have to cut the hammer spring or buy a spring that is shorter. Yeah, I know that sucks, but I had to do it with my Akela .177 before I could actually use the Akela and have any reasonable adjustment that was actually useful.
In MY case, with the .177 Akela, I actually cut 1 inch off of the 3.5 inch hammer spring to make the gun usable/adjustable.
You will probably not have to cut that much, but it sounds to me like the hammer spring is too strong for anything you want.
Check out the threads about the Akela hammer spring for reference. At least with the Avenge-X, you can buy extra hammer springs relatively cheap.
At least, I think you can? (grin)
Good luck!
All my best!
Kerry
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I think that maybe both your velocities and your expectations might be high. You don't mention what kind of groups you are seeing at 50 yards, but in my experience, that is a distance at which a standard power .177 is challenged. That said, yes, your speeds are a bit hot, and I think you will see better results in the 870-900 fps range. You mentioned velocities, but not consistency, what is the ES? Assuming your rifle is shooting at reasonably consistent velocities, accuracy issues are usually barrel related, including simply a dirty one. A slightly fouled barrel will shoot okay at 10 yards, but not 50. When I was active in CF benchrest, there were a few times I put a lot of time and energy in getting a barrel to shoot, but it was just a bad barrel, it happens.
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Again, I want to thank you for your help. I have been speaking to Air Venturi and they are helping me with this issue. It's funny that I have a Gamo swarm magnum that shoots a 7.56 pellet at 1150 fps and I can group a quarter size at 50 yards?
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At 1150fps, you are past transonic and into supersonic range, so I am impressed that you can get even quarter sized groups at 50 yards consistently.
I think you will find that your accuracy/precision will be MUCH better with pellets (especially 10.3 and up) once you can get the fps below 900fps. Some people claim to do well with .177 pellets above 900fps and I did have a couple of guns that did well at 920fps a few years ago, but generally speaking somewhere around 850fps is the sweet spot for many, if not most .177 airguns shooting pellets. Hardair magazine has an article about it, but I don't have the link handy.
All my best!
Kerry
p.s.
You will like the lower noise level when you drop below 900fps quite a bit as well! (smile)
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yes get the power down....the SWEET SPOT... for .177 is 870-890. many years experience with this. 7.9s-8.6s . your shooting way to fast. set down reg. and hammer spring and tune your prefered pellet. practice and experiment and youll be shootin sweet.
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like many, my preferred pellet weight in 5.5mm is 18gr. Some time ago I had the regulator pressure increased and for the fun of it used 13gr pellets to see how it does. This was the speed and grouping at 50 meter. But at 75 meter I could not even hit the 200 x 200mm gong, it got unstable and presumably spiralling somewhere past 50 meter.
Anyway, the transonic range is from Mach 0.8 to Mach 1.2 and that is from about 900 fps to 1350 fps. So, anything past 900 fps is in the transonic range.
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