Air Venturi Avenger 177 terrible accuracy?

[OC_]

Hi Folks, im new to air guns in general (im a total nub) and recently got one of these Air Venturi Avengers in 177. I have only been shooting close range but recently I have been trying to stretch it out to 50 yards. So far my results have been less than satisfactory. I have shot 4 types of projectiles though it and only one has managed to making something resembling a group. I did just get a chrono and am still playing with it. 

The ammo so far:

H&N Silver Points 11.57gr - seems to shoot all over and i think actually hit the tip of my donnyFL Adapter. These were so bad that I stopped shooting them.

Seneca 16.1gr round nose - I have these running at about 870fps and sometimes these are "decent" but I get a lot of flyers.

Griffin Deep Hollow base 11gr slug - haven chronoed these yet but im guessing close to 1000fps. Many of these i cant even get on the target backboard at 50yards.

Griffin Flat base 13gr slug - these seem to be the best so far. These are running at 950fps with my current tune. I can make about fist sized group at 50 excluding the flyers. 

Thats what I've tried so far. Pretty terrible if you ask me. Whats known to work well in these guns?

 

[biohazardman]

Well none of the projectiles you have been shooting are widely known for their accuracy in many guns. Try the mid to heavy JSB and H&N Diabolo pellets.

 

[Sqwirl57]

Slugs take a ton of testing to find something that works well. Some slug manufacturers offer sample packs to help figure out what works best. It can get expensive but a fist size group not counting fliers is pretty unacceptable in my book. Fliers are also not normal by any means so do not discount them if you have fliers, you have a problem. End of story.

Find a good heavier pellet that it likes and tune for ~20ftlbs (900-950fps) and you'll be happy and hitting <1" groups at 50yds no problem. I'd try the JSB 10.3gr or the Baracuda Match 10.6gr pellets in 4.52. As an added benefit, your shot count will go up.

 

[wendell]

My Avenger 177 has a hard time with slugs also, the two lower grain NSA. I got my rifle tuned to 1500psi on the reg and one turn in from all the way out on the hammer. That's plenty for me now because most of my shooting is around 25 to 35 yards for rodent control. I got it putting the Rangemaster 13.43 and the JSB 10.34 into the same hole on paper. Got a chipmunk this morning with the Rangemaster and he didn't complain at all. We all know the wind can be a great factor in hitting your target also. Good luck with finding your pellet of choice . I've run over 40 or so through minds. The Crosman 10.5 box pellets do well also.

 

[OC_]

I’m hoping I can find a heavy pellet or slug it likes. I’ll try out the suggestions here. 


I did figure that 177 will be sensitive to wind. Today was a very nice low wind day.


has anyone tried those daystate slugs? they seem to be really affordable and you get so many. 

 

[Guest]

Well, you gotta start with some pellets that are known for accuracy, Get some JSB 10.5gr or even Baracuda 10.5 and see where you at

 

[nobody1]

My 177 Avenger is accurate with cheap pellets like Crosman Premier Hollow Point 7.8 grains, Crosman Pointed 7.4 grains, Crosman UltraMagnum 10.5 grains.

I am shooting them between 850 - 950 FPS.

 

[John "spysir" Blount]

How many shots between pellet swaps? Always nice to clean then re-season for each evaluation especially as the old koreans (different now) tended to be both over size -more leading- and very dirty. The 16.20 might be a good choice for a heavy pellet.

Also no shortage of other possibilities. How's the crown? Pellet shaving chambering?

John

 

[OC_]

Here are some pictures of the crown. Used an old cheap endoscope I have. Not the highest quality but I think it does the job.

I have cleaned the barrel a few times using my old 17 cal firearm cleaning kit. (i use to be an avid shooter before i had ear problems). But I haven't been swabbing it after every ammo change. I didn't see any changes in accuracy after cleanings. Probably haven't shot it enough.

Not the best crown job i would say. But i have no idea how big of an impact this has.

 

[OC_]

I turned the gun down to pretty much as far as it can go and I'm getting about 900fps with 10.5gr Gamo Whisper's. Regulator pressure is right on the yellow and the hammer is all the way out. 

I also have some Crosman Piranaha's I can try which are also 10.5gr. 

 

[KatoKevin454]

Don't bother with the Piranha's, they are known for bad accuracy, re-crown the barrel using the brass screw method, lots of videos on youtube, use a Dome pellet, JSB or Crosman.

 

[Sqwirl57]

I turned the gun down to pretty much as far as it can go and I'm getting about 900fps with 10.5gr Gamo Whisper's. Regulator pressure is right on the yellow and the hammer is all the way out. 

I also have some Crosman Piranaha's I can try which are also 10.5gr.

Those Whispers may work well but those Piranaha's have never shot even remotely well in any of my guns.

 

[bfloyd1095]

1st thing I suggest is add the DonnyFL thread adapter , or there is a guy named Cameron here on AGN selling some 3d printed moderator/barrel support all in 1 .

Without either one of those your accuracy will Never be worth a damn.

I have mine shooting jsb 16.20 pellets at 920 fps , yeah she is pretty " Salty " ... 

I spent many hours testing and tuning and with that combo i am now getting 3/8'" groups @ 33 yards and 1/2" @ 50 yards..

Let me know if i can help .

 

[Kerndtc]

From the original post it said the H&N pellets appeared to be clipping his don't fl adapter I think he might already have the barrel stability taken care of with the adapter. Thank you for promoting the sales of my product though! 



My suggestion would be to physically push a pellet through your barrel and see how it feels. I use a Dewey 177 coated ball bearing cleaning rod to push pellets through the barrel. You'll have to remove the barrel to do this, but you can diagnose a lot of things by looking through the barrel and pushing a projectile through it.

You also may have loose barrel screws, or too tight of barrel screws making impressions in the barrels Id. 

If all things look okay, but the barrel is a little rough it can be lapped and smoothed out. 



Cam

 

[OC_]

I did the brass screw crowing technique, and I’m pretty impressed. It’s way better than it was an looks like an actual crown. I think I have done so much stuff that it requires another range trip to see if it did anything.

I noticed something interesting on my gun that I think might be different than other avengers. The triple clamp pretty much does nothing. The grub screws that hold it on, in other Avengers, come into contact with the air tube and thats what holds it there. But in mine, they dont come though and touch anything. I don't know if they made the screws shorter. I did watch Air Velocity Sport's channel on you tube where he disassembles his gun and his has gouges in the tube. Mine does not. The only thing that holds it there is the factory stock - which i dont have. I have the Bonacci chassis. I'm not even going to use that triple clamp now. Its always lose and sliding around. I do have Bonacci's barrel band and that is way superior to that triple clamp.

 

[OC_]

Cam, id like to see your product.

 

[Guest]

First you gotta get good ammo, not even the best guns will shoot any good if you feed them poor ammo

 

[JimD]

I bought a 25 caliber Avenger earlier this year from Midway. More traditional airgun suppliers were out of stock. I got some H&N FTT pellets (My Prods favorite) and H&N Grizzly slugs. Both shot terribly. Like 2 inch groups at 25 yards. Then I tried JSBs and the gun shot much, much better.. Now that I've messed with the tuning I get lots of ~1/4 inch groups at 33 yards with FX 25.4s.

So I would test JSBs, if you can find them, or other pellets made by JSB like FX. My Prod was not nearly as pellet sensitive as my Avenger. It does not like JSBs very much but shoots cheap Crosman domed and hollow point OK and really likes copper plated H&N FTT.

 

[Booder98]

My .22 Avenger doesn't like the H&N FTT but likes the cheap CPHP. Go fig.

I remember comments on YouTube (I think) about the crown on the Avenger barrel being conspicuous by its absence. Descriptions like, "sawed off with a band saw."

 

[my87csx481]

I did the brass screw crowing technique, and I’m pretty impressed. It’s way better than it was an looks like an actual crown. I think I have done so much stuff that it requires another range trip to see if it did anything.



I noticed something interesting on my gun that I think might be different than other avengers. The triple clamp pretty much does nothing. The grub screws that hold it on, in other Avengers, come into contact with the air tube and thats what holds it there. But in mine, they dont come though and touch anything. I don't know if they made the screws shorter. I did watch Air Velocity Sport's channel on you tube where he disassembles his gun and his has gouges in the tube. Mine does not. The only thing that holds it there is the factory stock - which i dont have. I have the Bonacci chassis. I'm not even going to use that triple clamp now. Its always lose and sliding around. I do have Bonacci's barrel band and that is way superior to that triple clamp.

Regarding triple clamp: I purchased a wood stock Avenger a few months ago, and another refurb a couple weeks ago. The grub screws on mine are pointed, and do not directly come into contact with the air tube or the shroud. There is a plastic ball in between the screws and the air tube. The wood stocked version does not use the lower screw holes in the side of the triple clamp that the plastic stock uses (to hold the stock on, I assume).

Maybe they're now using the shorter grub screws, but forgot (or ran out of) the plastic balls?