"HIGH" quality aftermarket barrels in their pcp's?

[Centercut]

Currently I have a $2700 airgun I bought new that doesn't shoot to my standards. The normal hunter guy would be fine with it but I'm not. It's either put some money into it or sell it???

This is what I was asking about? Is it the .22 Red Wolf HP you bought after RMAC 2021 when you were disgusted with your Thomas HP-X because it was spiraling and throwing fliers...?

Edit: Wrote this as you were posting your most recent. I have seen ONE Thomas HP-X win at 100Y pellet BR.

 

[Centercut]

It's that Redwolf. I tried it with those 20.3gr NSA, some other slugs, and 25.4 gr pellets.

Would also like to source a barrel for my Thomas HPX for mass produced slugs.

Also am thinking about buying a bigbore and getting a nice barrel for it.

That sounds like a good idea with the barrel for mass produced slugs! Perhaps a Lilja barrel that can shoot the heavy .22 NSAs, H&N's or Patriot slugs?

 

[Franklink]

What's the problem with making your own Steve? The time or expense or what?

I kinda like the idea of self-produced, but I'm not the one making them, so please, do tell, what the negative that I'm not seeing?

Also, I'd be surprised if you can find something mass-produced that'll shoot as well as what your Thomas can do with the custom slug to match the barrel set-up.

 

[steve123]

This is what I was asking about? It can't be the .22 Red Wolf HP you bought after RMAC 2021 when you were disgusted with your Thomas HP-X because it was spiraling and throwing fliers...

Edit: Wrote this as you were posting your most recent.

Yes it's the same RW.

The last time I shot pellets out of my HPX, except for the occasional flyers, at 100Y the HPX shot circles around "this" RW.
HPX was also out of tune at the RMAC - my fault.
I don't recall any spiraling but there could have been??

There's a previous story(early 2021) about how I tried to tune the gun for lower ES and "more" speed which didn't work out well.
Then visiting Mike in the fall of 21 he had the HPX shooting great again in all of 5 minutes using pellets. Had no idea it was a easy HS related thing at the time.

Pretty much gravitating to slugs for my more powerful airguns.
My Uragan 25 cal absolutely slayed my long range steel out to 300Y a couple weeks ago in almost calm conditions. This is what shooting I do most and prefer to do.

I'm just reevaluating priorities - what does it take to do what I prefer.

 

[Centercut]

What's the problem with making your own Steve? The time or expense or what?

I kinda like the idea of self-produced, but I'm not the one making them, so please, do tell, what the negative that I'm not seeing?

Also, I'd be surprised if you can find something mass-produced that'll shoot as well as what your Thomas can do with the custom slug to match the barrel set-up.

Most competitions require you shoot mass produced pellets or slugs. Like your XFT at PR&GC. So, he can't compete with his Thomas HP-X and his swaged slugs at XFT. He can shoot them, but his score doesn't count again any others that are following the rules.

 

[Franklink]

Most competitions require you shoot mass produced pellets or slugs. Like your XFT at PR&GC. So, he can't compete with his Thomas HP-X and his swaged slugs at XFT. He can shoot them, but his score doesn't count again any others that are following the rules.

Ahh, yes. That makes sense. In my mind I've just settled into Steve being a rimfire shooter at Ben's Xtreme FT matches. So I wasn't putting 2 and 2 together.

 

[steve123]

What's the problem with making your own Steve? The time or expense or what?

I kinda like the idea of self-produced, but I'm not the one making them, so please, do tell, what the negative that I'm not seeing?

Also, I'd be surprised if you can find something mass-produced that'll shoot as well as what your Thomas can do with the custom slug to match the barrel set-up.

There's no problems with my swaged ammo. Nothing really to mess up and each one comes out the same. It's darn cheap too as I get 4400 slugs for a $160 25 pound spool of wire!
I would like to try out massed produced slugs of various types in the HPX for XFT.

The problem I've been having is POI shifts when using those slugs. Some days the gun shoots fantastically well like hitting my 1" spinner at 100Y most of the time, and sometimes there are anywhere from .1 mil vertical shifts to .4 mil shifts. Mike thinks its a bedding problem, lube drying in the barrel, as well as barrel cleaning management. Probably temp related as well??
Pillar bedding should be finished in the next few months and go from there.

I tried one of the few available .223 slugs which is the approx diameter I need for my HPX and it was not good, LOL, 2" groups at 50Y so that squelched it. Not uncommon to have .3" groups with my swaged slugs.

 

[steve123]

Ahh, yes. That makes sense. In my mind I've just settled into Steve being a rimfire shooter at Ben's Xtreme FT matches. So I wasn't putting 2 and 2 together.

Even my rimfire has POI shifts, lol???

AT XFT last month I sighted it in .1 mil low and .1 mil right which seemed to help. See below

The two previous matches were so frustrating because I started out well but by the middle of the match I started missing. It took a few stages before I saw where a few of those misses went which were .2 mil high and .2 mil left. I compensated for the rest of the match and finished well but too late by then to get a decent score. Yes I did check both my zero and my dope at the sight in range which were fine.
I'm blaming the walnut stock on this gun. It's a darn precise gun but I've always had POI shifts with it. Heck they were worse before I glass bedded it.

Thought so much about buying a Vudoo 22rf....

I don't have POI shifts with my nice PB Precision rifles that are either in a chassis system or McMillan stocks. I could grab one anytime and it'll be within 1 click of zero at 100Y. If I miss with them its me. More often than not I get a first round hit on Berger's 10" plate at 675Y if the wind is down some and it'll be months apart from when I do this.

 

[JimNM]

The barrels from Troy Hammer are blanks that he has hammer formed in house. Hammer's hammered barrels? Just said that out loud. Hehehe. My new squirrel set up just got a new name . Take a quick look at his thread, he answered a lot of questions already. More info can't hurt.

 

[steve123]

The barrels from Troy Hammer are blanks that he has hammer formed in house. Hammer's hammered barrels? Just said that out loud. Hehehe. My new squirrel set up just got a new name . Take a quick look at his thread, he answered a lot of questions already. More info can't hurt.

Thanks Jim. I must confess that I didn't read the thread and I also think I confused it with a TJ thread???

 

[JimNM]

Don't feel left out!

For those of us not shooting 80 to 100 ft lb in 22 caliber hopefully this will be a new option for still shooting slugs accurately. I have been watching the slug Market growing and I had an idea that it would become the new normal. A lot of us are shooting 22 caliber at under 50 ft lb so I...

www.airgunnation.com

Yes, TJ barrel with Hammer's proprietary mandrel and secret sauce thrown in.

 

[jps2486]

LW seems to be a major player in the airgun barrel league. It's still not a simple thing. I know of one manufacturer of high end rifles that buys large lots of LW barrels and tests each one. Needless to say, the better performing barrels go to custom built guns and the rest? You figure it out. They probably all shoot fairly well, but some are better than others.

 

[nomojo65]

I deleted my posts to this topic earlier because I just think there’s so many variables to barrels in general especially (air gun barrels) you could test 10-15 barrels to find one that meets a builder like Mike N. Standards And then he has his own methods for preparing internal dimensions and technique for machining the lead crown etc.

Most barrels in the air rifle world are probably mediocre at best, regardless if they are button rifled or hammer forged. I don’t believe their is any cut rifled unless they are custom ordered by someone like Mike N.

You can tell how internal dimensions vary greatly in just 23” of a supposedly hand picked Daystate or RAW barrels (LW) just by using a cleaning rod with a ball bearing handle to push a pellet slowly thru the barrel.

 

[AirSupply]

Hi Steve.
I don’t know how “mass produced” is defined. Seems to be many small manufacturers out there mass producing. I guess the essence of the rule is you don’t shoot something that isn’t available to everyone?
Anyway what if you ask Neilson’s to make you some slugs to your spec’s that are then available to anyone? I understand the bore of your rifle is not what the average shooter is using but it’s not a one off in its dimensions.
You never know what dies Nick Neilson might have.
Michael

 

[mercado]

I think is hard to find a airgun machist that could work on such thick barrels for airguns, I wanted to had machined 2 bull barrel for 2 pcp and the guy even when his business is about custom machining put so many excuses for not doing the work that I end paying for tooling so the barrels could be made at TJ .. is easier to find some I guess to machine that .than a bull barrel. I think there is money to be done in this custom barrels machining there will always be a few to go the extra mile in order to have something different..

 

[steve123]

Hi Steve.
I don’t know how “mass produced” is defined. Seems to be many small manufacturers out there mass producing. I guess the essence of the rule is you don’t shoot something that isn’t available to everyone?
Anyway what if you ask Neilson’s to make you some slugs to your spec’s that are then available to anyone? I understand the bore of your rifle is not what the average shooter is using but it’s not a one off in its dimensions.
You never know what dies Nick Neilson might have.
Michael

Thanks for the suggestion Michael. Why not, I suppose I could ask him.

 

[RM.510bigbore]

I used to use Benchmark barrels ..Excellent barrels.. They made some barrels for PCP s in the past. I think old RAW used them.

 

[steve123]

I used to use Benchmark barrels ..Excellent barrels.. They made some barrels for PCP s in the past. I think old RAW used them.

I had a 28" 7 twist Benchmark barrel made for my 223AI project. It was a good one except I got a .218 instead of a .219 bore so the 88's were blowing up occasionally. Worked great with 75's though.

 

[beerthief]

seems weird to me that "they" allow fully customized guns , custom barrels and all, But limit it to run of the mill projectiles .

 

[steve123]

Currently I want a custom pcp repeater with a faster twist rate capable of 100-ish fpe in 25 caliber for heaviest slugs that is built more stoutly.

Would really like to try that Altaros but not available in the USA.

Think I'll wait until I know real world results from Skout which seems stoutly built, or a Vulcan 3 with power upgrade. or Panthera which doesn't seem stout but maybe the barrel running through the plenum helps?? but very reluctant because of poor results with 1st gen FX products.

The V3 only has 10 round mags in 25 cal which I could live with but prefer the higher capacity mags in the other two.