N/A Improving the capabilities of a budget rifle.

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Caliber 22

Caliber 22

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Nov 29, 2023
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I have this 6 year old Artemis M22 in 5.5mm I bought used about 6 months back. I was not planning to buy a pcp but this one came to me at a price I could not refuse. In the beginning I was quite happy with it's performance but as time went on I wanted more out of it. I tuned and adjusted and modified and tried different things to get it better but it seemed to me that it reached it's limit of precision and accuracy which was 2 moa average. Like most airgunners I wanted better but I do not have the funds to just buy better and even if I had the funds, I must be careful about spending as I am semi-retired and cannot spend to much on a hobby. So, I continued to try different things. I phoned a guy with a air rifle shop asking about the FX barrel tuner he has in stock. He told me that because of the barrel band it does not work on this rifle, or any rifle with a barrel band, he did try it before. Nice guy to give me a honest answer and not trying to just make a sale.

Yesterday I had a idea about something to do on the rifle and I tried it. I then shot a few groups a 50 meter and where the previous groups were about 20mm to 25mm, it now grouped around 10mm at 50 meter, 3 groups in a row. I tried at 100 meter and it was much better than before but with the wind blowing in all directions it was not great but I could see something is happening. I have some wind flags and at the same time the flags would wave / blow (what is the correct word?) in different directions. Today it was windy all day long and just after sunset there was no wind, nothing. I then shot 2 groups at 50 meter, 10mm and 12mm. I then shot at the 100 meter dong. I did only one 5 shot group as I did not want to ruin the group. The results - 4 shots in 15mm (0.53 moa) and the 5th made it 28mm, still below 1moa. Damn, if it wasn't for that 5th shot ..... But I am at a happy place now. I will obvious try again and see if it can do better.

Now, for the guys with the high end pcp rifles this might not be something special, but for me with this rifle shooting pellets, it is.

Here is the 100 meter 5 shot group with H&N Baracuda 18 pellets :


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This morning I got up early but the wind was me one ahead and already moved some light branches in the trees and the flags was blowing varying from the 12 to 2 o'clock position, so a offset head wind. But shoot I will shoot. Yesterday afternoon it was 28 deg. Celsius and this morning it is 21 deg. and the air is much denser. On 50 meter I did 3 shots, right on the cross and about 12mm group. Holding the same dial as yesterday on the 100 meter dong, the shots fell a bit lower but it still grouped well in about 20mm main cluster and 30mm with the 1 outlier. So, I think the result is repeatable considering that there was wind this morning.

So, my expensive high tech modification was a piece of leather and tape. Because the barrel band does not fit snug around the barrel shroud with more pressure to the top side, I think there was from shot to shot differing vibrations effecting the POI. I then took a piece of leather and squeezed it in-between the barrel shroud and the air tube. At first I wrapped electrical tape around the shroud and tube but it had some side to side movement if pressed. I then add some duct tape (yes camo because that is what the shop had, I wanted black) to stiffen it and now I must twist hard before it move. And that is it. Nothing special and a bit unsightly but it works. It stopped that vibration that was different with each shot to happen. Next I will have somebody to 3-d print me a wide snug fitting barrel band I can put in place of the leather and tape and see what it is doing. Many rifles benefit from extra barrel bands, I read that as much as 3 bands get installed to dampen the vibrations. So, mr. Long_Gun_Dallas was right with his assumption.

I did a few other things to the rifle before this as well. Raising the action out of the stock with some spacers over the bolts so the action is riding on that spacers only. Now the wood moving with temperature and humidity does not put pressure on the actions and barrel. Like free-flouting a PB rifle. I also put a few O-rings over the barrel at 100mm spacing before sliding the shroud over the barrel. I also installed a bigger aftermarket plenum, polished the barrel, polished and lighten the trigger. Did a lot of pellet testing to see which shoots best. Sorting the pellets by head size. It was very obvious pellets with bigger head size was more likely to be flyers. Smaller head size did not have a problem. The H&N I have is mostly 5.52mm where the JSB I have is mainly 5.54mm and the reason my rifle does not shoot the JSB well.

​

In this picture you can see the piece of leather between the barrel and tube, sticking out just in front of the electrical tape.

1706160241954.png
 
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Klaas said:
This morning I got up early but the wind was me one ahead and already moved some light branches in the trees and the flags was blowing varying from the 12 to 2 o'clock position, so a offset head wind. But shoot I will shoot. Yesterday afternoon it was 28 deg. Celsius and this morning it is 21 deg. and the air is much denser. On 50 meter I did 3 shots, right on the cross and about 12mm group. Holding the same dial as yesterday on the 100 meter dong, the shots fell a bit lower but it still grouped well in about 20mm main cluster and 30mm with the 1 outlier. So, I think the result is repeatable considering that there was wind this morning.

So, my expensive high tech modification was a piece of leather and tape. Because the barrel band does not fit snug around the barrel shroud with more pressure to the top side, I think there was from shot to shot differing vibrations effecting the POI. I then took a piece of leather and squeezed it in-between the barrel shroud and the air tube. At first I wrapped electrical tape around the shroud and tube but it had some side to side movement if pressed. I then add some duct tape (yes camo because that is what the shop had, I wanted black) to stiffen it and now I must twist hard before it move. And that is it. Nothing special and a bit unsightly but it works. It stopped that vibration that was different with each shot to happen. Next I will have somebody to 3-d print me a wide snug fitting barrel band I can put in place of the leather and tape and see what it is doing. Many rifles benefit from extra barrel bands, I read that as much as 3 bands get installed to dampen the vibrations. So, mr. Long_Gun_Dallas was right with his assumption.

I did a few other things to the rifle before this as well. Raising the action out of the stock with some spacers over the bolts so the action is riding on that spacers only. Now the wood moving with temperature and humidity does not put pressure on the actions and barrel. Like free-flouting a PB rifle. I also put a few O-rings over the barrel at 100mm spacing before sliding the shroud over the barrel. I also installed a bigger aftermarket plenum, polished the barrel, polished and lighten the trigger. Did a lot of pellet testing to see which shoots best. Sorting the pellets by head size. It was very obvious pellets with bigger head size was more likely to be flyers. Smaller head size did not have a problem. The H&N I have is mostly 5.52mm where the JSB I have is mainly 5.54mm and the reason my rifle does not shoot the JSB well.

​

In this picture you can see the piece of leather between the barrel and tube, sticking out just in front of the electrical tape.

View attachment 428740
Click to expand...
If it works that’s all that matters and the proofs in the pudding!
It’s the little details like these that make all the difference between the high dollar guns and the cheap ones in my opinion.
And if you can hammer down and correct the little issues , then usually the precision is there.
 
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Rvaughn said:
It’s the little details like these that make all the difference between the high dollar guns and the cheap ones in my opinion.
Click to expand...
Correct. The thing is, some people don't want to fiddle with their rifles like I do and therefore are willing to pay the extra $ to get it right the first time. But I read here on AGN and elsewhere that some still have to do it with some high end rifles including some FX models. I cannot vouch for it, it is just what I read.

Rvaughn said:
And if you can hammer down and correct the little issues , then usually the precision is there.
Click to expand...
I believe that if you have a half decent barrel there is no reason you cannot get acceptable precision from a rifle. You just need to find the problem and work around it. Even with a high end rifle, there just need to be something small out of place to hinder it from being a good shooter. Like with my .22LR. It is a Winchester 9422 lever action and most people believe a lever action cannot shoot precise. But mine do. It is shooting 1 MOA most of the time but it did not come by itself. I did a few things to help improve it.

NRPy said:
It’s always satisfying to solve a problem.
Click to expand...
It is.
 
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Today it was windy all day long with speeds between 12 and 16 km/h. A few times it calmed down to about 8-10 km/h but it was again whirling in different directions and still much more than yesterday. Being in the valley between low mountains and the trees around us, it is like that most of the time when the wind blows. Anyway, during a calmer period I did a few shots on the new 75 meter gong. Because of pellets in this wind it is not as good as yesterday or the day before but still acceptable for the conditions. Yes I know slugs will do better in the wind but I want to shoot pellets. On 50 meter it was all within 12mm. On 75 meter it can still take down a rat or a dove but at longer distances in wind like this and bigger quarry I will rather use the .22LR because the bullets is more accurate in the wind and deliver more energy down range.


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