Tuning Question about heavy hammer spring in Taipan Veteran

[Franklink]

For those of you that have gone with a heavier than OEM hammer spring, have you seen detrimental effects to the innards? Poppet failure, cocking/trigger linkage damage/premature wear, etc.

And if yes, would you call yourself a heavy volume shooter or a not? (lets call 5 or 6 tins/year NOT, and 5 or 6 tins a month heavy volume). 

Background is that I've been very hesitant to go to a monster spring in my Long for a few reasons. First is that I like how docile the gun is to shoot when the .22 MRD's are in the 875 realm (about 3% less than max from OEM hammer spring and OEM regulator pressure, which seems around 140bar). Second and greater concern is that I don't want to damage the gun.

I've handled the heavy hammer spring sold by Talon Tunes and it's a beast. 

 

[tcarlson777]

This post by jmmartin gives an alternative to the heavy spring. What are you seeking by going to the heavy spring? This might be the ticket for you.

I once experimented with the Talon tunes heavy Hammer spring. Not worth it in my opinion. It did allow me to reach the MAX velocity for my set reg pressure, but cocking effort didn't feel good. Not wanting to put that kind of strain on the components I opted for shimming the factory spring instead.

Before the shims and my 140bar reg pressure, .22cal 25.4gr knockouts could only reach about 880fps. After the shims I was capable of reaching 950fps. Cocking effort was still "harder" but no where near as bad as the heavy spring. 

The shims are just nylon washers that I opened up to fit onto the hammer spring adjuster.

 

[Vetmx]

I questioned if I was able to hit the max speed for my factory reg setting because I was switching the gun to slugs. I got a truck spring off Tony and sure enough, the stock spring was too weak to hit the max speed by 15fps. My thinking is this, and it’s very smart on the part of Taipan. My standard will only shoot a pellet accurately to about 905fps. Taipan used a spring that had plenty of juice to float between 3-5% below the plateau and was easy to cock and easy on the linkage. When I turned up the reg I definitely needed the truck spring. The gun has been on slugs for a year but I’m not a volume shooter with it. I get bored quickly with trying to impress myself with holes in paper. Especially if the gun always shoots tiny groups. With the higher reg setting and spring, the tink sound a Taipan makes is more pronounced. But the gun is still dead during the shot cycle. I may be pulling the gun off slugs and going back to a pellet tune. When I back the reg down I will definitely be putting old softy back in. Of all the guns out there, I had the least amount of fear leaning on my Taipan because of its build quality.

 

[elh0102]

Each to his own. Anything mechanical will someday break or wear out. Additional stress has the obvious consequence. The Veteran is, IMO, a marvelous rifle as designed. If I were serious about wanting more power, I would go to a HP rifle. But I agree, if you're determined to push one, the Veteran is a tank, and if you start breaking stuff, it's easy to work on.

 

[Jlowe]

Having tried the TT heavy hammer spring and didn't like it at all, I would go for the washers on the HS adjuster. I had a TPL with a PP maxing out a 923fps with MRD's. I tried the heavy hammer spring just to see what it would do, and it did max out the gun at 954fps, but the cocking was really heavy. I just did it to see what it would do. I mostly shot it at 880-890 fps anyway. The other thing would be to turn up your regulator from 140 to 150 bar. 

 

[oldsparky]

Could I ask a question that may be a little off topic?

When tightening the hammer spring to the max point, that was till the gun would not cock then loosening the hammer spring until it would cock. My trigger pull seemed to change(lighter). Have others felt that?

 

[elh0102]

If you experience that, my guess, your sear engagement is very fine (shallow). Luckily, the Veteran trigger is very adjustable. If a deeper sear engagement doesn't help (might introduce some creep), both the sear and linkage have tension adjustments, and I expect you can achieve your goal by playing with those. Just pay attention to each adjustment, so you can reverse it if necessary. There is a warning not to move those, but I found I needed to make a small change in them when my rifle was occasionally failing to cock.

 

[mtnGhost]

Yep, I broke valve after valve using heavier hammer springs (or just higher reg pressure). I started making "indestructible" valve systems thereafter and I've never broken another since.

 

[Vetmx]

Could I ask a question that may be a little off topic?

When tightening the hammer spring to the max point, that was till the gun would not cock then loosening the hammer spring until it would cock. My trigger pull seemed to change(lighter). Have others felt that?

Every time I made a reg and HS adjustment I had to adjust the trigger to get it back to where I like it.

 

[Franklink]

Thanks for all the input. 

Yep, I broke valve after valve using heavier hammer springs (or just higher reg pressure). I started making "indestructible" valve systems thereafter and I've never broken another since.

Gino, you're likely stomping on that fpe gas pedal harder than anybody running the Vets. Your input here was the nail in the coffin for my already hesitant thoughts about going to the heavy hammer spring. I've seen your various posts here and on Insta about machining Vet valve systems and I suspected they were necessary for upped regs and heavier hammer springs.

Another 6 or 7 fpe just isn't worth it to me if it will likely cause issues with OEM valves. 

 

[mtnGhost]

 

Thanks for all the input. 

Yep, I broke valve after valve using heavier hammer springs (or just higher reg pressure). I started making "indestructible" valve systems thereafter and I've never broken another since.

Gino, you're likely stomping on that fpe gas pedal harder than anybody running the Vets. Your input here was the nail in the coffin for my already hesitant thoughts about going to the heavy hammer spring. I've seen your various posts here and on Insta about machining Vet valve systems and I suspected they were necessary for upped regs and heavier hammer springs.

Another 6 or 7 fpe just isn't worth it to me if it will likely cause issues with OEM valves.

Yeah, those factory nylon poppets can last a while, but they're also known to break / fail with modifying anything. Just a roll of the dice. 

I also found that the brass material that they use for the valve body is way too soft (and thin at the sealing face). Very easy to scratch up so you have to be real careful not to scratch it if you're servicing the rifle.

 

[JungleShooter]

So, where would I get those Veteran spare parts... poppet, valve, and stuff that's eventually going to break....

I'm looking at the Veteran as a possibility — as the prices of some of the newer offerings are as out-of-reach as Ferraris....

Matthias

 

[Franklink]

So, where would I get those Veteran spare parts... poppet, valve, and stuff that's eventually going to break....

I'm looking at the Veteran as a possibility — as the prices of some of the newer offerings are as out-of-reach as Ferraris....

Matthias

The point being made here is that those particular parts are not likely to break unless you're modifying the gun past it's originally intended design. 

By empty tin count my Short has just under 14,000 shots through it and the Long has a little under 6500. Both have only ever had the OEM hammer spring in them and I've not upped the regulator pressure in either. And neither has needed a single part. Come to think of it, they're still running the original oring that seals the thimble and the bolt probe. I should probably preemptively replace those.