RTI P1 Performance, it's 1:32 LR barrel - "light" slugs - anyone had any luck? ( and why do I hate MRD's? )

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jdanvers

jdanvers

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Jul 7, 2019
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South Central Upstate NY, United States
JSB MRD's in this gun. I'm trying to like them - I really am. But I'm not. Never have. I know - some (many?) of you swear by 'em. I just swear AT 'em. I've got tin's of 'em - LOTS of tins that I grabbed a year or two ago when they finally became available again after having gone off the radar . . . and I've tried on and off again to shoot / use them and - nope. Who knows - probably just me. Anyway . . . . I've got the subjected gun tuned for them at 955'ish fps and *in calm conditions" and shooting off of a bench - they are pretty darned good. I go out in the field (ie; at my farm permissions, shooting off of sticks, off the hood of my car, etc .... and it's a bit windy to boot ) - forget about it. I miss as many as I hit. My other .22 RTI, also an older P1 Performance but w/the newer RPB barrel in it - I'm shooting .217 25g H&N's @965'ish and that thing is lights out. And flat - 25-45 yards = my zero. I can just see a pigeon on a roof, silo - whatever - and "just call it" - if it looks like it's w/in 50 yards I just "shoot it" - 90 % of the time I don't even bother ranging 'em. That thing is awesome. This other one that I just put together with the MRD's . . . damned near every distance has it's own click value - ie; I don't have a flat range. If the weather holds up and we have FT this weekend I may just bring the lot of 'em w/me and let anyone that wants 'em take 'em. ( as you might be able to tell - kinda frustrated with 'em . . . lol )

So . . . purely out of curiousity I decided to play a little bit just now in the back yard with a smattering of lighter slugs that I do have kicking around. 'Twould appear that the barrel prefers .2165's as the two that did do reasonably well were both that diameter. Picture says it - 47 yards. ( there is a tree stump in my back yard - it's 47 yds from my shooting table - it's kind of my defacto test distance ) The 21 grain H&N pellets were probably too hot - those thing DO shoot GREAT out of a couple of my other guns - but at more sane speeds - upper 800's, low 900's. The .2165 NSA's in both 23g and 24.8g did 3/4" groups which I'm thinking might be worth looking more into. I've no idea how fast they were going - I made no changes to the gun - I tested everything at the "MRD Tune" - which is 950-955.

Long winded - sorry. So - just out of curiousity - have any of you with this barrel found any kind of joy with slugs? I'm 99% sure based on what I know about the barrel and from hanging out in here that lighter slugs are all that it may(?) sling with any joy. The barrel isn't designed for slugs and as such - not surprising that it doesn't like (most) of them - but I believe I've seen in here and on youtube where some have found happiness with lighter ones.

. . . . not sure what I'm going to do with it - it was my .177 slugger. It may become that again or . . . . . ??? ( if I can get these .2165 NSA's to tighten up at this distance and then hopefully hold a decent group at 100 - or more - maybe . . . it'll just become a "lighter" .22 slugger . . . ? )

Oh -- now that I've uploaded the photo below. The 20.2g NSA's - they were .216's. I wasn't sure at the time I marked up the piece of paper. Again - looks like the barrel prefers the "in between sized" .2165's. Aim point with all of the targets is the center circle.

22mrd_tune_slugplay.jpg
 
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I tried some slugs from my 1:32 RTI and it was no bueno, couldn't keep em on paper @ 100 yards. Seems like I tried some NSAs in the 20-28grain range, some Varmint Knockers from 22-28grains, and some of the 32.? Gr Altaros. None of those were joy.

BUT, the 1:32 RTI barrel is the best barrel I've ever had for .22 Monster RDs. After a five year long fight with the MRD, something like 35+ barrels, multiple different platforms and multiple rebarrels for most of them, I had concluded that i was divorcing them. I even sold something like 50-60 tins of them at a nearly giveaway price. So, bought the 1:32 from the classifieds here and a friend in LA machined it to fit my Veteran Long. I was hoping it'd like the Grands or maybe even the new but not yet released 21grain JSB. Tuned up my Veteran and the 1:32 RTI for Grands, a nice consistent 925-930fps over the Chrono in the garage late one night. Next day decided to try some MRDs from it, just cuz. The Grands tune produced 960fps with the MRDs, and absolutely amazing accuracy. Soooo good with the MRDs that I haven't even bothered with the Grands from it, partially b/c a different gun is really rocking the Grands well.

Anyway, I did lap the 1:32 RTI barrel, which may or may not have helped. And I'm using old stock MRDs with an FX label on them, they were probably bought in 2021ish? This same batch of FX MRDs never shot this well from any of the other barrels. And by shoot well I'm talking 100 yards. I put ten into about 7/8" a few weeks ago. EBR cards are averaging around 230-232. With this 1:32 RTI barrel, GONE are the typical MRD flyers 2+ inches away from the desired impact point.
 
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If it was your .177 slugger, then it should return to that duty. You don’t need two flyweight .22 sluggers. Having a good .177 and .22 slug shooter would have to be wonderful. I wasn’t aware that a factory RTI .177 barrel could shoot slugs that great. I plan to venture to .177 slug land some day. I wouldn’t mind doing it with a RTI as my base platform.
 
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Vetmx said:
If it was your .177 slugger, then it should return to that duty. You don’t need two flyweight .22 sluggers. Having a good .177 and .22 slug shooter would have to be wonderful. I wasn’t aware that a factory RTI .177 barrel could shoot slugs that great. I plan to venture to .177 slug land some day. I wouldn’t mind doing it with a RTI as my base platform.
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Yeah - the slugger discovery was purely accidental too. Readers digest - I bought two barrel kits for it from AOA which are both listed as the older 'Priest' model - one in .22 and the other in .177. ( This was when I still had only one RTI - which was a .25 at the time ) So anyway - I wasn't terribly impressed with the .22 barrel so I decided to swap it out for the .177. I'd already had some .177 slugs kicking around from another experiment with another gun - I just loaded up a mag with them and let 'er rip - still on the .22 tune. The things flew unbelievably well - I was shocked. :) Fast fwd'ing and cutting to the chase - reg has to be kinda high @160'ish - it likes 13g jsb ko's running low 930's. ( https://www.airgunsofarizona.com/factory-parts/rti-priest-2-barrel-kit/ )

I've since adapted your philosophy on these air guns - when you get one 'dialed' and it's great - don't mess with it. Just feed it air and ammo. You want something different - DON'T MESS WITH THE GOOD ONE(S)! Just buy another gun and dink with that one. ;-) Thus - three RTI's now. Two I don't touch - that .22 with the 25g H&N's and my .25 with the 32g Patriot Javelins.
 
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That’s funny because I have two M3’s I won’t play with. The third M3 has been a barrel test pilot. It was the gun I used to test theories because I could always return it to its very good pellet gun status. Well now that gun and its current configuration is so awesome that I won’t touch it anymore. It’s done going under the knife. I was jumping around with my P2 but now it’s a .30 slug monster. Brutal and accurate. So now it’s hands off with that gun. Guess I need to find another gun.
 
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Wow you guys are talking slugs and RTI in the same breath, I dont have the RTI 132 barrel, But I have the 177 -22 and the 30 caliber barrel that I have tried slugs with, Never tried with my 25 barrel, My testing range is 30 and 48 yards the slugs were not up to my accuracy . I expect the paper edge to touch same as the pellets , I was told the slugs need 100 yards to tighten up, No not drinking that kool aid , I think I am waiting for someone to come out with a SLUG barrel for RTI, Not a slug/pellet barrel but a slug only barrel, I think I got a long wait, LOL.
Mike
 
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airgunmike56 said:
Wow you guys are talking slugs and RTI in the same breath, I dont have the RTI 132 barrel, But I have the 177 -22 and the 30 caliber barrel that I have tried slugs with, Never tried with my 25 barrel, My testing range is 30 and 48 yards the slugs were not up to my accuracy . I expect the paper edge to touch same as the pellets , I was told the slugs need 100 yards to tighten up, No not drinking that kool aid , I think I am waiting for someone to come out with a SLUG barrel for RTI, Not a slug/pellet barrel but a slug only barrel, I think I got a long wait, LOL.
Mike
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If you’re not putting all your slugs through the same hole at 30 yards, there’s no hope of them tightening up at 100. Things only grow as the distance increases in any projectile land. Oh, and to not be misleading, my .30 RTI is not using a barrel from a RTI.
 
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Hey I had the RTI profit performance with the LW long range barrel with the 1:32 twist. I traded for it and it took me s week trying to get rid of that extremely annoying noise it made when fired. I can't say much about that barrel because I like to shoot slugs. I was told it had the RPB barrel in it but that was a lie. I looked into getting the 600mm .22 RPB Barrel kit but was either sold out at the time or I wasn't willing to pay the almost $700 or atleast something close to that for barrel change kit. Ultimately I ended up do a trade that allowed me to pick up a New P3 in .22 with the RPB Barrel. That gun has been an absolute joy to shoot. Although it's said to shoot both pellets and slugs equally well I haven't shot too many pellets through it. As fat as modifications I added the two plenum extensions, the lower arca rail, a Saber Tactical grip and recently picked up the carbon fiber 50mm hush moderator. I haven't been able to take it out to a range and test groups at 50 or 100 yards. However I have been putting a lot of slugs through it shooting birds on my property. My P3 with the 600mm RPB Barrel with the 1:16 twist w/ a light choke does very well with the Varmint Knocker .217 28gr FB-XL-HP SLUGS. That's with my reg set between 150 and 160. For example and yes it was kinda cheating because I used the Pard NVOO8S LRF and of course I didn't record this shot but I smashed a wood pecker that was 145 yards away. It was halfway up the side of a very tall palm tree as well. If you want to get even more shots you can tune it down and shoot the .217 22gr DB-XL-HP Varmint knockers also. Other slugs that I personally favor are Griffin Airgun Ammo. These specific ones are a bit pricey for a tin of 200 at $32 but they are one of my favorites he makes in .217 and I'm pretty sure he also makes them in .218. It's the 24gr XR/Hunter/LCD. LDC stands for low density core. It's a rebated boat tail slugs with I assume some kind of polymer ball in the core of the slug. Those things along with a lot of his ammo shoot great. The LDC allows you to get maximum expansion even at lower speeds, but they do just fine over 1000fps. I would highly recommend trying both the Varmint Knocker and the Griffin slugs if you have the 600mm LW RPB Barrel in .22cal. With that said I'm now salivating over the new PCP that they are going to release Mora, specifically in .357 as I have never has a .357 and that gun, to me at least is a dream gun. Just have to dig up $2,400.00 roughly to purchase it lol. I hope this helps you out a little.
Pete
 
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