Tuning Seeking advice

Fellas, I need your counsel. I have done a little bit of tweaking to my Kral Nemesis/Knight that I bought from the AGN classifieds. It was imported and sold and then sold to me, and it is in the .25 setup with unmodified TP and valve, stock barrel, DonnyFL Tatsu, twin hammer spring.

From 250 bar fill...

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Shot string plateau

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How do I stop the itch to tinker with it?

The worst thing is that consistency takes all my excuses away. No regulator needed for a good design 😁
 
I own several Krals and feel your pain. Using my 350 Eur .25 Puncher to shoot cherries at 60 meters in some wind.

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No reg creep, no action noise, smooth cocking. Light to carry and shoulder. Well-cycling mags.

I keep pulling it out hoping it might have lost its accuracy, necessitating a new tune or a reg maybe. No such luck, getting almost as boring as FX. Even the previously plentiful feral parrots have stopped complaining. 😬😷

🐦
 
...I am having similar problems with my new "Benjamin" Cayden...the worst part is that I have not done any tinkering...but it is a serious tank...

...I will say it is a well balanced tank that points well...

...another aspect I am especially liking is how quiet the gun is with a LDC...

...I do not know if it is just mine or they are all like that but methinks it is the nature of the Kral Puncher action...no ping at all and not much slap...

...it is "silent" compared to my Airforce Talon/Escape...that suker pings...

...I thought this might be a good thread to ask aboot this...
 


...I do not know if it is just mine or they are all like that but methinks it is the nature of the Kral Puncher action...no ping at all and not much slap...

I think you are on to something -- that Puncher line has a superior action. I got the basic model in .22 to keep the synthetic .25 company during Covid lockdown. Same sad story as above. This one even shoots the .22 JSB knock-out slugs well at 60m -- in blustery wind and despite my reluctance to increase the power beyond 700 fps. The stock is gorgeous -- my crappy camera does not do justice to it.

What titillated me even more: they have equipped even this basic line with their match type adjustable trigger blade. Kral nowadays seems to be in the extreme customer satisfaction business.

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I also noticed that they have changed the trigger parts in this newest version (produced June 2020): the long seer part has been replaced by several smaller parts. The first stage is now preset at a FX factory like position -- short and sweet, and no adjustment screw anymore. The second stage adjustability remains. I polished the touch points as usual, and made the 2nd stage crisp&feather light.

And finally: the valve stem has the newer all-polymer poppet. Interestingly, also, the valve spring has a smaller diameter than my other ones. It now sits on top of the poppet spring guide, in a 3cm long metal bus they have slid over the spring guide of the poppet.

I wonder if @THammer knows why Kral has done this. The gun shoots great, but this poppet&bus&narrower spring contraption in mine was skewed. The valve spring had slid to the edge of the (unchanged, and thus wider diameter) cut-out inside the valve cap ... I positioned the spring back to the center of the valve cap by inserting a small pvc washer/ring (ID = spring OD).

Sorry, I should have made pics ... 🐦
 
Ok, I fell off the wagon again.

I have a valve seat on the Kral that eats valve seals within a few sessions, leaving me with a gun that leaks down over several hours to around 1k psi. I can fill and shoot, but cannot put the gun down and come back to shoot later without putting the pump to work again.

I ordered a replacement valve, block and bottle from Canada shooting supply. Great guys to work with. Oh yeah, the new valve is for the Kral big bore Bighorn. It is a drop in replacement. I believe I will see a slight increase in power output. My power restrictor is maxed out, but the barrel end of the TP is stock size. This may end up being like having a dodge Hemi in a VW beetle...

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I got some chrony work done today. The results are not an improvement, but they are close enough to get by as a backup to the stock valve if I cannot get it to stop tearing up valve seals. I did not change hammer spring tension. The Big Bore uses more air per shot and delivers about 6 FPE more per shot. All numbers gathered with the H&N 30.83g Barracuda. Groups shot against AA diabolos, Hatsan Vortex and JSB Hades. AA and Hatsan clearly preferred diet for the BB valve, as far as wind conditions and my will fatigue allow.

Stock: 100 shots from 250 bar

HI 817 LOW 801 AVE 812

ES 16 SD 3 

Stock "Golden Plateau": 64 shots

HI 817 LOW 809 AVE 812 

ES 9 SD 1

Big Bore: 57 shots from 250 bar

HI 845 Low 830 Ave 837

ES 15 SD 4

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