SPA P35 clipping baffles and moderator

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MrWhite said:
I got this P35 in a .22, and I’m having trouble with it. The gun was bought for pest control at 20 to 40 yards. I guess something’s up with the barrel as I’ve read up on SPA’s barrel lottery a bit, but I’d love a diagnosis from someone knowledgeable as this is my first PCP (after lots of break barrels).
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I've also had problems getting accuracy with any pellets from my P35 in .177, then a friend told me about Autosol polish cure and I to give it a try

After that its doing great with a few different pellets and JSB KO 10.03 gr

The pellets are with 980 fps and 9 shots at 60 m
JSB KO are with 885 fps and a lot of shots at 32 m

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So I took the barrel out of the P35. It looks straight. The inside ring that holds the pellet does look damaged somewhat (see pic). No burrs to spot and looks smooth.

When pushing several pellets through the barrel, they do not pass uniformely smooth, as there are places in the barrel the pellet clearly needs to be pushed a little harder as it feels like it's suddenly getting more traction from the inside of the barrel, as if the barrel is just a fraction less wide in those spots. In the end of the barrel, for about the last 0.6" the pellets definately need an extra push to to get them through. I measured those other spots where the barrel seems somewhat narrower, as form the breach end of the barrel, at 12.8", 14.4", 15.2", 16.3" to eventually need an even harder push as from 16.5" till it drops out of the barrel at some 17.1". It really feels as if there's an irregular resistance on the pellet along the way and certainly at the end. I would've expected that to be more smooth and regular as it almost feels as if the inside of the barrel suddenly is scratching the pellet. Is that normal?

barrelSS.jpg
 
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Finding roughness along with alternating loose and tight spots…is it normal? Yes, unfortunately. Desirable? No, but neither does it condemn the barrel to perform poorly. And it very likely can be improved with a modest effort _if_ it does not have the defect I described earlier so let’s revisit the topic.

The last little constriction at the muzzle could be a good thing or a bad thing depending on the nature of it. A good thing if it is simply a modest constriction. A bad thing if it feels tight because they mangled the rifling with a piloted crowning tool per the examples shown the “SPA still doesn’t get it” thread I linked to on p1. If present, it will be easy to spot with the naked eye by simply looking into the bore at a shallow angle with a source of light behind it. If so, the only viable options are to either return it or have someone remove the offending portion and recrown the barrel.

Your close-up photos are quite good so if you are unsure of what you’re seeing, post up some pictures for comment.
 
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I looked for the heck of it on Krale's return /warranty policy. They offer a 14 day exchange/return window. I guess that would be gone now anyway.

Warranty and repair it looks like a year is what they give you. If the gun manufacture does longer I imagine you have to go through them. It's probably not good to take anything apart on your gun because that gives them an out to void the warranty now. Shipping is on you but probably the same on guns purchased in US.

You don't say for sure when purchased but you could always call Krale and tell them what's going on to see what they suggest or don't. It might be a matter of polishing like JimD suggests but it would be nice to see what Krale has to say in advance.

I purchased the Stoeger MX1 Bullshark. It's basically the P35 with different stock. My crown looks like your pics but it shoots fabulously. I am very pleased with it. With buying in USA and also 5 year warranty. It's a plus in my mind.

Good luck and let us know the final outcome.
 
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This is when all the happiness of how fast Krale ships and how good their prices are ends. I have also bought junkers or questionable quality guns from Krale but I have a machine shop. Good luck. For your needs and the distance you plan to shoot, why didn’t you just buy a gun like an Akela or Puncher Breaker from a US distributor? My advice is if you want to order from Krale but don’t want to fix guns, order a quality gun from them. The whole return process and distance/downtime doesn’t sound like a good airgun experience.
 
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I wish there were something more optimistic I could say but no amount of polishing will fix the rifling that has been smeared and abraded at the muzzle. Most definitely not with felts and J-B or via fire lapping, nor even with a cast lap and something more aggressive.

Granted there is no harm in trying because it is in no condition to work acceptably in its present state, and one may indeed succeed in improving it but not to the extent that it would be considered fixed. The fix is a chop and recrown.

I lack the words to adequately express my disgust at SPA for this continued incompetence and apathy.
 
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I've had the gun since 3 months and it took a while already to understand there was something up with it. As it wasn't fun shooting it, I had put it aside mostly (so downtinme or shipping is no issue). Coming here, and asking you guys, eventually sped up the process to come to a conclusion. Thanks for that, y'all 👍

So I've sent 'm an email, asking to what length they're willing to propose a solution and what the options are. I suppose I'm not the only one interested in their answer...
 
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MrWhite said:
I've had the gun since 3 months and it took a while already to understand there was something up with it. As it wasn't fun shooting it, I had put it aside mostly (so downtinme or shipping is no issue). Coming here, and asking you guys, eventually sped up the process to come to a conclusion. Thanks for that, y'all 👍

So I've sent 'm an email, asking to what length they're willing to propose a solution and what the options are. I suppose I'm not the only one interested in their answer...
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It may take several days to get a reply from Krale. When I was dealing with them on a P35 that I had ordered I had to end up emailing and inquiring to see what was going on. It took three or four days before they replied to my email. Once they answered I dealt with a guy named Jaron. He was prompt in returning answers via several emails I had with him. I have heard that calling them is much quicker if you have international calling. For me there was an eleven hour time difference.

Again hope you get things resolved and post your results.
 
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I was not patient enough to wait for 3-4 day turnaround on emails so I called them on my cell phone from home. My cell phone defaults to the wifi whenever possible and I did not pay anything for a call to Krale. I don't have international calling but if your phone is doing voice over ip it doesn't seem to matter. Anyway, worked for me.

My 177 and 22 caliber P35s, ordered this May, both shoot well. I just shot a 194 with the 22 on labor day on the 30 yard challenge. I cleaned up the crowns with JBs but I didn't shoot them first so I don't really know if that helped. I mention this to make the point that not all SPA barrels shoot poorly, some shoot quite well. It is easy to change the barrel on a P35, if they offered Mr. White a new SPA barrel I would try it. I'm sure there are barrels that are more consistently good but my P35-22 is scoring consistent with some much more expensive guns despite the guy pulling the trigger.
 
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Good luck with Krale helping I had several emails with them about my P35 barrel issues. Last contact was in June when they said the would try to get a replacement barrel for me nothing since then. I have emailed Snowpeak a couple of times with no response. Luckily after JB bore cleaner twice and 2 DIY recrowns it shoots pretty good now. It will clip if I use a moderator so I have to be happy with just the hair curler mod for now. It went from a shotgun pattern to attached pic.

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JimD said:
I was not patient enough to wait for 3-4 day turnaround on emails so I called them on my cell phone from home. My cell phone defaults to the wifi whenever possible and I did not pay anything for a call to Krale. I don't have international calling but if your phone is doing voice over ip it doesn't seem to matter. Anyway, worked for me.

My 177 and 22 caliber P35s, ordered this May, both shoot well. I just shot a 194 with the 22 on labor day on the 30 yard challenge. I cleaned up the crowns with JBs but I didn't shoot them first so I don't really know if that helped. I mention this to make the point that not all SPA barrels shoot poorly, some shoot quite well. It is easy to change the barrel on a P35, if they offered Mr. White a new SPA barrel I would try it. I'm sure there are barrels that are more consistently good but my P35-22 is scoring consistent with some much more expensive guns despite the guy pulling the trigger.
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Jim
Thanks again for the help in getting my P35 shooting.
 
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I did a lot of thing wrong when buying the Skyhawk, read that the initial purchase, but the one thing I did correctly was to realize these Snowoeak p-15’s often need new barrels. While going through what some of you are experiencing, in the back of my mind, I had all the information I needed to acquire a LW barrel And get it fitted by JSAR.

The new barrel was wonderfully accurate and was worth it to me personally because of the Minelli walnut stock.

The main gripe I have about the experience is that Diana offered no after market sales support, no service, no parts. Not being a springer shooter, you can’t run fast enough to give me a Diana, it is a personal grudge…

Advance now a few years, the gun is up to shooting condition, I have found a questionable source of parts, I say questionable in that many are out of stock and not knowing when they will be available and I need one more item to bring it to near mint.

I am back to using the oem regulator that a friend supplied when he serviced and got my Skyhawk running. I ruined the original during my failed attempts at resealing. The pressure tubes and my smiths aftermarket parts, not JSAR’s, galled badly making disassembly very difficult.

I had several Snowpeak rebuild kits on hand, but could not for the life of me seal up that tube, others I sent it to had no problem resealing it. I later learned all those rebuild kits had old hard and stiff orings, once I bought a assortment of orings off Amazon, I immediately was able to seal it up.

The fill assembly is a pain in the rear, the overpressure system relies in a small oring with a screw inside. That system was continually failing, when it fails you have to open the air tube by removing the fill assembly.

I experimented with the original fill assembly, after buying a new one, and removed the original 1/16 npt threaded gauge, rethreaded it to 1/8 npt, installed a street ‘T’ 1/8 npt fitting and put both 1/8 npt threaded fill nipple and gauge using Teflon tape to seal. While not as pretty as the original fill assembly, this one works, I don’t commit safety violations to read the new gauge and it has a fill nipple now, it works great.

It also still needs a replacement shroud although a Koi works better and Donny sells a end cap that fits the mm barrel threads and then it will not clip. The oem shroud on mine was threaded crooked on both ends, it clipped badly as the aluminum baffles were not formed correctly, if a Donny adapter for the shroud end was used, it clipped worse.

I have it tuned to 12 fpe for inside use these days, it works great, very accurate, quiet, I still love the stock, and it is more dependable now that I have the knowledge of how it runs and good orings to fix it.

Having my right eye removed I am forced to shoot wrong handed, so I installed the JBE sidelever kit, it is a terrific mod, I highly recommend it. Member Krank has a new one in the box he wants to sell, he bought two, but sold the 2nd p-15 he was going to put it on.

So at this point, a few years later it is a great gun, but not as good as what I could have gotten with a FX Wildcat.

Without that Minelli stock, meaning a plastic one, knowing what I know now, I would not touch one.
Regards,

Roachcreek
 
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