Tuning SPIRALING PELLETS

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If the spiral is developing at short range, 30-50 yards, it’s almost assuredly the result of the pellet becoming damaged somehow. Most commonly that would be due to clipping in my experience but obviously not the case here since you removed the shroud. In that case, my suggestion would be to chamber one in the usual manner, then remove the barrel and finish pushing it all the way through with a cleaning rod, and inspect it for damage. 

Use a cleaning jag on the end of the rod so it pushes against the inside of the skirt. If you were to use the blunt end of the rod, it may damage the skirt periphery and make it hard to distinguish between that and some other source of damage.
 
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If the spiral is developing at short range, 30-50 yards, it’s almost assuredly the result of the pellet becoming damaged somehow. Most commonly that would be due to clipping in my experience but obviously not the case here since you removed the shroud. In that case, my suggestion would be to chamber one in the usual manner, then remove the barrel and finish pushing it all the way through with a cleaning rod, and inspect it for damage. 

Use a cleaning jag on the end of the rod so it pushes against the inside of the skirt. If you were to use the blunt end of the rod, it may damage the skirt periphery and make it hard to distinguish between that and some other source of damage.
Click to expand...

+1

How do you eliminate the double load? Shooting or manually

Regards 

Enkey 
 
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Sorry guys I forgot to mention....I have some 36" bamboo skewers I used. I seated the pellet as Nervous trigger suggested and pushed it through and I manually seated one in both cases the pellets looked fine and I haven't touched the TP Enkey. At low speed the spiral is faster I can pick it up at 50+ yards. @940 it stabilizes quite a bit but is 12-14" left of POA
 
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Hmm, okay I guess we’ll move on to some less likely causes.

Uneven chambering – Assuming this is a rifle and pellet combination you are very familiar with, did you detect any difference in the effort or the tempo when chambering a pellet? Meaning, after you had cleared the double load. Also, is this a pin probe or hollow probe?

Crown – While the odds are astronomically small that you could have done any damage with a bamboo skewer, they aren’t zero and you didn’t describe how you did the follow up cleaning. So if you have a 5x or greater loupe handy, give the crown a careful inspection all around the perimeter. Also, when you were doing the push-throughs, is there _any_ increase in resistance just before the head emerges from the muzzle? Do it again a few times if you are unsure. I don’t know if there is a choke so you may need to take care to distinguish between an increase in resistance over the last little bit of travel (a choke) versus a slight hitch just before the head of the pellet emerges into the world (a crown defect).

Pellet photos – If at all possible, take a few closeup (macro) photos of the pellets you pushed through. Maybe I can help you spot something subtle. Side profile with good lighting. Two handheld flashlights lying on the table, one facing in from the left and another facing in from the right, will do nicely to circumvent the typical poor indoor lighting. Placing the pellets on a sheet of white paper helps too. Rotate the pellets and take 2 or 3 pictures so we can see the full perimeter.

FWIW, I am more inclined to expect it has something do with chambering than it does the crown.
 
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Thanks for posting this up, Dennis. I am goong to follow this closely. I’ve always wondered about accidentally double loading a gun, and too many times I see a newbie given advice to just shoot the double(or sometimes triple) pellets thru, and the advice ends with “ it won’t hurt nothing, just make sure and pull the moderator off”. 

The advice I tossed out was check for pellet probe looseness, breech o rings, clipping on not only the moderator but on the liner lock.

another check is make sure the barrel lock grub screw didn’t loosen up at the time the double load was shot(never know, right?)

if you’ve got another moderator you can try and swap another one on to see if it makes a difference.



Fx makes awesome platforms, but with all the designs, Engineering, etc that they’ve put into MK2, MK3 versions of guns I sure wish they would come out with an anti double load design. I would’ve made that more of a priority on the newer guns vs a double reg gun. If Hatsan can do it with their Hercules Bully(unsure on other Hatsan guns) I’m sure FX can do the same. 




 
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As stated above, this is certainly an interesting topic and may lead to useful information if the cause of the problem is identified. One wouldn't think soft lead could deform anything in the breech area but who knows what might have happened with two pellets being jammed together through the breech area, not to mention down the barrel. Hope you get it fixed.
 
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I'll take some picks of the pellets I pushed through. I did notice when pushing them through there were a couple places that had more resistance than others. I'll do it again and measure where the tight spots are. The skewer actually fits perfectly inside the skirt using the blunt end. I did get about a half turn on the side grub on the probe and maybe a 1/4 on the top screw.
 
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I'll take some picks of the pellets I pushed through. I did notice when pushing them through there were a couple places that had more resistance than others. I'll do it again and measure where the tight spots are. The skewer actually fits perfectly inside the skirt using the blunt end. I did get about a half turn on the side grub on the probe and maybe a 1/4 on the top screw.
Click to expand...

Yes, but also check on that 6mm grub screw on the right side of the gun, that locks the barrel in once the transfer port gets indexed to the breech block. Maybe that was loose before the double load was shot? 
 
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Haven’t been posting much lately... Happy New Year Trig, Augie, Dennis, B&G and Enkey...And Cahill, sorry!

I know I’m a little late to the conversation but in all reality, the odds of damaging the breech, lands/grooves or muzzle with a couple lead pellets and bamboo are pretty slim. It could happen but far more likely is that the timing is a coincidence and it’s something else. Especially If a couple have been pushed through and inspected with no deformation. What pellets are they Dennis? We have never had a problem with spiraling but when Alex got his Maverick last month and we were testing different pellets, some of the 33.95 spiraled and the POI was way left, like 12” at 75 yds. Those same pellets didn’t spiral in the Impact or RAW at the same velocities and no other 33.95 pellets from other tins spiraled in the Maverick either. The boys thought it was cool to see but I was pretty baffled. I too am really interested in the results of this investigation. Hope you are all doing well! 
Stoti
 
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I’m most certainly no expert on most things FX, but... I something makes me go “what if?”

When I was working on my WC, there was an item that @bigragu had told me to check. That was the distance that the pellet probe goes into the breech. I wonder if pushing in a bit harder than it had to, the probe got pushed back? It’s really the only thing that I can think of. Otherwise the whole thing is bizarre to me.

For technical details on this I would refer you to @bigragu Good luck with it. Following with interest. 
 
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Hi Stoti, happy New Year to you too! Yeah I agree, I don’t put much on the odds it will be crown damage. Particularly not from the information in front of us. I was leaving space for something accidental that went unnoticed…bumped the muzzle against something while taking it apart or repositioning something, that sort of thing. 

It’s more likely that pellets are getting damaged while being chambered or they are chambering skewed. For example does this platform have a thimble, and if so how do you verify it’s aligned so there is no step where it transitions to the barrel? Meaning a place where the pellet might drag against or snag and modify the perimeter of the head or the skirt, or perhaps cause the pellet to tip slightly and consequently chamber crooked. The OP isn’t seeing obvious damage but I thought it would be good to see some detailed photos for us to give a second opinion.

You asked a good question, what pellet. Knowing that would give some insight into how susceptible it is to tipping.

I threw a lot of questions out there and frankly don’t expect for them to all be answered in writing but hopefully they will spur some thoughts into possible causes. Meanwhile I would like to re-ask about hollow probe versus pin probe?
 
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I shoot the KH MKII and they were shooting very well earlier in the day. When I pushed the pellets through today I felt resistance about every 4" consistent. Then real resistance at about 4" from the end. I use the hollow probe that I opened up. Here are som
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pics
 
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