Stoeger Stoeger X20S - Keep & Fix or Chuck It?

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txaggie929

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May 11, 2015
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Fort Worth, Texas, United States
So my dad has a Stoeger X20S .22 that he says he can't get it to group worth anything, so he gave it to me to take a look at. Just cocking it sounded awful and the one shot I put through it sounded equally as bad. He did put a GRT trigger in it years ago, but that was it.

After doing some research, it seems that parts are few and far between. Between a new piston seal, spring, and breech seal, it looks to be close to $75 or more after shipping. Looked at a TinBum tuning kit for it, which doesn't include a spring or seals, and that's another $40 or so. All in all, I can't see dropping that kind of money into this older and cheaper gun.

I'm of the thought that throwing money at this thing is probably a waste. Thoughts?
 
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853_OKG said:
My question would be, did it ever shoot well? If the barrel is trash you'd be throwing your money away. Better off putting your money towards a winning horse (so to speak).
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That I cannot attest to….he said he could maybe get 2 shots touching and then would get some flyer that was inches away from the other two. Said he also got a pellet sampler package from Pyramyd and said no pellet made the groups any better. Not sure if it was the gun or him…but thinking about that no pellets made the groups any better has me questioning if it was Chinese barrel lottery and this one was a loser.

I have a couple tuned TX200’s, so this thing feels like shooting a cheap toy. I can’t see putting any more than $20 into a gun that was maybe $170 new, and that doesn’t seem to have much product support these days.
 
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txaggie929 said:
That I cannot attest to….he said he could maybe get 2 shots touching and then would get some flyer that was inches away from the other two. Said he also got a pellet sampler package from Pyramyd and said no pellet made the groups any better. Not sure if it was the gun or him…but thinking about that no pellets made the groups any better has me questioning if it was Chinese barrel lottery and this one was a loser.

I have a couple tuned TX200’s, so this thing feels like shooting a cheap toy. I can’t see putting any more than $20 into a gun that was maybe $170 new, and that doesn’t seem to have much product support these days.
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Well there we have it. I love all things airgun related and refuse to throw them to the trash. To me they deserve a place on the wall.
 
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I own an x20s in .22, it was my first airgun years ago, back when I needed back-yard pest elimination. I also use a GRT lll. My rifle has not been overly used and gets fed a steady diet of Crosman Premier ammo.... so the barrel has that "harder lead seasoning". About the only time it gets shot anymore is when my grandsons are here and they become bored shooting their .177 HW30 and R7.... and the x20s still performs.
The cocking noise you mention and lack of consistent accuracy would make me lean towards possible broken / deformed spring and / or piston seal needing replaced. The GRT lll trigger is a plus! ... also check the barrel pivot bolt for tightness for barrel movement side to side. I can't remember if I replaced the pivot bolt washers with brass on the x20s as I did with my Crosman rifles...? but the brass washers make a good difference also!
If you decide to keep it...(y) Good Luck.
 
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txaggie929 said:
So my dad has a Stoeger X20S .22 that he says he can't get it to group worth anything, so he gave it to me to take a look at. Just cocking it sounded awful and the one shot I put through it sounded equally as bad. He did put a GRT trigger in it years ago, but that was it.

After doing some research, it seems that parts are few and far between. Between a new piston seal, spring, and breech seal, it looks to be close to $75 or more after shipping. Looked at a TinBum tuning kit for it, which doesn't include a spring or seals, and that's another $40 or so. All in all, I can't see dropping that kind of money into this older and cheaper gun.

I'm of the thought that throwing money at this thing is probably a waste. Thoughts?
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I do not like throwing good money after bad. If the rifle is already in bad shape, time to cut your losses. I suggest purchasing a new rifle. I saw a couple reviews of this Synergis rifle by Umarex. Not a bad price for an under lever rifle. Or go for the gold and get him a nice HW95 from Krale. Call me crazy, but He probably deserves it. :)

www.pyramydair.com

Umarex Synergis Elite | Pyramyd AIR

We've got a great price on the Umarex Synergis Elite. Get a great price and expert advice at Pyramyd for your next outdoor adventure!
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www.krale.shop

Weihrauch HW95 Luxus

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Well, I guess I get to eat my words. Tore the gun down. It did not have a broken spring or a trashed seal. They must’ve put that gun together on a day where they were rationing grease at the Chinese factory. There was absolutely none on the spring and just enough on part of the piston to discolor a small portion of a paper towel. There was hardly any residual in the compression tube.

I lubed everything with a moly grease and put it back together. Put 20ish pellets through it just to get everything moving and then wanted to see what accuracy looked like. Still had the crappy Stoeger 4X32 scope on it and couldn’t get decent eye relief, so I set a target up at 10 yds to try and avoid putting pellets in my fence. And surprisingly, I managed to pull off some decent groups using JSB 18.19 Diabolo.

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txaggie929 said:
Well, I guess I get to eat my words. Tore the gun down. It did not have a broken spring or a trashed seal. They must’ve put that gun together on a day where they were rationing grease at the Chinese factory. There was absolutely none on the spring and just enough on part of the piston to discolor a small portion of a paper towel. There was hardly any residual in the compression tube.

I lubed everything with a moly grease and put it back together. Put 20ish pellets through it just to get everything moving and then wanted to see what accuracy looked like. Still had the crappy Stoeger 4X32 scope on it and couldn’t get decent eye relief, so I set a target up at 10 yds to try and avoid putting pellets in my fence. And surprisingly, I managed to pull off some decent groups using JSB 18.19 Diabolo.

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I am so glad you did that. I'm no pro or even close, but those stoegers are OK above there price to me. I do have some really nice airguns also. I do like them all except for...better not say.
 
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TnCnDn said:
I am so glad you did that. I'm no pro or even close, but those stoegers are OK above there price to me. I do have some really nice airguns also. I do like them all except for...better not say.
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Color me surprised and impressed as well. Have no idea what it would do at 20 yards, but it’s going to take a better scope to figure that out.

Come on, you gotta tell us which one you don’t like now lol
 
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