What is involved in tuning a break barrel spring piston rifle? What improvements will it make? Accuracy, consistent shot placement, etc.? I may be asking a previously discussed topic/question. I did try to search before posting and found nothing that answered these questions. Also where can I find the parts to do this?
Tuning Tuning a spring piston?
- Thread starter Twiceshy
- Start date
The main thing I get out of a good tune is making the gun more pleasurable to shoot. A lot of springers from the factory have a pretty good twang and vibration on the shot cycle. A smooth shooting gun is naturally going to be more accurate too! We are talking spring guns not gas piston! Also having a quality gun to start with helps tremendously! Vortek and Air Rifle Headquarters have several DIY tune kits for a variety of guns and plenty of videos on YouTube on how to do it!
Upvote 0
IMHO there are two ways to tune a spring air rifle.
1. Shoot it. (It will take a minimum of 1000 shots for the spring to break-in..)
2. Take it apart and smooth all surfaces manually.
1. Shoot it. (It will take a minimum of 1000 shots for the spring to break-in..)
2. Take it apart and smooth all surfaces manually.
Upvote 0
What gun are you wanting to tune? A tune kit can easily run $100+. Many economy guns are not worth putting this kind of money into. A gun can be tuned to eliminate twang and shoot very pleasant with the factory spring and seals. Most tune kits are for the better guns also. Depends on what you are tuning.
Upvote 0
Not fact, but something along these lines.....
Stage 1- Smooth out any poorly machined/ unfinished surfaces on piston skirt, cocking slot/ arm and shoe. Clean barrel, relube, shoot in.
Stage 2- Reduce/ remove spring twang and vibrations by installing a correct fitting guide, top hat, slip washers to mainspring. Fit bearings to piston/ compresson tube. Adjust piston mass via top hat, and preload via washers at rear of manspring. Refinish crown if required. Relube and shoot.
Stage 3- Replace/ upgrade factory internals (seals, mainspring, piston) with proven tune custom parts. Strip, clean, stone and set up trigger. Adjust piston stroke, modify diameter of transfer port. Polish bore. Make any adjustments needed to breech/ leade in. Basically take everything as far as it can be taken to suit your personal preference.
Folks do the above on entry level springers, and high end springers. Initial purchase price doesn't always (infact rarely) guarantees a fully finished product. If you are paying someone else to do this work however, it makes little sense to go all in on a budget rifle.....unless you love it and plan on keeping it for life.
Chinese QC is getting better, and German QC is dropping. Its often about the trigger. Start off with a decent trigger arrangement and in the end there will be little to separate the above on target. Chinese barrels can be hit and miss (no pun intended) but ive found rough/ tight spots in HW and LW barrels too. Unless a bore is horribly over, or undersized, most can be made pretty good with a little effort.
Stage 1- Smooth out any poorly machined/ unfinished surfaces on piston skirt, cocking slot/ arm and shoe. Clean barrel, relube, shoot in.
Stage 2- Reduce/ remove spring twang and vibrations by installing a correct fitting guide, top hat, slip washers to mainspring. Fit bearings to piston/ compresson tube. Adjust piston mass via top hat, and preload via washers at rear of manspring. Refinish crown if required. Relube and shoot.
Stage 3- Replace/ upgrade factory internals (seals, mainspring, piston) with proven tune custom parts. Strip, clean, stone and set up trigger. Adjust piston stroke, modify diameter of transfer port. Polish bore. Make any adjustments needed to breech/ leade in. Basically take everything as far as it can be taken to suit your personal preference.
Folks do the above on entry level springers, and high end springers. Initial purchase price doesn't always (infact rarely) guarantees a fully finished product. If you are paying someone else to do this work however, it makes little sense to go all in on a budget rifle.....unless you love it and plan on keeping it for life.
Chinese QC is getting better, and German QC is dropping. Its often about the trigger. Start off with a decent trigger arrangement and in the end there will be little to separate the above on target. Chinese barrels can be hit and miss (no pun intended) but ive found rough/ tight spots in HW and LW barrels too. Unless a bore is horribly over, or undersized, most can be made pretty good with a little effort.
Upvote 0
I dont exactly know what all my spring gun tuners do (well they do tell me, but I can only remember so much and I don’t know which things end up being the bigger improvements) but what I know is the guns usually shoot a lot better.
More accurate, crisper shot cycle, smoother trigger, more consistent velocity. Usually a bit less power but much better pellet flight.
David
Upvote 0
I'll second what has been said above!
My approach to tuning the average quality springers we bought in the 60's was to accelerate the break-in, make improvements and lubricate properly.
On a new springer, I'd remove the gobs of poor quality factory grease by flushing out the spring chamber with a solvent, apply some 10W30 motor oil and shoot a tin (500) of pellets.
Then I'd disassemble the airgun (a spring compressor IS REQUIRED to do this safely!) and inspect for wear points and sloppily fit parts. The improvements consisted of removing sharp/burred edges, polishing the wear points, and shimming/fitting loose/wobbly parts (adding shims or replacing pins/shafts as required) and maybe upgrading cheap screws.
Smooth and polish the ends of the main spring if needed.
Suggestion: Don't mess with the trigger! Just flush it clean and lubricate sparingly.
During reassembly the parts would be LIGHTLY lubricated with molybdenum or lithium grease and machine oil. There are lots of modern high quality greases to choose from these days.
With springers it's important that the stock screws are kept tight. It's worth while reinforcing the holes in the stock to protect the wood from being compressed over time. Degreasing the wood and saturating the grain with a commercial "wood hardener" or thin Crazy Glue helps. Installing pillars or gluing (epoxy) in a washer and using lock-washers can help a lot.
Mostly, the biggest thing that can improve the accuracy of a springer is for the shooter to learn how this particular springer likes to be held and do that consistently.
Practice makes perfect!
Cheers!
My approach to tuning the average quality springers we bought in the 60's was to accelerate the break-in, make improvements and lubricate properly.
On a new springer, I'd remove the gobs of poor quality factory grease by flushing out the spring chamber with a solvent, apply some 10W30 motor oil and shoot a tin (500) of pellets.
Then I'd disassemble the airgun (a spring compressor IS REQUIRED to do this safely!) and inspect for wear points and sloppily fit parts. The improvements consisted of removing sharp/burred edges, polishing the wear points, and shimming/fitting loose/wobbly parts (adding shims or replacing pins/shafts as required) and maybe upgrading cheap screws.
Smooth and polish the ends of the main spring if needed.
Suggestion: Don't mess with the trigger! Just flush it clean and lubricate sparingly.
During reassembly the parts would be LIGHTLY lubricated with molybdenum or lithium grease and machine oil. There are lots of modern high quality greases to choose from these days.
With springers it's important that the stock screws are kept tight. It's worth while reinforcing the holes in the stock to protect the wood from being compressed over time. Degreasing the wood and saturating the grain with a commercial "wood hardener" or thin Crazy Glue helps. Installing pillars or gluing (epoxy) in a washer and using lock-washers can help a lot.
Mostly, the biggest thing that can improve the accuracy of a springer is for the shooter to learn how this particular springer likes to be held and do that consistently.
Practice makes perfect!
Cheers!
Upvote 0
Here you go. Welcome to the rabbit hole.
www.airrifletuning.com
Tinbum Tuning – It don't mean a thing if it ain't got a spring!
www.airrifletuning.com Upvote 0
It seems the answers here cover tuning, can go light see what you improve. Then go to next step as you learn and see how you improve performance. I learned it's not always fps and power for me,smooth cycle and accuracy are my goals now.
Upvote 0
TbT channel is awesome.Here you go. Welcome to the rabbit hole.
Tinbum Tuning – It don't mean a thing if it ain't got a spring!
Upvote 0
Yes, but I would be very careful messing with the Transfer Port
.Unless you really understand what you‘re doing …. too big and the gun is ruined, unless you spend a great deal of time fixing. 99% of folks should leave it alone
.Upvote 0
I agree I never touch it other than cleaning it. I have lightly chamfered the inside of it on a couple of rifles.Yes, but I would be very careful messing with the Transfer Port
Unless you really understand what you‘re doing …. too big and the gun is ruined, unless you spend a great deal of time fixing. 99% of folks should leave it alone
Upvote 0
Yes, but I would be very careful messing with the Transfer Port
Unless you really understand what you‘re doing …. too big and the gun is ruined, unless you spend a great deal of time fixing. 99% of folks should leave it alone
100% agree and rarely needed unless youre playing with older springers with a low SCR, but.....it is a thing, so made it in at stage 3
Upvote 0