Western Airguns Western Sidewinder questions

[SenseiSmash]

Good afternoon AGN.
I have a sidewinder that won’t index the magazine when I fire. I was told by Fox Air to loosen the barrel clamps and loosen the barrel in order to get the magazine to index.
My question is what barrel clamps am I to loosen to achieve this? If you could mark on my attached photo that would be great.
Anyone that’s had this issue please feel free to chime in. My rifle was modified to have a quick release moderator on it and I did notice the first time I twisted the moderator on the barrel shroud tightened but I don’t feel the barrel tighten I’m not sure how to keep this from happening each time the moderator is attached or removed.
Final question is it safe to dry fire this rifle? I can work on it here if I can dry fire but will need to leave city limits if I need to run it loaded.
Thanks in advance for any assistance

 

[AlanMcD]

First, you can dry fire the gun all you want. Just don't go nuts and forget to monitor pressure in the reservoir, as if it gets too low you could cause problems, and you should have an empty mag inserted as you do it to properly load the advancement mechanism.

I circled the two barrel clamping bolts in yellow. These should be reasonably tight, and if not loose then there is no way the barrel will shift as you do anything at the moderator / shroud mount end. They hold it good and firm, so you can do whatever you want at the muzzle end with no worries.

What Fox said is a potential cause, but if the mag goes in and out without a fight it might not be the cause. My Sidewinder had a part fail on me, and it is the magazine advancement mechanism that is located under the cover that I circled in blue. Do know that you can't take that cover off until the gun is fully degassed - there is a piston rod of sorts in there that will fly out if the cover is removed with pressure in the gun. You can take the bottle off (the instructions are in the owners manual) and dry fire the gun until empty.

Unfortunately with no parts diagram out yet, it is hard to name that part, but it slides in and out easily in a slot under that cover. It has a small return spring that filed on me (and on Emu's Sidewinder too) and a new part fixed it right up. I got the part from AoA, because the gun was originally sold through them, but not to me (I bought it used).

Hope that helps.

 

[SenseiSmash]

First, you can dry fire the gun all you want. Just don't go nuts and forget to monitor pressure in the reservoir, as if it gets too low you could cause problems, and you should have an empty mag inserted as you do it to properly load the advancement mechanism.

I circled the two barrel clamping bolts in yellow. These should be reasonably tight, and if not loose then there is no way the barrel will shift as you do anything at the moderator / shroud mount end. They hold it good and firm, so you can do whatever you want at the muzzle end with no worries.

What Fox said is a potential cause, but if the mag goes in and out without a fight it might not be the cause. My Sidewinder had a part fail on me, and it is the magazine advancement mechanism that is located under the cover that I circled in blue. Do know that you can't take that cover off until the gun is fully degassed - there is a piston rod of sorts in there that will fly out if the cover is removed with pressure in the gun. You can take the bottle off (the instructions are in the owners manual) and dry fire the gun until empty.

Unfortunately with no parts diagram out yet, it is hard to name that part, but it slides in and out easily in a slot under that cover. It has a small return spring that filed on me (and on Emu's Sidewinder too) and a new part fixed it right up. I got the part from AoA, because the gun was originally sold through them, but not to me (I bought it used).

Hope that helps.

View attachment 492325

Thank you for your help. I also bought mine used and it was sent to Fox Air Power for a once over before it was shipped to me, in that time they determined that a part for the indexing needed to be replaced so they took care of that but once I received it and tried firing it was single shot only, surprised that this wasn't addressed during the repair but that's okay, this from what you pointed to seems simple enough to adjust.

 

[SenseiSmash]

First, you can dry fire the gun all you want. Just don't go nuts and forget to monitor pressure in the reservoir, as if it gets too low you could cause problems, and you should have an empty mag inserted as you do it to properly load the advancement mechanism.

I circled the two barrel clamping bolts in yellow. These should be reasonably tight, and if not loose then there is no way the barrel will shift as you do anything at the moderator / shroud mount end. They hold it good and firm, so you can do whatever you want at the muzzle end with no worries.

What Fox said is a potential cause, but if the mag goes in and out without a fight it might not be the cause. My Sidewinder had a part fail on me, and it is the magazine advancement mechanism that is located under the cover that I circled in blue. Do know that you can't take that cover off until the gun is fully degassed - there is a piston rod of sorts in there that will fly out if the cover is removed with pressure in the gun. You can take the bottle off (the instructions are in the owners manual) and dry fire the gun until empty.

Unfortunately with no parts diagram out yet, it is hard to name that part, but it slides in and out easily in a slot under that cover. It has a small return spring that filed on me (and on Emu's Sidewinder too) and a new part fixed it right up. I got the part from AoA, because the gun was originally sold through them, but not to me (I bought it used).

Hope that helps.

View attachment 492325

New question, could too loose of a barrel cause these same indexing issues? Fox Air said to loosen the 2 barrel tensioners until I can rotate the barrel, get it fully seated then back it off 1/10 of a turn. Once I loosened the barrel clamps it was about 3-4 full turns of the barrel (tightening) to get it fully seated so seems the barrel wasnt tight enough.

 

[SenseiSmash]

Turns out that neither loosening or tightening the barrel resolves the indexing issue. Anyone else have any tips or things I can try on my own to resolve this?
Thank you

 

[AlanMcD]

There is no way that too loose a barrel would directly cause your problem, although I could see how not having any drag on the magazine from it could lead to extra load on the small spring causing it to fail prematurely - but that is just a guess.

It is possible that the issue could be tied to some settings that are adjusted on the other side of the action, but I don't recall what the correct range would be - when I had my issue, Shane at AoA walked me through those adjustments to see if that was the issue before we determined that the index mechanism was broken.

I'd suggest contacting AoA if Fox is not helping enough. You may need to buy that part, and AoA might be the best source.

Here is my post on my issue from last year, not that it has anything in it that I have not mentioned, but the timing might help Shane recall it if you end up talking to him.

Western Airguns - Western Sidewinder Semi-Auto Function Issue

I have a .22 Sidewinder that just developed an intermittent problem where the magazine does not advance after a shot. As a result, the next shot end up being a blank, but then it advances to the next round. It seems to happen randomly roughly two or three times out of a 15 shot magazine. I...

www.airgunnation.com

 

[SenseiSmash]

There is no way that too loose a barrel would directly cause your problem, although I could see how not having any drag on the magazine from it could lead to extra load on the small spring causing it to fail prematurely - but that is just a guess.

It is possible that the issue could be tied to some settings that are adjusted on the other side of the action, but I don't recall what the correct range would be - when I had my issue, Shane at AoA walked me through those adjustments to see if that was the issue before we determined that the index mechanism was broken.

I'd suggest contacting AoA if Fox is not helping enough. You may need to buy that part, and AoA might be the best source.

Here is my post on my issue from last year, not that it has anything in it that I have not mentioned, but the timing might help Shane recall it if you end up talking to him.

Western Airguns - Western Sidewinder Semi-Auto Function Issue

I have a .22 Sidewinder that just developed an intermittent problem where the magazine does not advance after a shot. As a result, the next shot end up being a blank, but then it advances to the next round. It seems to happen randomly roughly two or three times out of a 15 shot magazine. I...

www.airgunnation.com

Thank you for all of your help. I’ll contact AoA

 

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