Does the .25 Royale 500 mag deform pellets-experiment
I had to do a kinda tedious test to see if .25 JSB Kings get deformed in the rotary mag of the Royale 500. After all, a spring rotates the pellet-filled wheel until the next pellet jams against a stop, positioned ready to load. Can this action warp the skirt?
Eleven pellets were index marked with ink on the skirts to indicate position. Each pellet was numbered w/ ink and a thin, drafting pencil line was drawn around the skirt, leaving a parallel white space (between the skirt and line) of about .5mm, these circles were numbered according to the pellets. This entire process is being done under magnification, still a pain.
Pellets were loaded into the mag and pushed out, one by one, with a thin steel rod, simulating the loading mechanism of the gun. Observing the rounded end, the JSBs protrude quite a bit before losing straight travel. As long as the mag is properly lined up, the nose of the pellet easily enters the chamber without significant deviation.
After unloading the mag, the pellets were put back in position on the original circles that were drawn to look for deformation. The thin white space between the line and skirt was unchanged-the pellets showed no sign of deforming at the skirts and no other external dings or scratches.
Bottom line, unless a gun has an abnormal misalignment of mag and chamber (unusual given the design), the rotary mag of the .25 cal. does not appear to damage/change the pellet. This may not be true with different softer leads or lower calibers.
For .22 and lower, the Air Arms mag system may be better, the mag wheel has no spring, but is turned/advanced into position by a thin metal indexing spring, which just turns the wheel-doesn’t touch the pellet. These mags also “click” into place to verify alignment.
All Replies
Viewing 2 replies - 1 through 2 (of 2 total)
The Royale 400 mag will deform the pellets.
But the FX factory has a quandry, they make that same mag for the 2 semi autos they make, Monsoon and Revolution and they need to be wound tighter.
One thing you can do if you have a dremel and some skill, is to debur the spool and the exit hole on the magazine, when you reassemble it wind only 3/4 to 1.25 of a rotation to the spiring. The factory winds it 2 turns for the Royale and 4 turns for the Monsoon and Revolution.
I could feel a jerky feeling on mine when I ran them thru the rifle, but once I polished it it is almost like the mag is not even in the rifle, accuracy improved also.
Regards,
Roachcreek
Viewing 2 replies - 1 through 2 (of 2 total)
- You must be logged in to reply to this topic.
Thanks RC, for the info and technical tip on the .22. I like the .25 enough to pick up a .22 someday. I looked for the YF string on the mod but couldn’t locate it, glad you summed it up. Gotta get a new dremel, mine is starting to vibrate and get hot. Reckon 16 years of periodic, heavy use is a fair life span.
It seems the Royale 500 .25 mag is different. I wound the mag empty and it took 23 seconds to unwind; it’s slow. Seems a rubber drag slows the thing down and there’s not much spring pressure. The designers did a helluva job with this model. It does look like more barrel support is a good idea. I might make a mod to that end.