Multiple fliers: 10 out of 100, all in a group
I can’t explain how this happens but it is frustrating. I’ll be shooting my .22 12″ Condor and it is doing fine for 50 to 70 shots into a session when out of nowhere there will be 8 to 10 fliers that are 1″ to 1.5″ off target and in every direction from center. Then it’ll go back to shooting 1/4″ groups at 35 yards. I’m using a JDSAirman regulator set at 2100 psi, an Air force CO2 adapter, power wheel is at 5.1 and velocity holds steady between 795 and 805, pellets are JSB jumbo heavy 18 grain ( visually inspected for defects prior to loading ). I clean the barrel about every 250 shots and season the barrel with 5 fouling shots before returning to shooting for groups.
Any thoughts?
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Thanks guys, you’ve given me some things to try and I’ll get to that Soon. I think the most plausible is the hammer / valve consistency. Thinking about it there is a slight sound difference as well.
I’ll let you know.
I’m smellin what riff is steppin in about the shroud. 😆
I’d get a good group then out of nowhere flyers. Groups would then come back. Shroud I guess got bumped or something. I checked alignment by looking through the barrel from the bolt end and noticed a tiny crescent at the end. Rotated the shroud just a bit and flyers went away. Not sayin this is what is happening on your gun but definitely worth checking.
FWIW once you have established that clipping does not exist, mark the shroud and the frame with alignment marks so if removed, you can install them in the same position again. But still, look through the barrel from the breech end and see if the edge of the shroud is visible. Also good idea to mark the frame and bottle if you remove to fill it or store it.
Let us know what you find out.
Let’s say you fill your tank to 2900 psi, you shoot 50 rounds and now your tank is down to 2100 psi. The tank pressure is at the same pressure as the regulator is set to work at. For a few shots the regulator does not know what to do and can cause a little turbulence in the airstream. Once the pressure drops below 2100 psi the reg is out of the picture.
1-If your POI always returns to the same spot, I suspect occasional clipping if you are using a shroud. See 3 also.
2-If your POI changes, and your group centers move it is usually the bottle collar moves, or your barrel bushings are not secured correctly.
Other bandits have been bad scopes/rings. If your hold on the rifle changes, you could blame that as well. Light hold is best, but it must remain consistent and keep your cheek and hands in the same place each shot.
3-If you shoot with a chrony and the fliers are shots with different speeds than the rest, you need to work on valve consistency.
Check for hammer chatter, tight fit with the breech/tophat relationship, that sort of thing.
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Well, there may be some hope. I shot until the fliers started and then tried to observe what was going on. As earlier stated the sound of the hammer strike changed slightly. It was sharper and higher pitched than before. Thinking that the hammer might be sticking or chattering I sprayed some lubricant into the tube around the hammer. The sound didn’t change and the poi didn’t go back to holding tight groups either. Instead, the pellets continued to hit in about a 1 1/2 inch pattern well beyond the usual 8 to 10 shots.
So I tried turning down the power wheel and after a few tries the groups shrank to about 3/4″ and held there. My guess is that the hammer was actually traveling more freely when the fliers started and therefore altered how the initial burst of air started the pellets down the barrel. By turning down the power it returned it to the energy level of the pre lubricated hammer impact.
I couldn’t get the groups back down to the original size by power wheel adjustments so I tried one of the suggestions that I’ve seen here to reduce valve bounce, and put a thin rubber washer made of some material I have on hand. After cutting it to fit exactly behind the top hat and installing it, the groups settled down to about a 1/4″ which is where I started.
I didn’t have enough time to exhaustively test the results but the first 20 shots look good. I’ll let you know how it shakes out.