Dragon Claw .50
being a gluten for punishment I decided to take advantage of PA’s fine offer of 10% off on the .50, then they sweetened the deal by offer 10% off the whole order on top of that 😯
couldn’t say no, so I’m getting Dragon Claw 50, 100 rounds of ammo and the 10 for 10 all shipped for $571 😎
Sold a powder burner and had money burning a hole in my pocket, saw the deal and couldn’t resist
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Software is still giving me a hard time , but i was able torun some rounds over the chrony before the snow hit again.
first shot was unrecorded – just making sure they where going to POA, didn’t want to shoot my chrony again 😮
560.44
588
638.11
703.45
695.96
669.74
639.69 – got dark and was dinner time at this point. clearly downside of the curve anyway
started at 200 BAR finished at 75!
All shot on “low” power setting(first cock) with 185 gr HP air-venturi bullets
so compared to the first string shot in July I’m using more air and getting lower velocities….. 😛 although my peak velocity was higher…
July’s string
“Start charge at 200 Bar
low power:
1 599.1
2 628.8
3 645.9
4 670.6
5 693.2
6 695.8 fps
end charge a tad over 150 bar
”
now for the “high power” setting
773.6
747.6
713.7
finished with @ 125 BAR
as comparison here is July’s numbers
high power – 200 bar start
1 767.6
2 742.9
3 720.4
tad under 150 bar
At this point I was starting to think I may have a leak in the system, so when I took the gun apart to prep the bolt for a new heavier cocking handle (.625 brass) i examined the transfer port – I couldn’t reuse the original as it had o-ring grooves cut in it and drilling it out would have fun into the grooves, so I had made a new one out of aluminum, made it slightly longer than stock thinking that would help it seal.
Well one end it well sealed (can’t take it out!) so I measured how high it stuck out and then the depth on the receiver side – came up short, do believe I found my air leak.
Found an o-ring that fits in the receiver side and should under a slight amount of compression seal things up – will try again with stock hammer (hammer will be slightly lighter as I’ve drilled and tapped it for 1/4″ 20 ) and cocking lever to verify and then again with the new handle to see if it helps.
wanted to run some bullets over the chrony and record them with my software, but of course the laptops batter is shot (lithium ion and starting to swell – very bad sign)
new one will be here Monday, weather permitting I’ll run some rounds over it this week and crunch some numbers.
Thinking I will make a new cocking handle out of Brass and get some more weight on the hammer
also got some Hornady round ball .495 coming via slow boat we’ll see when I get a chance to try that.
it’s a bitch trying to cast in cold weather, spout on my bottom pour pot kept clogging, had to heat it up with a lighter to get ti flow again before each pour
put more rounds down range, gun not real happy with them…..
going to try some round ball and eventually order a new mold, maybe a nice Depp/ug style and have them drop around .495 or so maybe a tad larger at .497
My rifle wasn’t real happy with my casts compared to the store bought ammo, was initially thinking it was the diameter as it didn’t like the larger store bought stuff that much either.
Decided to try pure lead before going for a sizer or new mold, pure lead dropped a bit smaller and .498-9 vs the .5
gun seems happier, was placing all the bullets pretty much in the same place – still working out my baffle issues, seems what will work for a .22 can’t deal with the extra pressure that the 50 lets out.
things be breaking. Printing up some beefier parts with looser tolerances
yea it’s not terribly neighbor friendly without the shroud, not to mention your hearing 😯
Well, you can always keep up the tuning and groups without the shroud, until you get it sorted out. That clipping looks potentially dangerous.
Bet it’s a boomer w/o the shroud. A good way to chase off stray animals!
Ehhh, that’ll buff out!
GsT
After some filing and lots of polishing I finally got the trigger to smooth out, actually useable now
Discovered I had a bit of a baffle strike the other day, probably put 6 rounds thru it before I notice
Only damage was to this part, my can is a bit over built 🙂
yeah it does 😀 , might try to incorporate something for that when I rebuild my backstop 😳
the snipers on hold for now, plan on getting a new, longer TJ barrel for it and I wan’t to try some different material for the valve, using PEEK and it just doesn’t want to hold air for long.
Your chrony needs some armor :2cents: How is your snipe coming along?
put the gun back together and sighted it in, then went to shoot some 185 gr HP rounds over the chrony.
first shot was low and left! seem the scope was a bit loose
tightened everything up and fired a couple of sighting shots, then shot over the chrony again, got 2 shots to register, first one was 645, second 706 (205 FPE) then I couldn’t get any more to register even though they where all going into the same hole.
going to take a good look at the chrony and see if it will come to life again
I take back what I said about the air path to the valve not being too restricted. as you can clearly see in this picture the nice cone spring is already bound on the first 4-5 coils completely blocking the air path, thinking about snipping off a coil or two
Cabin fever got the better of me, decided it was time to tune the Claw a up a bit, so apart it came.
valve – I like the cone shaped spring
transfer port – this is where the real restriction starts to occur
opening is less than a quarter inch in diameter
I don’t think the path to the valve is too bad of a restriction, though I’m slotting the side anyway, the biggest issue is getting the air from the valve body to the barrel.
The valve in take port is about .3″ the valve exhaust port is about .224″ – and that diameter is the same the rest of the way to the barrel.
The way the transfer port is made you really can’t drill it out enough to make it worth the effort – it has o-ring slots cut into it greatly reducing the available metal. I think I will make a new one from aluminum and try to get things up to .3″ all the way out.
Good pictures of the molds HEATING stages……………TOO COLD to JUST PERFECT to TOO HOT! Nice. And you are spot on
Aluminum molds are much more finicky about heat than steel one.
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made a new cocking handle today, adds a bit of weight and should be sturdier than the pot metal stock piece
haven’t had a chance to Chrony the changes yet