Ok. The recap. And some of what I found out.
I should mention to start with that being a tradesperson, I’m lucky in that I already have stuff laying around that I can use to work on my rifle: tools and sandpaper and stuff. It’s convenient and makes the work and learning easier and more fun. After I opened my rifle the first time, I utilized a work stand I have to be a spring compressor. I also use this stand for my bench rest. The spring compressor is sort of essential, makes opening and closing the rifle easy and quick. And safe.
Taking the rifle completely apart is the basic familiarization task. Cleaning and lubing it properly, it’s a smooth great start. I sanded and smoothed the cuts in the spring tube area, where the cocking arm and trigger assembly go in. I saw a bunch of serious-looking gouges on the original piston seal, from when it may have been installed roughly at the factory. The sanding and smoothing worked, I managed to reinstall the piston and a fresh seal without damaging the seal. But I wouldn’t get too torqued about a perfect seal. Later, when I was rushing the install of the new piston, I managed to shave a little off the top of the seal. I still got 730 fps from it, which from my research is a pretty good velocity for this rifle.
The other very good thing I did in that first disassembly was serious work on the trigger. I think the notorious trigger assembly is a good unit but it’s mass-produced, stamped and cut however at the factory. Without doing the research, I found the trigger, apart from the long travel and the strenuous pull of the spring, to be chunky and grabby when shooting; not great for accuracy.
Foolishly, I took the trigger assembly completely apart without previous study, looked at the pieces and realized there was no way I could reassemble it correctly. Ah, the internet. I was able to find two very good web sites that explained, in detail, the correct disassembly and reassembly procedure. One also explained all the necessary work to improve the operation of the trigger, with photos. I was able to print pages from these sites. The printed pages were very handy as I did my own work.
The work I did is described everywhere but I’ll say it again. It involves looking at the trigger assembly and trying to imagine it’s operation, what pushes what, etc. And then removing rough edges from the manufacture, gently sanding and smoothing points of friction and surfaces that rub. No filing or grinding, you don’t want to affect cocking or the trigger negatively or unsafely. It’s sort of common sense. And then lubricate correctly. After reassembly, turn the adjustment screw all the way in until it gently stops. You’re done.
I think this trigger assembly work is essential, I wouldn’t have another of these rifles without doing it. What this work does, beside just shortening the travel, is largely smooth out the pull of the trigger when shooting. It’s a huge difference. Makes shooting way easier and fun, and more accurate. No more clunking. It still has a rather heavy pull with that spring but it’s smooth and liveable. Now, I’ve read lots about other trigger mod tricks, I haven’t tried them. I think that for the vast majority of shooters, the basic trigger assembly improvement as I’ve described is all that one needs to do. I have tried to compress the spring a little, when I have the rifle apart, to make it’s action lighter, it hasn’t really changed. I may remove the spring at some point, as I’ve seen described. We’ll see.
Whew. What else? Yes, I got the first cheesey scope, it seems a rite of passage that one. Huge improvement because I couldn’t really see over the open sights any more. I had been sort of waving the barrel downrange. With the scope I realized that my rifle was probably accurate enough for what I wanted to do. I could see the open sites through my scope though, as a big cloudy blob. I removed the rear sights by turning out the elevation adjustment thumbscrew completely. Then I could access the 2 screws that attach the base to the barrel. I removed the base, put the screws back into it so they wouldn’t get lost, put the top back on and turned the elevation thumbscrew in again, and put the thing in a ziplock bag for possible later use. Then I looked at how to change or remove the front sight. By this time I had discovered the excellent parts availability from Crosman, and that I could easily replace the front sight, so I just cut the top part off the front sight and left the round cylinder remainder. It’s a little rough but it’s fine. I liked the more streamlined look of the barrel.
Then I got the Chronograph. Amazing! Super cool unit, huge enabler of learning. Love it. Absolutely necessary for any mid-level hobbyist or expert, in my mind. However, it took a good deal of time and effort, and a ton of patience, to figure out how to make it work consistently. I can understand why a good number of people are dissatisfied with them and bail. Figuring out how to light it was the trickiest part. I tried to light it with a LED work lamp I had. Hung it this way, that way. I certainly didn’t want to buy the proper accessory lamps; I didn’t want to spend another 60 bucks and I didn’t want a couple power cords hanging off that I had to plug in. And I had read reviews where plenty of people struggled to make them work, too. With more research I read lots of success stories using little LED lamps. The first store I went to had, again, cheesey little headlamps, cheap to begin with, they were on sale for like 3 bucks each. And they were bright enough, I can’t remember, 200 lumens or something. I got good batteries on sale, still a bit expensive, quite a bit more than the lamps themselves. But LEDs don’t use a lot of power, the batteries will last. I don’t use the Chrony every time I shoot. I didn’t use the cheesey headbands from the lamps, I used a couple small, heavy elastics from broccoli, those blue ones. Put them around the diffusers. Clipped the lights in. Perfect! Super minimal, portable, plenty bright. Then it was finding the sweet spot to shoot through, alignment and how close to the sensors. I still get the odd error, it sometimes doesn’t like the first 2 shots or I’m struggling with alignment on a top target, I might miss 3 or maybe 4 even. But I’ll have multiple sessions of 10 shots and it reads every one. I set the Chrony on a small tripod on a table in front of my bench rest. But I also got a good, adjustable, tall tripod from the thrift store for 12 bucks. I haven’t done it yet but I would be confident taking it outside or to the range.
What else? I was downloading pages of targets from the internet and printing them. It was cool but I wanted more elegant targets and to control the size of the printed rings. I used to use graphics software and I had a favourite drawing program on an old computer. I fired it up, built the targets and laid them out to print on my printer. The rings are exactly as I want, 1/2, 1, 2 and 3 inches.
Then I ordered some parts from Crosman. Worked great, they have great shipping. From the same site, you can download exploded parts diagrams and lists. In my case, I got 2, one for Quest and one for Optimus models.
Ok, this is getting long. I’m gonna take a break and write more later. I hope this helps somebody.
_________________ Stephen low- / mid-level springers
.177 Cometa Fusion, Vantage 3-9x40 .177 Cometa Fenix LT, Endurance 4-16x50 .22 Cometa Fenix, Airmax 3-9x40
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