GTA
General Discussion To Gateway To Airguns => China Gate => : gearsnguns January 11, 2010, 01:13:38 PM
-
I have been AWOL for some time due to personal reasons but just had to share my success story with you all who might be interested. I purchased a Stoeger X5 for my father a while back and while shooting it with him I felt a lot of potential from this little fella. Some time went by and I decided to get one myself, as all my springers are of the Magnum and Super Magnum breed. They are all loud with a violent shot cycle. The X5 has a direct sear trigger (don't stop reading) like the miserable RS1. But what made the RS1 so bad was the Magnum spring with the direct sear trigger. No way to make that thing work safely with less than about a 9 lb trigger. The X5 on the other hand is a 600 fps rifle with a soft spring. Can you say "modify me please". When I took her out of the box, my satisfaction with it was less than 1 out of 10, now it's 8.5 out of 10. I immediately disassembled her with my spring compressor and removed all that "mystery" goop from everything, deburred all internals and polished the pressure chamber. I finished the spring ends and put a chamfer on the barrel's loading port. I modified the trigger by removing a few coils from the return spring and then very slowly started removing excess metal from the latch area between the sear and the piston. I would assemble and try, each time better than before and each time I would bounce the bottom of the butt pad against the floor while cocked to insure I wasn't making it unsafe. Too much off and you'll be ordering parts as you can't put metal back on. The trigger originally had a mile of creep, so I knew there was some serious surplus engagement. I used gun oil on the trigger assembly, Castol open gear lube on the outside of the main spring and Moly on the ends, Moly on the piston and seal, (none on the face) and silicone on the breach o-ring. I also used Amsoil engine assembly lube on the sear to piston contact. Reassembled, and now there is zero spring twang, trigger is actually good and fairly light, accuracy is incredible at 20 yards and she's light enough to carry all day in the field at 6 lbs. If you like messing around with modifying springers, and you want a stealth-quite, easy to cock rifle then this is a good choice. Are there other guns that may shoot better out of the box for the same $99.00?, probably, but when you can make a poorly assembled rifle shoot at its maximum potential with a few hours of fun...that's priceless to me. CPHPs are her favorite, I loaned out my chrony, but there is a drastic difference in audible speed-to-target after the tune, hope this helps someone. As a word of caution, do not do any metal removal of the parts in the trigger, unless you are experienced in this kind if work. If too much metal is removed the engagement of the piston to sear it could be less than is needed to hold and could cause the barrel to come back to the closed position, pinching your finger off. Or, once it's loaded could spontaneously fire.
1st pic: rifle
2nd pic: the chamfer was added (didn't have one)
3rd pic: trigger assem.
4th pic: area most worked on (metal removal and polish)
5th pic: spring guide is sized perfect from factory
6th pic: piston seal (original)
7th pic: all parts but stock
Regards,
Steve
-
So very nice to see a success story on the Stoegers! Dude! You've got it going on! There are a handful of folks out there whom are leary to experiment with such rifles and that you've gone beyond the call of duty and improved one sounds to me like you may very well be a trend setter! Please give us(the GTA Family) a detailed report of its progress and you may very well sway some heads on the true authenticity of a very well built gun with potential!
Thanks for posting and looking to hear more...
Matt
-
awesome.... i love that little shooter...
-
Did you re-use the seal that came with the AG?? What about the spring?? If you used a new seal and spring, what did you find to use and from where?
Also where is the AG made?
And good going taking it down and putting it back together again....and with no parts left over. :)
-
Thanks guys for the comments...Made in China, by whom, I do not know. The seal was good and the spring looks like a fairly nice spring, so I reused them for now. Based off my measurments a Gamo BigCat seal may work, still messin around, I'll keep you all posted. I also have some uerethane durometer 90 I'm going to make one and try.
Regards,
Steve
-
One of my friends have one of those.....pretty accurate out of the box but the trigger is heavy and the pull is long.
-
That's exactly why I think this is a little gem. We all know that it's difficult to shoot a springer accurately with a lousy trigger! but, like you said, pretty accurate out of the box even with a bad trigger. To me, that's a sign of potential. Fix the trigger, and enjoy. :)
-
Great News Steve!!!!!!!! Got any pix of that rifle?!?!?! I'd like to see some close ups of the breech block, trigger, and safety. I'm sure the trigger can only improve with a simple polishing. But for now, shoot the crap out of it and get some 'break-in" time on her!! tjk
-
Your Stoeger X5 sounds very much like my Xisico B-12. Is the Stoeger X5 a rebadged/dressed up B-12 or is it an entirely different design? The only thing I dislike about my little B-12 is the horrible trigger.
-
i dont think they are the same rifle. But i'll have to tear one up to see. I think it shoots a bit harder than the b12, but the b12 is more accurate due to the low recoil.
-
Honestly mate that factory sping guide is real
joke "pic 5"...replace it....its a lose fit in the spring..
you can see light between the guide & spring..
& it must have trouble turning with that 4 section
flaired end..whitch would increass the cant/twist
that is transfured to the gun..
Sorry..I tell it how I see it...
Pete
-
I see what you mean...I did use a stainless steel washer between it and the trigger block. (forgot to mention that) And after I looked at the picture I posted, I couldn't figure out how it fit snug. After closer examination, it turns out the guide is somewhat oval.
Regards,
Steve