I regress.......

[DanoInTx]

I got a wild hair today and decided to pump up my B50 even though I know it'll be flat in a day or two.  The biggest heartache I've had with this gun is leaks, and once I got the gun to hold air for more than a day it didn't shoot very straight...kind of like adding insult to injury.  Well today I decided to pump it up and give it a quick try.  So I pumped it up, mounted a scope on it and tried a few groups.  Still not very good...but then I had a thought, the scope I mounted is a cheapo, let me try something else.  Installed a slightly better cheapo, and then started shooting....wow, bad scope. much improved groups, but still not great.  Then I tried some Kodiaks.  Those were better than the Crowmagnums, but not great either.  Then I remembered some RWS Magum heavy pellets I had and////well, I started getting nice one holers.  Remember now I only have 13 yards of shooting distance in my yard, so they all should be one holers, but this gun was a 2-2 1/2" grouper at 13 yards, so this is a great improvement.

Next step is to solve the final leak.  Pumping a gun from zero everytime you shoot it is painful, and by the time you're done you usually are too tired to want to shoot anymore.  Luckily this gun has a new hammer spring from JohnB on the Yellow, so fill pressure is lower and shot strings are longer.  Next step after the leak is to solve the stock issue.  I have thought about making a B50 stock and it's just not going to happen for this gun...., but I do see alot of improvement that can be made to the current stock to make it much more user friendly.  I will carve out and remove some chunks of stock and replace them with more wood that I can shape to fit correctly.  This stock was designed with Paul Bunyan in mind, it is HUGE and the distance from the grip to the trigger is nearly impossible to reach.  I have already cut a full inch off of the butt to shorten the LOP and that helped alot, next will be the full treatment.

I said at various times that I thought this gun was a POS, and I still stand by that...however, with a bit of work I will make this one a better shooter.  There are guys that can make a great gun out of these....I will try to get mine in "decent" shooting order.

[Splash]

Sounds like things might be lookin up, Dan.
Mike

[shadow]

Mind over matter Airbud or mind over airleak, goodluck and keep us posted. Ed

[JMG]

Dan, am I assuming correctly that you went through the entire gun and replaced all the seals? I realy feel bad that this thing isnt working out. I remember when you had ordered it and you were really excited about it. But its kind of hard to shoot Steve's s410 and then gp from that to a box stock B50.

John

[DanoInTx]

Haha, ALL the seals?  I replaced ALL the seals 2-3 times each.  It isn't bad seals at this point, it's poor/rough machining.  I know where it's leaking from, but haven't been able to solve it.  I think that there is a deep gouge in the air chamber right where the o-ring for the valve seats.  I have polished and buffed and honed..etc, etc, and the leak has lessened...but it's still there.  The gun leaked when I first got it, but I found the first leak right away at the fill nipple.  I thought that was the end of it, but a few days later, the gun has no air.  I left it alone for awhile, shot it a tiny bit here and there, but it grouped horribley so I didn't do much with it.  Then one day a few hundred rounds into owning it I aired it up, took one shot and "pssssssssss" all of the air leaked out...the exaust valve had broken in half.  I finally took the gun apart at that point to find the huge leak when I found the broken valve.  Machined a new one for an interim fix, didn't work great (this was right around the time you and Roald and I went shooting at the dirt track), I got a new valve in the mail a week or so later, still a slow leak....resealed and such, got it to shoot "ok" again (this was around the time of our second shootout at your old house)...but then I was getting valve lock issues, suspected a bad gauge on my pump, replaced gauge....bought an Airforce Talon and put the B50 in a case until today:)

My TalonSS on the otherhand is shooting really well.  It's the gun I thought I'd hate and ended up liking alot....go figure.  I have even been thinking about buying a matching Condor!