What'cha doing air gun related today?

[PapaT]

Watched a few videos on the tube, including a new channel where a kid was "speed cycling" with his Marauder and I forget the other gun. It seemed like fun, and was 68* with 12-14mph winds, so I took the P-Rifle (Timber) out to give it a whirl. Difference is, I can't just shoot at nothing. So I stood at 20 yards away and fast cycled 2 magazines (20 shots) at my 5-in-1 target. 19/20 hit target, 16/20 hit the center bull target.

Followed that up with bucket shooting tiny targets at 20 yards with front arm rested on my knee. Shot the slynger silhouettes, followed by 1/4 co2 carts set up, 4 lids from youngest child's fruit pouches (5/8" tall), pencil eraser, and pair of water bottle lids (one is 1/4" tall), and paintball with last 20 shots left before time to refill gun (it was already a few magazines deep before I started today). Took one last shot at end to ring bell at 40 yards.


Ended my evening with learning how to use the patchworm kit, by using it on my P-Rifle. While going along and cleaning the barrel, I began to wonder best method. Do y'all swap back and forth between ballistol and dry, 1-# ratio, ballistol until ___ then dry, or what method have you found to work best?

Related note, background matters for photos. Black background masks just how dirty your cloths actually are. (This is first 6 from previous picture.)

 

[Dogowski]

While i was recording my shot string I I also photographed the manometer after 24 shots all the way down. I uploaded my CSV and those manometer photos to ChatGPT to help me figure out my data and where to go next. I’ll be shortening the hammer spring again from 70 to 68mm.
I also had it estimate my psi for all my shots.
My goal is 36 shots, 3 magazines, and keep all the shots inside a quarter at 20 yards. Good enough for pesting rats.

Shot | FPS | FPE | Est PSI
-----+---------+-------+---------
1 | 660.02 | 9.97 | 3000
2 | 678.32 | 10.53 | 2979
3 | 675.96 | 10.45 | 2958
4 | 685.68 | 10.76 | 2938
5 | 684.76 | 10.73 | 2917
6 | 685.88 | 10.77 | 2896
7 | 697.90 | 11.17 | 2875
8 | 698.53 | 11.19 | 2854
9 | 697.75 | 11.17 | 2833
10 | 710.96 | 11.60 | 2813
11 | 713.18 | 11.67 | 2792
12 | 718.41 | 11.85 | 2771
13 | 714.45 | 11.71 | 2750
14 | 717.38 | 11.81 | 2729
15 | 720.22 | 11.91 | 2708
16 | 733.98 | 12.35 | 2688
17 | 737.36 | 12.46 | 2667
18 | 742.47 | 12.64 | 2646
19 | 746.29 | 12.77 | 2625
20 | 754.29 | 13.04 | 2604
21 | 755.59 | 13.09 | 2583
22 | 761.93 | 13.31 | 2563
23 | 764.61 | 13.40 | 2542
24 | 768.09 | 13.53 | 2500
25 | 773.27 | 13.71 | 2497
26 | 774.56 | 13.76 | 2494
27 | 779.44 | 13.93 | 2491
28 | 784.43 | 14.11 | 2488
29 | 792.20 | 14.40 | 2485
30 | 795.24 | 14.51 | 2482
31 | 803.00 | 14.78 | 2479
32 | 803.27 | 14.79 | 2476
33 | 810.88 | 15.08 | 2473
34 | 815.79 | 15.26 | 2470
35 | 819.16 | 15.39 | 2467
36 | 827.63 | 15.72 | 2464
37 | 830.46 | 15.83 | 2461
38 | 834.88 | 16.00 | 2458
39 | 839.32 | 16.17 | 2455
40 | 848.98 | 16.55 | 2452
41 | 849.21 | 16.56 | 2449
42 | 851.43 | 16.65 | 2446
43 | 853.02 | 16.71 | 2443
44 | 855.70 | 16.82 | 2440
45 | 862.04 | 17.07 | 2437
46 | 862.72 | 17.10 | 2434
47 | 865.44 | 17.21 | 2431
48 | 864.01 | 17.14 | 2425
49 | 869.08 | 17.35 | 2408
50 | 869.88 | 17.38 | 2392
51 | 874.02 | 17.55 | 2375
52 | 876.06 | 17.63 | 2358
53 | 880.10 | 17.81 | 2342
54 | 883.42 | 17.95 | 2325
55 | 886.70 | 18.10 | 2308
56 | 892.05 | 18.32 | 2292
57 | 893.87 | 18.40 | 2275
58 | 898.73 | 18.62 | 2258
59 | 900.99 | 18.72 | 2242
60 | 908.85 | 19.05 | 2225
61 | 908.78 | 19.05 | 2208
62 | 912.12 | 19.19 | 2192
63 | 913.80 | 19.26 | 2175
64 | 918.94 | 19.48 | 2158
65 | 922.11 | 19.61 | 2142
66 | 925.21 | 19.74 | 2125
67 | 929.33 | 19.92 | 2108
68 | 933.21 | 20.09 | 2092
69 | 936.68 | 20.24 | 2075
70 | 942.32 | 20.49 | 2058
71 | 947.92 | 20.74 | 2042
72 | 947.46 | 20.72 | 2025
73 | 944.01 | 20.58 | 1968
74 | 944.66 | 20.61 | 1910
75 | 940.21 | 20.39 | 1853
76 | 934.19 | 20.13 | 1796
77 | 925.13 | 19.74 | 1738
78 | 918.36 | 19.45 | 1681
79 | 910.26 | 19.11 | 1624
80 | 900.03 | 18.69 | 1566
81 | 889.95 | 18.28 | 1509
82 | 879.63 | 17.86 | 1452
83 | 868.51 | 17.42 | 1394
84 | 858.90 | 17.05 | 1337
85 | 848.35 | 16.64 | 1280
86 | 837.79 | 16.23 | 1222
87 | 825.81 | 15.77 | 1165
88 | 814.22 | 15.34 | 1108
89 | 801.89 | 14.88 | 1050
90 | 789.21 | 14.42 | 993
91 | 776.59 | 13.96 | 936
92 | 763.43 | 13.49 | 878
93 | 750.91 | 13.03 | 821
94 | 738.71 | 12.61 | 764
95 | 697.76 | 11.14 | 707
96 | 685.07 | 10.74 | 650
97 | 670.74 | 10.29 | <650
98 | 662.02 | 10.03 | <650
99 | 649.94 | 9.66 | <650
100 | 635.64 | 9.24 | <650

That's a lot of detail using ChatGPT as a tool for airgun tuning! Nice.

 

[Billm]

I thought the same thing early on, honestly. The factory hammer spring is way too aggressive for what the rifle actually needs under 15 FPE.

After a full chrono + pressure study, what I’m seeing is that the rifle itself isn’t inefficient — it’s just badly over-sprung from the factory. Once hammer energy comes down, the spread collapses right in the mid-string.

In my case, trimming the hammer spring brought it to ~12 FPE and eliminated hammer bounce in the usable window. I’m seeing very tight ES in the center of the string now — the remaining issue is just shifting that flat spot earlier in the fill.

Long story short: if your wood stock gun has a bad spread, I’d put money on the hammer spring being the culprit, not the valve or barrel. Once you tame that, the 1361 actually behaves like a very efficient unregulated PCP.

I’ll post updated numbers once I finish the last trim, but so far the data says the rifle is absolutely worth the effort.

I figured mine is probably the hammer spring. The last time I tuned the hammer, it felt like the spring was catching on something. I rarely shoot it. It is the 3500 regulated version. It was my first pcp, I bought it because my grandkids didn’t like cocking the Diana 48. It shares parts with the Barra 1100z. Barra mags are half the price of the Beeman.

 

[Dogowski]

Watched a few videos on the tube, including a new channel where a kid was "speed cycling" with his Marauder and I forget the other gun. It seemed like fun, and was 68* with 12-14mph winds, so I took the P-Rifle (Timber) out to give it a whirl. Difference is, I can't just shoot at nothing. So I stood at 20 yards away and fast cycled 2 magazines (20 shots) at my 5-in-1 target. 19/20 hit target, 16/20 hit the center bull target.

Followed that up with bucket shooting tiny targets at 20 yards with front arm rested on my knee. Shot the slynger silhouettes, followed by 1/4 co2 carts set up, 4 lids from youngest child's fruit pouches (5/8" tall), pencil eraser, and pair of water bottle lids (one is 1/4" tall), and paintball with last 20 shots left before time to refill gun (it was already a few magazines deep before I started today). Took one last shot at end to ring bell at 40 yards.
View attachment 18647

Ended my evening with learning how to use the patchworm kit, by using it on my P-Rifle. While going along and cleaning the barrel, I began to wonder best method. Do y'all swap back and forth between ballistol and dry, 1-# ratio, ballistol until ___ then dry, or what method have you found to work best? View attachment 18648

Related note, background matters for photos. Black background masks just how dirty your cloths actually are. (This is first 6 from previous picture.)View attachment 18649

I start with 15 wet with balistol patches then run 3 dry after that to finish up. This varies of course with how dirty the barrel actually was. Might need to run less, or more. So I don't alternate between wet and dry. That's just my method, others will chime in with theirs. Have a great rest of your week PapaT!

 

[PapaT]

I start with 15 wet with balistol patches then run 3 dry after that to finish up. This varies of course with how dirty the barrel actually was. Might need to run less, or more. So I don't alternate between wet and dry. That's just my method, others will chime in with theirs. Have a great rest of your week PapaT!

Thanks for sharing, less or more based on how the wet looks I assume? Also, do you flip the patches so it's really 30 passes wet, 6 dry?

 

[Florida_Man]

That's a lot of detail using ChatGPT as a tool for airgun tuning! Nice.

I was curious what it could do to help with this rifle so I've been feeding it data. This is after the chronograph csv data and photos of the pressure guage.

Pressure block overlay (Beeman 1361, 70 mm spring)​

Block 1 —​

Shots: 1–24
FPS range: ~660 → ~768 fps
FPE range: ~10.0 → ~13.5 FPE


Behavior:

• Early shots still climbing
• Mild over-dwell at the very top of the fill
• Higher air use (~500 psi / 24 shots ≈ 21 psi/shot)
• Hammer bounce largely suppressed, but not fully optimized yet

---

Block 2 —​

Shots: 25–48
FPS range: ~773 → ~864 fps
FPE range: ~13.7 → ~17.1 FPE


Behavior:

• Extremely efficient region
• Very low air use (~50–100 psi / 24 shots ≈ 2–4 psi/shot)
• Valve opening and closing cleanly
• Hammer bounce effectively eliminated
• This is the mechanically ideal zone

---

Block 3 —​

Shots: 49–72
FPS range: ~869 → ~947 fps (peak), then leveling
FPE range: ~17.3 → ~20.7 FPE


Behavior:

• Peak velocity occurs here
• Air use rises again (~350–400 psi / 24 shots ≈ 15–17 psi/shot)
• Still stable and predictable
• Indicates the hammer spring is slightly too strong for a 3000-psi start

---

Block 4 —​

Shots: 73–96
FPS range: ~944 → ~686 fps
FPE range: ~20.6 → ~10.7 FPE


Behavior:

• Normal end-of-string behavior
• Valve dwell increases to maintain velocity
• No instability, no spikes
• Air use increases as expected at lower pressure

---

Block 5 —​

Shots: 97–100
FPS range: ~671 → ~636 fps
FPE range: ~10.3 → ~9.2 FPE


Behavior:

• Falling off the power curve
• End of usable string
• Still clean, just out of pressure

 

[Florida_Man]

I’m getting these ammo cans for all my rifles. I can keep all the spare parts for them together.
2026 is the year i organize!

This is my CZ200 box.
I just finished putting a lighter hammer spring in it. It’s slinging 7.33gr 750 fps.
Those UK guys like @Sub 12 airgunners can’t have all the low power fun.

 

[Florida_Man]

And a picture of the beautiful rifle. Airgun perfection in my eyes.

 

[Scriv]

Painted all of my steel targets, and put some fresh marks on them with the springer.

 

[Scriv]

Changed the crank oil in my compressor.

 

[Danman]

Changed the crank oil in my compressor.

Your running a Hill EC-3000? How often do you change yours? This spring im at 1 year with mine and its got maybe 3 hours on it lol (still rocking the hand pump for top offs) will skip this year methinks!

 

[Billm]

Completed a project that I started yesterday. Designed and built an air tank cradle and handle. It stops it from rolling around and makes it easier to carry.

 

[Florida_Man]

I put a vibration hour meter on my cs4 and topped off my 9L. The CS4 is too smooth, it didn’t register anything

 

[Scriv]

Your running a Hill EC-3000? How often do you change yours? This spring im at 1 year with mine and its got maybe 3 hours on it lol (still rocking the hand pump for top offs) will skip this year methinks!

I change it every year. I had about three hours the first year, and I feel that it's important to remove all the gunk from break in. Oil is cheaper than repairs. Yep, the EC 3000

 

[Moose]

Shots 70-74 indicate to me that the highest FPS was when the pressure was at 2050-1900 psi. If this system could be regulated down to that limit, would it be at its peak performance? Or am I missing something or everything? Help me out here, if you can. I don't presently shoot PCPs. Really enjoy the detail of the posts.

 

[Dogowski]

Thanks for sharing, less or more based on how the wet looks I assume? Also, do you flip the patches so it's really 30 passes wet, 6 dry?

No flipping of the patches for me or the grime leaches through.

 

[Dogowski]

I put a vibration hour meter on my cs4 and topped off my 9L. The CS4 is too smooth, it didn’t register anything

Lol. Wouldn't work on mine either! Gotta love the GX compressors.

 

[PapaT]

No flipping of the patches for me or the grime leaches through.

I noticed that it seemed/felt that way as I dutifully followed the directions on packaging. Thanks again for your insight.

 

[Dogowski]

Completed a project that I started yesterday. Designed and built an air tank cradle and handle. It stops it from rolling around and makes it easier to carry.

Very nice project. Useful and handy. I really like the feature of it not rolling around!

 

[Dogowski]

I noticed that it seemed/felt that way as I dutifully followed the directions on packaging. Thanks again for your insight.

You're welcome Papa T! Always a pleasure brother.