Rapid 25 barrel shortened by 3"

Thought long and hard about having my Theoben Rapids barrel shortened.  After installing the new stock, the gun gained some length.  It barrel fit in its case now and something had to give.  Making the gun shorter and making it less front heavy by removing length from the barrel had become, "THE WAY TO GO".  So off to my gunsmith Ernie over on Airgun Advise for a little "trim".




As expected, there was a FPS loss with the barrel trimmed down. The gun was set up to push JSB Kings at 940 FPS and now with the 3"s removed, velocity is around 910 FPS. I have yet to RE-TUNE the gun as I wanted to see if the gun/barrel would remain as accurate with the barrel shortened at the current power setting. It still shoots great but has lost just a tad of the accuracy but again, that's expected now as the FPS has changed. So again, more tuning and testing to come. But, I was able to still smack eggs at 100 yards while placing the eggs or their sides instead of standing them up. Much smaller target that way......lol.

With the switch of the stock and a shorter barrel and also the smaller 400cc bottle, the gun is no longer front heavy and is more balanced.

The rifle before the barrel trim: 

My Rapid wearing its shorter barrel:

Here is a pic of the 3" of barrel removed:

 
Here is a pic of the barrels new OVAL port that Ernie machined:

Here is a pic of my barrel and my buddies barrel after Ernie worked his magic:

1st group shot with JSB Kings and the shorter barrel at 50 yards. The target dots are exactly 5/8" and the 1st shot pushed it through the Styrofoam plate:

VIDEO: A short range session 

Stay TUNED!!
Tofazfou