New 6061 Aluminum Dovetail for the Sam Yang 357

Another item I've wanted to replace since I did initial research on the gun was the POT METAL Cast dovetail scope ring base.  Since owning it, I now know for a fact that its easily "CRIMPED" by the scope rings.  It doesn't take much torque to make "FLAT" spots on the base.

After talking to my machinist (D. Noble), he already has a dovetail that he mocked up a while ago while PERFECTING making them.  Alls he had to do was to cut it off the block it was machined on then start the machining process to duplicate the OEM base.  The new base was to be made out of 6061 Aluminum.  I won't bore you guys with needless details cause this process is self explanitory and its better seen then EXPLAINED TOO.....lol.

1st up, pics of the process:

AFTER FINDING CENTER, THE MILLING STARTS

YOU CAN SEE THE "base" OF THE DOVETAIL FORMING IN THE CENTER

 AFTER THE CENTER IS SLOTTED, ITS FLIPPED OVER TO CENTER PUNCH THE MOUNTING HOLES

BOTH ENDS ARE DRILLED FOR THE MOUNTING SCREWS THEN THE EXCESS FINS ARE MILLED OFF AND.................voila!

NEW AND IMPROVED 6061 ALUMINUM DOVETAIL BASE

A BIG THANK YOU TO DOUG NOBLE FOR DOING SO MANY OF MY MACHINE JOBS DUE TO THE FACT THAT ITS SIMPLY IMPOSSIBLE TO GET GOOD QUALITY AFTERMARKET PARTS THAT ARE STRONGER THAN THE OEM VERSIONS!!  I'M A HEADACHE.............I KNOW..................

THE MILLING PROCESS

Father and Son's 1st airgun outing

It's funny how when you become a parent (FATHER), while you dearly cherish you child being a toddler/infant, you quickly want them to get to that "MAGIC" age of when they can go EXPLORE the world with Daddy.  My son Mason is now 7 y.o. and will be 8 in a very short time.  I am 6'-2" tall and my boy now reaches my upper diaphram/lower chest area.  Boy how time flys and how quick they grow up!  Well, he has had a 50cc dirt bike for quite some years but obviously could not ride it alone.  We would often go for rides together on it and have a blast of a time.  Times i'm sure he will remember for the rest of his life.  Mason also has his own Crosman 2240 with 14" barrel and half shroud and a Tasco Red Dot scope that runs on CO2.  He has shot his airgun in the garage at 10 yards and a time or 12 (lol) when he was younger and a time or two at a little further distance of about 30 yards.

Well, now that he is right around the corner from 8 y.o., I decided that it was time for he and I to have our 1st outdoor adventure and it was time for him to learn to ride his dirt bike all by himself.  I figured while we were out in the wild being MEN, I would bring along HIS airgun and one of mine and have just a little fun together.  Nothing serious obviously but, just a little fun.  By the way, at the point before this outing, Mason has had very little experience with shooting and even less riding a dirt bike.  But he has SOME experience with both!  This day would allow him to gain more on both subjects, guns and motorcycles.

As I stated earlier, this day was honestly more about him riding his motorcycle than shooting.  Especially because I knew the wind would be a little high.  After we trained and rode the bike, Mason wanted to take a break to have lunch.  After lunch, I asked him if he wanted to ride again or shoot.  He replied "SHOOT".  Of course, I smiled ear to ear.  I then walked out 3 of my bowling pins to roughly 50 yards and came back to the truck to start shooting.  The gun WAS NOT SIGHTED IN as I had just taken it apart and modded it for more power.  Mason then asked me if he could shoot and i said, "why not dude" as I could be the spotter and its always easier this way to see where HIGHLIGHTS of our afternoon.  Upon firing, Mason actually hit the 1st pin flush.  I WAS IN AWE and AMAZEMENT and considered it a fluke.  So now the filming of his shots actually start and I challenged him to do it again.  Well, AGAIN HE DID.  Number 2 was down.  I then challenged him to hit the 3rd pin and if he did, I would buy him a Lego set which he loooooves.  Upon the 3rd shot, the pin spun slightly letting me quickly know that the shot wasn't centered but to one side.  I didn't think it was gonna fall.  I mean, have you guys seen the current prices of some of the Lego sets?  SERIOUSLY, CAN YOU BLAME ME!?
the pellets were hitting.  So after about 10 minutes of instruction on shooting the Recluse .357 and getting it to feel right to him, I told him to aim center of the bowling pins and to gently squeeze the trigger.  Now, my goal was also to not really be filming like I usually do but to just film some

As for the rest of the action, I will let you guys watch the video.  I will go on to say that I am extremely proud of my son and I'm a very proud father.  Mason shows signs of being a marksman and he actually loves shooting.  And he listens very well to instruction.  This day, was a day that I will never forget and I have my fingers crossed that he will WANT to do more shooting.  Dirt biking too but, this after all IS an airgun blog.

I look forward to more outings like this.  Another chapter in both our lives begins.....................


THE VIDEO:

Thanks for Staying Tuned!

Tofazfou

TalonDor 257 Gets an UPDATE!

art photo of the MaTaDor257

1st, until things change in the future, the gun will undergo a new name.  That name shall become the MaTaDor 257.  The name is 3 part.  MA  in the name is short for Mad Dog.  As in the stock the gun now wears.  The TA is from the frame of the gun which is a Talon framed Air Force Airgun.  And the DOR is for the valve which is all Condor.

2nd, the barrel now wears a Carbon Fiber sleeve to aide in decreasing any barrel harmonics the gun might have when fired as well as increasing the overall looks of the gun.  The CF sleeve basically keeps the barrel from "WHIPPING" in other words.  The CF was bonded to the barrel via Acraglass bedding epoxy.  This formula has worked well on my Corsair 7mm and has allowed me to shed some ounces by getting rid of the PRIMOS barrel harmonics dampner.  The MadDog stock and the CF Sleeve should prove to be a deadly combo.

Now, lets take a look at some pictures of the gun in its current state:

STAY TUNED for mooooooooooore!

Tom Costan's .357 Slayer. My 1st visit/viewing/shooting

1st, I would like to thank Tom for allowing me to come over and introduce myself to him as well as LURK AROUND HIS BAT-CAVE were all the magic happens

After 10 minutes of assuring Tom with "I swear, I WON"T RUN OFF" with his gun, he finally pulled it out from a dark and cold corner to let me breath on it......lol!  Ok, not even, the gun was out in plain sight even before I arrived..... ;D.  Tom, and I sat around and talked the talk for a while.  I then asked Tom a series of questions about the gun, himself and his company http://americanairarms.com.  After that, it was time to shoot the gun.  I closely watched Tom handle the gun to become more familiar with it when it was my turn.  I must say, the 1st thing I noticed was how light the cocking mechanism was when Tom cocked it.  I've seen his short video and I even talked to him about it prior but, to see it first hand was a revelation.  Its like, "BELIEVE IT OR NOT, YOU JUST SEEN IT WITH YOUR OWN EYE IN PERSON".  After watching Tom blast some slugs down range, it was then my turn.  Tom was shooting out to 80 yards and quickly told me to do the same.  Heck, i just wanted to shoot at 50 yards but who am i to argue with anyone when they tell me to STRETCH the gun just a little further....lol!  I then set up 2-2liter water bottles and a regulation bowling pin.  This was just for familiarities sake and not a full on shooting session.  I just wanted to quickly see how accurate and consistent the gun was for a 1st couple of shots test session.  After i walked back to the shooting table, i asked Tom how many mil-dots the target would be at and he promptly said, "3/4's of a mildot".  Now, before i shot and after watching Tom work the action and controls on the gun, i asked Tom how light the trigger was and he told me 11 OUNCES :o.  Tom was going for 2 lbs cause this is strictly a hunting gun and not a target gun but, just assembling the gun with all its linkages and well CNC'd parts, the trigger weight just came out to 11 ounces Tom said........lol!

After grabbing the gun single handed and moving it EASILY into a position in front of me to shoot it, the lightweight was very evident.  6.6lbs is very easy to maneuver single handed.  I then cock the gun with my left index finger just like Tom did in his video and it was that easy.  And this gun was set up for a lefty and I never even paid it any mind.  I could easily OWN this gun in a left hand configuration and I'm a die hard right hander....lol!  I then load a 134+- gr Lyman Devastator HP bullet into the chamber and close the cocking handle with hardly any effort.  Remembering Tom suggested Holdover, I held dead center on the 2 liter bottle and let the very 1st round fly.  Even though the light trigger took me by surprise, all the star aligned and i hit the bottle center mass and it exploded with authority.  All I could say was "WOW" that was easy.  TOO EASY!  So i load another HP and take aim at the 2nd bottle dead center and let round number 2 fly.  And fly it did and the results were the same as the 1st.  Again, I was in awe with how easy the hits came from a gun i had never handled before.  Plus, its a platform (BP) that i have never handled also.  I then switched from HP to a FP bullet that was slightly heavier and asked Tom for the Holdover of that round.  Tom assured me, "the same" and Tom was again, 100% right.  Upon the 3rd shot, the bowling pin i aimed at flew down with more authority than if it was hit with a 308 big bore.  Its slammed to the ground with a quickness.  The shot was dead center of the bowling pin exactly where i placed the cross hairs.  I then replied to Doug and Tom that shooting that gun at 80 yards could justifiably be called........BORING cause its too easy.  But that my friends, IS GREAT NEWS!  It was NOT this easy when i first modded my Sam Yang Recluse .357 and I shot out to 80 yards.

Without going into great details (Toms Job), I am over the moon impressed with the features on this gun.  IT HAS MANY.  From its Titanium air tube with pressure gauge, adjustable butt stock (ar15 style), under carriage (hidden) quick fill nipple, to its compact size to the dual fine adjustments on the output power, down to the overall LIGHTWEIGHT of the unit, this gun is going to impress a lot of people I believe.  At one point before we shot the gun, Tom needed to Chrony it because he just put it back together since the shot show he attended.  During the chrony session, we saw over 1000 fps with the 139 gr bullets.  And Tom can verify this but, THAT GUN SEEMS CAPABLE OF WAY MORE THAN 1000+ fps with med-heavy 357 fodder.  THIS WILL NOT BE A GUN PEOPLE WILL MOD.......LOL!

Stay Tuned for a thorough test at some point in the near future.

Just a little EYE CANDY from the short day:

Stay Tuned!
Tofazfou

UPDATE: Corsair+ 7mm (part 2)

To say this Air gun is coming along nicely is an understatement.  Its been a lot of trial and error with this gun and I believe that is what is to be expected when you transform any weapons platform from one state to another.  But the gun is now coming to its final stage of modifying it and I'm getting the desired results I was originally hoping for.  Ultimate long range accuracy for target shooting and hunting.  That IS the purpose of this gun!

HISTORY (of the gun):  The gun started life as a standard 250 FPE Corsair .308 which is wholly based off the Chinese QB78 platform.    The brainchild of the gun was Randy Mitchell and his concept was to build a relatively cheap mid bore PCP rifle that would be readily available and everyone could afford ($600). He then sourced out a builder for the project.  That person is Dan McVey over at XP airguns.  The main parts of the gun that were to be altered from OEM QB was the barrel and the airtube.  The stock airtube was ditched and the replacement was to be made out of 4130 Chrome Moly.  Even the guns stock was to remain OEM.  Randy and Dan succeeded in making a no frills and inexpensive mid bore airgun.  I then ditched the OEM stock and added a Richards Microfit Stock in thumb-hole configuration to the gun to spice it up a tad!

CURRENT (the gun):  Today, the Corsair has gone through some obvious changes.  Let's go into detail about them.  Lets start with the receiver.  The gun now wears a higher tensile strength aluminum breech (7075-T6) than the OEM version.  Hence the name Corsair+.  This is needed for the repeated high fill pressures which requires the much need strength.  The OEM weaver rails were scrapped due to a better source of material and better fitment to the receiver by my machinist Doug Noble.  The OEM flow through bolt probe was replaced by Dan McVey due to excessive were from the air blast.  The one on the gun now is a standard probe also made out of a better grade of steel than the OEM version.  The valve and valve body have gone unchanged from the OEM 308 version but the valve stem was sanded down and reprofiled.  The barrel has gone through a few phases.  1st, in OEM form, it was a 28" .308 barrel.  Then I switched that to a 7mm at 1-14" twist then I went to a 7mm 1-10" twist thinking that this would be best for the long for caliber bullets.  This thought was also due to the LEE RN bullets not being very accurate past 150 yards.  I was wrong on both counts.  So now, today, the Corsair+ 7mm wears the 1-14" twist that I originally had on the gun.  I find that with this platform of only 250 FPE, the 10" twist barrel really dropped the FPS down by a great margin.  A loss of 60 fps with the same bullets I originally shot in the 14" twist was the norm.  This was unacceptable.  And the accuracy was not good either.  So I switched back to the 14" twist that is 30.25" long and has of O.D. of .562".  It has 6 lands and grooves and slugs at .2852".  It is also threaded at the end with 1/2 x 20 TPI and wears a muzzle break that I once had installed on my Remington SP 308.  The barrel is also now Carbon Fiber sleeved for extra rigidity and aided accuracy.  And boy has it helped!  The CF sleeve was bonded to the barrel via the same Acraglas epoxy product that is used to glass bed powder burner rifles.  The trigger is of standard QB configuration and is set to about 1.5 lbs+-.  The stock is from Michael Chavka who no longer makes gun stocks unfortunately.

TETHERED vs UNTETHERED:  Today, I shoot the gun tethered and unless i'm hunting with it, it stays tethered.  Mid/Big Bore air guns are air hogs because they make so much more power than a small bore air gun (.177-.25 cal).  And many small bore air guns have regulators which makes the gun much more efficient on air as well as more accurate.  It makes the gun super consistent.  Well, its the same principle except we are using the size of our refill SCBA tanks as our air reservoir.  With out this type setup, many big bores will only get 2-3 shot MAX from a normal fill.  The gun is tethered and or topped off at 3600 PSI.

BULLET MOLD of CHOICE:  I have shot 2 LEE bullets in this gun.  One is the "SOUPCAN" 130 gr. FP bullet and the other is a LEE 130 gr RN bullet.  The LEE RN shot decently but I noticed at ranges further than 150 yards, the bullet was not a great performer.  But that makes sense, its a round nose. The "SOUPCAN" bullet was simply not a performer at all in this gun.  The other MAJOR thing with these 2 bullet molds was the fact that they were horribly made by LEE.  Well, at least fitment of the 2 mold halves were sloppy and the 2 halves were sloppy in fitting the mold handles.  So in comes the LBT mold.  Specifically, it is the LBT 287-130 mold.  Which means, the bullets drop out of the mold at .287" and weigh 130 grs.  Veral Smith owns and operates LBT Bullet Molds and make some of the nicest and most accurate molds I laid eye upon.  My LBT 7mm mold is of the 2 cavity format and one side of the mold is hollow pointed by Eric at Hollowpointbulletmoldservices.com.  This has dropped the weight from FP form by only about 4 grs.  The FP version weighs roughly 133 grs and the HP version goes for 129 gr.  The HP are the ones that posted the shown group.  The HP pin does not go down deep into the bullets body (midway down ogive) but it goes down and is wide enough for ultra reliable expansion and will allow the bullet to drive deep into game.  There is also a new 7mm custom designed bullet created by Bob Sterne over on the Gateway To Airguns forum that will be in my possession soon.  The mold will be made by LBT also and will be roughly 95grs+- AND Boat Tailed and was specifically designed for the 1-14" twist.  That should offer more speed and a better BC due to the lighter weight and Boat Tail.  So stay tuned on its performance in this gun.  I'm expecting great things from that bullet.

 

GROUPS:  While i've shot various groups with this gun, the accuracy that I was originally expecting is starting to really rear its beautiful head.  My original want was for at least MOA at every range that I shot the gun.  So, .5" at 50 yards, 1" at 100 yards, 2" at 200 yards and so forth.  So far, the gun is staying BELOW MOA at these ranges which is much better than what I expected.  Let's take a closer look at these groups:

This group was shot this past weekend.  These were with bullets that were weight sorted to within .5 a grain and sized the night before I shot this group.  This process of bullet sorting and weighing will be the new process from here on out.  Without putting real pressure on myself, this is the new standard that I will expect from my gun OR BETTER!

This group on the steel rabbit was shot at 431 yards and the group measures a measly 3.420" CtC.  There is a video of this quick shoot on my Youtube channel.  The group was also shot using UNSORTED and UNWEIGHTED bullets.  So as you can see, this gun has some serious potential once bullets are sorted and weighed for consistency!

 This groups was shot late last year with the new mold and unweighted and sorted bullets.  Still under MOA and the sizing process that I now used was NOT used during the group! Nor did the gun wear the Carbon Fiber sleeve that it does today.

This groups was shot the same day as the group above except it was done at 55 yards and I tried different fill pressures along the way.  The bullets were also unweighted and sorted.  The .176" group was more than likely due to me grabbing 3 bullets that weighed exactly the same or very close to it.  These bullets like the group just above were sized about a MONTH or more before this shoot.  This is NOT the process I will be performing as stated above.  The reason being is that i have learned that certain tin to lead mixtures will make or let the bullet grow the longer it sits on the shelf.  Some of the bullets from the day would not fit inside the breech and could not be loaded even though they were sized a couple of months ago.

In closing, the Corsair+ 7mm with all its mods and attention to detail are starting to really pay off and show the extreme potential of what a modern PCP airgun can do.  This gun in its current configuration cost no more than a high end powder burner and is showing long range accuracy on par with many of them.  Long range shooting is challenging and when you throw an airgun in the mix, things get even more interesting really quick.  Its not easy but it sure is fun and it provides as level of satisfaction that you will have to achieve yourself to fully comprehend.

Stay tuned!

Tofazfou

Sam Yang RECLUSE357: UPDATE!

Well, the new TJ Enterprises barrel was finally machined and fitted to the SY357.  The barrel is from TJ Enterprises and is 25" long.  My thoughts on the barrel was to have the projectiles travel down at least 24" of the barrel and have the other 1" or so machined.  The reason being is that the TJ barrel has a slightly faster (tighter) twist rate at 1-16" and in airguns, due to the limited power plants, more friction causes loss of speed.  So to slightly make up for this, I decided to use a longer barrel.  25" TJ vs 24+" OEM barrel.  Or, have the projectile travel down 24" (TJ) of barrel vs 22" (OEM).  The last recorded speed of JSB pellets from the OEM barrel was 961 FPS.  The new speed of the same pellets is 950 FPS @ 81.02 grs.  OEM barrels mics at exactly .358" and the TJ barrel mics at .3572".

The gun wearing the new TJ 25" barrel (the projectile travels exactly 24" of that barrel):

OEM barrel vs TJ barrel:

VIEW DOWN THE BORES (6 grooves-TJ vs 12 grooves-OEM):

THE POINT OF THE TJ BARREL:
The goal here was to have a barrel that shot a multitude of projectiles more accurately than the OEM barrel.  The TJ barrel is also a better made barrel and it has a tighter bore.  The tighter bore better fits a wider variety of projectiles.  The Korean OEM barrels are known to be big for stated caliber.  Sam Yang calls it a 9mm/357 and the bore is anything but 9mm.  9mm is .355" plain and simple.  Its more 357 than 9mm.....lol!

ACCURACY:

YES....100 PSI more equates to better groups!  The OEM barrel shot roughly 1" at the same distance with these big pellets.  The pellets head is roughly .358 and the skirt is roughly .362-.363" which makes the head more of a bore rider.  While accurate in the OEM barrel, I wanted more BITE on the pellet.

Stay tuned, as I will soon have more info on performance from not only more pellets but also round balls and 357 cast projectiles.

Tofazfou