Everything started about a year plus half ago when I obtained a somewhat “peculiar” query from a person that signed their Emails as being part of “Small Arms Dev-Com/US Army”
And the question had been peculiar because they asked easily thought that a Daisy Crimson Ryder could be powered as much as shoot steel BB’s from 690 fps.
¿ HUH?!!!
OK, this merited several research!
As with any other client, I got in contact with the child and tried my better to find out what they really required.
Because I actually knew what they wanted: The Daisy Red Ryder effective at shooting steel BB’s with 590 FPS and that was not going to happen!
After some EMails had been exchanged I understood the requirement.
In essence, these are the guys that will CALIBRATE the gel obstructs used for terminal ballistic assessment.
To adjust the blocks they take BB’s at them, each shot gets chronographed as well as the penetration has to fall inside certain parameters for the prevent to be “acceptable” for assessment.
So , nearly they need to shoot the BB’s at 590 FPS, however they need to keep to a A sexually transmitted disease Dev of 15 frames per second.
Once the solution blocks are calibrated they get shot with severe stuff or form portion of the safety equipment testing treatment (helmets, goggles, gloves, vests, chest plates… ) almost everything gets tested with the “real thing”, but that “real thing” needs to be tested within calibrated gel blocks. The sub-standard Gel block may give “passing grade” to some piece of equipment that can end up being harmful to our guys in the field.
Right now, from my experience within the pellet rifle world I actually thought that would be a piece of cake.
¡ HA!
The Std Dev. proved to be the harder specification to meet, but we’re obtaining ahead of the story.
So , returning to setting up the task specs, I sent all of them a communication stating there would be two possibilities: the spring gun (just not really a R-R), or a PCP.
All of us analyzed the advantages and drawbacks of each powerplant, and initially, it seemed they had satisfied on a sidelever, I also tested an SPA SR900S sidelever to see what sort of MV’s we could get, but then the particular ideas changed. It therefore happens that the system these were using was powered simply by Dry Nitrogen, and so the availability of compressed gas was simply no problem.
So , a suggestion was made and delivered.
Some months passed and am had already thought that the particular project had fallen via, but then I got a demand to “update the proposal”. OK, so got that will done, and sent.
More months passed and an additional request came in for an upgrade. Got it done and delivered.
After some months acquired passed I was not really planning on anything when I get a message from a different person. Informing me they needed to publish the project for financing. That they needed an official proposal.
OKAY, so I drafted a 2 page sheet with conditions, conditions and specs, plus sent it.
Some more several weeks passed, and then I obtain an EMail from someone inquiring me to take a third party legal responsibility insurance for a Million Bucks. She also sent the entire “Legalese” package.
As a gunsmith I am, above all, pragmatical, and when that was the ONLY way to do company, well…. Thanks, but simply no, Thanks.
And so I communicated exactly what would be acceptable to CCA: I would deliver the system and offer all the information for safe procedure. When the system had been examined, approved, and the technical staff had signed off within the equipment as “fit with regard to duty”, then I would gather.
Some more “Legalese” was changed, and we finally agreed to the framework. To their credit, it had been easier negotiating with the Military than with some construction companies I know.
And then came the “purchase order”. All official and nice. With the demand of some tax types!… WHAT?????
Quick contact to my accountant and then to a contact at Dev-Com and it also resulted in a simple print-out of the form issued on line from the IRS. Phewwww!
At every stage, my wife kept asking: “Are you sure this is about a BB gun? inch LOL!
Plus yes, I had to acknowledge that it began to sound increasingly more “barroque”.
But I made a decision to toe the line and get every thing started.
The Build
We would install an Altaros vented regulator, and a customized Lothar Walther smoothbore barrel or clip.
We would track the gun to capture to the required speed utilizing the techniques we developed a long time ago .
Orders had been placed for the parts, plus within a week, parts began to arrive.
Pyramyd Air delivered the Stormrider
Altaros shipped the vented regulator
And we waited for the barrel or clip.
Just fourteen days after, the barrel showed up.
Wow!
So , now chips can start flying!
First was your disassembly of the OEM gun, and “presenting” the components available:
Meanwhile, we-took the L-W smoothbore empty and turned it to suit the action:
WHAT A DISASTER!
With the preliminary calculations pointing to the concept that we should be getting about twelve ft-lbs, the gun produced 1, 016 ± twenty two fps Not only too high, totally unacceptable from a regulated weapon.
And so, we reduced the particular TP diameter.
And reduced it.
And reduced this.
Once we arrived at the 1 . 19 mm’s, we could not reduce that will anymore, and MV has been still at 616 ± 75 fps
Hmmph!
Some thing was tricky here.
And I started calculating the BB’s.
What I acquired obtained as “Precision Surface Shot” had diameter variations in the 0. 0025″ area.
Got one more lot… same thing.
I then spotted something Daisy phone calls “Premium BB’s”; hmmmm…. a few try those.
MV came out at
Great; now we’re cooking!
Since PCP’s are usually nothing but mechanical amplifiers, I think: “let’s reduce the input signal”.
Clipped one coil in the hammer spring, output arrived to 649 ± thirteen fps ¿ ¡ Huh!?
So , we trimmed and clipped the hammerspring till we were getting an MV of 587± ten fps
We let the project relaxation for a week and had taken a 30 shot thread every hour
@ 11: 30. – 583 ± 16 fps
@ 12: 30. — 587 ± 13
@ 13: 30. — 585 ± 9
@ 14: 30. : 583 ± 12
@ 15: 30. — 587 ± 13
I delivered the results of the tests to a guys and back emerged a question:
“If, for whatever reason, we need to replace the MV, how do we get it done? ”
Aaaarghh! I should have seen compared to coming from the start!
IF (big if) I had developed known the wide change in the diameter of the various productions of BB’s, I might have, but I was unaware of that.
And now, I had been going to pay the price.
If negotiating the initial “contract” had been difficult, getting a “change order” would be even more. Therefore , chuck it to experience, plus service to the country.
Back to sq . ONE.
Because of the nature of the projectile, the small differences in diameter actually throw a wrench in to any calculation you might develop. On top, the fact that there is no rifling means that the projectile will be Ultra-Efficient in absorbing power from the powerplant. No power is taken form the chance cycle to “swage” the particular pellet to final form, and virtually no friction indicates there is no energy lost generally there.
We considered a number of solutions however in the end, settled on performing something that I should have done several years ago: design a free airline flight hammer system for the Stormrider. Back then, the results obtained simply by changing the TP had been deemed more than acceptable upon all grounds: efficiency, uniformity, consistency, and simplicity.
This task was different.
We procured the brand new hammerspring (because a FFH only makes sense if you begin with a full hammerstrike and then slow up the output in a metered way).
There were to reset the limiter, re-do the TP modifying, and recommence the whole examining protocol.
The share in the SR had to be altered to accommodate the FFH gadget, and this posed another little challenge; as the SD’s had been inexplicably high, we initial re-checked the whole pneumatic area but , in reality, it was an easy, intermittent, mechanical interference issue.
By the end of the 12th adjustment/setting. we finally settled well on a string of thirty shots that gave 592 ± 12 fps and another 30 shot thread of 585 ± fourteen fps
The gun produces 4 strings of thirty shots at these strength levels between 230 Bar’s and 115 Bar’s, even though we recommended refill right after every 90 shots.
And so, the gun had been shipped to Picatinny Menu, and the reports so far would be that the system is working “great”.
The future
Airguns tend not to achieve the hypersonic MV’s that some current army designs require to work properly, but there are alternatives, as well as the new technology to “turn” guide makes for a VERY interesting duo.
We will follow a bit this particular development because it truly is definitely an interesting avenue that I wish will garner some curiosity from the industry.
The following smoothbore L-W barrel is here now…; -)
Closing ideas
The fact that, perhaps, a few safety equipment will help maintain a soldier safe during a call due to the thorough Terminal Ballistic Testing that the Army places the protective equipment by means of is a matter of thought to me.
Plus, it was really a pleasure along with a privilege to deal with technically experienced people. Would love to meet all of them one day, but as with a lot of friends in this airgunning planet, I know it’s going to be hard to meet up with them in person.
AND AM need to add that with no support from great businesses like DIANA, Lothar Walther, and Altaros Air Options, this project would have already been MUCH more difficult to tackle correctly.
To all our readers, nice one more year of your time plus attention, we wish a person all the very best of the Vacation seasons, do not eat excessive Ham, nor drink a lot of Eggnog, and remember that almost everything is better in moderation… even small amounts itself!
; -)
Ho!
HM
