Gamo air rifle testing - 100 meters

I have owned my Gamo Shadow 1000 air rifle for 5 years now.  Below is a video I made recently showing what the Gamo can do at 100 meters and 55 meters.  Also a look at how to maintain the rifle.

It wasn't all smooth sailing with this rifle.  The main spring broke at approx 2500 pellets (3 weeks of use).  I had the rifle repaired under warranty.  However, the people contracted by Gamo in NZ were known for being useless when it came to quality of work, and I found the rifle had changing point of impact after the repair.  It just wasn't the same.

I took the rifle to an airgun specialist who replaced the spring, piston seal, and breech bolt (I had mangled the bolt trying to undo it myself).  The old piston seal had a large knotch out of it - check out the pictures.  This likely happened when the first spring was crudely replaced under warranty.  I heard somewhere that if the trigger is not pulled and lowered out of the action properly, sliding the piston out of the action will catch on the trigger sear and tear the piston seal.  Not good.

Once repaired the rifle has continued to operate very accurately and reliably.  This Gamo has had many thousands of pellets fired though it.

Showing the broken mainspring - see the broken spring end at the right of the channel:

Picture of a good mainspring - symmetrical coils:

After getting the Airgun specialist to fix the Gamo warranty contractor's botch up, they gave me back the piston seal they had to remove:

Scoping the M1A / M14 / M305 / M14S

Anyone who has done a fair amount of reading on these rifles know that scoping them can be the source of extreme vexation. Tears and frustration abound with the cheap aluminium mounts. The soft aluminium mounts have proven time and again to fail sooner rather than later. This info is saturating the web and rife in the m14 section of canadiangunnutz (a wealth of norinco m14 knowledge, they’ve been importing shipments of these rifles) & the m14tfl forums.

The most widely agreed upon scope mounts that actually do the job are the steel Smith Enterprise, Sadlak, and the ARMS 18 mounts. These mounts run at approx $255, $275 and 184 US dollars respectively which = big bucks in NZ $$ terms, especially with postage, but if you want something that actually works they have earned their reputation by doing the hard yards over the years. You will read good things about these mounts everywhere. However, I didn't want to pay that sort of money for a scope mount and getting them out of the US isn't easy. 

However there are cheaper alternative steel mounts (steel being critical here).  There's the Leatherwood M14MT and the Promag PM081A (Arms 18 copy) which run at about $130 and $120 respectively.

Most decent scope mounts require the removal of the factory stripper clip guide which can be a real headache depending on how tight it fits.  Mine needed some solid hitting.  First drive the roll pin out that passes through the guide into the receiver.  Next drive the stripper clip guide off from right to left (away from the oprod) as apparently the dovetails are directionally tapered.  


Smith Enterprise M14 / M1A mount below

Sadlak Steel M14 / M1A scope mount below (they also make titanium and aluminium versions.  I would not be keen on aluminium myself).

Arms 18 M14 / M1A mount below

Leatherwood M14 / M1A scope mount M14MT below

Promag PM081A M14 / M1A scope mount below

After sifting the web, and I mean really sifting, I decided on the steel copy of the ARMS 18 mount by Promag, model - PMO81A. Promag make another mount more akin to the Sadlak called the PMO81 but it is not to be confused with the ARMS 18 copy.  The ARMS 18 mount is the lowest mount available (you can still remove the bolt of course) and praised for being one of the few that hold up. Promag's PM081A is a steel copy and likewise attempts to ride on that success.

 

After a bit of shooting I found that the Promag mount was pointing off centre to the left, so removed the mount and the mount bolt so I could hold it against the receiver and eye the holes up. In so doing I found the mount's side bolt hole didn't line up with the receiver hole by about a millimeter to one side. So when originally installing the mount the mount's keys wouldn't have lined up quite right with the receiver slots. The reason I didn't see this originally was the mount's side bolt retainer clip means the bolt is held in the mount, so naturally you line the bolt up with the receiver hole and screw it down assuming it's all good. A bit of filing with a round file sorted the side bolt hole.

After remounting I found the clearance between the back of the mount and the stripper clip dovetails to be about half a millimeter, closer than before which was good.

I mounted a bushnell 3200 10x40 for testing purposes and proceeded to get about A4 page accuracy at 100m with cheapo Barnaul and Belmont ammunition. The Belmont seemed to be slightly more accurate. While zeroing I found the mount was still off centre, to a lesser degree than before re-mounting, but the scope had sufficient adjustment to compensate for it. The mount is solid, no two ways about it.

I'll probably end up mounting a red dot as current accuracy with the cheapo ammo doesn't warrant a scope. I could spend a bit of effort finding ammo it likes etc but am not too fussed really.

A couple of points about the rifle, the front sight is slightly canted to the right and the oprod guide is loose. Neither is all that significant. I still managed to get the irons lined up ok. Loose oprod guides apparently affect accuracy but to what degree I wouldn’t know. In regards to function they aren't a worry.

Suppressed Norinco M14 / M1A / M305 / M14S review

Back in 2009 Guncity sent me a suppressed Norinco M14 (yes "M14" per receiver marking) for the purpose of doing a video review, see below.

Part 1

Part 2

After doing the video review above I decided I'd buy the basic rifle for myself. At $499 NZD these rifles are practically being given away so I had to nab one of my own. Opening up a yummy new rifle always feels good. The rifle and mag were sealed separately in plastic, both saturated in oil. The rifle even had bits of cloth soaked in the stuff and tied with string to the sling mounts and trigger guard. These things could be stored indefinitely the way they're packed away.

The rifle is a 2009 model per the serial # (first 4 digits), and I have to say my first impressions were good. The hand guard fits symmetrically unlike the non-2009 earlier production m305 I video tested above (which also had a super hard-to-open butt stock compartment!). The iron sights weren't too flash with the front marginally canted and the rear sight's windage adjustment screws not working (common Norinco m14 fault). The multi tool, brush, cleaning rod etc were all there in the butt stock and also the rifle came with manual and a sling. Removing the mag was hard initially but got easier. The inane 7 round mag limit needs to change so users can get a proper grip of a decent length mag. Pushing your thumb down through the action is necessary to dislodge the tight fitting mags.  

Due to changing circumstances and work I haven't had the opportunity to shoot my personal Norinco m14 much at all.  I've put less than 100 rounds of cheap ammo through the rifle and groups weren't particularly tight.  Ammo or gun, I haven't determined as yet.  At this point my plan is to mount a red dot on the rifle and use it at shorter distances than my Dragunov.  

See my post about scope mounting these rifles. Click here
 

 



Norinco SKS Suppressed review

A video review of a suppressed Norinco SKS rifle sent to me by Guncity.  The scope mount is a B-square unit and the scope is re-branded generic Chinese.

Part 1

Part 2

Ultimately I didn't really find the scope and mount setup particularly good.  Scope clarity was functional but the quick detach system it had was poor and required constant adjustment.  The mount did seem stable with the forward screw addition threaded into the receiver.  However it is a 'busy' setup and I do not feel I'd trust it to return to complete zero after cleaning.  I would opt for a basic SKS with irons myself.  The unbranded suppressor helped but wasn't hugely effective.  However, it took the edge off muzzle reports which is always good when a shooter may be without hearing protection.

Broken POSP 8x42D scope

Around May 2009 my Dragunov Tigr 'broke' my POSP 8x42D scope. Below is a bit of video to show the problem and includes some shooting also.

At first appearances it looked to be the reticle shifting within the scope. I’m a bit disappointed because when I bought this scope in April 2008 I obviously thought I would be getting something solid and robust enough to suit my Tigr.  It has the traditional eastern European, com bloc design that I assumed was built for such a purpose as the Dragunov.  A point of difference with this scope however is that it is not Russian.  It is made in Belarus and thus the POSP designation.  The Russians argue that these scopes are inferior to their Russian made scopes which have the PSO designation.  If buying another scope of this type I would try the PSO. 

Seeing as my 1 year warranty had run out, and the guy I bought it off wouldn't receive it back for that reason, I decided I had nothing to lose and dismantled the scope to see what the issue was. It turns out the reticle side of things was perfectly fine and the reticle adjustments do work as they should. Perhaps the component that was loose (shown in last pic below) fooled me into thinking the turret adjustments had failed and I didn't turn them far enough to see that they were, in fact, adjusting fine.
 

2 small screws hold the objective housing from unscrewing:

Looking down at the reticle from the objective end:

having removed the adjustable diopter eyepiece

Looking down the eyepiece end of the scope at the picture reversal mechanism.

Removing the additional eyepiece housing

Looking at the reticle from the eyepiece end of the scope

The little lens at fault is in this eyepiece component.  It is the picture reversal component.  That little piece of glass was loose in its housing and rattled back and forth quite a bit.  Note: the adjustable diopter simply means that the outer eyepiece housing screws in and out on a thread to adjust diopter and is unrelated to this little piece of glass.

There is a little metal sleeve on a thread that screws up against the picture reversal lens.  You can see the metal sleeve with the two notches out of it below.  This sleeve was loose thus causing the lens to rattle around and mess up the picture through the scope.

The section containing the loose lens unscrews from the housing around it, but it was screwed in there so tight I couldn't undo it and had to be content with reaching in from above to get at the metal sleeve. 

I cut some thin metal to the right size and used it as a makeshift screw driver.  I removed the metal sleeve and put some loctite on the the sleeve's threads.  Had to be extremely careful as any overflow would ruin the picture.  

After re-assembly the view through the scope may have had a few more specs, hard to tell.  Also, if the scope had been nitrogen purged to stop condensation that would have obviously been lost.  I don't really trust the scope now after having this experience, but it'll do as a backup.

 

Shooting heavy bullets through the Dragunov?

I was wondering how the exact mechanics of my Dragunov recoil system worked.  What exactly was the Dragunov design for stopping the bolt as it completes its travel rearward after a shot?  What makes this question particularly relevant to me is that I shoot nothing but heavy ammunition through my Dragunov which some people advise to steer clear of.

I’ve put upwards of 800 rounds of heavy ammunition through my Tigr since buying it new in 2008.  This ammo constituted mostly 203gr Barnaul SP, some180gr Highland AX and 183gr Hungarian heavy ball.  I’ve found that no commercially available 7.62x54r under 180gr exists in NZ unless you reload cartridges yourself. 

As to manufacturer information on shooting heavy ammunition, the Russian Dragunov manufacturer Izhmash specifically lists the 7.62x54r bullet weight for the Tigr as 13.2 grams (203.7 grain) which just so happens to be the only Russian hunting cartridge I’ve ever seen and profusely shot in NZ (203gr Barnaul SP).  No real surprise since they market their Tigrs as "self-loading hunting rifles. http://www.izhmash.ru/eng/product/tigr.shtml

Another interesting note is that the Dragunov Tigr (Tigr 9) is also chambered for the far more potent 9.3x64mm round which would indicate the Tigr receiver is easily strong enough to handle the comparatively insignificant 54r heavy ball.  The Tigr 9 weighs essentially the same weight the standard Tigr so any receiver strengthening must be fairly unobtrusive. 

So anyway while I was cleaning my Tigr after a shoot I decided I’d see what exactly goes on.

If you own a Dragunov and wondered if the rivets, shown in the picture below, bear any weight as the bolt recoils you can be sure that if they did, they and their thin receiver cover holes would be rattling and probably a little mangled after a only few shots.  Rest assured the Russians aren't into designing fragile small arms and the only strain those rivets endure is the light weight of retaining the recoil spring assembly when you remove the receiver cover.

There are 3 parts of the rifle that take the weight of halting the bolt carrier.   There is this goodly chunk of metal rotating in the receiver cover; I guess you would call it the bolt buffer.  The buffer makes direct contact with the rear of the retreating bolt carrier. 

Then there is the chunky takedown lever pin which sits in the back of the receiver and lastly the back of the receiver itself. 

You will notice from earlier pictures that the buffer (if that’s the correct term) is wedge shaped.  Also notice that the rear of the receiver is sloped forward to accommodate that wedge.  As can be seen below, the scuffs on the rear buffer show a fairly good fit with the back of the receiver.

 

The back of the buffer slides down against the sloped receiver rear and is tightly crushed hard up against the back of the receiver when the takedown lever is rotated shut.  From the earlier pics you can see that the buffer has a groove in its front to accommodate the takedown lever pin.   A person could separate the recoil spring and buffer assembly from the dust cover (this would mean breaking the rivets of course so ya don't want to do it) and the Dragunov would operate just the same without it once the take down lever is clamped shut on the assembly.

Below pictures show the bolt fully retracted against the buffer.  I had to remove the forward most recoil spring to make is easier to retract.  As you can see the bolt handle comes up very precisely just short of the receiver cover.  The recoil spring setup itself compresses to about 85% of its ability before the bolt is stopped by the buffer.  

 So all in all a rock solid setup.  My riveted receiver cover pin has no play or slop (neither should it, there is no stress on it), and neither does my take down lever in over 800 shots fired.  Short of some pretty hefty metal deciding to give way this setup will be good to go indefinitely.

To further cement the situation I emailed Izhmash back in 2009, shown below. (Also asking a manufacturing question regarding the Tigr and SVD).

Sent to Izhmash on the 29th July, 2009.

Dear Sir/Madam,

I am a 7.62x54r Dragunov Tigr owner (serial # -------) in New Zealand and would greatly appreciate if you could answer some questions regarding my rifle.

My Tigr has the 620mm barrel with 1:320 twist.

1. Is it fine to shoot heavy ammunition such as 203gr Barnaul SP from my Tigr without damage it? I notice on your Izhmash website that it lists bullet weight for the Tigr as 13.2grams which equals 203.7 grain. I thought I would email to make sure.

2. I was informed that the Dragunov SVD barrel is cryogenically strengthened and electromagnetically polished while the Tigr's is not? Is this true (I'm not worried about it, just wonder if it is correct)?

Thank you very much for your time.

Kind Regards,
***********
 ___________________________________________________________________________


and on the 18th of September 2009 I received this reply from Izhmash.




Dear Sir,

Thank you for your interest in our products.

In reply to your request please be informed


1. 7.62x54 cartridge with bullet mass 13.2 g can be applied for Tigr
hunting carbine shooting

2. The barrels of either SVD and Tigr are produced according to the same
technology and differs in thread pitch only. Cryogenically
strengthening and electromagnetic polishing are not applied in
tecnological process.

Sincerely yours,

B.B. Mikhalchuk
director on commerce
"CONCERN "IZHMASH" OJSC

Fax: 7-3412-78-36-35
Phone: 7-3412-495-491; 7-3412-495-073
www.izhmash.ru
mailto:arms-export@izhmash.ru
 ______________________________________________________________________________

Remington 597 .22lr review

Video showing examination and accuracy testing of my Remington 597 .22lr semi automatic rifle

The rifle is completely bone stock and has been mounted with a Leapers 3-9x50 scope on a Leapers Full Length Integral High Mount: RGPM2PA-25H4.

With quality ammunition I have found this rifle to be a tack driver and solidly reliable.  You can see this for yourself in part 2 which shows the range report at 50 meters / 55 yards.

Remington 597 .22lr review part 1

Remingto 597 .22lr review part 2

50 meter / 55 yard targets