in the last few hours I've gone from happy, to suspicious to realization to anger to another realization and learning to some relief (but still some anger too). Sorry but the following wall of text is my rambling thoughts trying to remember what happened.
Met the guy at kaneohe park. had told him i wanted to shoot it to see how loud it was. very local sounding guy. 5'9"-5'11" heavy build but not fat. he rode a white moped that had an alarm on it. acted super friendly. he said his brother dropped off the gear. another guy was with him. he talked alot about how he had several family member in HPD. Hence the punisher stickers and police stickers on the scope, gun case he had and in the room where his craigslist picture was taken (which he has deleted but I had a window still open and took a screen shot of it). anyway there were too many people to actually shoot a pellet so I just dry fired it. it was a little louder than my fusion but by this point I wanted it. he said he had a soft case he'd sell cheap and he'd have his brother who wasn't moving (was HE really moving?) meet me on Thursday to buy it.got home with everything.. went out to site in the scope. he had said it was sited for 40 yards and I shoot at less than 15. set up my pellet trap outside. it is a box stuck to 1/2" plywood. target is a regular size sheet of paper with several bullseyes printed. I started only about 4 yards away since i knew the scope could be way off. Aimed at center of paper bullseye. shot. it was loud. the hell? the paper had no holes. went looking and the pellet had hit the plywood about 14 " to the right of the aim point and went through the plywood. The hell? I could see it being high or low but sideways??? moved to about 7 feet away from target. shot again. kinda loud. still no hole. could not find where the pellet went. started checking out the gun. shroud was a little loose.tightened up the shroud. tried shooting one more time only 4 feet away. was crouching when I shot. it was very loud and I felt something hit my leg but not like it was a ricochet back at me.. like it came from the breech area. went back inside house to check it out closer. had a hell of a time getting the magazine out - maybe operator error as i didn't know to fully cock it. get magazine out. try looking in loading breach. don't see anything.try shining light through barrel. can't see light. try blow through barrel. it's stopped up. drop the inside of an ink pen down barrel. it doesn't go through. cut a straight piece of heavy metal clothes hanger and drop it down. hanger knock two pellets out of barrel through breech. oh.. maybe I did something wrong. heard you could load two pellets if you cocked it wrong. put just one pellet in magazine and go try shoot again. still no hole. still loud. come back in and drop hanger through and knock pellet out. Now I KNOW something is wrong with the gun. want to disassemble it but need to degas it. look up how to degas on internet. says use the special degas tool. ok.. he didn't give me one.. nor an owners manual I realize. text him asking if he has owner's manual and special degas tool. (haven't heard heard from him since he said he'd get the stock for the pistol to me.) so no choice but to bleed down by dry fire. first dry fire shot notice strong wind hit my hand near breech. next shot same thing. start looking. The o-ring the plunger is supposed to go through is missing. continue cocking and firing. the cocking starts to get VERY hard. finally, all air pressure gone. find a very good video on dis-assembly of the rifle. get the shroud off. unscrew end cap and see this:
Yes, it had obviosuly been hit by a pellet. Those are chunks of lead next to it.
I look in shroud and see
super dirty. No way this is a new rifle.
pull out the baffles and find this:
4 of the 6 baffles had been hit by pellets.
Get shroud emptied out.
Look in shroud again and see:
the goddamn shroud is BENT.
continue breaking down gun. The barrel LOOKS straight. I can only pray.
Anyway i spent the last couple hours tearing it down pretty far- got trigger, hammer and cap of air tank off..
the good news? I think with a shroud replacement and tune up it'll be good as new. I want to get an o-ring kit and replace all the o-rings, clean it all up, lubricate etc. After watching this video:
I now know MUCH more about how this gun works. I think I can do the tune up if I can find a kit and shroud online. Nothing other than the shroud *seems* to be broken. I also learned how to vary the air flow and hammer strike force from the video. I don't need to sling 28g pellets at 850'/sec to kill rats. If I slow them down to 650-700 it should be quiet..
Remember folks, if it's too good to be true....
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