MarauderAirRifle.com

[NeuRon]

With all of the reading I've been doing around here, I don't think I've come across this mentioned:

After removing them, how do you align the baffles when replacing them? Do you run a rod down the center of the baffles while tightening the shroud? It would seem like the act of screwing the shroud back on, be it from the base or tightening the barrel cap last, would be enough to misalign those baffle holes as they get pressed together and potentially move.

I've thought that a soft-wood dowel would be good, if it just fits in the baffle holes but was too big to fit in the barrel. That way, I could slide it in through the baffles until it reached the barrel (soft wood), and then tighten things up and pull out the dowel. Maybe even taper the barrel-end of the dowl to allow it to rest and center on the barrel (again, soft wood). Seems like it would keep the holes aligned just right.

Also thought about using the dowel to align the baffles outside the shroud, and then taping the baffles together to keep them aligned. Any reason these baffles need to be seperate pieces?

I recently opened those baffle-holes up, by a miniscule amount, when it appeared there was some pellet clipping on one. That's when I wondered how others were approaching this alignment issue when re-assembling.

[hawkeye]

NeuRon,

With all the issues some folks have with the Mrod, a baffle / barrel alignment tool is a great idea. After initially having some accuracy issues with my Mrod, I have come up with a couple theories (Opinions) why some Mrod's have problems. First and foremost Crosman has some QC problems with their barrels. The second issue possibly causing problems is the barrel / baffle / shroud alignment being slightly off. I feel that barrel / baffle alignment is important so I came up with a hard wood alignment tool (Doll Rod) I use to make sure everything lines up. It fits very snug through the baffles into the end of the barrel. Finally, a lot of Mrod's seem to be very particular about the pellets they shoot accurately. I have a .177 Mrod and CPH 10.5 gr pellets seem to work well in my gun. Some of the other .177 Mrod owners have said the same thing about using CPH pellets. They may not be the very best pellet in their Mrod but in general they work well. My theory about why CPH seem to perform better than others is the pellet's alignment with the transfer port in the breach of the barrel. If the bolt doesn't push the pellet far enough in the barrel to totally clear the transfer port, I believe that when you fire the gun there could be some deformation of the pellet skirt that could cause accuracy issues.

Opinions are a dime a dozen and I just gave you my dime's worth. I can't prove any of this stuff with pictures etc etc...but what I think it boils down to is knowing some of the weakness of the Mrod design helps a person find ways to improve it's performance.

Good Luck with your rifle.

[NeuRon]

Thanks, hawkeye, for the confirmation.

And what a theory! I'm pretty confident that some ballistic gel, or clay, or something that will trap the pellet without much deformation, is the key to people tracking down the cause for some of their issues. Being able to compare those fired pellets from flyers/strays with good shots might show some indications of clipping, skirt bending, bad pellet alignment in the breech/barrel, etc.

But I'm pretty sure that ballistic gel or clay would cause too much deformation of the skirt, upon impact, that it would be hard to tell what occured prior to impact. But it might still give some insight. I think water might even cause too much deformation, but I really don't know.

A good tool, IMO,would probably be a slo-mo-capable video camera. I watch plenty of good squirrel-hunting vids where you can see the pellet flying in slo-mo, and wish I had one of those cameras to see what's happening

[NeuRon]

How about the need for the baffles to be separated? Any reason why they shouldn't be taped or bonded together?

[NeuRon]

I picked up a 1/4" wooden dowel-rod from the hardware store yesterday. I took the barrel end-cap for reference and found that none of the long, wooden dowel-rods fit easily into the hole. They were all just out of round and large enough to require a little push to get them through the barrel-cap hole. I brought it home, trimmed it down to about 10", and ran each baffle and the barrel-cap down the rod, back and forth, one at a time. Repeated until wood was smoothed and rounded enough, and baffles enlarged a miniscule amount, so that they could all slide on with minimal resistance.

Seems to work good. The dowel-rod doesn't fit into the barrel, so it will stop there. Leave the dowel-rod in the baffles and barrel-cap until the barrel-cap has been completely tightened and then remove dowel-rod. Sure speeds up the process of reassembly. Hopefully they're in alignment with the barrell and pellet path. I plan to get some trigger time this afternoon, moving on out to 10-15 yards, to see if I can find more consistent, tighter groupings than what the initial 5 yard testing showed with this new barrel.

[hawkeye]

picked up a 1/4" wooden dowel-rod from the hardware store yesterday. I took the barrel end-cap for reference and found that none of the long, wooden dowel-rods fit easily into the hole. They were all just out of round and large enough to require a little push to get them through the barrel-cap hole. I brought it home, trimmed it down to about 10", and ran each baffle and the barrel-cap down the rod, back and forth, one at a time. Repeated until wood was smoothed and rounded enough, and baffles enlarged a miniscule amount, so that they could all slide on with minimal resistance.Seems to work good. The dowel-rod doesn't fit into the barrel, so it will stop there. Leave the dowel-rod in the baffles and barrel-cap until the barrel-cap has been completely tightened and then remove dowel-rod. Sure speeds up the process of reassembly. Hopefully they're in alignment with the barrell and pellet path. I plan to get some trigger time this afternoon, moving on out to 10-15 yards, to see if I can find more consistent, tighter groupings than what the initial 5 yard testing showed with this new barrel.

NeuRon,

I made my alignment tool from 1/4/" hardwood dowel rod very simular to yours. I used about a 12" piece of the dowel rod with a drill motor and just "machined" down the diameter of the wood rod with a fine file until the baffles would just barely slide down the rod. The last 1" of the dowel rod was carefully filed down until it was small enough diameter to just barely enter the barrel kind of like a pilot drill. The rest is just as you described. I would use the tool to align the baffles / barrel while I was tightening down the muzzle cap.

I hope it works well for you.

[NeuRon]

Nice! Glad to get more feedback on this process. I think I'll try taking the end of the dowel rod down enough to fit in the barrel. Seems like the best route.

I think my groups tightened up a bit. It was 1/2"-3/4"" at 15 yards at noon. Good enough to hunt at 15 yards, but the flyers are enough to open up what could be dime-sized groups at that distance. I guess I need to get a micrometer and start measuring/sorting pellets to see what the barrel likes. I'm trying to stick with Polymags only. Maybe the groups will tighten when this new barrel gets a little dirty. With washed and dry-waxed PP pellets, it will probably take a while.



I was able to get out this evening, into my 'zone', and got 2 nutters 10-12 yards up a tree. Should have been 3, if this .22 was shooting dime-sized groups at 15 yards. He was a real bonus; hiding up the same 40' tree as the other 2 were in. He watched me take the other two and inspect the damage before I noticed his eye and paw peaking around a branch... ...just about the size of a dime... ...and he got away. It was a real Predator moment (this spot is very lush for W.TX. and lends itself well to the jungle feel).