Author Topic: Under The Hood Of A Stoeger X20 ,177  (Read 46670 times)

Offline Gene_SC

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Under The Hood Of A Stoeger X20 ,177
« on: May 15, 2010, 12:44:24 PM »


Let me start with the fit and finish.



The Stoeger X20 I received had a very nice wood stock with defined grain lines and was a bit darker than I expected with the pictures I have seen. Also it is fitted with a very nice butt pad. When I first shouldered this X20 if felt great in my arms. A very nice Monte Carlo ambi stock for the lefties...:) The overall stock appearance was great Well made with finished cocking lever cutout.



The metal work is fair and equivalent to any Spanish or Chines air rifles that I have seen. There were no visible machine marks or scratches in the metal and held a uniform bluing finish from barrel to back of action. The trigger guard is plastic but the trigger itself is a copy of the Theoben triggers that most of you have seen on the early Gamo. One exception is the safety which is in the back of action instead of in front of trigger like Gamo and Crosman springer are. I have pictures to illustrate how it looks



The front an rear sights are a mix of plastic and metal. Where the main body of sights are metal and the actual sights and adjusters are plastic. I would say they are sturdy. I notice that the rear sights are mounted into the action which is metal and so is the body of the sights These will not wallow out or shake loose either..:) The trigger guard is plastic but in my opinion looks very nice. It is set into the stock very nicely. To me there is more room to make adjustments to the trigger with this design of trigger guard.



My overall first impression of the aesthetics is a 9 with 10 being the highest Yes I was impressed by the overall appearance of this model Stoeger. It could almost be taken as a carbine since the barrel is so short.



Now for pre tune numbers. I cleaned the barrel and whipped the gun down. It was pretty clean and I will give Steve and Archer Air Guns credit for that. He offers a couple different preps prior to shipping guns. I took the basic one which is an inspection of the over all gun before he ships. Steve can chime in and give you the different types of services he has or just go to his web site and read about them.



I set up the chrony and picked JSB Exacts. They are around 8.3 gn I think. A bit heavier than the Gamo Hunters. The following string of numbers is really not a true given because the barrel, seal and spring was not broken in but here you go.



923, 911 920, 909 892 899, 901, 886,899, 885, 881, 878, 883, 883, 880, 880, 883, 890, 888.



I might add at this point that the trigger is exactly like the Gamo and Crosman Theoben triggers as far as being a heavy pull or squeeze. But we can fix that..:)



Those are the numbers and you can figure out the average and deviation if you like. I was not interested in the numbers myself since the gun was new.



Next was the tear down of the Stoeger X20. First thing I noticed was the action and articulating linkage. Very similar to what Crosman is having made in china. If I was betting man I would say these actions and linkage along with the piston came from the same factory...:)



When I got her all the way down for sure I thought I was looking at a Crosman Quest power plant..:) These power plants have a good piston in them and most of the ones I have tuned the compression tubes have kept good tolerances. Outside of the different safety it looks just like Crosman Quest power plant for sure. I did my normal turbo tune on the Stoeger but I wanted to soften the recoil a bit. Instead of replacing the stock spring with one that was the same from JM I decided to use the Merlin XL square wire spring from JM. It is a bit softer and a bit more docile and will deliver less fps than a comparable spring.



As I mentioned above the trigger on the Stoeger weighed in at around 7 to 8 lbs on my trigger scale. And not for the BIG PLUS...:) You can use the GRT-III trigger in the Stoeger X20. It is a drop in and works fantastic. The only thing that you need to do beside put the trigger in is file about thirty thousandths off the end of safety nub. I will show you in the pictures. It is just another few minutes of work and you are good to go..:)



After putting the Stoeger back together I slung some led to get any excessive lube out of chamber. Then ran he across the chrony once again. Now remember I replaced the new stock spring with a Merlin XL and of course an new delrin spring guide and Tesla seal so these numbers are really irreverent until a couple hundred shots have been run through her.



836, 842, 829, 820, 825,833, 830, 840, 835, 839, 831, 840, 834, 836, 841, 839, 840, 848, 837



The Merlin XL spring is not a power spring so I would imagine that after a couple hundred shots or so she will settle in around 840fps. That works for me and my paper punching. :)But I would assume if I had used the new Stoeger spring over she would of settled in the low 900 fps range.



I have taken a bunch of pictures to show all of you what the Stoeger looks like in pieces. Also you will be able to see what needs to be down in order to put the GRT-III trigger in. Really no big deal and everyone has a file...)



Oh and before I forget, the trigger scale reading with the new GRT-III trigger was right a 1 lb. Great break I love it when the trigger breaks so crisp and clean...:)



Here are few pictures..



THE ONES I SLEEP WITH: BSA Lightning XL, AA TX-200, AA ProSport, BSA Ultra, HW-97K, Crosman NPSS .177, FX Cyclone, HW-30 Nicle Plated, AA-S200, Crosman Marauder, CZ-634, R-9 DG, Webley/Scott UK Tomahawk, Benji Kantana, Benji Marauder, Benji Discovery.....
....

Gene\'s Tunz n Toyz
Springer Tunin

Offline shadow

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RE: Under The Hood Of A Stoeger X20 ,177
« Reply #1 on: May 15, 2010, 12:56:32 PM »
Great write up on the Stoeger bro and know I'm itchin to get one myself. Those numbers after the tune are still great for punching paper or hunting. Ed
I airgun hunt therefore I am... };)  {SHADOWS Tunes & Camo}  airguncamo@yahoo.com

Offline dk1677

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Re: Under The Hood Of A Stoeger X20 ,177
« Reply #2 on: May 15, 2010, 01:36:20 PM »
Thanks for the write-up Gene!
Hammerli 850, Beeman RS3 ,Gamo viper express,Crosman 180

Offline Gene_SC

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RE: Under The Hood Of A Stoeger X20 ,177
« Reply #3 on: May 15, 2010, 01:43:36 PM »
One thing I forgot to mention Ed was the price of the gun.... It is under $150.00 shipped. That is a deal for sure. Archer Air Guns seems to have some good prices on these beauties.
THE ONES I SLEEP WITH: BSA Lightning XL, AA TX-200, AA ProSport, BSA Ultra, HW-97K, Crosman NPSS .177, FX Cyclone, HW-30 Nicle Plated, AA-S200, Crosman Marauder, CZ-634, R-9 DG, Webley/Scott UK Tomahawk, Benji Kantana, Benji Marauder, Benji Discovery.....
....

Gene\'s Tunz n Toyz
Springer Tunin

Offline michael90t

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Re: Under The Hood Of A Stoeger X20 ,177
« Reply #4 on: May 15, 2010, 02:55:25 PM »
nice write up Gene!!!! makes me wanna get one even more now :)

Offline longislandhunter

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Re: Under The Hood Of A Stoeger X20 ,177
« Reply #5 on: May 15, 2010, 03:04:01 PM »
Great, now you have me wanting another rifle.......

Very nice write up Gene,,, enjoyed it very much.  Looks like a very nice shooter, I especially like the stock...

Jeff
\"If it was easy it wouldn\'t be hunting, it would be shopping.\"

Offline Gene_SC

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Re: Under The Hood Of A Stoeger X20 ,177
« Reply #6 on: May 15, 2010, 05:51:41 PM »
Well Jeff, the stock is very nice and even before the tune the overall cocking and shooting cycle was not bad at all. I do not know if this gun has the power you require in a .22 but I am sure with a spring change it would be high as any Crosman or Gamo .22 in its class.  This one will be a keeper for me..:)
THE ONES I SLEEP WITH: BSA Lightning XL, AA TX-200, AA ProSport, BSA Ultra, HW-97K, Crosman NPSS .177, FX Cyclone, HW-30 Nicle Plated, AA-S200, Crosman Marauder, CZ-634, R-9 DG, Webley/Scott UK Tomahawk, Benji Kantana, Benji Marauder, Benji Discovery.....
....

Gene\'s Tunz n Toyz
Springer Tunin

Offline fsdanlie

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Re: Under The Hood Of A Stoeger X20 ,177
« Reply #7 on: May 16, 2010, 05:04:43 AM »
That piston seal is that OEM or new jm seal for the gamo?
GS1000,177 /Stoeger x-20,177/ RWS-350p,22/ Gamo hunter sport,177/ Winchester1000XS,177/ RWS460Mag,22/ SS1000,22/, Panther34,22/, Diana350 Mag.,177/,Diana34Classic,177WithPG2/,B-3,177/, S1,177/, DianaP5,177

Offline Gene_SC

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Re: Under The Hood Of A Stoeger X20 ,177
« Reply #8 on: May 16, 2010, 05:08:30 AM »
JM Tesla Seal.
THE ONES I SLEEP WITH: BSA Lightning XL, AA TX-200, AA ProSport, BSA Ultra, HW-97K, Crosman NPSS .177, FX Cyclone, HW-30 Nicle Plated, AA-S200, Crosman Marauder, CZ-634, R-9 DG, Webley/Scott UK Tomahawk, Benji Kantana, Benji Marauder, Benji Discovery.....
....

Gene\'s Tunz n Toyz
Springer Tunin

Offline fsdanlie

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Re: Under The Hood Of A Stoeger X20 ,177
« Reply #9 on: May 16, 2010, 05:14:07 AM »
Ok that looked familiar.
GS1000,177 /Stoeger x-20,177/ RWS-350p,22/ Gamo hunter sport,177/ Winchester1000XS,177/ RWS460Mag,22/ SS1000,22/, Panther34,22/, Diana350 Mag.,177/,Diana34Classic,177WithPG2/,B-3,177/, S1,177/, DianaP5,177

Offline Stephen Archer

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RE: Under The Hood Of A Stoeger X20 ,177
« Reply #10 on: May 16, 2010, 10:09:53 AM »
Gene,

Thanks for such a prompt and useful review!

I'm please to see that you like the X20. It sounds like we're agreed that this is an air rifle to be recommended. Your gun was given our "Bronze Service" inspection before shipping and I'd say that it is representative of the quality and finish that we're seeing with Stoeger air rifles. For those who wish to read about our "Gold Service" testing, it's at http://www.archerairguns.com/Articles.asp?ID=131

As we gain more testing experience with the X10, X20 and X50 models, I'll be publishing further hard data on how "factory" performance varies over a range of guns. So far, it looks like performance is quite consistent and this would be due to the good manufacturing tolerances and assembly you mention. The X10s and X20s with factory spring seem to settle down to about 900fps with CPLs. That's about 14 ft/lbs of muzzle energy.

You make a good point about this model being suitable for lefties. The stock design is completely ambidextrous for all models and the safety is easy to see and use, too.

Stephen Archer
Archer Airguns Inc.
Store: http://www.archerairguns.com
Blog: http://www.archerairguns.info
Video: http://youtube.com/archerairguns

Offline Gene_SC

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Re: Under The Hood Of A Stoeger X20 ,177
« Reply #11 on: May 16, 2010, 12:30:23 PM »
Well Steve if the Stoeger you sent me represents what they are producing, then Stoeger will be seeing allot of business. Once people catch on to what a  nice gun the Stoegers really are, we may be seeing allot of air gunners buying them for sure. It has been a while since I have bought such a nice air rifle at this price.

Thanks for introducing Stoeger air rifles and  information, with video's on your web site.
THE ONES I SLEEP WITH: BSA Lightning XL, AA TX-200, AA ProSport, BSA Ultra, HW-97K, Crosman NPSS .177, FX Cyclone, HW-30 Nicle Plated, AA-S200, Crosman Marauder, CZ-634, R-9 DG, Webley/Scott UK Tomahawk, Benji Kantana, Benji Marauder, Benji Discovery.....
....

Gene\'s Tunz n Toyz
Springer Tunin

Offline shadow

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Re: Under The Hood Of A Stoeger X20 ,177
« Reply #12 on: May 16, 2010, 01:13:37 PM »
My Order finger is already itchin and will have to settle for the .177 since I didn't see em in .22. Ed
I airgun hunt therefore I am... };)  {SHADOWS Tunes & Camo}  airguncamo@yahoo.com

Offline pindog2000

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Re: Under The Hood Of A Stoeger X20 ,177
« Reply #13 on: May 16, 2010, 01:56:03 PM »
ive looked none in .22 cal :0  but looking at that x50 wouldnt mind owning a synth stock magnum .177 cal to compliment my .22 cal mag(350p)
keep your eyes on the prize & dont let it crawl away.

Offline geewhiz380

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Re: Under The Hood Of A Stoeger X20 ,177
« Reply #14 on: May 23, 2010, 09:00:31 AM »
Wow i like what you have done to it ,my finger is twiching also and as soon as you know it i will have one hehehe,the melin xl will work fine...jorge