GTA
General Discussion To Gateway To Airguns => Airgun Gate => : CaptGeorge January 16, 2009, 05:38:38 PM
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A friend of mine bought one of these Chinese Beemans. It was about $130 including .177 & .22 barrels, scope, mounts, and case. Although he had a little trouble with the automatic safety, it seems like a decent shooter for the money. Anybody have any experience with this rifle. Comments good and bad are welcome.
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This dual caliber Sportsman version have several variants. Cheaper to buy at walmart. You definetly need to change mount to a 4 or 5 screw single mount to prevent the scope from creeping. Other than that whenever you switch barrell you need to re-sight it .22 shoots low from the .177 and this have the same powerplants as the other RS version and AR1000 series. Hard to cock but shoots hard though & worth the money.
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I have the RS2 dual caliber from Walmart (1073). You might as well throw away the rings that come with it and get yourself a Leapers one-piece mount (or something similar) or you'll just frustrate yourself. The scope in the combo isn't bad, its just not what I'd call good - I guess you could say its decent enough for a combo scope but you'll end up wanting to replace it sooner or later as well. I put a Leapers 3-9X32 AO on there and I've been very pleased (over 1000 shots and the Leapers setup hasn't moved). Switching barrels does change POI, even removing and re-installing the same barrel will change POI. After about 500 pellets through each barrel it turned into a really accurate shooter. On mine, either barrel can put pellets into nickel sized groups at 25 yards if I do my part, but it is pretty hold sensitive. I had to train myself to shoot it well, its quite different from my powder burners, but once I got the feel for it I was surprised at how accurate it is.
Being my first springer, my initial impression was that the RS2 was a good gun right out of the box. It cocked relatively smoothly and fired with very little vibration or twang. I was pretty pleased until I chrony'd it and found that the velocity was low with CP-series pellets (850's in .177 and 670's in .22). From reading posts on GTA I knew it was capable of more and I determined to find out why it was weak. (You can search for RS1, RS2, SS1000, AR1000, Hammerli Titan, Force 1000, to find out more info - these are all the same basic powerplant) I built a spring compressor loosely based on the design found on Charlie Da Tuna's site (http://charliedatuna.com/Airgun%20Info.htm) and then made a tool out of a dowel rod similar to what GTA member dank shows in this thread (http://thread-view.asp?tid=5662&posts=31) (scroll about 2/3 down the page for pictures). I then proceeded to tear the gun down using the teardown guide from the Kermit Airgun Club website (http://www.kermitairgunclub.com/projects/ss1000.pdf). The finish inside was pretty nice, only needed a little deburring and the seal was in good shape - no cuts or nicks and the edge was nice and smooth. Also, the fit in the compression chamber was nice and tight, not loose like is reported in many of guns of this family. The only issue I could find was that the whole inside of the receiver was coated with some kind of heavy gray grease. I degreased the whole thing inside and out with goo-gone, took some 2000 grit wet/dry sandpaper and polished the spring ends, tophat, and thrust washer on the spring guide. I coated the inside of the receiver, compression chamber, the rear of the piston seal and the area behind the seal, inside of the piston, the tophat, spring ends, and thrust washer, and the cocking slot with TS70 moly paste that I use on my powder burners. I used some Lucas 5th Wheel and Slider Lube on the spring and spring guide (in place of spring tar - since I can get the Lucas stuff locally and I'd have to order the tar) and put it back together. My first springer and my first home-tune! I'm really surprised at how much smoother and quieter the cocking stroke is, and how smooth it fires now. You wouldn't think that a polish and lube job could make such a difference! I guess not having anything to compare it to, I didn't realize how much better it could be. My velocity with CPHPs is up to 940 fps now as well. Mission accomplished.
Another thing I did was to add a dash 011 o-ring behind the shoulder of each barrel. If you look into the barrel block you will see that there is a chamfer intended to guide the barrel into the block. The o-ring provides a little extra seal in this area and removes the reponsibility for sealing around the barrel from the breech seal (I'm not sure if its needed or not, but I can't think of any drawbacks).
To summarize my experience, its a nice gun right out of the box but it can be really great with a little (or a lot, depending on your luck) TLC. The Walmart special was my first springer and is responsible for my ongoing battle against airgun addiction.
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nice write-up ya did here..hope to read more from you like that one...of course, you know what requires, don't you.
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Are you implying that this thread is useless without pics??? :emoticon: :emoticon:
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...or perhaps that I need to buy more airguns so I can take them apart and give reports??? :)
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Well, pictures would be nice, but you described everything very well. It's the buying more air-gunz...resistance is futile...you will be assimulated.
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I purchased the RS-2 from Wal Mart. Mine was dissapointing out of the box, it hit hard, but was hard to cock, very hard to get the piston to engage when cocking. It was also grinding during the cocking stroke and the cocking lever rattled. I second thought the purchase, but I did buy it with intentions of working with it, so I started the teardown. After a de-bur and lube tune, some old school buttons on the upper rear of the piston, installing a plastic washer to take up slack in the cocking arm, trigger tune, crowning the barrel (.22) I was left with a very hard shooting very accurate gun that was a pleasure to shoot. So much so that my brother tried it and bought it from me! I have ordered an MM tuned B26 as a replacement, but I may pick up another RS-2 down the road as I liked the gun.
It hits VERY hard, no chrony #'s, but I recovered some crossman field hunting pellets from a wall I was shooting 120yds out and the pellets are pancaked. I also shot through a metal plant pot at the same distance, through one side and nearly the other at that distance. More than enough power for small game. At 50yds I broke the bases off of my Beeman silouette targets, finding them 10+ feet behind where they were hit by the pellet.
I believe the difference between the RS-1 and RS-2 is the adjustable trigger. The trigger is absolutely awesome, especially after a simple tune job. Worth seeking the RS-2 if you go this way. I learned everything I did to that gun on this site, it was a great novice DIY project that came out really nice.
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My RS2 is in pieces on my bench. It was a bit rough but nothing that can't be made better. The spring guide is plastic and bent a bit. I am thinking of filling the hollow tube part of it with 5 minutre epoxy and possibly a dowel to make it stronger. The washer that goes between the spring guide and the trigger is going to be replaced with a grade 8 washer and some rubber as the original is flimsy and bent. I am alos going to make a new thrust washer for the guide and polish the spring ends.
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Thanks for all the comments.
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Loctite fixes the scope mount problem.