Another newbie!

I picked up an old Daisy Red Ryder for my son's birthday and decided to get a nice air rifle for myself, mostly for plinking.  I haven't had an air rifle in 13+ years, but I remember how much fun they were and thought it would be a great way to bond  

After spending Saturday evening doing some research, it seemed like I would get the most bang for my buck with a Gamo.  I couldn't decide on the CFX versus the Shadow 1000, but I ended up going with the shadow because of the looks and because it was a little less expensive but had very similar features.  I ordered a Shadow 1000, Leapers 3-9x40 Scope (Illuminated Mil-Dot Reticle, 1/4 MOA, 25mm Tube, 3/8" Rings, Rubberized Exterior), and a nice case to put it in.  It should all be at my office on Wednesday

While I was at it, after reading through several posts here and elsewhere regarding the trigger, I ordered the GRT-III trigger from Charlie's site also


I've read some previous posts regarding issues with the fitment of full size Leapers scopes on some Gamo rifles, should I expect to have issues with the s1k?  I would really like to be able to use the scope stop and forgo any major exterior modifications if possible.  I am planning to use the iron sights for a bit, so it won't be an immediate concern, but if I need to swap out scopes, better to know sooner than later


Thanks!

Rob

[Big_Bill]

Congratulations Rob,

We are glad to have you here ! WELCOME !!!

That's a great idea for bonding with your son, a father and son shoot-off ! ...I like it !

As for the Leapers scope, some are loved by there owners, and some are sent back for exchange. I have one, and love it, but it only has 400-500 pellets through it. Now my Gamo came with a BSA scope, and it only lasted 200 rounds, had to send it back to the factory. But the replacement has lasted for years, and is still going strong !

I wish you well with your new rifles and scope, and keep us in the loop, and let us know how young man and you are enjoying you new sport/ hobby ! If you come up with some comments or questions feel free to chime in anytime !

Bill

Rob_NC - 11/12/2007  10:44 PM

I've read some previous posts regarding issues with the fitment of full size Leapers scopes on some Gamo rifles, should I expect to have issues with the s1k?  I would really like to be able to use the scope stop and forgo any major exterior modifications if possible.  I am planning to use the iron sights for a bit, so it won't be an immediate concern, but if I need to swap out scopes, better to know sooner than later :)

Hey Rob, and welcome!

You shouldn't have any trouble fitting the Leapers scope with its 40mm objective, even with medium-height scope rings. Offhand, I don't know what, if any, rings come with that scope, but if you find that they don't seem to hold the scope still after repeated firing, you may want to consider another scope mount. In my very limited experience, the Accushot 1-piece rings are reasonably priced and available in medium or high mount. Each tube clamp cap has 4 Allen-head mounting screws that allow the ring to grab the tube tightly and evenly, and the 3 screws on the single long dovetail base make for a nice firm hold, not to mention the integral scope-stop grub screw at the rear of the base.

If you prefer the looks or the utility of 2-piece mounts, Accushot also has them even more reasonably priced, and the advantages over some other mounts are that, in addition to the 4-bolt tube clamp cap and a scope stop grub screw in the rear ring base, each base's dovetail has 2 Allen-head screws. If you assemble everything with blue Locktite (after cleaning the threads with alcohol), they'll generally hold very well too.

Hope that helps,

Bryan

PS- you're gonna love that trigger!!!

[NMCA_Ron]

Rob,

Welcome to GTA! I think the advice Bryan gave is very sound as I have the Accushot one-piece mount on a Gamo Hunter 440 as well as a CFX and have had great luck with them. The rings that came with the BSA scope on my S1K are marginal and will soon be replaced with another Accushot piece. The only advice I can add is if you have one of the Shadows that does not have the raised scope rail (only machined grooves in the receiver) then clean those grooves out thouroghly with some denatured alcohol before installing the scope rings. If left uncleaned, the scope rings will slide in the groove. Otherwise, the S1K is a great rifle and you should have years of fantastic service.

Oh... you are gonna love that GRT-III!!!!

Ron

Hi, you should be able to mount a 40mm scope with medium profile mounts.  Low would be cutting it close, but it 'might' fit.  Like another member listed, accushot has solid cheap mounts.  The one piece mounts come with a recoil pin which drops down into the scope stop pin hole.  Both my pins broke, but that was before I realized I needed to clean out my scope rails.  They should work fine if you clean the rails and tighten the screws.  

The scope will deffinetly fit length wise.  I barely fit a leapers 4-16x50 scope which is slightly longer than 15".  Tom Gaylord has done a couple of writeups on leapers, and it seems that he approves of them.  

http://www.pyramydair.com/site/articles/leapers-scopes/
http://www.pyramydair.com/site/articles/leapers-asked-for-it/

[Big_Bill]

Hey Josh,

If you make a new post, it will help others find your question, and respond to it.

Now springer air rifles are hard to keep from moving on some models. Cleaning the scope mounting rails very wellwith alcohol, as well as all of your scerws, then applying blue lock-tite, as you replace each screw, then allowing them dry overnight has been recommended by longislandhunter (Jeff), and that is the best method that I have head of, short of epoxying the scope mount to the rails, which I believe Jeff also mentioned in one of his posts, for really tough jobs !

Let us know how your making out !

Bill

Everything arrived today via FedEx, waiting on the trigger, but I got a chance to unbox everything and play with it a bit at work today.  I was planning on using the sights for a bit and delaying the addition of the scope, but I couldn't seem to line up the sights unless I had it an inch or two off of my shoulder.  If I adjusted the sights, then it would shoot low.. Maybe it's a bit too short for me?  From the stats on Gamo's site it looks like the Hunter 220 and 440 are actually shorter than this, so getting another stock I don't think will resolve this for me.  One interesting thing that I noticed is that it came equipped with a guard for the front sight, most of the pics I've seen online didn't show this.

I opted to mount the Leapers scope since the iron sights weren't working out.  The rubberized version actually fits pretty well, but you can't use the scope stop included with the gun, unless you want to remove the rear sight to flip open the front lens cap   I cleaned the surfaces up pretty well and tightened everything down, I will get some loctite this weekend, or whenever I notice that it's slipping on me.  The scope just needed some really minor adjustments - shots were perfectly centered, but very low.

I took it home and tweaked a bit more and was getting some easy 1"ish groups at 20 yds (using Crossman Copperhead Competition Wadcutters (slightly looser fit than the Crow Magnums I was using at work)).. It was dark and a little hard to make out the target though  I will say that the red/green illuminated rectile is pretty nice, on it's lowest setting it doesn't really interfere with your vision at all in very low lighting conditions.  The front lens does have a green tint to it, but not nearly as dark as the pictures online portray.  The synthetic actually looks pretty sharp, I was originally looking for a gun with a wood stock btw

Overall I'm pretty satisfied with it, for a $200 setup I think it would be pretty hard to beat in terms of features and quality.  I will play with it some more this weekend, Rabbit hunting season starts Saturday btw

 

 

Rob

Glad to hear everything came in and is in order!  As for your mounts, there might be a recoil pin located underneath one of the rings.  If there is, you can screw it down a little with the included wrench, and then it should fit into a small hole that is cut into the barrel of the gun, near where the scope stop would have gone.  Oh, and you can remove the rear site by screwing the windage knob all the way off, and on my model there was a screw located just forward of the windage knob, which I had to screw off then the whole site lifted off but the screw that the windage knob was on was still there.  

Good luck with your shooting!  The accuracy and smoothness of the gun will improve after you put a few hundred pellets down range, even better after a few thousand!

Yep, saw that during assembly and tightened it down.  The top was smooth though, no groove where the stock scope stop was originally (just a little bit of wear where it was tightened down).  We'll see how it goes, I may try to find a high see-thru mount in the end if another mount is required. It would give the option of using the iron sights or the scope.   I've probably ran 50 or so pellets through it so far

[leftcoast1]

Hey Rob,

   Glad to have you here. Becareful with getting your scope to high. It will effect your range with the elevation knob on your scope. You may not get it zeroed for paractical airgun shooting distance. Have fun with it. My daughters little gun is almost done.

Well I'm kind of glad it's been dark when I've gotten home all week this week, because I didn't have to try to get used to the stock trigger

The installation was pretty straight forward, the only thing that I got hung up on was the lever.  I reassembled and the gun wouldn't cock (tension but no "click").  The PDF didn't depict/mention this part, but after a few searches here and a revisit to Charlie's site, I figured out what I was doing wrong:

"Be sure as you slide the trigger blade up and into position that the lever, the long piece of metal above the trigger blade, is riding in the slot (C) on the top of the trigger blade and not riding up on the edge of it."

I just slid a small screw driver in the pivot pin hole as I was inserting the trigger, ensuring that the metal lever slid up in the channel in the trigger.


I think the best part of this mod is how easy it is to install, bolt on and go with no modification of existing trigger components.  That means that you can easily remove the trigger and put the stock one back on.  From using it today though, I don't know why anyone would ever want to do that..  :p

The only way I was getting decently accurate shots before was to just pull fast (on the stock trigger - this is shooting in the dark mind you)..  The new trigger incredibly reduced the amount of pull required, and you can distinctively feel the stages now as well.  I got a few hours of straight shooting in today, and I didn't really mess with the stage 2 adjustment, but the stage 1 I opted to shorten just a bit.   I just about have my scope zeroed ( I was getting ok 1-2" grouping at ~50yds without benching), and it doesn't seem to be creeping at all (even without loctite, etc).  I realize that it probably will over time though, so I'm going to probably pick some up tomorrow and re-mount it (another excuse to play with it for a few hours lol).


So the stage 2 adjustment, I'm a little clueless here, what does it actually adjust in relation to the second stage (shorter/longer pull, or ?)..  At the moment I'm pretty satisfied with the performance and feel, but I would appreciate a better understanding of "creep".


Thanks for the help

So

Rob_NC - 11/17/2007  10:48 PM

... I just about have my scope zeroed ( I was getting ok 1-2" grouping at ~50yds without benching), and it doesn't seem to be creeping at all (even without loctite, etc).  I realize that it probably will over time though, so I'm going to probably pick some up tomorrow and re-mount it (another excuse to play with it for a few hours lol)...

Rob, I'm no expert, so I could be wrong about this, but when you want to loctite the scope/mount screws, you don't have to pull the whole thing off and take the rings, etc. apart. I just set the rifle in a gun holder and remove 1 screw, clean the hole with a little lighter fluid on a swab (I use that as a solvent/cleaner rather than alcohol since it's hydrophobic), clean the screw with some lighter fluid, blow on them to evaporate the lighter fluid, apply the blue loctite to the screw threads, then screw it in, torquing it as close as I can to what it was before. Then I go to the next screw. That only takes a minute or so per screw, and  doesn't allow the scope tube position to change in the rings, which should minimize the time you need to spend on re-aligning and re-zeroing once the loctite has set.

Now, having said that, all of the mounts on my guns use 4 screws per ring cap, and two screws (for 2-piece mounts) or three screws (for 1-piece mount) for the dovetail clamp; with this configuration, the clamping pressure seems to stay pretty even when one of the screws is out, and when you torque it back down, you can sorta compare the torque of the neighboring screws to get it pretty even.

OK, if that's not a sound method, I hope someone will let me know. It seems to work well for me, but if there's a downside, I'll be glad to change my ways.

BTW, I knew you'd like that trigger, Rob :~D

Bryan