Have only had two full days of shooting my new TX-200HC. I have mixed feelings about this baby. After about 50 or so shots the afternoon after I got her, my hands hurt..
The short cocking under lever and the harshness of the spring and recoil played havoc on my hands. The AA TX-200 IMO was not nearly shooter friendly as the new HW-97K that I had bought two weeks prior.
With that said I got up this morning at 6:00AM and hobbled out to the shop for some investigation rude little girl..
After removing the stock I noticed that the main spring was very short. So I set her in my spring compressor and pulled her down. Cleaned up all the parts sparkling clean and started to gaze over the design and quality. Well for you information this is one well built springer. Actually one of the best of a hand full that I have seen. My goal was to try and lower the harshness and end up with a smooth cocking and smooth cycling shooter. Unfortunately I did not have a JM spring that would work or at least give me the outcome I wanted.
So I made a new spring guide to fit the original spring, Polished the spring ends and cleaned up all the parts one last time before assembly. I also change the piston seal with a JM Tesla 1" poly seal. It fit perfect but was a bit snugger than the stock seal. Only about one thousandths difference with the new Tesla seal being the larger diameter of the two.
What I ended up with is about 35 fps less than what I started with. Pre tune she was shooting around the 920's and after the tune she was down around 885 fps. These numbers are with a new springer so they will probably go up some after the guide and seal get seated.
As far as the cocking cycle that did not change other than it was smoother but still the same amount of leverage to cock her. But the overall shooting cycle had clearly change to the better. So after everything was back to get her I took her up on my deck I mounted my Hawk scope and started to set it at a 30 yard target which I had been using prior to the tune.
I have to say that the only pellets I was using were JSB's and prior to the tune I was getting a 1" plus spread on the bulls. After the tune she was holding tight inside the one inch bulls at 30 yards. So there was a marked improvement with overall accuracy. What did not have on hand were Crosman CP's. I should be getting my order next week for about 8000 of them.. which I got on the Father's day special at Pyramyd Air.
My intention is to find a lower powered spring that will lower the cocking effort and even lower the FPS to around 800 to 850 FPS. I think that it would be much easier to cock and less stressful on my left hand...
So I have not made up my mind yet whether she is a keeper or not. I need to shoot some other pellets in order to close up my groups a bit.
As far as fit and finish you probably would not find a nicer looking springer at that price unless it would be the HW-97K which is in the same league as the TX in overall appearance and quality of wood and metal.
One last thing. I downloaded instructions on adjusting the trigger. When I got her the first day the trigger was a bit stiffer than I like. So I adjusted her according to the instructions and was able to reduce the over all free play and get a much lower pull pressure. But there still is creep in the trigger which I need to look at more carefully.
Here are a few pictures as well.
