Some advice puhleeeze....

[vinceb]

My wonderful $82 AR1000 has not responded favorably to my attempts at lapping the barrel. It still doesn't shoot accurately, although it is fairly powerful... 990's with CPL's.

So I'm left with 3 options -

1) attempt to get a new barrel for it from the manufacturer (Shang-Hai), but they don't seem to be answering emails. Ever. Besides, I might wind up with something just as bad

2) Dump the gun as is, and let someone else fool around with it. I can't imagine I'd get more'n $30-40 out of it.

3) Have Rich fix me up a Walther Barrel... a $75 barrel on an $82 gun. On the up side, if I got it done in a larger caliber, it'd probably be a real killer.

Oh - what to do???

Id go with number 3. If you like the rifle on fit and how it shoots (yeha i know accuracy sucks at this point) but if its all in good shape and the trigger is decent why not go with a rebarrel...
Ive done hte same with some fake colt 1911's ive had. Shot completely horrid. Got a new barrel from brownells. Now not as accurate as my kimbers but they shure are damn fun to shoot.

[daved]

I'd go with the barrel from Rich, too.  So you put an $80 barrel on a $75 gun, I'll bet you know someone that's had a $150 tune done on a $150 gun.  Value is relative, if you like everything else about the gun, go for it.  From your other posts, it sounds like it has a decent trigger, and the power certainly isn't anything to sneeze at.  With a .22 barrel on it, it sounds like it would give my 350 a run for it's money.  And you'd still be into it for about half what I paid for the Diana.  HTH.

Dave

[vinceb]

Unfortunately, Rich doesn't do .22 barrels.... unless he gets them directly from Lothar - in which case the cost goes up considerably.

So it's either .177 or .20

I agree with the #3 option as well so long as you don't have a problem with anything else on the gun.  I've read a lot of good things about the .20 cal, though I still don't have one myself.  Flatter trajectory than a .22 but with similar knockdown power.  Look at it this way, if you had purchased that gun already outfitted with a quality barrel such as the LW, the price of that gun would've been a lot higher anyway....so I guess you could say that they are the sum of all their parts.  I don't have any problems with accuracy with any of my airguns at present, but I wouldn't think twice about switching the barrels on any of them if need be.  Right now all of my "top of the line" air guns are Gamos, so I'm one of those guys who would do a $150, well maybe $120  tune on his $150 rifle.  

How are you lapping the barrel ? hand lapping or fire lapping.

it makes a difference how you are lapping it.

[vinceb]

I melted down enough used pellets (and a .22 slug!) to pour into the end of the muzzle to make a form-fitting plug.

I pushed it out, put some valve lapping paste into the bore, and coated the plug with the same paste. I re-inserted it into the bore my hand, making sure the rifling lands were lined up. I then rammed it through the barrel from one end to the other.
The first few were done from the muzzle end, the rest from the breach. I did 16 strokes total. The plug seems to have remained tight through the last stroke.


Funny thing - after doing this I cleaned the bore with a nylon brush and some solvent, and blew it out with compressed air. I did this 3 or 4 times. After cleaning I pushed several CPL's through the barrel, it felt like the high spots were virtually gone (they were pretty bad).

But after shooting about 20 rounds I tried it again - and the high spots seem to be back! I imagine there has to be something in the barrel that's catching and retaining lead from the pellet... but I woulda thought that the lapping would have solved that.

Valve lapping paste? you don't mean grinding compound do you. I hope not.

I just roll a pellet in white rubbing compund and fire about 30 pellets through the barrel this normally cleans up the high spots and polishs the barrel.

 The rubbing compound can't remove much metal but it does a nice job of polishing high spots so they don't affect the pellet much..

[vinceb]

Yup. Valve grinding compound.

I think I'm just gonna pop for one of your barrels. Dunno when it's gonna be just yet.

I'm trying to decide if it's worth saving up for a heavy-duty .22 (RWS 48 or 350) vs. putting a Macarri spring in my .22 Shadow to kick it up a bit (cheaper, but still not as powerful). Also depends on how I make out with some stuff I'm selling.

I'll git back to you.

NO NO NO, not valve gringing compound it just wrecks the barrel, it's way to course to do  barrel lapping with.

White tooth paste is a better item for fire lapping or hand lapping barrels, it has pumice in it not metal dust like valve gringing compound. Besides valve gringing compound will leave the inside of the barrel with a rough surface.

[vinceb]

Oh. OK. No more of dat stuff.

I'll try to find some white stuff, although I'm guessing the damage is already done...

[-=ed]

.

see how it shoots now.