New Marauder Baffles and End Cap

[longislandhunter]

An interesting thing happened the other day.    

My Marauder, #25 from the first 100, had the original baffles and end cap which as we now know were bored out smaller than the newer revised baffles and end cap.  Last week I received a set of the new baffles and a new end cap from Crosman and I proceeded to swap out the old ones for the new ones.  

With the old baffles/end cap my rifle shot CPHP's very well and also shot Kodiaks nice and tight as well.  As soon as I installed the new baffles and end cap I saw an immediate change in the groups with these 2 pellets.   The CPHP's, which had been giving me nice tight groups, now were being spit all over the target almost like a shotgun.  However..... the kodiaks, which had been giving me nice dime sized groups, were now shooting even tighter and the gun is now literally stacking the kodiaks into the same hole shot after shot.  

As Much as I liked shooting the CPHP's I'm leaving the new baffles and end cap in because I'm astonished at the way the rifle now shoots the kodiaks and I've always liked the kodiaks as a hunting pellet anyway.  

Has anyone else experienced "pellet shifts" after installing the new baffles and end cap ?????

Jeff

[davee1]

Yes. I drilled out my own end cap and baffles to .281". They were originally about .247". My MRod .22 loves CPDomes and Kodiaks. After my mod, I can stack CPs in the same hole at 15~20 yrds with no problem(benched). I have not tested the Kodiaks yet, but they were awesome to begin with. Before my mod, the CPs were kind of cloverleafing at 15~20 yrds and I could not get any paper out at 50yrds so I dont know about the longer ranges. I was hitting ground squirrels at 50~75 rds though, with no problem. It seems to me that drilling out the cap/baffles just made a good thing even better. I have read over on the yellow forum though, that there were some guys who had a dramatic improvement when they got new endcaps/baffles or drilled them out themselves. FYI my serial numberis from July 2009 #375.

[Gene_SC]

Very interesting. It seems that my #49 did not come with any baffles at all. It is still very quiet to shoot. Mine Marauder is a .177 and I can shoot CP heavies and stay inside a 1" circle at 30 yards. Have never shot any closer than that. I wonder if the baffles are really needed. Just my thoughts.

[longislandhunter]

I'm thinking now that the pellet shift in the CPHP's may not be the new baffles and end cap.  I was running everything through my head trying to figure this out and I suddenly realized that just before getting the "shotgun pattern" with the CPHP's I had just opened up a new tin of pellets and started using them.  Now I'm wondering if the new tin of pellets may be the problem, I don't know......

I"m gonna run some tests,,, using different CPHP tins and also try putting the old baffles and endcap back on and see if there's any difference.   Using the process of scientific elimination it shouldn't take me long to figure out what really going on here......

More to come...........stay tuned.............     :)

Jeff

[longislandhunter]

Well, I took the Marauder out into the backyard range this afternoon and finally got to the bottom of the pellet shift that I experienced with the CPHP's after I installed the new (wider) baffles and end cap...... long story short........   it wasn't the baffles at all..... it was the pellets....

For some reason the  pellets from this one tin of pellets that I have will not group at all from the Marauder.  The pellets look fine and look like all the other CPHP's I have but for some reason they will not group at all.     I tried pellets from all my other tins and they give me nice dime sized groups time after time,,,,, it's just this one tin of pellets...  

I don't have a scale so I can't weigh them, wish I did as maybe that's the problem.  

At any rate,,, I''m happy I found the problem and my Marauder (with the new baffles and end cap) is back to shooting nice tight groups with the CPHP's.  Matter of fact the CPHP's and the kodiaks are shooting exactly the same without me having to even touch the scope, so I now have the benefit of being able to choose either one to hunt with  :)

Since I had the range all set up I decided to re-do some grouping tests with the new baffles and end cap and see if they would improve any of the other pellets I've tried in the past.....  well...... it was amazing...........   Beeman FTS pellets, which shot lousy with the old baffles, are now giving me beautiful dime sized groups.  The predator pellets,,, which shot good before, tightened up even more and are giving me ragged hole groups.   CPL's... which shot good with the old baffles,,,, tightened up even more just like the predators and are shooting superb.   And the best part is..... not even one "flyer" in the bunch   :)

When I get time I'm going to re-test all my .22 cal pellets but for right now I'm a happy camper and have a larger selection of accurate pellets to shoot and hunt  with.  I never would've thought just changing the baffles and end cap would have such dramatic results....

Jeff

[gamo2hammerli]

Jeff, fantastic news.  Now you`ve a big ammo stash to use.  I`ve also found sometimes those CPHP`s (.177 for me) to be abit weird....sometimes I`ll get a few fantastic shooting tins...and then I would get a tin that`s so-so (One flyer outta 5 or 6 shots).  Not too bad with lower velocity airguns.....but once the speed hits past 750fps....the groups open up at 20 meters distances.

[longislandhunter]

Yeah Stanley,,,, I guess I just got a bad tin.....   I made sure I put that tin on the side and even marked it with a piece of tape so it won't cause me anymore heartburn  :)

Jeff

[paul]

Has anyone measured the baffles and end cap,with a micromometer=older baffles and new baffles for comparison,it would be nice to know. Thanks

[kgatwork]

longislandhunter - 11/9/2009  6:55 PM

An interesting thing happened the other day.    

My Marauder, #25 from the first 100, had the original baffles and end cap which as we now know were bored out smaller than the newer revised baffles and end cap.  Last week I received a set of the new baffles and a new end cap from Crosman and I proceeded to swap out the old ones for the new ones.  

With the old baffles/end cap my rifle shot CPHP's very well and also shot Kodiaks nice and tight as well.  As soon as I installed the new baffles and end cap I saw an immediate change in the groups with these 2 pellets.   The CPHP's, which had been giving me nice tight groups, now were being spit all over the target almost like a shotgun.  However..... the kodiaks, which had been giving me nice dime sized groups, were now shooting even tighter and the gun is now literally stacking the kodiaks into the same hole shot after shot.  

As Much as I liked shooting the CPHP's I'm leaving the new baffles and end cap in because I'm astonished at the way the rifle now shoots the kodiaks and I've always liked the kodiaks as a hunting pellet anyway.  

Has anyone else experienced "pellet shifts" after installing the new baffles and end cap ?????

Jeff

My Marauder #95 of the first 100 got new baffles last week too!  My gun seemed to only like CPHP's, I could stack them at 30 yards, however there would be the occasional flier.  Installing the new baffles seemed to open up the grouping and did not improve any of the other pellets I tried (JSB''s 14.3, 15.x, and 18.x), still have the occasional flier with the CPHP's too.  I was hoping that the baffles would help with the other pellets but no such luck.  May have to try to bore out the barrel end baffle.

[longislandhunter]

KG,,


If the end cap opening is still the original size then that may be part of the problem.  

As for the JSB pellets..... my gun never shot them any of them well and even with the new baffles and end cap it still won't shoot the JSB's much better.  To bad, I really like the 18.1 gr pellets,,, but the rifle hates them...  Oh well,,, at least my Condor and Talon love them to death  :)

Jeff

[CharlieDaTuna]

Jeff...can you measure the new one and post the size as well as your original??

[longislandhunter]

Will do Bob..... but I must warn you my digital caliper is one of those "cheapy" models   :)  but I'll give it a shot....

Jeff

[paul]

If you have a index drill set 32nds ,you could insert each one of near size until you get a good fit.

[CharlieDaTuna]

No problem there. We can at least determine the difference between the two.

[paul]

I just now measured mine ,unmodded ----------.249  ,end cap and baffles.