Socom Extreme conversion from .177 to .22 options?

[2004svtcobra]

Good evening all!  Yes this is my 1st post, but have been on this great forum for a few months now just reading etc etc.

I have a Gamo Socom Extreme in .177 (with GRT 3 trigger).    I have been toying with the idea of converting it to .22.  It has great power but really only accurate with heavier pellets such as 10.5 gr CPs (chronied at 1005 FPS avg), any lighter pellets are not consistent enough for my liking. With 7.9 to 8.3 grain pellets, this gun consistently achieves 1177 - 1195 FPS per my chrony.

So I have called GAMO about procuring a .22 cal barrel for this gun, they say they dont sell barrels.   I know this gun is the same as the hunter extreme powerplant (or so it seems) so I have thought that just a simple barrel swap from a .22 hunter extreme would do the job.

So given that I cannot buy a new barrel from Gamo.....what are my options?

Just a few questions:
- Is the conversion just as simple as a barrel swap (or am i missing something)?
- Can I have the stock .177 barrel machined to .22 cal spec?  
- Does anyone have a used .22 cal barrel for sale (hunter extreme version) or know who can precisely machine my existing barrel?

Thanks all, sorry to ramble on, but I am wanting to do this conversion and wanted to see what you guys had to say about it.

Thanks,
Erik

[shadow]

The power plant's are the same and if you had a .22  barrel and block you could just do a swap but as you mentioned Gamo doesn't sell just the barrels. You could possibly get a .22 barrel from Lothar Walther and have it fitted to your breech block. Lothar Walther's site is located in our "MALL" section of the forum but other then that I don't know of anyone who does conversions. Ed

[2004svtcobra]

Thank you for the info Ed....helps me a lot.  I will check out the mall section!

[shadow]

No problem and hope it help's some. I would also like to welcome you to the GTA FAMILY Erik happy to have aboard and part of this big airgun family. I have the 1250 hunter.22 which is basically the same as your shooter as far as the action go's. I believe that you will get the most out of these Magnum shooter's in the .22 and now the .25 cal. I've tuned both the .22 and .25 cal shooter's the .22 having a bigger pellet selection as far as weight go's. The .177's are good but you need to run heavy lead to slow them down for accuracy and give the shooter a de-tune so to speak to tame it down and gain some accuracy with a wider selection of pellet's.  Speed doesn't help much when the airgun doesn't throw lead accurately. :0 Ed

[2004svtcobra]

Thanks for the warm welcome! Looking forward to getting into this new hobby!

 I agree I will get more out of this gun in .22, hence the reason I want to go that route.  This gun has never been tuned either, it does have a noticeable spring twang with the heavier pellets like the 10.5 CPs. I really don't want to "tune" the power down, but a smoother gun is desired.  It does have quite the spring recoil as you already know.

[shadow]

Yes they do have a harshness to them :0 and that's why I got into tuning these beast. Ed