I've had the Hunter 440 for 2 years; fitted a GRT 111 trigger soon after I bought it and I've shot 3000+ pellets through it. The Hunter shoots well and is capable of decent accuracy. About a month ago I noticed that cocking it had got much easier - a child of 10 could manage it. I noticed too that the recoil was less than before and the noise when firing was much milder, more like a knock on a door. I don't have a chrono but my guess is that the velocity has dropped quite a bit. I could probably have appreciated this magnum air gun in it's more civilized guise but something else happened which has to be investigated. I was doing a bit of target shooting when all of a sudden I found that after I had loaded a pellet the barrel wouldn't close - it came to a stop, pointing downwards at about 45 degrees to where it should be. I put the safety catch on, got my torx driver and removed the stock. That allowed the barrel to close in its proper position. I replaced the stock and resumed my target shooting session. About six shots later the same thing happened - the barrel wouldn't close. I couldn't see anything obviously wrong when I took the stock off again but now I have to find the cause of the problem. One possible cause that seems to fit the symptoms is a broken spring. But guys,this must have happened before, to someone, somewhere...Can anyone confirm or refute Dr. Mick's diagnosis before I get to work making a spring compressor.
