You know, I've been fooling around with BB-guns for a while now, and over the course of time, I have placed several orders with ARH/Maccari. One thing that has always vexed me was that the different parts I've ordered are not labeled. But in order to stay in James' good graces, I ain't gonna bark too loud and cause a stink. It's his show, so he can run it as he likes. I will say that he is very helpful, and will offer some advice if you keep it short, and to the point,.....along with sounding like you have half a clue as to what you're doing. In all reality, he's a pretty funny fella, just understand he has a dry sence of humor, and not a lot of time for BS!!! Now on to the discussion at hand!!!
The one thing I've never felt sure about was these two seals. The Apex, and the Tesla. To me, the Apex seals are usually Red with a sharper bevelled edge and the parachute closer to the edge,....while the Tesla appears to have a more bevelled edge and the 'chute a bit closer to the center. Mind you I'm going by memory at the present. The Tesla seals I've recieved have been a dark purple'ish color. The Apex seems to be slightly bigger in diameter than the Tesla. Sooooooooo, right or wrong, this is the way I have distinguised the to seals. For all I know I'm Bass-Ackwards on this.
Now for the theory in using these seals and their applications. The Apex (red) seals seem to be the 'go-to seal' and fit tighter in the comp tube, and in some cases may need to be sized if too tight,.......whereas the slightly smaller diameter has a less tight fit in the comp tube and it's main application is for undersized comp tubed rifles. That makes sence to me I suppose. But can their be another application for the Tesla seal aside from the fore-mentionned statement?!?!? Well I think I've found it,...or at least this is my theory!!!!
OK, After many thousands of rounds through my Diana 34 (.22 cal), the Maccari spring finally gave up,....great spring BTW,....so I replaced it with the OEM spring and things were back to normal,....almost. I didn't bother replaceing the seal sinceI never had any problems with heavy dieselling,.....until now?!? The 34 started dieselling,....more than ever. Never a serious detonation,...but a healthy cloud of vapor would appear as I would blow itout the barrel. OK, time to change the seal,....guess it gave up the ghost too. Tore the 34 back down completely and reworked the whole action. CDT had already tuned her so most of the leg work had been taken care of. This time I opted for the Tesla seal. Felt snug enough in the comp tube so everything else went back together with no problems. Started shooting it,....you guessed it, more dieselling. 500 rounds later,....still smoking. Hmmmmmm, what's going on with this rifle. so I took the advice of a fellow GTA member and started shooting heavys in it. The theory being this would expand the seal some and should stop the dieselling after say 20 or so rounds,.....and it did too. But sure enough, when I went back to the RWS SD's the dieselling would reappear in just a few rounds. More heavys with no dieselling, and back to smoking when trying the SD's. And it's been this way since.
Now I've always experienced some slight spring buzz,....and I can live with that, but seems the heavier pellets used cause the least buzz going on. OK this is where it gets interesting, and how I made my conclusion for another application using the Tesla seal. This sounds crazy, but I've taken two SD's, loaded them both, and fired them at my trap. Nothing but a very healthy "pop", zero buzz, and two pels zipping towards the trap. Pulled out the chroney tried it again, and there really wasn't much of a drop in fps as one would think should be. Also, after numerous times, the spring feels and chroneysjust as strong as it did before, and a'single' pellet load shoots just as fast as it ever did,.....with the added dieselled vapors. BTW, SD's shooting 720's, and doubled up shooting in the 680's.
So here's my theory,....if you insist on shooting heavy pellets, and don't want to fatique the spring prematurely, try the Tesla seal. Maybe I havefounda dual purpose for the Tesla, and maybe I'm full of $#it... but so far so good. I've tested the double pellet application on all my spinners and long range plinking toys, and the double shot destroys any and all subjects in their way. Yesterday I send a grackle into a barrel roll (insert evil snicker!!!!!). But not wanting to press my luck, I went ahead and ordered some JSB heavies, as the Kodiaks/Baracudas are hard to come by. I did shoot a few Kodiaks and they proved to offer enough resistance to stop the dieselling, and the slight buzz. I hope the JSB's will perform the same task. Lucky for me my 34 isn't pellet-picky either. Well that's my story folks, Happy Shooting! tjk