Gamo Gate forum charter?

[haertig]

Hi all -

I am hoping to ask an innocent question here, without offending anybody.  It this GTA Gamo forum hobbiest oriented, or more commercially oriented?  I am not trying to imply that one is better than the other.

I ask only because when I put forth a question regarding something I'm trying to do myself (e.g., advice on recrowning my Gamo barrel myself), I don't see many responses.  I can certainly understand that if this forum is mostly airgunsmiths and people making their living off of airgun mods that there would be some hesitance to "share the info", and therefore suggest purchases/gunsmithing instead.  And I'm perfectly OK with that.  Quite understandable if people are trying to make a living here.

I'm just wondering if Googled out the wrong forum for my needs.  I am more of a neophyte hobbiest who wants to try a few things on my own, without spending much money, within reason.  I do not want to give people the impression that I'm "demanding" an answer from people who are just volunteering their time and trying to help.  I volunteer my time in other forums where I have expertise - unfortunately in airguns I don't have any expertise - so at this point I'm pretty much just a leech asking for airgun info. I hope everyone takes this post in the spirit that I posted it, and nobody is offended.

Thanks!

[NMCA_Ron]

No offense taken, man. Have you taken the time to check out "The Shop" section of this forum? It may be exactly what you are after. There are lots of great craftsmen (and craftswomen!) who are members of this forum. Quite frequently, they share their knowledge and projects in "The Shop."

Also, this is really a good bunch of folks. If you have a question, just ask. You will receive honest answers without a lot of BS. That is why I continue to be a member of this forum. Nobody slings a bunch of BS and we are all friends here. So, if you have a particular question as to whether or not someone has had experience doing what you wish to do, just ask.

Hope this helps!

Ron

[davee1]

I've been posting here for about a year I guess...sometimes I have felt the same way as you describe. But what I've learned is that if there is info to be shared, somebody will chime in. But if there isn't a whole lot of experience in that area then sometimes there is no followup posts. It looks like you may have a peculiar problem there. I use dremel grinding bits to do my crowning. Perhaps a trip to the store may turn up a bit that will power through all of that material and then finally do the crown. There is a round grinding bit that I can think of that I would use. You just gotta go get it. A 911 or 921 is what I would try.

[Gene_SC]

Haertig, you are welcome to share your talents as well as others will share with you. The GTA is deversified in it's membership and we are a learning forum as well as helping others gain important information which includes air guns and many other aspects of hobbiests interests.

We are not cmmorecialized.. We do share links in our Library and Mall, so that new members such as your self can look at other forums and retailers for information that may or maynot pertain to your needs.

Welcome to the GTA and please by all means share your ideas and we love pictures..

Gene

[Big_Bill]

Hello Haertig,

The GTA Forums are totally hobby oriented, we are, howeverblessed with some professional members here that add their outstanding knowledge, when they are here, or believe it is beneficial.

As for your first post on re-crowning your barrel, I felt that you received very good advice. However it is difficult to recomend to you, that you take a hacksaw to your barrel, and perform a re-crown. When we do not know your skill level.

We do have a DYI on re-crowning your barrel in our Library: http://www.network54.com/Realm/CFTech/BioCrown.htm

You need to remember that members that respond to questions, feel that they have good advice to help fellow members, and if they feel that they can add to your question's answer.

I, myself, do not feel comfortable, recommending that someone do something, that if not done properly, can cause a poorer result than they started with ! I would, and have re-crowned MY OWN barrels, when I had an accuracy problem. But the first time I did this, I had to do it several times before I had success.

So, in short, we try to help each other the best that we can, and depending on the number of members reading your post, that feel that they can help with your problem, will respond.

We all have different levels of skills and knowledge, and we are all still learning here, every day.

I hope this helps answer your question. And I hope to see your to see your post on barrel crowning if you decide to do this yourself. Remember we are one big airgun family here, and try to help one another, as we can.

Bill

[haertig]

Thank you everyone for responding, and for not being offended.  That's the last thing I wanted to do, but I know what I asked had the potential to irritate some people.  I didn't mean it that way - I just didn't want to waste your time, and frustrate myself, by asking questions that weren't really welcome.  I like to silently watch a forum for a while before posting so I can get a feel for what is acceptable posting behavior.  Honestly, I just couldn't quite tell on this forum, so I had to ask.

I understand the hesitation to recommend I try a chop job on my barrel to recrown it when you have no idea of my skill level (it's low!)  I've run into the same situation myself, when giving forum advice on Linux OS computer problems, and then thinking, "Wow!  I shouldn't have mentioned how to use those powerful but dangerous commands.  This new user might now understand what he's doing and could destroy his computer accidentally!"  So I understand and respect the caution in responses.

I had read through many old posts on this forum, gone through the entire library, the shop, the mall, etc. prior to opening my mouth in my first post.  I am a researcher type of person and I didn't want to appear dumb (or at least not QUITE so dumb!)  That article in the library on recrowning I had read over and over, and that's what gave me the confidence to try it myself.  I did it first on my other new airgun (Crosman 1377 pistol).  That was almost a practice run for the Gamo recrowning - the original Crosman crown was far far worse than the Gamo however.  I figured Crosman parts are readily available, and if I destroyed the barrel, then it would only cost about $10 to buy a new one.  Hence, a good gun to practice recrowning on.  I have no idea (yet!) if Gamo parts are as readily available or as inexpensive.

Thank you all for making me feel more at ease asking questions here.  I realize that not every newbie question has an answer, and many are of the "what in the hell is this moron contemplating?!" variety.  So nobody should expect a response to every post.  I just wanted to make sure I wasn't annoying people and the lack of many responses was a silent and gracious way of telling me to buzz off.

One more note on myself:  I only paid $99 for the Gamo Shadow (zero if you count my Cabela's points that I paid for it with).  So I am hesitant to put a lot of money into gunsmith work on it.  If the "proper" way to do something would cost me, say $75, and the 95% as good DIY method would only cost $10, then I'll go for the cheaper attempt usually (because the gun was so cheap I don't figure I lost much if I screw it up).  However, many here at GTA convinced me that I needed to pay $32 for this shiny new gold trigger rather than attempt some kind of trigger hack myself, so I purchased that.

Thanks!

[edit]SPELLING - probably a lot more errors if I look closely enough - I should just give it up![/edit]