Advice with Air Arms HFT 500

Novioman

Novioman

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A good friend shoots precision target. He recently purchased a brand new HFT 500, lovely rifle, unregulated.
He’s shooting indoors at 25 metres. He continually finds he will shoot 9 bulls with 1 shot in the 9 ring. This is driving him mad as he doesn’t think it’s him, but is the rifle.
Have any other owners of the 500 found similar.
He’s considering sending the rifle to ratworks for a regulator to be fitted. Good or bad idea.
He would appreciate any advice, and so would I as he keeps asking about it.😂
 
He has put it through a chrono I think, not sure if he weighs his pellets though. But all ideas very welcome. 😆
 
Don't waste your money getting a reg in it, it will not solve this issue.

Almost every shooter has this issue, and we all blame everything but us - and it might be right, but as there are so many variables other than the gun it just needs to be just one of those to vary by a mm to get a 9 instead of a 10 :oops:

Easy things that can cost you a point:

gun
scope
cant
loose stock fit
pellets
tiny breath of air in the range
laps in concentration
too much caffeine
heat skips a beat
parallax error
shot pulled
trigger creep

bla, bla, bla ............

The list goes on and you can take virtually any one of those and sub divide it again - so take pellets for example, were they weighed, washed, lubed, sized or even the best one for the gun?? Was there any inconsistency in their COG causing the tiniest of wobble or instability?

The number of 250/250 and 25X cards I've seen in real life in my entire life is ....................... ZERO, I've only ever seen one on the internet, so I would not let him beat himself up about it ;)
 
My advice.
Lighten the trigger
Fit a pinch post.
The trigger on an HFT500 is set very heavy from new, I'll bet that is the issue, he is pulling the gun off target.

There are 3x screws on the trigger
The most forward one controls the amount of pull on the trigger, screw it out half a turn at a time to lighten the trigger
The other 2x screws are for the first & 2nd stage.
These normally don't need adjusting.

There is a 4mm or 5mm thread behind the trigger
Can't remember which.
Get a small piece of tube & the correct size bolt & fit it into the thread behind the trigger.
When shooting, place your thumb on the tube & finger on the trigger & just gently squeeze.
It will be night & day different.
 
Best way I've found when testing the gun is to clamp the action to a bench and shoot a full air cylinder worth with weighed and most importantly sized pellets (for my gun!!) It'll prove if the gun is miss behaving , or not. Chasing the odd flyer can be a royal pain, but eliminating variables one by one is the only way. Also only make one alteration at a time to see if that helps or not
 
I have sized pellets that unsized went perfectly through my HFT 500 and HW100. In both cases sizing made things worse.

What sizer are you using Mark and does it end up squeezing the skirt down in size as well as the head?

With my HFT 500 I was getting good scores, averages in high 98 to 99 ex 100 on NSRA 10 bull targets to NSRA rules and then I wasn't. My scores started to drop. I was talking to a chap yesterday and he mentioned someone he knew was going through the same thing.

My rifle is back with Air Arms now.
 
Andy from Sandy said:
I have sized pellets that unsized went perfectly through my HFT 500 and HW100. In both cases sizing made things worse.

What sizer are you using Mark and does it end up squeezing the skirt down in size as well as the head?

With my HFT 500 I was getting good scores, averages in high 98 to 99 ex 100 on NSRA 10 bull targets to NSRA rules and then I wasn't. My scores started to drop. I was talking to a chap yesterday and he mentioned someone he knew was going through the same thing.

My rifle is back with Air Arms now.
Click to expand...
The sizer I use is made by a guy called Neil Gennard, off Facebook, it's a simple plunger through a die, I did a serious amount of testing to get an "ultimate" set up for one of my guns, my avatar is half a dozen or so shots at 25 yards, bipod, shoulder and diopters. Pellets are QYS Streamlined 9.56gr, 4.50, my sizer is claimed to be 4.51. But like pellet weights, sizes are nominal! Likewise the sizer , I wouldnt claim it to actually be 4.51... it's just what works for me 😁👍
 
jesim1 said:
loose stock fit
Click to expand...
regarding the stock fit on the HFT500, this one seems to be a bit more nuanced than just "loose".

@Tillygti6 has some expertise on reshaping the stock (though not sure if he ever did a write up on it) - but the long and short of it is that because there's only a single bolt holding the action into the stock near the pressure gauge, and AA fits some foam pads between the air cylinder and the stock towards the front, it's possible to tighten the stock and cause the air cylinder to deflect upwards, causing the little rubber nubbin to contact the barrel - upsetting the floating nature of the barrel.

Mark Palmer said:
The sizer I use is made by a guy called Neil Gennard,
Click to expand...
Does he still make these? I've seen pictures of them, and I like to look a little more than I do my GunTuff sizers!
 
Bazzatron said:
it's possible to tighten the stock and cause the air cylinder to deflect upwards, causing the little rubber nubbin to contact the barrel - upsetting the floating nature of the barrel.
Click to expand...
I have mentioned this sometime ago when I first bought my rifle. There is some out there that can't fully understand what's going on as they either rotated the buffer stop out of the way, shaved it down or removed it completely still leaving the cylinder under some deflected tension.

I have put a small pad by the screw toward the front and it has fixed the problem completely.

I have also put the action in a MPR FT stock and that doesn't deflect the cylinder.
 
after reading a lot when i got my 500 was to take the 2 rubber pads out between the stock and the cylinder this i did and i believe it is better but it could be in my head?
 
Bazzatron said:
regarding the stock fit on the HFT500, this one seems to be a bit more nuanced than just "loose".

@Tillygti6 has some expertise on reshaping the stock (though not sure if he ever did a write up on it) - but the long and short of it is that because there's only a single bolt holding the action into the stock near the pressure gauge, and AA fits some foam pads between the air cylinder and the stock towards the front, it's possible to tighten the stock and cause the air cylinder to deflect upwards, causing the little rubber nubbin to contact the barrel - upsetting the floating nature of the barrel.


Does he still make these? I've seen pictures of them, and I like to look a little more than I do my GunTuff sizers!
Click to expand...
Search for him on FB and send him a message, that's what I did
 
Novioman said:
He continually finds he will shoot 9 bulls with 1 shot in the 9 ring. This is driving him mad as he doesn’t think it’s him,
Click to expand...
This has all the signs of a psychosomatic effect. If it were the gun, it would be more random. A statistical analysis of the distribution might be informative: for example, is the odd shot always in the same direction, or is it random? Is it at any point during the 10-shot string, or is it usually towards the end?
 
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