TargetTalk

Has anyone else seen this?

I had a shooter leave his 888 cocked (no gas cylinder) in his rifle case in a car over a hot weekend (low 100's outside temps ... who knows what in the car).

His rifle then was spitting out pellets at a really low velocity at practice.

Tore it down and the hammer spring was 7.1mm in length.
Received a new 888 yesterday, so I tore it down .. hammer spring was 7.4mm

I stretched the short one out to 7.6mm and the gun now shoots just fine.

The weaker the spring the shorter the valve stays open. Putting a stronger spring can increase velocity to an extent. Not good to leave it cocked, though you need to, to have the bolt open (no safety on valiant)

After I blew a lower seal in an 888 in early March this year, I was told not to take the cylinders out without releasing the trigger.

Our steps to put a gun away are now:
1) Muzzle Up - cock & fire in safe direction
2) Muzzle Up - remove cylinder
3) Place in case & close case (Our cases are painted so we know where the muzzle is even closed.

The VERY FIRST thing we do upon opening the case is to open the action.

So basically we store the guns in the cases "fired" & no cylinders

Yeah, so you store them uncocked. The valiants are stored cocked atleast i think they are lol, i'm not sure what effect that has on the spring or if it even uses a hammer spring. But it may weaken it, and cause the gun to loose velocity.

If velocity remains constant, it shouldnt be a big factor.

I like how clean the pellet holes are though at 900 fps :)