Category: Industry Trends and News

Regulator thread damage

by Hajimoto

A few years ago I published some articles in the airgun forums and community that I have referred folks to read but recently found our that some of the forums have changed there format or layout which broke the links I had to the articles. I have decided to writ it here on Hajimoto Productions blog so it is easier to find and refer to. 

There has been a growing trend where paintball regulator and tank swapping techniques have made their way over to the HPA / PCP world and this should not be happening. Please let me explain, Co2 produces around 800 psi of pressure so a removable bottle with a ball or pin seal can be removed without much of an issue. That said, if you examine the internal and the regulator threads of a used paintball gun, you will witness substantial wear to the threads.

When you start hitting 1400PSI or higher there is an incredible amount of stress exerted on the regulator bonnet threads and the PCP threads. They begin to gall and wear excessively when being screwed in or out under pressure.

Anything over 1200 psi should have the ball seal or pin seal removed to prevent the bottle from being filled off the PCP and then screwed on which is why most of your higher operating pressure bottle guns (except FX which has a very well engineered close tolerance activation gap on the internal valve) cannot be filled off the PCP.

Case and point is the newly released Gauntlet 30 caliber which still uses a paintball style regulator but the output pressure or operating pressure is 2800psi. Paintball threads were never designed to deal with those pressures and be actively threaded on or off.

I know we have all seen videos or articles where the instructor shows how you loosen the bottle and shoot down the pressure remaining in the PCP you can easily remove the bottle. The initial loosening of the bottle causes the thread damage. If you do not believe me, look at the galling of the thread of some bottles that have been removed or installed under pressure, they will be thinner and razor-sharp as the metal is deformed during this process.

While the thought of carrying around another tank that can be swapped in if needed seems like a great idea, its not. Install and align your regulator and tank and leave them installed. Always refill the tank on the PCP and if you need to service anything, degas the PCP and then unscrew the regulator and tank.

Do yourself a solid, don't install or remove your bottles under pressure without understanding that you are reducing the service life of that part.

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JTS Airacuda’s are coming

by Hajimoto

The JTS Airacuda line of PCP's is coming to Hajimoto Productions in the spring of 2022.

The two rifles that JTS is starting off in the Airacuda series are the Standard and the Max. The standard is a non-regulated conventional stock design PCP with transfer port power and hammer preload power adjustments. The standard also comes with side lever cocking and two magazines.

The Max is a regulated version with a slick thumbhole stock, side lever cocking, the barrel end is ready for your favorite moderator and has hammer preload power adjustment.

As some of you may know already, I have already designed some enhancements and performance packages for the series. Hajimoto Productions will be offering these models with enhanced performance and calling them the Hemi 'Cuda Standard and Hemi 'Cuda Max. I will be offering multiple packages that range from minimal enhancement to full-blown packages that include optic and compressor just like I do for the Umarex Gauntlet line of PCP's.

If you want to follow along with the progression of these amazing air guns, please consider joining our Facebook Group called Airacuda Owners Group. There are already a lot of photos, shot results, and discoveries relating to these incredible feature-rich PCP's.

Coming soon!!! Be sure to keep an eye out!

Here is a sneak peek of the Airacuda series from our friends at DonnyFL. Izzy goes through the standard and the Max.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VPhTTTKJBaA
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Gauntlet .22 and barrel bore

by Hajimoto

I have said for years that the .22 Gauntlet barrel just does not do well with slugs. I say that from two different perspectives.


One is that the advantages of what slug offers a shooter in terms of ballistics which are not fully realized at 50 yards or less.


Two is just the geometry of a slug means it has more contact area with the bore which equates to more friction and in turn requires more energy to move that slug down the barrel. A stock .22 Gauntlet just does not generate enough power to effectively execute that energy requirement. That doesn't mean there won't be some that show that they shoot slugs out of their Gauntlet no problem but the question is, What is the performance data associated with that launch?


The Gauntlets relatively slow twist rate means that the spin stabilization that a slug depends on can only be achieved by a faster rate of travel down the bore thus spinning the slug faster. We have already established that the power Generation of a .22 Gauntlet is just not quite enough to get that done.


It has been my experience that the manufacturing process of .22 Gauntlet Barrel creates an acceptable pellet barrel. There a couple of reasons why.

One a pellet has a wasp waisted design that makes contact in two separate locations, the head and the skirt and therefore contact area is less and any deep grooves or anomalies imparted in the lead are not linear.


Two a pellet is drag stabilized so by just its design shape and geometry will right a lot of wrongs to a certain degree.

The leadin or chamber area of a Gauntlet .22 barrel is way too shallow in the chamber and also way to steep of a transition into the bore.


Here is a video that shows you exactly what I mean. That is the transfer port you see in the video. As you can see by the very shallow transition step which is literally at the transfer port's edge means you are deeply engaging the rifling before your projectile is even past the transfer port.


Part of what I do in my barrel tuning service is push that shallow leadin deeper into the bore and also stretch out the transition for a smooth loading action.


Now looking at that transition and leadin can you understand how there would be considerable lead deformation and filings produced during the chambering of slug into that bore?


So while there will be some that will show that they are getting great results with slugs, I ask to see some Sub MOA or even MOA groups of these slugs prints. I have tested over 30 .22 caliber slugs in the .22 Gauntlet and have yet to find one that delivers acceptable results at distances that take advantage of the energy retention of a slug.

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Umarex is making changes!

by Hajimoto

As most of you know I am a huge fan of the entry-level PCP known as the Umarex Gauntlet which comes in .177, .22 and .25 calibers. I have been pretty vocal to Umarex regarding the issues that Gauntlet has which could be addressed relatively easily and not really incur any additional machining/fabrication time to correct. The issue is that there are thousands of these parts that are already rolling off the line and an introduction into an already rolling production line will cause a huge ripple effect in delivering the product on time.

So as with most manufacturers, the product will go through generational upgrades and changes over time. Well, some of the comments that folks have made are finding their way to the generational evolution of the Gauntlet. Some of the main issues with the Gauntlet were:

  • Weak Barrel Support
  • Cracked Air Strippers
  • Difficulty Cocking

The poor barrel stiffness issue caused huge point of impact changes with only slight physical contact with the barrel shroud was made. The POI issue was solved by the community with things like barrel bands, woodblocks and other ingenious ways to support the barrel shroud. I offered a barrel band which introduced additional support from the bottle to the barrel shroud, Well Umarex picked up on this issue and quickly designed an integrated barrel shroud support system that attached to the bottle block. This barrel shroud support that is being included on the then new .25 Caliber, was promised to previous Gauntlet owners as a part that would eventually be available. It was also said that this new improvement would be included on any fractional generation .177/.22 caliber Gauntlets produced.

The Umarex Gauntlet barrel shroud support on the .25 worked well and folks were banging Umarex's doors down to be able to add this to their .177/.22 Gauntlets. The addition of the support required some drilling and mechanical fastening which could be installed improperly and cause additional issues that the manufacturer was not ready to accept. So, after a few 30 or parts were sold the support line was lit up with calls of installer error or difficulty installing the part. Umarex quickly stopped offering the part and offered the support as a service that they would perform and send the rifle back to the shooter. As you can imagine this additional shipping back and forth made the shipping companies a lot of money and put the airgun owner in a position where they were without their beloved Gauntlet for a week or more plus the shipping cost.

Well as I stated earlier, the factory is retrofitting existing stock with the upgrades like:

  • Barrel Shroud Support.
  • Beefier Air Stripper.
  • Better fitting O-ring on Air Stripper.
  • Stronger screws at the bottle block.

I know this because, in one of my recent airgun orders of 12 rifles, all the .22 caliber versions were upgraded. Look at the photos here and you will see that they are hard at work to improve the Gauntlet for the end-user and this is awesome to see. The images I provided are of a .22 caliber and show the improvements that were made to an existing stock rifle, the reason I know this is that the star washer imprints in the pressure tube are clearly visible. I also have erased the last digits of the serial number as this will be in the hands of a customer at some point and I do not what their serial number used by some unscrupulous characters that may exist out there ?
I will continue to report changes as I discover them and will try my best to field any questions you may have.
Be Safe!
Hajimoto

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