GAMO Rifle Question....Are Your Ears Burnin', Hogdogs?

[Shane Tuttle]

I've been breaking the barrel open on my GAMO Viper air rifle in order to assure it's unloaded every time I handle it. Obviously, it cocks the spring when doing so. Here are my questions:

Should I make it a habit to dry fire to relieve the spring tension when storing? If so, is there harm in doing this on an air rilfe of this type? Is there a "dummy round" of some type that's needed? I can't think of anything that can be used/made since it's air pressure driving the projectile, not a firing pin starting the chain reaction.

Or should I leave it alone and store it in a "cocked" state and be done with it? I always have the safety engaged but didn't know if there's long term ill effects of leaving it in this state. I'm familiar with today's technology in springs in general regarding magazines and such being left loaded or unloaded. My belief is it doesn't harm springs. However, I don't know if this still applies to air rifles since the springs perform a different duty.

What's your input?

 

[srt 10 jimbo]

Mines not a Gammo but an RWS. I never leave it cocked.thats alot of pressure just sitting their .cant be good for the gun.

 

[Alaskee]

Weak spring

If you leave the spring cocked for a long period of time, it will lose its power over time. It's also not good to release the spring on an empty chamber.
When you initially start to cock the gun, and you feel spring pressure that tells you the spring isn't loaded and latched on the sear, couldn't you just let off of it before the sear engages and it's fully cocked? Even if a pellet is chambered in that condition, (which would be hard to do) the spring isn't loaded and nothing can happen.

 

[darkgael]

Dry firing

Don't leave it cocked. Don't dry fire it without something in the gun. Buy some felt cleaning pellets. Put two in the gun when you are done with it and shoot them. They will wipe the barrel and allow release of the spring piston without damage.
Pete

 

[hogdogs]

Gamo claims it is okay to occasionally dry fire to release the spring. I prefer not to but have a couple times... What I prefer to do is load a pellet when verifying empty. Shoot that pellet out and put away rifle. But you do not have to cock it to check chamber. Using the heel of your palm while holding gun in front of trigger group and level or so, smack the barrel and it will drop open just far enuff to check the breech or look down the barrel...
Brent

 

[Evan Thomas]

Gamo claims it is okay to occasionally dry fire to release the spring.

Really? Huh. I'd always heard you should never, ever dry fire a springer. And that's what the manual for my R7 says.

Is there a difference in how the Gamo is built, I wonder?

I either use a couple of the felt cleaning pellets to "decock," or fire a regular pellet into a phone book...

 

[hogdogs]

Vanya, I cannot at this time locate my gamo manual to scan it...
But let me ask you... How many grains are those felts? Not enuff to act like a pellet. I also will tell you the life of a high power (1,000fps) is slightly reduced using 8 grainer regular pellets. They really were designed for the 11+ "magnum" pellets. I was shocked to see my gamo manual say that any dry fire was acceptable. It did say "occasional" IIRC. But as I also said dry fire is never required as you can simply put a lead pellet and shoot a tree. I also will tell you tat oil on a felt patch is SUPER BAD for these rifles. Dieseling can cause blown seals at least and broken "pucks" and barrels at worst.
Brent

 

[Evan Thomas]

Hogdogs, I can easily believe that something that puts out 1,000fps would want a pretty beefy pellet, and no felt. Less of an issue with the R7, of course, which at 700 fps is more of a target/plinking gun than a lean mean hunting machine ... Starlings, rats, and bunnies are no problem, but squirrels are TOUGH.

Yep. Definitely no oil on the felt pellets... actually, I ran out of the ones that came with the cleaning kit and never bothered to get more. No trees in the house, so the phone book gets to looking sorta worm-eaten... but for those of us who are stuck in the city most of the time, being able to shoot in the basement is one of the best things about an air rifle -- a great way to relax at the end of the day.

 

[Art Eatman]

If a spring is in a cocked condition, how does it lose strength? Anybody reckon it's unwise to park a car for a month or a year, because the valve springs will lose strength? In any parked car's engine, some of those valve springs are gonna be fully compressed. How is it that they can take a high-rpm race car from a museum after years of storage and fire it up and it runs just fine?

 

[BillC.]

DO NOT dry fire spring piston airguns

Bad for the piston seal, bad for the spring. felt pellets no good either, not even 5 or 6 of them at a time, they stink for cleaning too.

Decock the rifle by HOLDING the barrel(with the barrel broke open)release the safety,pull the trigger and SLOWEY lower the barrel against the spring pressure. HOLD the barrel the entire time or risk breaking the stock if the barrel snaps shut.

Airguns dont need to be cleaned untill accuracy falls off, they dont lead the barrels. Only a pull through with non firearm solvent(simple green,409 ect.) and a patch to remove greasy gunk. NO oil,no solvents in the action or barrel bad for seals. Outside ok to prevent rust.

Dry firing is worse for the action then leaving the spring cocked. All new springs take a set, once it happens they tend to stay the same. Crony testing of spring guns has shown not much difference after extended cocking times (think weeks). The real danger is that a rifle left cocked will be dry fired at some point.

 

[hogdogs]

Since there seems to be so many Gamo experts with more info than me... I will leave this discussion to them. What do I know? I only have around 10,000 pellets thru my GAMOs... I am also stupid for leaving a charged cylinder for a few weeks at a time and then bringing down squirrels...
I am also a nit wit for thinking that the grey residue upon cleaning my bore after only a hundred rounds (while I still had accuracy) was lead...
How in the flip is a tight bore and soft lead leaving at near .22lr velocity in a rifled bore not leading? I guess I should toss this particular rifle in the trash for cutting lead off the pellets...
BillC, You may want to look at some of my Gamo exploits before calling poo-poo on my shoe!

Batteries are charging for the digi..
I set up an old bird bath out in the yard "a far piece" from the house to put feed into to sucker some squirrels in and fatten them up. Well I decided to see if me and the gamo were still up to the challenge so I set this dinky 5.5oz apple juice can on the rim and walked back to get the rifle out of the house... Sat on the seat of the mower and sighted in. Instead of having my target just above the sight I set the sight right in the middle of the can. Popped the trigger and hit the can first shot... Next was to see if the gamo was still up to snuff in the power dept. I thought it might be weak as I had a noticeable lag from shot to impact. Figured I might find just a dent but had a thru and thru. I don't know if it is enuff to get a clean kill at that range but we will see. I strode (paced) the distance at 42 yards from muzzle to can. From POI I didn't need the full rise I put on the sight but it will work for a squirrel.
Here is the set up...

The damage...

The view from my position...

Camera zoomed in fully...

Yes I did have to wear my glasses for this
Brent

 

[hogdogs]

Popped another piece of snake food today. Man I need to find out the legality of shooting in this new place! This gamo only hunting is tough and not as fun... I have a lonely Ruger pistol and savage rifle in dire need of a warm barrel! A little fondling is okay now and then but they are complaining about a tease job...

Brent

Another...

 

[Evan Thomas]

Bad to leave 'em cocked?

Well, it's an empirical question, after all, and here's the answer, posted on AirGunForum: you don't want to leave a springer cocked for an extended period (months), but leaving it for hours or a few days now and then won't hurt the spring -- much. In the following test, after leaving various rifles cocked for 6 months there was an average decrease in power of around 25%.

Looking at the following, it seems there is an issue with cocked time BUT spread 4000 hours over many weekends and thats 25% power loss for 19 years! Acceptable loss I think you'll agree!


OBJECTIVE: To determine the effect on a mainspring if airgun is left cocked for an extended period.

Preparation: Airgun was disassembled, thoroughly degreased, examined, lightly lubed with a mixture of Silicone oil & moly, then reassembled.

Procedure: After reassembly, airgun was fired 10 times to eliminate any excess lubricant which would contribute to dieseling.

Muzzle velocity recorded at each period in time was the average of 5 shots.

VO = prior to test;
V1 = gun left cocked for 1 week, 24 hrs per day (168 hrs);
V2 = gun left cocked for 2 weeks, 24 hrs/day (336 hrs);
V4= left cocked for 4 weeks (672 hrs);
V12 = left cocked for 12 weeks (2,016 hrs) and
V24 = 24 weeks (4,032 hrs).

At each period, gun uncocked and left uncocked for 72 hrs to allow the spring to regain as much as possible of its original power (memory effect).

The gun was cocked and uncocked a number of times to get the cylinder walls lubed and then 2 shots fired over a chrono.
The average of these 2 shots were taken.

All pellets have been sized and weighed then batched according to weight. All pellets used in this test were of uniform size and weight. All airguns were .177 cal and all velocity readings are in feet per second.

---------- V0-- V1- V2- V4- V12 V24 % Vel Decrease
HW30----- 655 648 630 592 521 481 26.6
HW50----- 705 682 678 640 565 513 27.2
HW35----- 715 698 689 652 576 533 25.5
R1-------- 975 965 944 891 789 739 24.2
Vulcan3--- 818 808 785 739 640 599 26.8
Webley
Hawk----- 655 638 630 589 519 476 27.3
BSA Merc- 695 679 668 630 552 511 26.5
FWB124---795 774 770 728 645 596 25.0

There were 2 spring failures (breakage) suffered by the Webley Hawk on weeks 4 and 12. None other suffered the same fate. I attribute spring failure to the absence of a spring guide in this make and model.

While the percentage reduction in m. velocities varied, reduction was generally around 25% of original m. velocity taken prior to commencement of test.

It should be noted that these percentage decreases are theoretically optimistic as the air gunner would more likely experience reductions in velocity greater than the statistics shown here. Dieseling, weight & size (diameter.) of pellets used, improper lubrication, temperature, conditions of usage etc. can all have an adverse impact on the life and power of a mainspring.

This test does show that leaving a spring airgun cocked, no matter for how long, will adversely affect the life and power of any mainspring.

Custom springs will be more resistant to decrease in power but the process will still occur over a longer period of time. I do not suggest that you change the ways you hunt but I point out, as Tom Gaylord has done very well, that be prepared to pay the price of higher maintenance.​

So, yeah, decock the thing before storing it... just fire a regular pellet into a phone book, tree, squirrel, juice can (I'm impressed, Hogdogs) or whatever's handy.

 

[hogdogs]

Vanya, thank you for acknowledging my redneck capacity... you have just one a one week primer course to shotgunning... buy your 1,200 rounds of field loads and suggested 00 buck and slugs and cash in... we can play with "bb" guns too!
Brent

 

[SHOOTER13]

My GAMO

Enjoyed the dialogue on the "leaving the mainspring cocked"...as I do like to leave it cocked n locked as a way to get the first shot off quickly when I see a squirrel, chipmunk, crow, etc in my backyard.

BTW... I own a GAMO Whisper with the noise supressor...and it's a great way to plink in the backyard without disturbing the neighbors, as well as a pest control device. Owned it almost a year now and got a sleeve ( 10 cans of 250 ) of ammo down range already!

 

[Evan Thomas]

Hogdogs, I'll take you up on that if I ever get down your way from the north woods... shooting with you would be a hoot and an education... er, edikashun!

 

[Shane Tuttle]

So, the material(s) to make springs in air rifles are different than the ones for magazines, engine valve springs or suspension springs?

I'm a believer in said springs to not form hysteresis by being stored in a compressed or relaxed state. But I don't know if this applies to air gun springs...

Hogdogs,

I have a hard time hitting a can at 42 FEET, more less trying to hit one at 42 YARDS...

 

[jammin1237]

had a gamo and would dry fire it before storage, still works great, most spring/air rifles have a seal at the end of the piston that would get damaged from over extending and slamming into the end of the piston chamber, the lack of back pressure from not having a pellet loaded would cause this....

if you take it apart for a complete cleaning you will find that on the gamo the end of the piston extends past the seal a little bit, this helps prevents damage as the end the piston will hit the end of the chamber first...

as far as the spring question goes, well, spring metal is cool stuff, it designed to operate from its undisturbed state, will you lose power the longer it stays compressed? yes... will you ruin it? no... will it come back? yes--the only way to really ruin a spring is to over heat it or let it rust to its death...

do a test... store it for a month in its cocked state, load a pellet, take a shot and crono the speed... then try it the other way around....

you will see a difference...........


cheers

 

[Mike U.]

Outstanding info in this thread! Many thanks to all who provided.

Brent,
On your Gamo/squirrel pic, is that an exit wound on the top of that tree rat's head?

 

[hogdogs]

On that squirrel it was the entrance wound with no exit as he looked at the ground and I was 35-40 yards away. I was shooting for a vitals hit and he looked down as I fired. Lucky shot....
Brent