The first thing that I had to do, was to remove the barreled action from the stock, so that I could access the set screw that locks the power control knob down. That's an easy task, because the barreled action is held into the stock with one allen head screw, located just ahead of the trigger guard.
Allen screw loosened, to allow the barreled action to be removed from stock.
With the stock removed, I was able to access the setscrew that is located directly below the power control knob. I had the power control set to maximum, and had it locked down so that I wouldn't accidentally move it while hunting. To turn the power down, I had to loosen the setscrew so the power knob would again turn freely.
Location of setscrew, with allen wrench inserted.
Once I had the setscrew loosened, I put the gun back into the stock, and got ready to do some chrony testing of the Baracuda Green, 12.6 grain tin pellets.
As a starting point, I set the power control to the half way point. I aired the gun up to 3000 psi, loaded a mag with ten Baracuda Greens, and started to shoot.
When hunting in an area where I must use non-lead pellets, I shoot the DYNAMIC PCP-2, 14.5 grain tin pellets in this gun. They give me 20 good shots, with an ES of 29 fps at 27 fpe, before I need to refill with air. Turning the power down, looking for about 20 fpe, I expected to pick up a few more shots, but as we'll see, when also switching to a lighter weight pellet, at the same time the power is turned down, doesn't necessarily mean an increase in shot count.
What actually happened, when shooting the lighter weight Baracuda Green pellets is, I was barely able to keep the original 20 shots with an ES of 31 fps. By the time I got to 25 shots, which was my original goal, the ES was 75 fps. Even though the power was turned down, shot count didn't improve with the lighter pellet, and ES had more than doubled by shot 25.
I have seen this phenomenon before, when testing light weight lead pellets in a gun, compared to it's performance when shooting heavier pellets. A heavier pellet seems to cause the gun to be more efficient in the use of air. I think it probably has something to do with a higher back pressure on the valve when heavier pellets are used.
Next, I again aired the gun up to 3000 psi, and switched to the heavier DYNAMIC PCP-2, tin pellets. I left the power adjuster at the previous half point setting, and started to chrony the DYNAMIC PCP-2 tin pellets.
Now this was more like what I was looking for. The 25 shot string started at 777 fps, peaked at 791 fps, and ended at 762 fps. The ES is 29 fps, and the fpe is 19.7 at the muzzle.
I wanted to try the BARACUDA GREEN tin pellets, as a possible alternative to the hard to get DYNAMIC PCP-2's, and they could certainly still be used, but seem to be a bit light in this gun.
I wonder if a regulated gun would maybe overcome this problem of inefficient use of air? I don't have a regulated gun, so until I get one at some point, this question will remain unanswered.
I still have about 10,000 PCP-2's left, and will continue to use them in the AA 410 carbine. I tried the Baracuda Green pellets in my FX Whisper, with similar results. I'll get that information posted at a later date.
I could certainly use the Baracudas in my AA 410 carbine, but would obviously need to refill more often, and that wasn't my goal. But, if at some point they are the only choice in a quality non-lead pellet, I'll certainly do whatever I need to, to keep on hunting in a lead free area.
I've again locked the power control down, except this time it's at the mid setting on the power scale. We are now ready to get after some California Ground Squirrels here in about four or five weeks.
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