Air Ballet review

[HATE TANK]

After shooting my 80 cm. air ballet, I have found one very disturbing problem that has cost me a recent tournament. First let me say the gun is the most comfortable,accurate and powerful out of the box pneumatic I have shot. I shoot alot of freshwater tournaments and will shoot my gun over 200 times in some tourneys. I have noticed that the shafts slide gets stuck on the butt end of the shaft after about 50 shots. If you look at the end of the slide it is slightly cone shaped and eventually gets wedged on so you have to hammer it off. Being in a hurry I ground the cone part off to the flat and it held thru one tourney. I do have a question for the pros out there though. Does anybody know where I can get a riffe type slide ring for a 6.5mm shaft. All my other pneumatics have been converted over to these for streamline purposes and they have held up great. Also, at the end of the most recent tournament i noticed alot of air bubbles coming out of the front of the gun, Is there an oring in the front that went out?

 

[Don Paul]

I have a Airbalete but have only shot it 25 times at 30 bar, I'm using a 7mm shaft but I disconnected the line release spring as I felt it too stiff.
I'll keep a eye on the Microspeed slider.Sorry I don't know if Riffe has a 6.75mm
slider in his catalog.
Cheers, Don Paul

 

[HATE TANK]

Don,keep me posted on your findings. I ordered two more shafts with the "microspeed slider". I just used one and same thing happened to me,very frustrating. Unlike your gun mine looks 20 years old already from all the rocks and murky freshwater structures. Everything else about the gun is great.I tried a last minute 7mm slide and got it stuck because it was too big. That is my mcguiver or should I say Mcgruber fix when im in tournament mode and in a hurry.

 

[tromic]

After shooting my 80 cm. air ballet, I have found one very disturbing problem that has cost me a recent tournament. First let me say the gun is the most comfortable,accurate and powerful out of the box pneumatic I have shot. I shoot alot of freshwater tournaments and will shoot my gun over 200 times in some tourneys. I have noticed that the shafts slide gets stuck on the butt end of the shaft after about 50 shots. If you look at the end of the slide it is slightly cone shaped and eventually gets wedged on so you have to hammer it off. Being in a hurry I ground the cone part off to the flat and it held thru one tourney. I do have a question for the pros out there though. Does anybody know where I can get a riffe type slide ring for a 6.5mm shaft. All my other pneumatics have been converted over to these for streamline purposes and they have held up great. Also, at the end of the most recent tournament i noticed alot of air bubbles coming out of the front of the gun, Is there an oring in the front that went out?

I think the problem is because the microspeed slider is too much heavy. It is the main disandvatage of it.
Regarding buubles, you should check O-rings on the piston and the piston.

 

[Don Paul]

That is my mcguiver or should I say Mcgruber fix when im in tournament mode and in a hurry.Quote;Hate Tank

Well at least no one can fault Omer on that one.
This jammed slide ring issue go's back a long way in pneumatic gun history.
I remember my old dive partner frantically pounding on the jammed slide ring on the long Scuba pro 135 cm gun with knife during a sea trial, as big yellowtail circled him on the surface. This was 1983...some things never change. I used a 5/16 17/4 heat treated slide ring then produced by the late Charlie Sturgill in 5/16 ID. I then ''Swiss cheese'd'' it by drilling several 1/8 '' holes through it to cut the wt in half on the gun I used in 1982. I abandoned slide rings except for slip tips in favor of a new method later that year. Hydro braking at the slide ring/ spear tail interfaces can help to some degree.
Properly chosen materiel's with certified heat treatment is a must on highly stressed bits.
Cheers, Don Paul

 

[popgun pete]

The line slide jamming can be minimized by matching the incline on the face of the stop diameter on the spear tail exactly to the conical shape in the rear of the line slide. Either that or you have a (90 degree) flat surface to flat surface contact between both elements, so you have to machine off the rear of the microspeed line slide to give it a flat rear face and similarly ensure that the spear tail stop face is also a ninety degree step. On my "Black Sea" gun, which has an extremely powerful shot, the step height is only 0.5 millimetre on the tail, so the impacts are over a small surface area and the slide ring eventually jams as it hammers onto the shaft tail. How I get it free is I carry a short length of aluminum tube in my glove to slip over the jammed shaft tail, it is a close fit on the tail, and I hammer that with my dive knife butt and that knocks the ring (or slider) free. Reversing the stop ring to offer the other face can provide a fix in the short term. It is the very small contact area that causes the problem as the repeated impacts cold work the metal. Too close a fit on the shaft (to provide maximum metal contact at the step) and the line slide jams on the shaft length with the slightest bit of grit. Often tiny bits of grit are also what jams the line slide as well when it slams into the shaft stop on the spear tail. I still have occasional jams even with a shock spring interposed between the slider and the stop ring, the price of using a very powerful gun.