10 replies to this topic

[Seprest]

Today I bought a used Longshot that appears to have had its AR removed, which saved me the trouble of drilling the AR out myself. However, the blasters internals were not correctly aligned, which I fixed, and there does not appear to be any damage caused by this. The blaster now fires farther than stock and primes beautifully without the bolt/clip lock in anymore. However, I have noticed that although the blaster shoots as far as my other modified blasters, it does NOT suction load darts, it also makes much more noise padded than my other padded plungers make, almost as much as when I dry fire it (not that I do often!). I decided to plug the barrel to check the air seal, which I had only quickly checked before I put the the blaster back together. Before reassembly the air seal was not 100% but did take a good 10 seconds for the plunger to come to rest while the barrel was plugged. Now it comes to rest MUCH quicker, taking only about 3 seconds. The air seems to be escaping around the back part of the bolt, the part which is black. The air release hole is still very much sealed, but the part that is actually in the plunger does not seem to be making a good seal with the surrounding parts. The bolt does not seem to be detachable from the plunger tube, so I can't tell if this moving part has its own O-ring around it, but moving it up and down in the plunger gives me the feeling that it does not.

Has anyone else had this problem with air escaping around the back part of the bolt inside the plunger, and have a way to improve the air seal? I feel that if the seal was better I could easily be getting 10ft+ more out of this blaster! The reason I bought a Longshot in the first place was to have it outrange my reverse-plungers!

If you would like to see pictures of the part I am talking about, I will gladly snap some.




EDIT response due to FNG post limit: @jackrabbit - All moving parts and parts that make contact with a moving part have silicone lubricant. I also used spray silicone lubricant to try and get lubricant behind the black plastic piece inside of the plunger tube. Also my other plasters and ones that I have modded do have a perfect seal when under the pressure of their springs, obviously I am talking about plugging the BOLT, not the FAUX BARREL!

Edited by Seprest, 18 May 2012 - 08:16 PM.

[jackrabbit]

Re-lube your Longshot with lithium grease or silicone grease, blasters like longshots and recons should not have a perfect seal unless you have an angel breech or brass breech, I highly doubt you had a good enough seal to plug the front and hold back air, but that is just me.

[Jilliop]

It could potentially be that your O-ring is shearing, although I have never heard of complaints from that, or that your lube is deteriorating the O-ring. Make sure your lube is rubber-friendly, and yes, I understand that O-rings are not technically rubber, but can't be too safe. It could also be just general wear n tear, however that's unlikely. Not that my other suggestions are somehow more viable, but still.

[mak]

Correct me if I'm wrong,but I am pretty sure clip fed blasters don't vacuum load.

[thefreelongshot]

I agree with mak cliped blasters don't vacuum load. Try adding e-tape to the plunger head and lubing it if this does not work i don't know what to tell you.

Edited by thefreelongshot, 18 May 2012 - 09:23 PM.

[spencerak]

Did you make sure the hole is plugged?

[Hammy]

On the sliding breech at the black piece that sticks out of the plunger tube, there is an o-ring inside the plunger tube
which seals the plunger tube when the breech is in the fully forward position.




Maybe this part has some grit on it so that the seal is not perfect when the breech is in the forward position.

Because it is all internal, unless you cut the breech at the black tube, as illustrated in a brass breech mod guide,
then I am not so sure how you could get to this o-ring to clean and relube it.

Edited by Hammy, 18 May 2012 - 09:59 PM.

[Blue]

Clip blasters can vacuum load if you load a single dart and then cock it back and forth. That pic posted... I made foam discs that I had punched out with CPVC (this was for a CPVC barrel LS) and put them there to help seal the barrel. For the actual O-ring you want to put teflon (or electrical, although electrical can unravel and smear all over the inside of the tube) tape underneath the O-ring until action is smooth but still sealing well. Don't worry about making a perfect seal, it's much more important to have a GOOD seal that doesn't restrict the plunger movement. The back plate is not your issue; if the entire chamber was sealed the firing would create back pressure pulling the plunger head in the wrong direction. Venting on the opposite side is necessary.

[Banshee]

It kind of sounds like the bolt isn't being returned completely forward. That means the plunger will hit the part you showed in the picture harder than normal, and because that piece isn't pushed all the way forward for the o-ring to seal, air escapes around it giving you poor performance and virtually no air seal. And because you took all the locking mechanisms out, you don't even have to return the bolt to the forward position to fire. You don't have to have the bar very far back at all to have this problem, maybe 1/8" to a few millimeters. You might not even notice it.

That's just a theory, but if that is whats happening, you need to open up the gun and manually operate it and see whats not working perfectly. Usually its just a misaligned part inside the gun.

[Seprest]

Thank you for the picture, Hammy.  Indeed, the bolt does leak air very fast if the bolt is not securely fashioned.  Banshee, it may very well be that the bolt is not locked forward, despite outwardly appearing to be in the forwardmost position.  I'll look into putting back in some locks.  The blaster still gets identical ranges to my Longstrike with its AR removed and re-lubricated internals, which is about 50ft parallel to ground.  Was it just a myth perhaps that basic mods on a Longshot get 60ft+ ranges because of its huge plunger tube, stronger spring, and direct plunger setup?  Anyhow I will open up the blaster tomorrow and check the air seal when I push the bolt forward with the priming handle.




Thank you all for the helpful suggestions.

Edited by Seprest, 19 May 2012 - 08:14 PM.

[Banshee]

Thank you for the picture, Hammy.  Indeed, the bolt does leak air very fast if the bolt is not securely fashioned.  Banshee, it may very well be that the bolt is not locked forward, despite outwardly appearing to be in the forwardmost position.  I'll look into putting back in some locks.  The blaster still gets identical ranges to my Longstrike with its AR removed and re-lubricated internals, which is about 50ft parallel to ground.  Was it just a myth perhaps that basic mods on a Longshot get 60ft+ ranges because of its huge plunger tube, stronger spring, and direct plunger setup?  Anyhow I will open up the blaster tomorrow and check the air seal when I push the bolt forward with the priming handle.




Thank you all for the helpful suggestions.

Yeah, I would say 60 feet is probably accurate. I don't know how strong your spring is, but when I add a NF spring with the stock spring along with basic mods, I get around 70-75 feet. But that's with a good NF spring, like one of the older ones. The new ones are almost useless because they're so weak.