TargetTalk

Our club has 6 888s and 8 cylinders and it is turning out to be more work than I expected to keep them all running. I have yet to have all 6 and 8 working at the same time!

Newest wrinkle which I need some advice on:

Bypass plug in receiver missing. Seems at the last session a shooter got low on CO2 and proceeded to put 4 pellets down the barrel before he handed it over. Looked at it today and figured out the problem. Got them out but now it seems a small plug in the bottom of the receiver is missing so all gas just exits the bottom when fired.

Seems silly to send the whole gun off to just get a plug put back in. For those of you who have sent Daisy/Avanti stuff back to:

Daisy Service Dept
11823 Lime Kiln Rd
Neosho MO 64850

Did you ship the whole gun or just the action?

Lesson learned, instruct the kids, if you put a pellet in and nothing comes out, get an adult. Obvious but I never told them. And what is the best source for a .177 cleaning rod?

Thanks!!

Jud

For a poking rod or stuck pellet pulling rod, we have straightened out some heavy duty metal coat hangars. For pulling, file a crude "thread" into the end - like the ball pullers for muzzleloading have. Uncoated welding rod works fine too for the shorter actions. A "real" cleaning rod, like Outers 3 piece shouldn't be too hard to find; mail order from one of the shooting supply companies, maybe even Pilkington!?

With the poularity of the the .17 HMR and .17 H2 it's pretty easy to find .17 cal cleaning rods thses days.

I have a .17 MHR rifle, I found an Outers 1 piece coated cleaning rod at a local shop, they had 2 hanging on the wall and I bought both, one for me and one for the club.

I hate seeing coat hangers stuffed down the barrel of the air rifles.

WRC177 wrote:For a poking rod or stuck pellet pulling rod, we have straightened out some heavy duty metal coat hangars.

O.K. as a rifle shooter I'm about sick. Please don't do that, well, unless you're shooting against us. ADDITION Please go buy a 17 caliber rod.

One of our team brought back a cleaning kit from Camp Perry consisting of fishing line with a fixture for a cleaning patch on it. The fishing line makes a good cleaning setup (but is of course useless for removing stuck pellets).

Mike

Fishing line will NOT remove a stuck pellet!
Unless the critter you are fishing for is lots tougher than the standard perch or bluegill.

A carefully straightened piece of coat hangar (something readily available) is no more of a threat as is a cleaning rod - which by the way is also a straight piece of metal.

Cleaning kits - as opposed to poking or pulling rods - are so easy to make from string or weedwhacker line that they should be illegal.

We homemake lots of stuff, some of it more useful than storebought, and tons cheaper.

Durant,

I forgot to ask, How long have you guys had your 888's?

We've have 7 of them for about 2 years now. None have had to go back to Baisy. We've had a few blown o rings and some safety disks in the CO2 cylinders blow from over filling, but that's about it.

I'm amazed at how well they hold up.

Tilly, hats off to your humor! Sometimes things get a bit serious here. I have to admit I did make the straightest coat hanger poker I could. Put some super slippery silicone down the muzzle and after a bit knocked the 4 bloody things out. Yes, I sinned. But since this one rifle had its bypass plug still intact and I needed the rifle, I decided it was better to get a novice shooter going than having the gun & kid sit idle. Please forgive me!

Good point the 17HMR should cause .177 to be in the stores. I had figured mail order only. I'll have a look. The bummer is that tiny bypass plug that blew and is lost on the second rifle. We're talking a $.05 part here. Have any of you had this happen? I was thinking of making a batch of epoxy and filling the hole but that is almost worse than using a coat hanger to poke out stuck pellets. I emailed Daisy for a parts list so I could order the little bugger. Anyone have the parts list and could give me the part number so I can save some time?

TWP, all 6 of our guns were collected one here, two there from prior clubs/individuals so it is unclear how much use or abuse they have seen. Some of them the receiver cover has Avanti 853 on it as that part is common between the two guns. That suggests to me two of mine are old.

I think my error was not having 100% fill on all the cylinders on a 90 degree day out in the Texas sun. As a result I think we lost some efficiency of CO2 and when I thought all guns were gassed and could be left to less experienced instructors...problems occurred. Shame on me. But with 12 kids on the line shooting 10m AR, Pistol and 5m BB guns I can't watch everything. Next time I will have a full charge and give the kids & parents a little lesson on what to do if a pellet does not exit.

Ok, now you guys can shoot me down in flames. I deserve it.

Jud

We have a fridge/freezer in the range. Chill the tanks down in the freezer before filling them. That's probably how we occasionally over fill them.

Still after 2 years of being shot 2 nights a week they are holding up very well.

I don't work with the 888's much, I work mostly with the precision kids and the P70 Jr's.

durant7 wrote:Our club has 6 888s and 8 cylinders and it is turning out to be more work than I expected to keep them all running. I have yet to have all 6 and 8 working at the same time!

(snip)

Lesson learned, instruct the kids, if you put a pellet in and nothing comes out, get an adult. Obvious but I never told them. And what is the best source for a .177 cleaning rod?

Thanks!!

Jud

Try a plain brazing rod from a local welding store. It's solid brass (no flux) and comes in 3' lengths. We bend a loop in one end and keep it hanging by the gun safe.


Jay V
IL

Our club uses 1/8" wooden dowel rods from the local hardware store. Usually run around 25 cents each. The rods are also great for the Daisy 499 BB Gun to make sure that each BB is seated the same. Good Luck

[/quote]

One of our team brought back a cleaning kit from Camp Perry consisting of fishing line with a fixture for a cleaning patch on it. The fishing line makes a good cleaning setup (but is of course useless for removing stuck pellets).

Mike[/quote]

That system works well in my opinion. The Walther LG Jrs come with that type of cleaning kit.

Nothing fancy - just heavy test fishing line (thicker line makes it easier to feed down the barrel), tied together at the ends, that you push down the barrel and use to pull a patch back through.


Jay V
IL

In this day and time, you're waisting your time with CO 2. It's nothing but a pain in the @&*

Air is the way to go. If Daisy would make the 888 in Air, they'd sell more rifles than they could keep up with and then the only thing people would complaign about would be that "hunk a junk" the 499.

Roy McClain
Spalding County Shooting Sports

p.s. you have to by twice as many 499 as you need, to keep them running... one in the shop, and one in the hands of the shooter.