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Alstone · Moderator & Site Supporter

I bought a new DB4 Custon .177 springer air rifle today, so I thought I would post my first impressions.

Picked up the gun at lunchtime got home just after, first impressions are that it is a very nice looking gun, the finish and quality of the stock is worth the money alone, as for the rest of the gun it is variable, the barrel is fine with a good crown, the reciever is clean no scratches it also as scope groves cut into the top, which is an improvement over the old model, the rear sight is excellent one of the best iron sights I have seen on cheap rifle, in fact I was looking at a Webley Xocet this morning and the quality on it was rubbish, (Painted steel safety, painted die cast trigger guard, bent piece of tin for a rear sight and plastic fittings) the front sight was quite good but was spoilt by having machine markes on it, It also came with a nice soft rubber butt plate.

So I gave it a good clean, loaded it up with Hobbys and shot off a few rounds at a 20m target, it was outputting 695fps and grouping 20mm with a few flyers, I kept this up for about an hour and shot about 150 pellets, the trigger which was very heavy and gritty to pull didn't inprove nor did the effort required to cock the gun. the only thing that suprised me was the good grouping I was getting with Iron sights. I did try a scope but this rifle has a good kick on it, and I couldn't get the scope to settle down, then it wacked me in the eye so it came off.

After the shooting session I decided to do something about the gritty trigger and heavy cocking, thanks to Rene's diagram link and CharlieDa Tuna I stripped it down completely, washed it out with petrol and polished out the reciver tube, re-lubed the spring and piston, and gave it a trigger job, and re-assembled it all.

By now it was dark so I put the garden lights on set up the target, I shot two or three pellets into the ground to clear it out, then had a go at the target, the group's were still about 20mm at 20m the fps had gone up to between 741 to 747 with an average of 744fps, which is ideal for me, the cocking is very smooth now and the trigger is still heavy but nice and smooth, I think this will improve in time.

All in all I think a good day.

Al

broommaster2000 · Moderator

Congrats, seems you got lucky. Mr. Green

AirGunEric · Site Admin

Great that you got what you wanted out of it. For the price- it doesn't sound like you could have found any better!

What is with the 'D' on the model number you posted? Is this the 4th variation of the gun or something? If so, wouldn't that make is a B4(D)? -I'm just trying to figure out these model designations...

Alstone · Moderator & Site Supporter

Hi Eric
The "D" stands for Deluxe, but as for the numbers I don't know, to me the B3-1,B3-2, B4-1,and B4-2 all look the same, silmilar guns are made by "Shanghai air gun co", "BAM"and "Xisco" who all use the B3 angd B4 numbers.

It's all Chinese to me. Laughing

Al

The outdoorsman · Veteran Member

thats a nice looking gun Exclamation

StevieLaner7777 · Moderator

Looks like you've got yourself a nice Rifle for the cold winter months now Al, I've always preferred the Under-lever springers to the Break-barrel ones, So maybe if I do get bored of trying to find different ways of keeping my CO2 warm I may bite the bullet and get one myself!

Sounds like the eye relief is a bit too close on the scope you used, Hope it didn't get you too good Al Hammer Head

Stevie

AirGunEric · Site Admin

BBGun Bob · Veteran Member

Hey Al I was wondering if it sounds like this when you shoot it ?Te He he

Alstone · Moderator & Site Supporter

As I mentioned earlier the fore sight was a bit rough with what I thought were machine markes on it, but now I have had time to look at it properly I find out that it is just a rough casting, so I removed it ground out all the bad parts and re blued it, very pleased with the results.

Al

2RCHA · Veteran Member

I'd put a real nice muzzlebrake on her Al,(unless you plan on using the irons), I'm going to get my B4's outfitted with brake's before next summer roll's around,btw if your B4 is anything like mine, you should try Crosman Premier SuperPoint's,,my .177/B4 could put them through one hole all day at 30 ft, there are some good mod's that you can do with this gun, I got a Quest 1000 spring in mine, and it's shooting close to 900fps w/SuperPoint's, and with Skenco type 1's it's shooting close to 1100fps Shocked

, Which in my opinion is Damned good for a B4,LOL,,Anyway's, I'm sure you're going to have lot's of fun with it, Andy.

Alstone · Moderator & Site Supporter

Hi Andy
I tried a scope on the B4 but had trouble getting the pellets in the breach, it needs high lift mounts.
I did try a moderator but there is not a lot of sound comes out of the muzzel anyway, I think most of the noise come from the thwack of the spring, plus it makes the gun to long.
I think I'll leave it as it is for now, the only job's I've got down to do are another go at the trigger (I'm not sure whether CharliDe Tuna does one for the B4 if so I might order one), and to replace the spring clip that holds the lever up, I want to make something a bit classier.

Al

broommaster2000 · Moderator

Alstone · Moderator & Site Supporter

Alstone · Moderator & Site Supporter

Still not happy with the trigger on the B4, the pull is still to high around 10lb but smooth, also the trigger was to far from the grip so that you could only reach it with your finger tip, and on top of that the trigger travel was to long. So something drastic had to be done about it.

The first thing was to alter the position of the trigger and move it nearer to the grip, the only way to achieve this was to cut off the old trigger and bolt a new one on to the stub, this moved the trigger back by 7/16”, first problem solved .

TRIGGERS

BEFORE

AFTER

The next thing was the amount of travel when pulling the trigger, the solution to this was to fit a trigger stop, this is just a plate with a slot in it so that it can be moved, but you have to be careful with this because the trigger “bear trap” needs to still operate safely , so I marked the position of the trigger at the point that the gun fired, then ground a lump off the trigger where marked (Photo 1), re-installed the trigger then cocked the rifle, then while still holding the cocking lever open, pull the trigger to take up the slack, then slide the stop plate up to the trigger and tighten the screws. When setting the trigger stop do not make the trigger pull to fine, because you have to put your fingers in the breach to load a pellet and you don’t want the gun going off accidentally, although there are safety devices to stop the breach closing on your fingers, it wouldn’t be good practice.

TRIGGER STOP

The last thing was the trigger pull required to fire the gun, not a lot you can do with this setup apart from polishing the shear and a good lube, also making sure the piston shear and the trigger shear are rubbing against each other all the way across and not just on one point.

After doing all this my finger can now reach the trigger comfortably, the travel is very much reduced and the lube and shear job have reduced the pull to just under 5lb.
All in all I’m very pleased with the results.

Al

broommaster2000 · Moderator

Seems good. Brilliant job on moving the trigger back. Mr. Green