Hi All, Introduction, Xs78

[xs78 15]

Hi all, been reading through these pages for days, seems like a good crowd here but im not sure il fit in to good as I have an smk xs78, im hoping to change your mind on these rifles and I get accepted into the fold

 

after reading loads of threads with people being told how bad these rifles are and they would kill a bunny quicker by smashing it over the head with the stock lol (made me chuckle when I read that) I thought id chat about my xs78

 

Yes, smk rifles are definitely not the best out of the box but with a few hours work and about £100 in parts (remember these rifles only cost about 90 quid new) you can take it right into FAC territory

 

I spent less then £10 just on new seals the rest of the work I done myself

 

when I first got the rifle it was shooting between 7.1 and 8.6 ft/lb with jsb exact diabolo and grouping about the size of my fist at 28 yards with a flyer every few shots , not happy I went online and done some research

 

after days of reading I took the gun to work, polished and honed the internal, filed and polished any groves or sliding parts, everything came with machine burrs so was proper rough to begin with.

 

Smk use a stupid air filter on the valve to create a slow release system but it kills power, I removed that and replaced the valve oring with a better quality part and enlarged the ports by half mil

 

Every oring was useless from being inserted over burrs, each one had notches cut into them, quick trip to b&q and I replaced the rings on the barrel, probe and transfer port

the transfer port oring on smks are plastic and crush closing the port so I enlarged the port and used the smallest plumbers oring in the pack

 

pellet probe end port was enlarged to match jsb skirts

 

the barrel was chopped by 6 inches and one of the lads at work recrowned it on the lathe, while the barrel was off I run some compound and autosol through it to polish the internal barrel and rifling, the rifling even had burrs!!!!!

 

Oh and bulk fill, smks are useless without bulk fill you get a big difference in power if you use the little capsules and after tuning the shot count drops big time so bulk fill is a must have

 

and replaced the plastic barrel band for a metal one

 

Anyway, after putting the rifle back together she was firing 11 - 11.3 with jsb jumbo diabolos and grouping smaller then 5p size at 28 yards, about 20p at 40 sumthing yards, mmm now im happy

 

I did shim the hammer spring a few mm but that put the power upto a naughty number, so was quickly removed before I had a swat team busting through my windows lol

the americans have these running upto 20ft/lb!!

 

Next on the list is a 6 shot mag which iv got a mate cad designing and will hopefully get made at work (think I better take a bottle of scotch in for the machinist ) could of gone 7 pellet but my rifle has 26 full power shots per fill up, 4 magazines, 24 pellets, I know its time to fill up

 

I use this rifle every hunting trip and its never let me down, its the perfect rifle for those (like myself) who cant afford the lambo and Ferraris of the rifle world

 

Anyway, hope I haven't bored you and you still reading, I just wanted to set the record straight, yes, they are terrible rifles BUT they can be made bloody great with very little effort at all

[bigmac 97kt 13,814]

Nice read that ,and well done on the tune up

 

but ill stick to my scorpion and hw97 , and pro sports

 

and welcome to the mad house

 

you should fit right in bud

 

once again well done

 

atvbmac :thumbs:

[vizlauk 1,568]

Well done on getting to know your rifle, it doesn't matter how much a rifle costs, if it does what you want it to do, to many people get hung up on the price of things that they can't even shoot ! Tackle tarts, get out there and enjoy the sport mate

[Bigad 136]

Sounds like you put some time in to your rifle and if you can hit your target don't matter how much it costs would be good if you could put some pics up of the finished product too. You might even get people sending there rifles to you for a tune up

[xs78 15]

Many thanks for the warm welcome everyone

 

Forgot to add earlier, triggers, omg they are shockingly bad, clean and polished sears, heavier spring to make it pull instead of flop back and the trigger needs shimming to actually fit the housing it was designed for

Feels more like a 2 stage now instead of going off at random points through the pull

 

Sounds like you put some time in to your rifle and if you can hit your target don't matter how much it costs would be good if you could put some pics up of the finished product too. You might even get people sending there rifles to you for a tune up

 

Took around 8 hours to complete, if I wasn't getting rudely interrupted by my boss I could have done it in 6

Not much to show really, it still looks rough on the outside, needs blueing, its got a badly camo wrapped stock ( im a welder, engineer, mechanic, the list goes on but I cant wrap a bloody stock to save my life lol )

I recarved the ambidextrous stock to the shape of my palm

 

Would love to tune up others but just don't have the time, plus it means owing a favour to the machine shop boys, they are sick and twisted lads who you never want to owe a favour, im already sure im gona get my A-hole stretched when I ask them to machine my magazine

I'm up for offering advice on anything cheap and nasty tho

 

 

iv attached a pic, it hasn't got the bulk fill cap on, my daughter was using it in the garden, didn't want her wasting my buddy bottle

 

 

 

 

[moxy 617]

Welcome to the forum

[Bigad 136]

Many thanks for the warm welcome everyone

 

Forgot to add earlier, triggers, omg they are shockingly bad, clean and polished sears, heavier spring to make it pull instead of flop back and the trigger needs shimming to actually fit the housing it was designed for

Feels more like a 2 stage now instead of going off at random points through the pull

 

 

Sounds like you put some time in to your rifle and if you can hit your target don't matter how much it costs would be good if you could put some pics up of the finished product too. You might even get people sending there rifles to you for a tune up

Took around 8 hours to complete, if I wasn't getting rudely interrupted by my boss I could have done it in 6

Not much to show really, it still looks rough on the outside, needs blueing, its got a badly camo wrapped stock ( im a welder, engineer, mechanic, the list goes on but I cant wrap a bloody stock to save my life lol )

I recarved the ambidextrous stock to the shape of my palm

 

Would love to tune up others but just don't have the time, plus it means owing a favour to the machine shop boys, they are sick and twisted lads who you never want to owe a favour, im already sure im gona get my A-hole stretched when I ask them to machine my magazine

I'm up for offering advice on anything cheap and nasty tho

 

 

iv attached a pic, it hasn't got the bulk fill cap on, my daughter was using it in the garden, didn't want her wasting my buddy bottle

 

 

 

I know what you mean these bosses and day job is getting in the way of my shooting I work for a tyre wholesaler and want to swap some tyres round on my defender but so far managed to get one done in two weeks when if they just let me get on with it could have had the tyres on and the old alloys sold by now lol

[xs78 15]

 

Many thanks for the warm welcome everyone

 

Forgot to add earlier, triggers, omg they are shockingly bad, clean and polished sears, heavier spring to make it pull instead of flop back and the trigger needs shimming to actually fit the housing it was designed for

Feels more like a 2 stage now instead of going off at random points through the pull

 

Sounds like you put some time in to your rifle and if you can hit your target don't matter how much it costs would be good if you could put some pics up of the finished product too. You might even get people sending there rifles to you for a tune up

Took around 8 hours to complete, if I wasn't getting rudely interrupted by my boss I could have done it in 6

Not much to show really, it still looks rough on the outside, needs blueing, its got a badly camo wrapped stock ( im a welder, engineer, mechanic, the list goes on but I cant wrap a bloody stock to save my life lol )

I recarved the ambidextrous stock to the shape of my palm

 

Would love to tune up others but just don't have the time, plus it means owing a favour to the machine shop boys, they are sick and twisted lads who you never want to owe a favour, im already sure im gona get my A-hole stretched when I ask them to machine my magazine

I'm up for offering advice on anything cheap and nasty tho

 

 

iv attached a pic, it hasn't got the bulk fill cap on, my daughter was using it in the garden, didn't want her wasting my buddy bottle

 

 

 

I know what you mean these bosses and day job is getting in the way of my shooting I work for a tyre wholesaler and want to swap some tyres round on my defender but so far managed to get one done in two weeks when if they just let me get on with it could have had the tyres on and the old alloys sold by now lol

 

 

Lol, bosses eh, inconsiderate bunch of.......... (no offence to any bosses/managers out there ) and if mines reading, no I don't use overtime for my own personal gain, soon as your out that door im working my arse off, honest

[cocpops 19]

I got one out of a skip. True it needed a bolt handle and a got tune up. I got a silencer of Ebay and had a scope lying around. Turned out pretty good was doing just short of 12 on a warm day. I also done the degassing port which is really a must if you hunt.

My big problem was the Scottish winters,when it's cold it's dam cold and the power drop is considerable. I was going to switch to HPA but decided to sell it to a friend. He's out shooting pigeons n vermin regularly with it he loves it.

[secretagentmole 1,701]

Next is the AGS PGR 1/Logun Solo stok mod?

[mattybugeye 884]

Nice read mate and welcome you almost made me want one almost lol

My brother bought one to tune it but ended up giving up on it I think but sounds like yours is just the ticket

Well done on your tuning capabilities

[Nobby8126 96]

I bought one of these and got a bloke of the chineseairgunforum to mod it with bulk fill , silencer and machined all the ports out and got it to 11.5ft/lb get a good 40 shots per fill. Cracking little rifle, really accurate light and always in the van as a back up. never gets an airing as my r10mk2 is clinical and my tx200 mk2 always puts a smile on my face but my xs has accounted for a lot of pigeon and rabbit, Anyone slating them has never shot them after time spent on them. Good read mate and welcome.

[MarcFloyd 18]

It was my first rifle. I made full tuning and in a sunny day it was just under limit.

 

It was also very accurate up to about 30 yards. Very pleasant to shoot, really good fun.

 

Saying that, I read that these rifles are really hit and miss (pun intended) accuracy wise - depends which factory shift made your one, on which machine and if supervisor's girlfriend had "these days" night before.

Edited February 21, 2015 by MarcFloyd