Paintball

[dm6rocker]

Yeah, your pictures look a LOT better than mine. Those side profile shots really show off the two-tone gloss/dust finish. I kinda miss it now haha! It seems like it's gone to a good home though. Nice to hear you haven't encountered any pinching too! I'm glad Steve paid attention to how Dux users were solving that issue.

I'm glad she found a loving home, here's to many goggle shots!

[Manning]

Thanks! I certainly am enjoying it.

[short304]

Man, I wish I'd bought it now! LOL... the angle you took those pics at of the new feed really show it off. Although I haven't had a pinch in R015 for over a year (having put maybe 1500 rounds through her in that time), it'd be nice to have that little extra assurance w/ the new feed design. Amazing pics man!

[Manning]

Thanks!

I've played a few games now and have had a couple double feeds due to paint so small it was rolling through my .679 insert. For the same reason I have had one ball get in the insert far enough with the slide back to still allow another ball to get half in the breech. I was pumping normally but could feel something catch and looked down to see what was going on. Still no pinches though! If you pump it fast, the ramp on the snub just kicks that ball back up into the feed tube in one piece. In the heat of battle I've been pumping it back and letting go of the slide while the return spring slaps the slide home. I'm not sure if that's a bad thing or not, and I try to baby it when I can, but this thing is built solid. Here is the ramp on the snub for those who haven't seen it.


I picked up a Thunder Pig spring set and a Ranger power tube and cup seal from Bacci to mess around with tuning.




My goal is consistency, not trying to squeeze 50 shots out of a 12g, but that'd be cool too. I didn't have a ton of time today but figured I'd start with a new hammer spring and see what happened.

Temp outside was 50 degrees. I started with the stock hammer and valve springs, with the TPC in 3 full turns. First shot was 276 with the next 9 around 271-259. Shot the rest of that 12g and then swapped to a red (heavy) hammer spring. First shot was at 291 (sizzle!) and the next 9 were at 288-269. I was waiting about 15 seconds between shots. There was a much more noticeable kick and cloud of gas at the muzzle on these 10 shots and the efficiency was lower, which was to be expected.



I noticed that the red spring was a little longer than the stock CCI spring. My Dux has the longer slot where you can cock it without it being aired up. Pumping it hard can cause the valve to open, venting gas. I noticed after adding the red spring that I couldn't get the valve to do that. I pumped it pretty hard, but didn't Hercules the thing. Some more testing is needed here...

Anything above 225 is usable I think but if I can stay above 250 for 30 shots, I think I'll be very happy. I didn't record more than the first 10 shots because I'm using crossman 12gs and crappy field paint so I didn't think the numbers would be truly accurate. I'm going to pick up some Nelson Anarchy and a batch of Leland's to run some official tests with the spring configs and the different powertubes. I read CJ got great results from the ranger tube.

One other thing I noticed recently is that there appears to be a strip of tape or something like it on the inside of the slide where it contacts the frame. I assume it's to make it slide better and reduce wear. Do the original reduxes have this?

[short304]

Originally Posted by Manning

there appears to be a strip of tape or something like it on the inside of the slide where it contacts the frame. I assume it's to make it slide better and reduce wear. Do the original reduxes have this?

Mine doesn't, but I'd be willing to bet DM6 added it... I know that a lot of people do that on duckslides to remove/lessen side-to-side wiggle/slop in the slide. I've considering doing so on my original, but the little bit (and I mean little bit) of slop that it does have isn't noticeable enough... and is probably necessary to prevent unnecessary friction, so I haven't.

I say, if it's preventing additional ano rubbing (which is bound to happen w/ any pump) and isn't causing any additional pump stiffness/friction, keep it on!

[dm6rocker]

Originally Posted by short304

Mine doesn't, but I'd be willing to bet DM6 added it... I know that a lot of people do that on duckslides to remove/lessen side-to-side wiggle/slop in the slide. I've considering doing so on my original, but the little bit (and I mean little bit) of slop that it does have isn't noticeable enough... and is probably necessary to prevent unnecessary friction, so I haven't.

I say, if it's preventing additional ano rubbing (which is bound to happen w/ any pump) and isn't causing any additional pump stiffness/friction, keep it on!

Nope, wasn't me that added it. I didn't even know it was there! Since I got it straight from the factory I'd have to think it was something Steve added to prevent ano wear or something.

Manning, as far as springs go, I run my redux with a red main spring, red valve spring, and a fluted hammer. It seems counter intuitive, but it gets me a consistent 30+ shots around 270fp with my extended or woosh barrel. I never tried it with the VKC, but it seemed to me like it was matching that straight from the factory. My personal rule with SC guns is 3 to 1. I try to tune them to get at least 3 tubes off one 12g at or above 270fps. How this works with my Redux I do not know. But I haven't touched it since lol!

Maybe worth a shot with yours? My Dux is pretty damn consistent for the most part. It doesn't like the cold, but that can be said about anything running on 12ies.


EDIT: My main springs are from CCI's kit, and my valve spring is a cut down maddmann if I recall correctly. The CCI ones are the same length as the original spring in there, just different strengths. That one that you have is longer AND stronger, so your results may be a LOT different than mine.

[tedaut]

Mine has that same tape on the inside of the slide. I got mine straight from Mongo. I will have to ask him what its there for but i assume its to keep the wear down.

[Manning]

Originally Posted by dm6rocker

Manning, as far as springs go, I run my redux with a red main spring, red valve spring, and a fluted hammer. It seems counter intuitive, but it gets me a consistent 30+ shots around 270fp with my extended or woosh barrel. I never tried it with the VKC, but it seemed to me like it was matching that straight from the factory. My personal rule with SC guns is 3 to 1. I try to tune them to get at least 3 tubes off one 12g at or above 270fps. How this works with my Redux I do not know. But I haven't touched it since!

Good to know. I am curious as to what difference using the same color springs for main and valve is vs. using the stock springs. Should fool around with it this weekend.

Originally Posted by tedaut

Mine has that same tape on the inside of the slide. I got mine straight from Mongo. I will have to ask him what its there for but i assume its to keep the wear down.

Cool. Interested to hear what you find out.

I had the day off for Presidents' Day and after reading through several tuning threads I stumbled upon CJ's valve insert thread. A quick trip to Ace Hardware later and I was busy crafting myself an insert. Ace here sells a foot of brass tubing for 3.99 so since I figured I'd mess things up a few times I bought a foot of it.


Mine matches CJ's ID but has a slightly larger OD. I was worried about it fitting in the valve body but it slides in fine with room to spare. I cut the first piece to the length that CJ used but it was much too long. I'm guessing due to the differences in the VKC Duck valve vs. the original redux valve. After measuring some more, the ideal length appeared to by right at 1 inch.


I had taken the pierce pin assembly out to be able to position the insert as it protrudes into the valve body some. CJ was brave enough to grind his down but I didn't want to take that chance, and my insert could slide in with a little assistance. If I want to get it out, I'll need to remove the assembly as its holding it there pretty good now. Before I inserted it I did add two 3/32 holes on about each side of the insert. I forgot to take a pic before insertion but here are a couple of the valve body with the insert in it.



I put her all back together and went out to shoot and make sure it didn't leak, and it didn't. I was worried that the insert would prevent the valve from sealing properly but thankfully there were no issues.

It was raining out so I only shot one 12g worth. I still have the red main and stock valve springs in the gun. The TPC is in at 1.5 full turns (realized that I was calling half turns as full turns earlier, so I'll edit my previous post). First shot was 291 with the following 9 at 287-283. Nice! I was waiting 15 seconds per shot and it was 50 degrees out. Next 10 shot at 281-272. Next 10 were 276-268 (initial goal achieved!) and the next 5 were 271, 264, 294 (WTF!), 248. The last two were 194, and 160, then it petered out. When I took the 12g out there was nothing left in there to hiss out.

The 294 shot was after waiting about 25 seconds. My wife had come out to ask what I was doing standing under the overhang of the roof shooting my gun in the rain. It took a bit to convince her that this was normal behavior before I was able to get that shot off.

I'm throughly impressed right now. I can't wait to fool around with the springs and see how much performance I can get out of this thing. Props to CJ and others for the breadcrumbs...

[dm6rocker]

Note to self: Go prowling at Ace Hardware....That valve insert is the one thing I never tried with mine. It works well enough as it is, but I am curious. Looks like you're getting a solid 35 shots off at field velocity, and it's reasonably consistent too. That was pretty much the point where I stopped messing with mine as it does exactly what I want it to do, but these posts have my gears turning again lol!

[CJOttawa]

Ranger powertubes have one advantage over others: 10-32 cup threading. You'll never strip it.

They also have a huge disadvantage: flow rate. You have to ream them out, and open up the ports, which may weaken the tube.

I've concluded: CCI Phantom internals - bolt, hammer, powertube, valve nut, cup & seal - are the most evolved, advanced, highest flowing Nelson guts you can buy.

Just use Phantom guts and be done with it.

It's my understanding the second run of Reduxes (s/n 51 and beyond) use unmodified CCI internals - the slide latch has been moved so as to not require redrilling the bolt. Can you confirm this?