Thoughts on Raptor re-cocking issues and solutions.

[RichM]

Last year I picked up a silver raptor in a bucket of used gear and decided to bring it back to life. The body had been squeezed/pinched near the bottom tube so that the hammer couldn't cycle freely. I managed to find a brand new body, and I also got a rebuild kit with a new hammer and all the internals except the bolt. Put her back together and everything looks and feels good, aired it up and no leaks. The gun cocks and fires fine, but the issue is that as soon as you fire a couple of shots in quick succession it fails to re-cock on the second shot and just starts to jackhammer. My thinking is that there is not enough blowback pressure coming through the valve to push the hammer back when rapid firing... spaced single shots are fine because the valve has enough time to 'recharge' and it provides 100% force on blowback, but rapid firing drops the available blowback pressure just enough to prevent the hammer from catching. I'm running hpa so the input pressure is lower than co2, which is what the valve was designed for.

I'm curious to see if anyone else has experienced this with a raptor on hpa? To my knowledge there isn't a way to adjust the blowback force on the raptor valve, so I'm thinking I could slightly enlarge the blowback port in the valve body. Thoughts?

[BrickHaus]

Increase input pressure would be my go to. Then maybe turn the valve pin down would be my next go to .

[infamoussmiley]

Hello!

In my humble opinion, your HPA output is too low. You need at least 800 PSI for the Raptor to cycle correctly.

Best,

Smiley

[MrKittyCatMeowFace]

None of my raptors had issues with hpa. They shoot fine on standard output which is close enough to normal output pressure for co2. My raptors all shoot consistently on hpa and can shoot well over 280 if I really wanted to crank down the velocity screw. Do you know the output of your tanks reg? If its not 850psi (or 825 or is it 800, idk ive heard even lower numbers, so hard to find the right info you know)

Whats your setup like? Bottomline asa or just tank into vasa? Or are you using a expansion chamber/regulator/gas thru grip? Any obstructions in the air passages could be why your not getting a fast enough recharge to shoot fast. I forget if the raptors have those little filter disks like some stbb have. I heard they can get clogged and can restrict airflow.

[BrickHaus]

The brass filters. I forgot about those!

[RichM]

Tank pressure is just north of 800 psi. I have another tank I can try but output pressure will be similar. I don't think tank pressure is an issue, I run both tanks on two ICD cats, tippmann 98's, and spyders without problems. The raptor is setup with a large expansion chamber and a bottomline asa. Sounds like maybe blocked air passages inside the expansion chamber may be the culprit, I"ll rebuild it and see what happens. Thanks for the feedback gents.

[Fubarius]

A common issue with raptors in a dented valve face. This happens from too much dry firing. With no air in the valve the hammer can completely compress the valve pin and smack into the valve, putting a dent there. This pinches in on the valve pin. When really back the valve jams open. When just a little back in can prevent the valve pin from opening smoothly, maybe cause low velocity and low recock. Remove valve and valve pin, deburr the hole the valve pin goes through. At the field I've done it with a swiss army knife.

Second, valve orientation can effect recock. The valve has two holes in the back face, one in the middle for the valve pin, the other is the recock port. When you install the valve if the recock port is below the valve pin hole the valve set screw can actually block it off a bit. Make sure that recock hole is in the top 12 o'clock position. For and older, well used gun, wouldn't hurt to make sure that little hole isn't clogged by something. You could drill that little hole a bit bigger, but be careful. Easy to take off more metal, impossible to put it back. You go to far and it might recock like a champ, but you'll then struggle with velocity.

Other basics, what lube you using? Raptors like a thin liquid lube. You go smearing DOW33 on the thing and it won't work right. Lube both hammer and bolt.
Make sure the springs are correct. The valve spring and the hammer spring are the same diameter, but different lengths. Long one in the back.

[RichM]

Good tips, thx. The valve and guts are brand new, I checked for the dented valve issue when I was installing it and it looked good. However, I think I may have installed it with the re-cock/blowback port at the 6 o'clock position, I'll flip it up and see what happens in addition to rebuilding the expansion chamber.. Judging from the other posts I shouldn't have to remove any material from the valve if I get it setup right so I'll avoid going down that route. Also I don't use heavy lubricants like dow33 for anything other than fairly static components like reg seals etc. My go-to lubricant for moving parts is a synthetic lightweight rubber-friendly oil.

[RichM]

And the winner is....
The expansion chamber! I bypassed it as a test and as soon as I plugged the tank into the vertical asa it shot like a champ. Tried to blow air through the bottomline/expansion chamber assembly with my mouth and almost passed out, so no wonder it was having a hard time. I'll do a bit of work on the exp. chamber guts to open things up, it has a nice anno job on it and makes a good foregrip so I'll keep it.

[MrKittyCatMeowFace]

And the winner is....
The expansion chamber! I bypassed it as a test and as soon as I plugged the tank into the vertical asa it shot like a champ. Tried to blow air through the bottomline/expansion chamber assembly with my mouth and almost passed out, so no wonder it was having a hard time. I'll do a bit of work on the exp. chamber guts to open things up, it has a nice anno job on it and makes a good foregrip so I'll keep it.

post a picture of your raptor. Show & Tell! .