[trevorcomstock]

After owning the CA M24 for over two years, I have finally brought it into a fieldable condition. 10/10 shots on an 8.5" x 11" target at 200 feet. I did not measure it out but max range appeared to be about 300' with a 36" ballistic drop that was noticable beginning around 275'. Otherwise trajectory seem relatively flat within 12" between 0 to 250.

Using only AONW .43 (Black) pellets. MB .40 (Yellow) were easier to see, but must be horribly made, because they flew randomly all over the place. None of the pellets were washed.

The magic combination of upgrades and fixes in order of most significant:

1. Shimmed lever arm on stock CA hopup to elimininate lateral movement.
2. MB 6.01 Aluminum Barrel. Deep Fire 6.03 SS had a noticable Right-Hand spin.
3. MB Blue Bucking with largest silicone nub I could find and a teflon tape seal.
4. CA Advanced Cylinder.
5. O-Ring replaced with Y-Ring.
6. PDI 300% Piston and Spring Kit.
7. Set screw tapped into stock CA hop-up body.
8. Bolt handle "three-spring/bearing" assembly replaced with a teflon washer.

The operation seems loud to me, but others have commented on how quiet it is and often the targets did not appear to react to the sound of missed shots.

I have not chrono'ed the set up, but it was reported and visually appearred to be striking with significant energy in the most of the 6 hits, including an over 200' upper chest hit on a 14 year old boy wearing hoodie sweatshirt who stepped back and folded over on impact. An adult was hit at 100', initially did not feel the center mass hit was very hard, but shortly thereafter it was decided that the impact had cause the teeth of his closed sweatshirt zipper to pull apart.

After two years of constantly bad-mouthing this gun, I am really feeling some appreciation for it.

 

[Wolfgeorge]

It looks good!!
Also my initial comment on it were bad ... I need to field it though before commenting again.


Wolf

 

[dragon64]

After owning the CA M24 for over two years, I have finally brought it into a fieldable condition. 10/10 shots on an 8.5" x 11" target at 200 feet. I did not measure it out but max range appeared to be about 300' with a 36" ballistic drop that was noticable beginning around 275'. Otherwise trajectory seem relatively flat within 12" between 0 to 250.

Using only AONW .43 (Black) pellets. MB .40 (Yellow) were easier to see, but must be horribly made, because they flew randomly all over the place. None of the pellets were washed.

The magic combination of upgrades and fixes in order of most significant:

1. Shimmed lever arm on stock CA hopup to elimininate lateral movement.
2. MB 6.01 Aluminum Barrel. Deep Fire 6.03 SS had a noticable Right-Hand spin.
3. MB Blue Bucking with largest silicone nub I could find and a teflon tape seal.
4. CA Upgrade Cylinder.
5. O-Ring replaced with Y-Ring.
6. PDI 300% Pistol and Spring Kit.
7. Set screw tapped into stock CA hop-up body.
8. Bolt handle "three-spring/bearing" assembly replaced with a teflon washer.

The operation seems loud to me, but others have commented on how quiet it is and often the targets did not appear to react to the sound of missed shots.

I have not chrono'ed the set up, but it was reported and visually appearred to be striking with significant energy in the most of the 6 hits, including an over 200' upper chest hit on a 14 year old boy wearing hoodie sweatshirt who stepped back and folded over on impact. An adult was hit at 100', initially did not feel the center mass hit was very hard, but shortly thereafter it was decided that the impact had cause the teeth of his closed sweatshirt zipper to pull apart.

After two years of constantly bad-mouthing this gun, I am really feeling some appreciation for it.

Very good post trevorcomstock, do you have any pics of your rifle? Also, how are your magazines? I hear that the magazines are junk in the CA M24.

 

[Wolfgeorge]

I can confirm that!
The mags are [email protected], I'll buy and use SW M24 mags as Woogie suggested.


Wolf

 

[trevorcomstock]

I expect you were fishing for some internal pictures of the upgrades, but I was more preoccupied with trying to solve the myriad of problems than commemorating my "project." Outwardly, it is fairly unremarkable and most retail sites have better pictures.

The only other CA M24 that I know of in my area does use the Snow Wolf Magazines with some filing donw on the front end. Originally, I had 3 CA magazines (one disappeared mysteriously). Another is cracked pretty bad around the follower from having a number of local troubleshooting technicians unfamilair with the "Dry Mag" indication, forcing the nozzle forward. I usually only load 10 rounds in, and for 500-700 shots I have not had a problem provided I ease the bolt forward. A HK seller advertises having them in stock and I was planning on ordering 4 more CA ones.

 

[dragon64]

Fishing? No, it's just that...

Pics of the rifle are fine... just like the one you posted are great.

 

[trevorcomstock]

Some Inconsistencies

Tested throughly today at 200'(supported) with different weights (.32 to .43) and many-many paper targets. I was disappointed that the remarkable consistentcy that I had last weekend, has diminished somewhat. My best explanation is that the tempreture is 20 degrees colder (37F vs 55F) this week and the hopup rubber is not reacting to this very well. My best 200' (w/.43) grouping was 8/10 and most were only 5/10 on a 8.5"x11" target. 4-5 shots would be spot-on then 2-3 shots would each have too much hop-up and climb over the target. A precious few spun away left/right or were not spotted. I reduced hop 3/4 turn clockwise (must be close to min hop adj), but did not see any effect at all on the trajectory. Pellet weight .32, .36, & .40 all flew up fairly high. I did use the .40 alot during gameplay as they were easiest to see and made two nice shots at respectable ranges and another handful at really close-in.

I feel the nub that I have installed is in-fact too large. But as the gun is shooting the best it ever has, and I many leave it as-is for the time being and soldier-on with some inconsistentcy using the .40/43, thus limiting my range to 250'. Beyond this the drop is seemingly unpredictable and hard to judge correctly.

I am hoping in the future with less hop the .36 may be viable for some longer range.

 

[trevorcomstock]

I switched to Kings Arms .40g (so much better than the Mad-Bull) which seemed to be the key to its consistency happiness, and the gun has again shot very well over the summer without having to take the gun apart at all. However the last two outings, I have had to increase the hop-up more than I think would be normal(about half a turn total) to keep on-target at 200' and the trajectory is noticeably arching(16" or a head and one-half high) more. I don't have a "before" chrono reading, but it is now shooting 455 w/.2 now. Changes are possibly due to the cooler fall temps or a small air leak.

But, my real question before opening the gun again is what stuff should I put inside? I have a PDI aluminum piston and spring (it is narrow- measures 10mm, but must be 11mm OD). I would like a stronger spring to get fps up over 500. What piston/spring arrangement are others using? I assume that any APS2 spring will work, but most seem to be 13mm OD. To use these I must need a new piston & guide? I see a lot of pistons with polycarbonate bodies, is this better that my solid aluminum unit? Am I to understand that the larger spring diameter is superior? I would have thought the 300% spring I have would be 3x harder to compress than the stock spring (maybe it comes with a 250%-I don't know.) Some spring are identified by percentile, others a M-number, while some are rated by joules and it almost seems like a crap-shoot ordering one.

The other thing that I was looking to install was a sorbothane pad.