Air Rifle Issues

[Skean Dhude]

Many Moons ago I bought a FX Logan Domin8or for my AIr Rifle choice. Very impressed and very accurate. If I remember it cost me about £800.

Now years later the seals have started to go and it keeps losing pressure. TBH I didn't notice but the grandson is starting to get an interest and he is using it. It's a PCP so charged it up ready for the weekend and noticed it was losing pressure.

Took it in to our local air rifle shop and the guy said it wasn't worth fixing as FX were very difficult to work on and FX was very slow with spares. WTF. I bought it to last and now it appears that it fell at the first hurdle. To say I'm not impressed is an understatement.

I'm looking for someone to fix it but I'm also looking for an air rifle that I can maintain myself. One that won't be obsolete when a consumable part wears out.

Any recommendations?

[Mortblanc]

OK SD, here's the thing.

Most gun shop operators would much rather sell you another 800 quid rifle than do the 10 quid repair. Imagine that!

Neither do they know which end of a screwdriver goes into the slot or how to take down most of what they sell.

How do I know? I worked my way through graduate school as a mobile gunsmith here in this country working for a half dozen of our multitude of local gun shops, doing the repairs they were terrified to attempt. No single shop could support a full time "smith" so I rotated between them.

Do not take a gun shop owner's word for anything regarding parts or repairs.

I made a quick search and discovered that the "rebuild kit" for your rifle, that includes all the needed seals and O rings, costs 9 quid direct from Logun.

You also have several "in the UK" service centers that supply parts and also do service work. I also saw an invitation from Logun to return rifles directly for needed service work. So what if it takes 6 months if you get it repaired? Buy a little springer to play with in the mean time.

I also found several You-tube tutorials covering the breakdown and reassembly of the entire Logun series.

If all that fails be aware that the O-rings which form the seals are not special or imported from planet Venus, they are standard O-rings that can be bought at any industrial supply firm.

They go bad due to absorbing the ozone in the exhaust fumes that are a constant part of our present atmosphere. Use of silicone grease will help preserve them but eventually they will decompose. They all do.

Over here we do not have so much problem from PCP guns but we do have the same issue with the most popular of our simi-auto shotguns, the Remington model 1100. It uses an O-ring to seal the gas system and that part has about a 5 year life span. I still keep a dozen of those O-rings in my service kit.

And look at it this way, if you are intimidated by a teardown. It's broken anyway. What are you going to do, ruin the seals? They are already shot!

Just do what almost every repair person would tell you, take lots of pictures with your phone to remind you where things went, use a good quality set of hollow ground screwdrivers, have some tweezers and good needle nose pliers handy, a magnetic parts container and a sheet of plastic to drape over work to keep small spring loaded parts from going into orbit.

Good luck!

[Mortblanc]

BTW, I do have some PCP experience though not at the same expense level.

I own a Umerex Gauntlet and a Diana Stormrider. I just checked and both have been sitting for about 5 years and are still holding pressure. I have terribly over-scoped the Gauntlet with a 24x beast but it shoots such tiny groups I get a kick out of hitting tiny targets I can not see without the scope.

[bigpaul]

any air rifle will be useless when a part wears out, goes for anything man made.
the best air rifle for SHTF is a break barrel type, load and shoot all day, will take out any small game you want, anything bigger like a deer needs something more heavy duty.

[Skean Dhude]

MB, Thank you for that.

After I posted this thread I did some research and found almost the same things. There are plenty parts out there and I found several people who would service it but I decided I am going to service it myself. I'm OK taking it apart. There aren't that many repair shops around here, in the whole of the UK tbh. but I could send it away and with our mickey mouse gun laws it'll cost me a fortune in transport fees. They treat a 12ft/lb rifle as if it is sub machine gun. Everything just costs so much more.

I only found one YT and that was for a different model so if you can point me to any others you found that would be appreciated. The UK algorithm emphasises some guy and de-emphasises guns.

btw: I have springers as my SHTF air guns and I have repair kits and manuals. I just don't see the PCP as a long term solution.

[Stewart]

have a look on google and youtube.are you anywhere near chesterfield

[Skean Dhude]

(21 August 2023, 22:32)Stewart Wrote: have a look on google and youtube.are you anywhere near chesterfield

Well I live in Cheshire and Chesterfield is about 2 Hrs away. I used to travel there for work at RMG quite a few years ago. Is there a shop there?

I've got the ring kit from eBay and I'm ready to go. Valley Arms in Ruthin will do a complete do over for £120 so I may go there. Only thing their guy is on holiday atm so it'll be at least three weeks.

[Mortblanc]

SD I wish to commend you on your selection. I have searched far and wide and can find no repair, disassembly or rebuild videos on the Dominator.

To me this indicates a special merit. After 60 years of building, shooting and repairing guns of all kinds I made the observation that if a gun has good sales, and the Dominator does, and has no repair videos, no bad reviews and not even a valve replacement video, it is a good firearm indeed.

The FX impact, by contrast, sells well but every video for an FX product deals with some fault of the Impact. That one is indeed a bear to take apart with a great deal of needless complication and an excessive number of very small parts.

It also appears to send the compressed air back and forth twice for the entire length of the firearm before applying it to the back end of the pellet! Looks like it anyway.

If you do decide to repair your Dominator yourself do a good study of the metering device. That model sells over here as an adjustable power rifle with low, medium and high settings. Over here even the low setting has about 17ft/lb energy and the high setting is well into the 30f/p range. You probably have the same lump in non-adjustable form that might need the application of a small drill bit in an emergency.

I know you said that you have springers for long term use, but how do you fill your PCP rifles?

I have a high pressure electric compressor that shakes the entire house, but I also have a high pressure hand pump that fills the PCPs with only minimal effort. Either of my rifles will hold 20-30 shots per fill, so it is plenty for a foraging trip.

[Skean Dhude]

MB,
My rifle also has three settings but the max is 11ft/lb in the UK. If it is removable I'll have a look at getting a replacement.
I use my generator as well to fill my friends air bottle. I've a pump as well but don't really intend to use it after an event.