My Air rifles: SDB Artemis (Waiting for rebirth), Precihole SX100 Pegasus

[Anupam Goswami]

You can adjust the trigger pull weight by turning it clockwise to reduce the weight. But do it with caution because very light trigger will release the piston accidentally.That screw is located on the back of the receiver. Don't try to adjust the screw when gun is cocked

Thank you for the suggestion.
I have noticed that the rifle shakes when I press the trigger. I suspect that lightening the trigger weight slightly may improve my aim.
There is a hole at the back of the receiver, but I don’t see any screw.

5926DCC5-2A12-4767-AF29-994A106E0548.jpeg

All I see is flat metal.
Please advise.

Cheers!

Added in 4 minutes 39 seconds:

Nice improvement in the groupings. Keep practicing you can still reduce the group.

Thank you for the encouragement.
I want to further reduce my group.
I realise that it is going to take a lot of practice.
One thing has become certain so far though; shooting is not my natural talent.
But I am not the one to shy away from practice.

Cheers!

Added in 9 minutes 11 seconds:
Re: Precipell Match FH

Things are improving.......
It appears that you are getting used to with the gun.
Try few pellets and finally settled with one or max two brands.
Remember that each brand of pellet may have different point of impact.
To avoid blurred vision splash some water on eyes then you may have better sighting.

Basu

Thank you for the tip and encouragement

Added in 1 minute 6 seconds:

If anyone in this post lives in Kolkata, I'd suggest them a brand of pellets called Eagle. I buy them from esplanade and cost around 140 for a pack of 500. But the best thing about these round nosed pellets is that they seem to perform almost as good as precipell on my precihole vx 100, though these pellets are lighter. I am not getting the option to post pics, otherwise I'd upload pics too.

Thank you for the suggestion

Added in 30 minutes 6 seconds:

Dear Goswami,
Wish you watch the video....




Basu

I just watched it. The guy’s aim is really good.

1. My Artemis has a longer slit on the bottom front face of the stock.
2. I just received Precipell Match FH. The container says 8.2 grains.

Added in 38 minutes 22 seconds:
Hello,

Today I received the Precipell Match FH in mail. I had ordered these from the company’s website last week. The price for a container of 500 of these pellets is 440/- plus the shipping cost of 120/- for a total of ₹560.00
In my opinion, the DTDC courier charges are on the higher side.

7600763D-0975-49EF-B29F-F142C1079F84.jpeg
574F96AC-C320-4F17-A885-00E72EB081B4.jpeg

I noted:

1. These pellets fit tighter in the Artemis’ breech as compared to Excite Econ FH and Captainshot FH. I will rank their fit in decreasing order of tightness as Precipell Match FH > Excite Econ FH > Captainshot FH.
One may require a ball pen or some comparable equipment to push these pellets completely inside the breech so that their back rim is flush with the breech seal. I have heard that it improves the accuracy. But I didn’t do that today; primarily because my aim is yet not good enough to compare accuracies.

2. The fit and finish, though very satisfactorily consistent, is still a tad behind of that of Excite Econ FH. Also, the casting seams on the pellets are noticeable. Excite Econ FH had none. Captainshot FH falls way behind on both of these parameters when compared to Precipell Match FH and Excite Econ FH.


I took five sets of thirty shots each with these pellets. According to my system(I have a one inch bullseye. And my 9 point ring is somewhat generous), the scores were:
A. 236
B. 240
C. 235
D. 226
E. 259

The fifth set was my highest score yet. One may attribute this to either the pellets or my overall aiming improvement.

Here is the pic of my fifth spread.
08A16C99-62F9-4A41-8E38-61B8CC1B1947.jpeg

Also, it was the first day that I scored more than 225 in every set I shot. If I average more than 225 tomorrow, I will consider it an improvement. I shoot thirty shots in around 20 minutes.


Also,
I want to fix aperture/peep sights on my Artemis(both front and rear).
I have been looking at Precipell peep sights set for a while now.
Has anyone tried to, or already have fixed aperture sights on Artemis?
All tips and suggestions will be much appreciated.

Cheers!

Improvement is noticeable.
Mind you are firing an AR with a muzzle energy around 13 ft lbs.
It has to be hold sensitive.
PH flat head in surely contributing along with your ability.
Artemis does not have peep sight.
In case you go for a peep sight, it will be a waste deal as the foresight is not prepared for that.
I shoot with open sight only even though I have scopes as that is my preference.
When you focus on object, for obvious reason the back sight becomes blurred but I got used to it.
Trigger adjustment is a tricky issue as suggested by Raja.
If you over do it , the barrel will snap back and stock will be broken and gun will turn into a junk.
You need to contact some knowledgeable person to adjust the trigger pull or speak to SDB people.
In my GenNex PH FH does wonders.

Basu

Thank you for the encouragement and noticing my progress.

I plan to shoot two sets each of Excite Econ and Precipell Match flatheads consecutively. This might be a fairer assessment of the accuracy of the said pellets.

I myself am a bit wary of overlightening the trigger on my Artemis. I have read sam47 mention an incident caused by his AR’s trigger going off involuntarily; which made him have some emergency medical procedure on one of his fingers.

By the way, I haven’t read any recent posts by sam47. Is he not active anymore?

Cheers!

Added in 41 minutes 23 seconds:
Upgraded target
Hello,

I started shooting a bit late today and could only just about manage three sets of thirty shots each. I also rushed through my shots as I wanted to finish before it got dark. I feel that I could have shot a bit better if I didn’t show such haste.

As per my system, the three sets scored as follows:
A.246
B.230
C.250

Once again, the last spread scored highest. Here is the pic:

41EEB382-EEC8-411C-BA1D-1BCC7E187F1B.jpeg

This spread also marked the first time that I attempted to adjust the rear sight of my AR. For the past few days, I had been suspecting that my Artemis didn’t shoot true. But I kept dismissing the thought as I am a reasonably poor shot. And as a result, kept shifting my hold.

During this third spread of today, I was confident enough to decide that my AR shot low and a bit to the right. I made consecutive small adjustments, and, ended up overdoing it slightly. Again, it might not be easy for others to notice(mainly because the groups are not tight enough), but I can trace all the adjustments I made as they reflect in my spread.


TIME TO UPGRADE THE TARGET

Now that I am constantly shooting above a score of 225 as per my current system, I have decided to upgrade the target a bit.

1. Till now, the 10 point ring was one inch in diameter, I have decided to change it to 2cm.
2. The 1 point ring has been 12cm in diameter. It gets changed to 6.5cm
3. Each consecutive inside ring has been 1 cm less in diameter. It gave me a stripe of 0.5cm width for each point. Now, the difference in diameter is 0.5cm, thus reducing the width of each point stripe to .25cm
4. The 9 point stripe has been 0.72cm wide. It stands at 0.25cm now.

The following picture will better explain the comparision between my scoring system in use so far, and the new one I am going to shoot at from tomorrow.

F51BEFC1-507D-45D3-974E-80FA9A7F8BEE.jpeg

I will be happy if I average 200 points on this tomorrow.

P.S. A big shout out to the seasoned shooters who have been very responsive to this post. Shooting is a solitary endeavour and a little encouragement goes a long way.

Added in 10 minutes 29 seconds:

You can improve your accuracy by reducing its power little bit by removing some coils from the main spring.Even atleast 2 or 3 coils can be removed without notice in drop of power.It improves the smoothness of cocking and shooting more than you expected. You can use the precihole peep sight.but the front sight is doubtful to fix on that rifle. You can also use only the rear peep sight along with the rifle front sight to acquire the target fastly.

Thank you for your suggestions.

I have realised that fixing the front aperture sight on Artemis will require some precise metal work. I am not prepared for that now as I don’t yet have a TIG welder and most importantly I have not yet exhausted the full potential of the iron sights Artemis came with. I make do with an Arc welder, and I suspect that it will be useless on a barrel.

Cheers!

[Anupam Goswami]

Hello,

I received G Smith Competition FH pellets from Kovibazaar. The listed price for a pack of 500 pellets was 520/-, plus 65/- for shipping, resulting in the total cost of ₹585.00
Here is the pic:

BDDC9F14-E562-419C-933F-7C3A663857C9.jpeg

The weight of these pellets is not mentioned on the pack or G Smith’s website. Kovibazaar lists them as weighing 8.4 GR
So, in terms of weight, G Smith Competition FH(8.4GR) > Precihole Match FH(8.2GR) > H&N Excite Econ FH(7.48GR)

Initial observations:
1. In terms of tightness of fitting in the breech, G Smith Competition FH > Precihole Match FH > H&N Excite Econ FH
2. In terms of fit and finish consistency, H&N Excite Econ > G Smith Competition FH = Precihole Match FH




Today’s shooting (new target):

Precihole Match FH: A total of four sets of thirty shots each. According to the new scoring system, following were the scores.
1. 175
2. 148
3. 181
4. 192

G Smith Competition FH: Four sets of thirty shots each.
1. 191
2. 186
3. 216
4. Embarrassing. During this set, I noticed a play in my AR’s rear sight. It disturbed my poise and I continuously kept adjusting my rear sight and hold. It resulted in five shots earning zero points. This set would have struggled to cross 200 points even with the old scoring system.

Today’s best spread:

A9A1FE1F-D11E-43FD-BCE7-A627950E063D.jpeg

Today’s average score: 184.1
I have excluded the G Smith’s fourth spread from the scores. Though I should be more honest than that in order to improve.

Between G Smith Competition FH and Precihole Match FH: I believe both of these pellets are equally accurate (in my case, equally inaccurate ). Both pellets are also equally consistent in fit and finish. So, in my opinion, Precihole edges out as the winner by virtue of it being cheaper.



My AR’s rear sight has developed a play:

This picture will explain it better than words:

65AC9D44-5896-4488-AEBD-5AA17DBE75D8.jpeg

I don’t know what caused it, or whether it has been there all this while and I noticed it only today. I also am not sure as how to fix it.

It might be worth mentioning that my AR has no serial number. I had noticed it on the first day, but didn’t think too much about it.

23ADFE2E-1B74-4287-A4DF-71B1A5A00C64.jpeg

Is the loose rear sight a common occurrence for Artemis?
Does anyone else also has an Artemis with no serial number?

Also, if I rotate my AR along its horizontal axis by 180 degrees, alternating between clockwise and anti-clockwise, I hear a clicking sound each time. It seems to be originating from the general area where the rear sight is located. But I can’t pin point it’s source. Is it normal?

Added in 1 hour 31 minutes 4 seconds:
Re: My first Air rifle: SDB Artemis
The rear sight’s play has been fixed.

It was so simple that I now feel like a fool posting about it.
I completely unscrewed the elevation knob. The rear sight flung open. The base plate was loose. I tightened its screw. This fixed the problem.

Cheers!

[Anupam Goswami]

Hello,

Three sets of thirty shots each.
1. 195
2. 189
3. 166

Best spread:

88B4B178-1CE5-4306-BAFE-7CF85232FD28.jpeg

Average score: 183.3

Cheers!

[vsraja]

The hole of the cap was misaligned to the trigger screw. You need to take the action out of the stock and turn the cap clockwise to see the screw.Then adjust it little by little by turning the screw clockwise and then testing the trigger each time by cocking and pressing the trigger while holding the barrel with one hand.

[Anupam Goswami]

The hole of the cap was misaligned to the trigger screw. You need to take the action out of the stock and turn the cap clockwise to see the screw.Then adjust it little by little by turning the screw clockwise and then testing the trigger each time by cocking and pressing the trigger while holding the barrel with one hand.

Thank you.

[Anupam Goswami]

Hello,

I have tightened all screws and the rear sight.
But, whenever I rotate the rifle along its horizontal axis, I can hear a deep clicking sound. I believe it is originating from the piston chamber.
Is it normal?

I tried to attach a video. But apparently mp4 is not supported on the forum.

Cheers!

[Anupam Goswami]

Hello,



TODAY’S SHOOTING

This morning I shot two sets of thirty shots each. The scores were,
1. 193
2. 213

This is the pic of the best spread:

D018274B-D883-48BA-A412-9ED7717C2235.jpeg

Average score: 203



SDB’S SUPPORTIVE ATTITUDE

After that I proceeded to decrease the trigger weight. I made consecutive small adjustments and finally settled at the point I started to feel comfortable.

I noticed the clicking sound again whenever I moved my AR. I have been posting about it for a couple of days on this forum.

This time, I called Mr. Sudip Das of SDB. He asked me to send him a video that depicted the problem. He also suggested using a scope instead of aperture sights. He told me about their constant improvement on their rifles, and how they were able to generate same power with a 35 coil spring in the Artemis as compared to previously used 37 and 39 coil springs.

Later in the day, I called him again and inquired about his diagnosis on my AR. He said that he had seen the video and was unable to come to a conclusion about the origin of the sound. He asked if I had noticed anything unusual about the way rifle discharged. I told him that I hadn’t. So he told me to keep shooting and let him know if I encountered any problems.

To sum it up, he was humble and appreciated a customer. Now, as a manufacturer myself, I must say that I wouldn’t have been as patient with an end consumer as Mr. Das had been with me.

So, kudos to him.



ARTEMIS DIES

After work, I went straight to my parking to shoot a couple of sets. I was hoping that this would be my first day that I averaged more than 200 on my new scoring system.

I laid out the pellets, screwdriver, my phone and the Artemis on the bench and proceeded to paste the target paper on the pellet catcher.

As I turned to walk towards my aiming spot, I noticed that my wife was waiting with a mug of tea. Apparently, she had decided to watch what I had been upto for the past couple of weeks.

“Aj to seedhe yahin aa gaye”, she said, as she placed the tea mug on the bench.

I went on to cock the AR in one smooth motion, and proceeded to load a pellet in the breech. Trying to look as professional as I could, I did the best possible version of my artillery hold and took aim. I had already inhaled on the way to my hold and started to exhale slowly as I lined my sights with the bullseye. I wanted to shoot a ten pointer with my better half watching. I remembered how Mr. Gaylord of PyramydAir had professed to squeeze the trigger in one of his instructional videos and took the shot.

Pellet didn’t come out.

I looked in shock at the rifle.

“Kya hua, goli nahi chali?”, my wife inquired.

Artemis was dead.

She had lasted a fortnight and about 2000 shots.


Rest of the evening was spent disassembling the rifle. Following pictures will explain what I found.

9F205671-B328-46CE-A6A6-28312B3E29B5.jpeg

1DC7CCBA-84B6-495E-93A2-93BBAB02C6C6.jpeg

46FF2241-109D-45FA-9955-283693B9E6F4.jpeg

0D3004E7-CB02-4345-A8D5-2B23F97B64DC.jpeg

C6FEB094-1ECD-46A1-B875-F77E9BE1323B.jpeg

E6568BDF-0A6E-4E90-85DB-5485A05D10B9.jpeg

I called Mr. Das and and informed him about what had happened.

In a very consoling voice he told me to send him all the pics and that he will mail me all the parts that needed replacement.

As I walked back inside the house with the entrails of my Beloved Artemis in a poly bag, I remembered what vsraja had posted, “......a Precihole is also beautiful from the inside.....”


Cheers!

[narach93]

Anupamji. Yours style of narration is outstanding. I love reading your observations. You should consider of writting books.

[vsraja]

My advice is to remove those two broken coils of spring and use the remaining spring with added steel washer at the end of the spring(As i told earlier to remove some coils).Then replace the piston washer with precihole air rifle washer.It is available on precihole website.You can smooth out that area which rubs on the receiver using a sand paper.Then give a little polish using the sand paper on the whole piston.Dont touch the sear area.Then clean those dusts and clean the inside of the receiver and apply some grease on spring,piston(inside and out),spring guide.Then you will get a well tuned air rifle.Actually precihole has no spring rods.Hence they dont face a problem of alignment.Dont try to move the piston rod to align at the centre.Its normal.Comparing to other indian brands SDB has a decent build quality and pretty much durable.I appreciate precihole but i cant undermine SDB.Even though it has direct trigger, it can be adjustable to a certain extent.Also the piston seal breakage is due to many factors like less lubrication and unwanted spring power.This rifle will be very smooth if you maintain it in 12fpe range and also will be more accurate than before.I own air rifles from IHP,Precihole,SDB,AK,AARMR,tommy.In my collection SDB can be ranked well above the IHP,AK,Tommy.So if you feel that SDB is worst then you need to experience those junks like tommy or IHP.For me a rifle is Half trigger and half barrel.Both trigger and barrel was pretty decent and can help in providing the accuracy.You need to read about the ''swept volume'', then only you will have less hunger for huge main spring.This rifle comes with heavy preload from the factory.It can be easily evidenced by the huge effort need to cock the rifle. As this rifle is direct trigger,dont put too much pressure on the trigger sear with a huge spring.A tuned SDB is as good as a precihole.Thatswhy many IFGians support SDB. Although SDB needs improvement, it can't be considered a junk.Your princess is not dead and she needs some service(tuning).

[Anupam Goswami]

Anupamji. Yours style of narration is outstanding. I love reading your observations. You should consider of writting books.

Thank you.
Only if my shooting could be appreciated in a similar vein

Added in 4 minutes 53 seconds:
Re: My first Air rifle: SDB Artemis (in

My advice is to remove those two broken coils of spring and use the remaining spring with added steel washer at the end of the spring(As i told earlier to remove some coils).Then replace the piston washer with precihole air rifle washer.It is available on precihole website.You can smooth out that area which rubs on the receiver using a sand paper.Then give a little polish using the sand paper on the whole piston.Dont touch the sear area.Then clean those dusts and clean the inside of the receiver and apply some grease on spring,piston(inside and out),spring guide.Then you will get a well tuned air rifle.Actually precihole has no spring rods.Hence they dont face a problem of alignment.Dont try to move the piston rod to align at the centre.Its normal.Comparing to other indian brands SDB has a decent build quality and pretty much durable.I appreciate precihole but i cant undermine SDB.Even though it has direct trigger, it can be adjustable to a certain extent.Also the piston seal breakage is due to many factors like less lubrication and unwanted spring power.This rifle will be very smooth if you maintain it in 12fpe range and also will be more accurate than before.I own air rifles from IHP,Precihole,SDB,AK,AARMR,tommy.In my collection SDB can be ranked well above the IHP,AK,Tommy.So if you feel that SDB is worst then you need to experience those junks like tommy or IHP.For me a rifle is Half trigger and half barrel.Both trigger and barrel was pretty decent and can help in providing the accuracy.You need to read about the ''swept volume'', then only you will have less hunger for huge main spring.This rifle comes with heavy preload from the factory.It can be easily evidenced by the huge effort need to cock the rifle. As this rifle is direct trigger,dont put too much pressure on the trigger sear with a huge spring.A tuned SDB is as good as a precihole.Thatswhy many IFGians support SDB. Although SDB needs improvement, it can't be considered a junk.Your princess is not dead and she needs some service(tuning).

Thank you very much.

After much deliberation, this is my plan.
1. I have ordered a new piston, piston washer, two piston seals, a new spring and two breech seals from SDB
2. I will follow your instructions on the new parts.
3. I have decided to give the spring vasectomy part a miss.


Also, I have put down an order for Precihole SX100 Pegasus in RF finish with walnut stock, with Precihole peep sights.

Cheers!

[Vimalkarur]

Nice to see you progress. In both shooting and gaining knowledge about the weapon you shoot. Congrats

[Anupam Goswami]

Nice to see you progress. In both shooting and gaining knowledge about the weapon you shoot. Congrats

Thank you.

Added in 1 hour 55 minutes 49 seconds:
Can barrel bend upwards by locking hard
Hello experienced shooters,


Let’s say that someone was a novice shooter and he failed to recognise the need to lubricate the barrel locking pin.

And he locked the barrel about a hundred times wondering why the locking motion is becoming harder, before it dawned on him to lubricate the locking pin.

Can this abuse bend the barrel upwards? Or is it too light a force(generally speaking) to be able to?

And since he shoots more of a spread than a group, the accuracy of the gun can’t be legitimately questioned. Ergo, a different testing method is required. What might that be? Looking down the barrel with naked eyes is proving to be inconclusive.

This doubt is eating away at the said novice shooter and he is spending all his free time wandering the underbelly of the World Wide Web looking for an answer.


Cheers!

[GNV]

It is most unlikely unless the barrel material is of very very poor quality

Added in 3 minutes 2 seconds:
BTW have you found out why the gun died in less than a fortnight with about only 2000 shots fired.

[vsraja]

If you put your new spring with the same preload, then the history will repeat again.I hope you will learn by that way of trial and error.

[Anupam Goswami]

It is most unlikely unless the barrel material is of very very poor quality

Added in 3 minutes 2 seconds:
BTW have you found out why the gun died in less than a fortnight with about only 2000 shots fired.

I have two theories:

Theory A: The piston rod was rusty and some time during cocking or discharging, a piece of metal sheared off and got stuck between the piston rod and piston washer. This resulted in piston washer getting bent, and thus, providing a slanted surface for the spring to extend. Overtime, this caused spring failure (I think the slack in the broken spring hitting the piston rod made the clicking sound I used to hear whenever I rotated the rifle along its horizontal axis). The broken spring caused the piston to move at an angle inside the receiver tube. Overtime, this caused piston seal failure. The rupture in the piston seal got bigger and ultimately, rifle failed to discharge.



Theory B: I had been firing three to four sets of thirty shots each twice everyday. That is 120 shots in about 90 minutes or less once in the morning and then in the evening. This must have affected the piston seal in two ways. First;the heat produced by 120 firing cycles in quick succession slightly deformed the seal each time. Over the course of many such sessions, the defects in the seal accumulated to the point of failure. Second; the gun being new, all the metallic parts of the action kept shedding find debris. This debris, overtime, mixed with the lubrication and formed a grit like paste. This paste increased friction and ergo heat during the firing cycle.
Overtime, this caused piston seal failure. The broken seal caused slanted movement of the piston. The resulting jerk broke the spring. The broken spring extended at an angle, bending the piston washer. Piston washer while bending, scraped a piece of metal from the piston shaft. The repeated slanted firing cycles bent the piston rod and further detoirated the piston seal to the point of complete failure. And the rifle misfired.

Added in 8 minutes 58 seconds:

If you put your new spring with the same preload, then the history will repeat again.I hope you will learn by that way of trial and error.

With all the humility along with full realisation of my inexperience in air rifles, I must say, that, I am of the opinion that spring preload alone, by itself, can not cause this catastrophic piston seal failure. Other factors, the biggest of which, in my opinion, might be the less than desirable durability of the piston seal material under rigorous use, are the equal constituent probable causes of my AR’s premature action failure.