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Gas Ram on a Lightning XL


Gully
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I fitted a Theoben Gas Ram on my BSA Lightning XL today. Bit of a nightmare - because of the obviously and understandably sensitive issues of taking air rifles apart there isn't much about it on any of these forums but as a competent engineer I didn't see why I couldn't do it myself.

 

Anyway, in my research as to whether this was a sensible £60 to spend on my air rifle rather than upgrading to a PCP (yes I accept they are better rifles but the whole charging thing leaves me cold) I found a lot of talk about noise, recoil etc so I thought I'd make it a bit scientific.

 

Noise:

pinched the Db meter from work and under controlled conditions:

2m from muzzle at 90 degrees shooting out of my kitchen door.

BSA Lightning XL Springer (factory): 84dB

BSA Lightning XL with Theoben Gas Ram - 81dB

 

I'lll post some groupings when its light.

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I fitted a Theoben Gas Ram on my BSA Lightning XL today. Bit of a nightmare - because of the obviously and understandably sensitive issues of taking air rifles apart there isn't much about it on any of these forums but as a competent engineer I didn't see why I couldn't do it myself.

 

Anyway, in my research as to whether this was a sensible £60 to spend on my air rifle rather than upgrading to a PCP (yes I accept they are better rifles but the whole charging thing leaves me cold) I found a lot of talk about noise, recoil etc so I thought I'd make it a bit scientific.

 

Noise:

pinched the Db meter from work and under controlled conditions:

2m from muzzle at 90 degrees shooting out of my kitchen door.

BSA Lightning XL Springer (factory): 84dB

BSA Lightning XL with Theoben Gas Ram - 81dB

 

I'lll post some groupings when its light.

Brilliant Gully, I am eagerly awaiting these posts as I am thinking of doing the same to my lightning as opposed to upgrading to a PCP.

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Thanks guys, basically it needed respringing and has been a bit noisy etc. So i thought instead of paying £60-70 for a respring I might as well see whether I can get the gunsmith to fit a ram instead, shouldn't cost much more and are meant to be much better than springs.

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Cost me £62 inc vat and delivery. Took about an hour to fit but most of that time was working out how to get it apart and making a tool to allow me to compress the spring and the gas ram to remove it. I made the tool from an old piece of tube that used to be a rail in a wardrobe. Drilled a 12mm hole through it and cut a slot, worked a treat using a normal vice to do the compression. Not really tested the accuracy yet as it was a bit blowy today but it feels and sounds much better.

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  • 3 years later...
me too, I have a bsa lightning and i thing the spring i knackered, so im going to get a gas ram fitted, i also want a thumb hole stock, any one know where i can get one from?

hi there

you can get a nice thumb hole from sheffield custom stocks just type it in to pc and it will come up

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i have a friends lightening with gas ram fitted and it is a very nice gun im going to fit a gas ram to my supersport at some stage ive got the ram just need to get round to the work! would be good if i could test the rams power now before installing it will be a right pain if its shooting well under and needs pumping up! also as far as im aware you can leave a gas ram cocked for as long as you like and it does no damage

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  • 9 months later...

I fitted one to my BSA Supersport. Amazing transformation, well worth the money :oops:

Funny - I did the exact same thing to my BSA Supersport and was completely underwhelmed.

I wouldn't have bothered if I had known the difference was going to be that slight :blush:

Much better off with the spring guide/top hat and tune treatment :yp:

Edited by The Duncan
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Hmm, most seem to say the gas-ram has improved the XL, I had the opposite. It absolutely ruined it. It made it kick like a mule when fired. Chrono'd was doing very slightly over 12ft/lbs, so disassembled again, and took out any washers/weights to get it legal, ended up at around 11 ft/lbs, but still awful to fire.

 

In the end I bought a spring kit from Venom, fitted that, reduced the spring length slightly, so it was doing 10 ft/lbs, and it was a lovely gun to fire. No twang, and not too much recoil. I dont think the Lightning XL is heavy enough to cope with the recoil at 12 ft/lbs, and a gas ram makes it far harsher than a spring.

 

Alan.

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