Bolt stick

[GOD jr.]

Just bought a brand new A1 and while trying it out for the first time I found the bolt would stick forward now and then while shooting a hopper full. The gun is brand new, it has 2.1 software, one piece covers with red detents, and gen2 internals. I set it up to Joy specs out of the box, stock the LPR was around 75 or more, took out 3 shims now about 65 (with 270 on the secondary reg), dwell at 9 stock now 6.5, but also tried 7.5 and no different. Only thing I didn't do was check what it was shooting at with my chrony.

Should I have broke it in first before messing with it? I figured the extra 5 psi I left on the LPR would be enough for the spring pac to seat? Or should I have set it to 57-60 right away? Was going to shoot a case then recheck it was the original plan.

I read through the help section and tried a bit of oil on the valve stem but no different, and breech has a bit of play when closed, detents are new, battery is new plus tried another new Duracell. Any thing else I can try or is it just that it only has about 350 balls through it and needs more breaking in?

Last Angel I bought before this was a Dark IR3 and it didn't have any problems ( I know this is a way different gun, just saying ).

Plus are the 3 peice eye covers a free upgrade? If so would APS just send them to me if I contact them?

Thanks in advance.

[MVS1]

Check the breach block seal, it's the usual culprit for bolt stick issues. If a corner is peeling up even a little it may cause issues w/bolt stick. If in doubt just remove the seal and the adhesive strip/glue and replace. Guessing your new A1 has been sitting someplace for awhile since 2.2 is the latest revision of software and has been for about a year now, and the seal maybe lifting up on the corners. Also put a couple of drops of Love Juice in the ASA and dry fire 10 or so times. Again if the markers been sitting idle for a while the grease maybe a little "stale" and not letting the ram cycle smoothly.
The 3 piece eye covers are not a free upgrade and you don't need them unless you have problems removing and installing the 1 piece eye covers. They are nice just not absolutely necessary.

[GOD jr.]

Thanks, ya I phone ordered it and had it shipped to me, asked salesman how old it was, he told me that it was fresh just got it a month ago. When I got it I saw 2.1 software wasn't impressed but it was a $100 of in store sale and he still shipped so figured no big deal I'll flash it down the road. Checked the breach seal and looks good, they were all out at the time so I don't have a spare, once I get one I'll replace to make sure, in the mean time I'll try some lube, maybe pull it apart and work it all over. I know it sat somewhere for awhile, battery was even dead!

On the eye covers, I'll likely run these for awhile, have a full pack of spare detents, just read something about APS doing free upgrades, you know how rumors are.

Thanks again for the input.

[GOD jr.]

Well put shims back in LPR and set to75psi with secondary reg at 270 and works like that. Like I mentioned before didn't have a chance to chrony, so not sure what it's shooting at, with 270psi. Main feild I play at is 275fps. so I'll have to tune for there and mess with it more once it's broken in. Hope by that time I'm tuning new Magno internals instead.

Would still like to hear back if anyone thinks this is all out of the norm and something might be wrong with my gun. Around what secondary pressure are you guys/girls running to get 295-300fps with the LPR set at 57-60psi, is 270 getting you close?

[Poindexter]

You actually just set your HPR to the proper pressure, then set the LPR. Then you go chrono your gun, and don't worry about what it does to your HPR pressure, as that will most likely change.

[GOD jr.]

Ya I know that, reason I was wondering is my gun won't cycle properly with HPR @270 and LPR @65 dwell @6.5, so if others guns will then there is something wrong with mine. If I had the HPR pressure of a gun that is running Joy settings and shooting 295fps I could see if my gun will cycle with that pressure. Just wanted to try it out now before I go to the field, and have to mess with shims there. I like to have my stuff running top notch is all, and if something is wrong with my gun I want to send it back ASAP. And I have a feeling something isn't right with mine, I think it should be able to cycle with those settings, and it doesn't the bolt sticks, it's slow and eats gas due to this. 270psi should be more then enough to dry fire, and at least shoot slow paint trouble free or not?

[pittbull01231]

like said above. check the breach seal. if its pealing up just a little then replace it. also another thing that can cause the bolt to stick is if your breach is real tight as in if it dosent open really easy that may cause the bolt to stick. had that problem the other day after i did a tear down on mine.

[GOD jr.]

Also as said above breach seal is good and breach isn't tight.

Not that I don't appreciate the help, but all I want to know now is: From somebody who has HPR and LPR tools and has set thier gun with JOY settings, what is your HPR pressure when your gun is shooting 285-300fps?

[Backman]

Every bolt stick issue I have personally fixed has been the breach seal. It may not appear to be raising up, but it only takes a microscopic bit of wiggle there to cause the breach to be in a bind and stick the bolt. You don't need a new one, just go ahead and take the seal off, clean any left over residue and then reglue it back on. Try that and I bet your problem goes away, you can also increase your ABS setting too if the problem persists. I haven't worked with an HPR of 270, but I believe that is not a problem.

[Trigga Nometry]

If the breech seal fix doesn't fix it. Try to remove the bolt and tightly hold down the beech block and dry fire the gun (without the bolt in but really be sure to hold down the breech block so it doesn't fling open!!!!) and see if the "stick sound" still happens. If it does that means that the ram is probably bad.

Personally, every bolt stick issue I have fixed has been a ram issue. If you find the same, replace with a new ram and the problem goes away.

[Backman]

Hadn't thought of that Trigga...good call.

[Trigga Nometry]

It was kinda funny how that happened to find the culprit. I removed the bolt and dry fired it and the hammer still got stuck in the forward posistion. You certainly don't expect that to happen LOL!

I certainly cannot stress enough that you are best to send the Angel 1 into a MT or service center for a real fix. Only dry fire with the bolt removed if you hold the breech block down really well. If you do it wrong, you will damage your breech block pins if you allow the breech block to fling open during dry firing.

[MVS1]

Also as said above breach seal is good and breach isn't tight.

Not that I don't appreciate the help, but all I want to know now is: From somebody who has HPR and LPR tools and has set thier gun with JOY settings, what is your HPR pressure when your gun is shooting 285-300fps?
Never had a problem once the pressures where set properly (Joy settings 57/270psi) and usually seting to those pressures fixed other minor issues. What is the output of the tank you are using and how's the re-charge rate? If it's starving for air that maybe an issue.
To answer your other question, once I have the pressures set (57/270) I chrono at 280 FPS the HPR is right at 240 psi. May not be the same exact pressure for you but should be close. And as stated once the pressures are balanced DONT touch the LPR, just crank the HPR down to get your desired FPS. At 270 psi and 65 psi I'd bet your shooting in the 310 FPS range, maybe higher.

G/L, let us know what you find as that may help somebody else down the line.

[GOD jr.]

Never had a problem once the pressures where set properly (Joy settings 57/270psi) and usually seting to those pressures fixed other minor issues. What is the output of the tank you are using and how's the re-charge rate? If it's starving for air that maybe an issue.
To answer your other question, once I have the pressures set (57/270) I chrono at 280 FPS the HPR is right at 240 psi. May not be the same exact pressure for you but should be close. And as stated once the pressures are balanced DONT touch the LPR, just crank the HPR down to get your desired FPS. At 270 psi and 65 psi I'd bet your shooting in the 310 FPS range, maybe higher.

G/L, let us know what you find as that may help somebody else down the line.

Thanks for the info, I'm running a LP tank set at 500psi, and had tried a Hp tank at 800 also, reg had no trouble with the HP but the LP runs alot better with less shootdown. That makes sense since the A1 reg was designed to work that way, imagine that. As far as re-charge, not sure on the 500 it's new (but did try another 500 also when trouble shooting), the 800 will run my IMP and IR3 no problem at all.

Anyway, I tried the no bolt trick and the ram stuck once (more of a hesitate) while dry firing so I'd say it's/was the ram. I set LPR back to 75 and HPR at 270 and emptied 2000psi out of a 68ci tank dry firing with the bolt, reset to 60 on the LPR at 270 HPR and tried again and it worked fine, dropped HPR to 240 and fine again. Filled my hopper and put about 170 balls through it on x-ball mode, worked again at 240 on the HPR and 60 on the LPR shot 257-260 on the chrono. Filled up with some 3 year old paint I found in old pods while spring cleaning for the real test and once again all good not a single break, no sticking! So I'm hoping the ram just needs to loosen up a bit and all is fine now. Also removed my breach seal and super glued it down for peice of mind the glue strip was all gooy like snot and it wasn't stuck that well at all. Calling the shop I got it from tomorrow and going to try to get a spare ram out of them for my troubles. Planning to put a case through it Wed hope it works good then also, and eventually get it the 280fps @240psi range with some better paint. Now I need to flash 2.2 on it, new gun still 2.1 on it, another discussion to have with the shop since when I ordered it I asked if it had new software and was told yes! I also should have asked how the battery was, it was dead too!

Thanks for all the help and tips, now I have just 2 more new A1's to tune a buddy on my team and his son bought a couple also hope they go better!

[MVS1]

Sounds like you got it, and I'd definitely try and get a new Ram out of them, but if they won't go for it contact bob or ken and I'm sure they can hook ya up.
BTW, you were asking about free upgrades, does your bolt have the red face? If it's not the clear plastic face on it then contact APS and they'll send you one for free, that way you have 2.
Also, don't worry about tweeking the pressures anymore until you get about 4 or 5 cases through it, check/adjust and you should be set for a good long while.

[GOD jr.]

Mine has the new bolt already, I talked to Bob before and he doesn't ship to Canada. I got it from Badlands up here and they are The Angel service place for us so hope they come through, we bought 3 from the one store so we'll see going to call this afternoon, manager wan't in yesterday. But anyway ya I want to run a few cases through it so it's good and broken in, If the factory settings would have worked off the start I would have done that to begin with.

[GOD jr.]

Update, new ram and a spare breach seal are on thier way to me free of charge and a offer to flash the new software if I didn't want to do it myself. Just so people know Badlands took care of it best way that worked for me.

[PBwarrior22]

I had the same problem with my bolt sticking, and also thought it was the ram for the longest time until i compared my bolt to another angel 1 bolt, and notice that the pin on the back of my bolt that connects to the ram was just a bit longer then the one i was comparing to. I shot my a1 with the bolt that had the shorter pin and it solved the problem! Hope this helps!

[GOD jr.]

Thanks, but mine was the ram for sure, changed it out and now it's a totaly different gun, solved all the problems I was having. But good info for others to watch out for if they're having problems, thanks again for the input.