The drawback? It's not a drop-in. The body has to be machined to accept an insert. But, once it's modified, it can accept any Phantom barrel; stock, aftermarket or Phreaked, and you can still remove the bolt and hammer normally.
I've been thinking about ways to Freak an SL for years- and you guys have been asking for it for years.
But the overall setup of the SL made that tricky, as many of you well know. First and foremost, there was no breech face, like a 'Cocker or Spyder has, for the barrel to seat against, and which would retain an insert. The Carters and Rangers had that too- but in those, there's enough 'meat' to the barrel to make a 'captured' insert, one that slides in from the front.
That could technically have been done to an SL, too, except the pump only takes a 7/8" barrel, rather than a 1". That won't fit the section on a typical Freak where the tip and back come together. And trying to make a 2-piece screw-together 7/8" barrel makes for really thin walls and tiny, fragile threads.
An idea I'd been playing with for a while was a simple adapter. The back half sliding into the body like a regular SL barrel, but the fatter Phantom-threaded section outside the front, and in the space where it wouldn't interfere with the pump even all the way back.
Problem there is you have an inch-long gap between the bolt and the barrel. I could have made them like the "sizers" I did for the Trracers, but what I wanted was for the bolt to chamber the ball directly into the insert itself.
And no matter how I wracked my brain, there was no way to do that except to make an "insertable breech", and machine the body to accept it.
I had an SL here of my own I was willing to sacrifice on the altar of the Pump Gods, so I found a chunk of heavy tubing in my scrap bin...
And measuring on the fly, turned it into the first probable design for an insert.
The threads were a little tricky- a short throw of stub ACME turned to an internal shoulder, using a hand-ground cutter- but I got an acceptable fit.
Then, thinking slightly ahead, I turned a stepped plug, that fits the body in place of the barrel. Thanks to the turned-in-place soft jaws, the two diameters were less than half a thou concentric with each other.
That fits in the body like so...
And the whole cobbled fixture monstrosity looked like this:
Considering there's pretty much no flat, smooth and level surfaces anywhere on these bodies... well, that was the best I could do. Believe it or not, it was referencing off the cast nameplate on the side.
The plug gave me a reference surface for a coax indicator. I got that dialed to within less than half a thou of the original bore, and zeroed the DRO.
Remove the plug, then re-snug the clamp bolt on a 3/16" hex wrench, so the 'ears' of the clamping portion are supported against the cutting forces (mild as they are.)
Set up the boring head, whisper a small prayer to the machine gods, and ream that puppy out.
Bore the hole to .002 over the size of the insert and give 'er a try.
The insert is now the new barrel breech, and properly positioned...
And internally, the geometry is set so that when the bolt is fully closed, the ball is just inside the bore of the insert, so an underbore can hold the ball in place, as it should be.
And once it's all cleaned, oiled and reassembled, the mod is practically invisible.
And, from a distance, unless you look close and see the Phantom muzzle ports, the whole gun looks bone stock.
In use, the barrel simply unscrews like a Phantom (natch ) and as a bonus, once the barrel is out, the bolt and pump are still captured, making it easier for a quick clean on the field.
But, when it comes time to remove the bolt to clean the chamber, just loosen the original clamping bolt, slide the whole barrel and adapter out, and the pump and bolt come out just like usual.
For those that might be interested in this mod, I plan to run a batch of these adapters, now that I have the dimensions more or less settled, and will be sending them off for anno. I'll probably offer this as a service, since again the body has to be machined to accept it, though I'll probably offer the adapter for those that may have the ability to machine the body themselves, or want to have a local guru do it.
How's it shoot? Noticeably better, which shouldn't be a surprise. For an SL, the only barrels I have on hand are an old DYE stainless that was turned down to fit years ago (689"), a couple of stock barrels (.691") and an old 'Cocker or Spyder barrel that somebody turned down (.688"). The freshest paint I have just barely falls through a .679".
But there's a noticeable difference between the .688" barrel, and the 11" Phreaked with a .679". No way to do a side-by-side with this setup, of course, so my impressions are admittedly a bit subjective. I'm also kind of annoyed I neglected to do a before-and-after chrony, but hey, my brain was elsewhere.
General impression, the tighter bore closed up the 'grouping' by maybe a third (again, subjective) and I'd wager gained maybe 20 FPS. I'd love to try this again with fresher paint and a 14" XL Phreaked.
Oh, and that was all on CO2, since apparently I don't own a functional HPA tank that can screw in to an SL grip frame.
Doc.
I've been thinking about ways to Freak an SL for years- and you guys have been asking for it for years.
But the overall setup of the SL made that tricky, as many of you well know. First and foremost, there was no breech face, like a 'Cocker or Spyder has, for the barrel to seat against, and which would retain an insert. The Carters and Rangers had that too- but in those, there's enough 'meat' to the barrel to make a 'captured' insert, one that slides in from the front.That could technically have been done to an SL, too, except the pump only takes a 7/8" barrel, rather than a 1". That won't fit the section on a typical Freak where the tip and back come together. And trying to make a 2-piece screw-together 7/8" barrel makes for really thin walls and tiny, fragile threads.
An idea I'd been playing with for a while was a simple adapter. The back half sliding into the body like a regular SL barrel, but the fatter Phantom-threaded section outside the front, and in the space where it wouldn't interfere with the pump even all the way back.
Problem there is you have an inch-long gap between the bolt and the barrel. I could have made them like the "sizers" I did for the Trracers, but what I wanted was for the bolt to chamber the ball directly into the insert itself.
And no matter how I wracked my brain, there was no way to do that except to make an "insertable breech", and machine the body to accept it.
I had an SL here of my own I was willing to sacrifice on the altar of the Pump Gods, so I found a chunk of heavy tubing in my scrap bin...
And measuring on the fly, turned it into the first probable design for an insert.
The threads were a little tricky- a short throw of stub ACME turned to an internal shoulder, using a hand-ground cutter- but I got an acceptable fit.
Then, thinking slightly ahead, I turned a stepped plug, that fits the body in place of the barrel. Thanks to the turned-in-place soft jaws, the two diameters were less than half a thou concentric with each other.
That fits in the body like so...
And the whole cobbled fixture monstrosity looked like this:
Considering there's pretty much no flat, smooth and level surfaces anywhere on these bodies... well, that was the best I could do.
Believe it or not, it was referencing off the cast nameplate on the side. The plug gave me a reference surface for a coax indicator. I got that dialed to within less than half a thou of the original bore, and zeroed the DRO.
Remove the plug, then re-snug the clamp bolt on a 3/16" hex wrench, so the 'ears' of the clamping portion are supported against the cutting forces (mild as they are.)
Set up the boring head, whisper a small prayer to the machine gods, and ream that puppy out.
Bore the hole to .002 over the size of the insert and give 'er a try.
The insert is now the new barrel breech, and properly positioned...
And internally, the geometry is set so that when the bolt is fully closed, the ball is just inside the bore of the insert, so an underbore can hold the ball in place, as it should be.
And once it's all cleaned, oiled and reassembled, the mod is practically invisible.
And, from a distance, unless you look close and see the Phantom muzzle ports, the whole gun looks bone stock.
In use, the barrel simply unscrews like a Phantom (natch
) and as a bonus, once the barrel is out, the bolt and pump are still captured, making it easier for a quick clean on the field.But, when it comes time to remove the bolt to clean the chamber, just loosen the original clamping bolt, slide the whole barrel and adapter out, and the pump and bolt come out just like usual.
For those that might be interested in this mod, I plan to run a batch of these adapters, now that I have the dimensions more or less settled, and will be sending them off for anno. I'll probably offer this as a service, since again the body has to be machined to accept it, though I'll probably offer the adapter for those that may have the ability to machine the body themselves, or want to have a local guru do it.
How's it shoot? Noticeably better, which shouldn't be a surprise. For an SL, the only barrels I have on hand are an old DYE stainless that was turned down to fit years ago (689"), a couple of stock barrels (.691") and an old 'Cocker or Spyder barrel that somebody turned down (.688"). The freshest paint I have just barely falls through a .679".
But there's a noticeable difference between the .688" barrel, and the 11" Phreaked with a .679". No way to do a side-by-side with this setup, of course, so my impressions are admittedly a bit subjective. I'm also kind of annoyed I neglected to do a before-and-after chrony, but hey, my brain was elsewhere.
General impression, the tighter bore closed up the 'grouping' by maybe a third (again, subjective) and I'd wager gained maybe 20 FPS. I'd love to try this again with fresher paint and a 14" XL Phreaked.
Oh, and that was all on CO2, since apparently I don't own a functional HPA tank that can screw in to an SL grip frame.
Doc.
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