After almost 3000 shots, my 1377 has developed a fair amount of play on the bbl. band. Most of the play is from the front sight being in the upright position, to being tilted slightly left if you wiggle it by hand.
The band was very tight when brand new and the gun was bought only a few months ago.
I shot a few more groups after noticing the loose band and all of a sudden, my groups were all over the place. It would shoot a few cutting at 20 yds., then throw a couple an inch to the right, then a few to the left, then back to the center.
Lol, i thought it was due to the loose band, so i tilted it to the left and it shot about an inch to the right, then back to center as the front sight straightened right back up after the first shot.
I put a shim between the bbl. and the pump tube and took the play out of the band and made sure the front sight was straight up.
It shot right back to center for 3 shots, then started shooting all over the place again....the band was still tight.
After about 30 minutes of trying different shim thickness, i was ready to give up.
I tried one more thing before pulling my hair out...i pulled 3 clean patches through the bore and it got better.
Still wasn't shooting like it should, so i took the shim out and just let the band be loose....right back to driving nails with it. I guess the shim was putting too much pressure on the bbl.?
Evidently my accuracy problem was just a bit of lead in the bore, even though i didn't notice any on the patches i pulled through it and had nothing to do(so far) with the bbl band.
Is the band working loose like this something that gets worse with time on the 13xx guns?
If so it's a matter of time before the sight leans side to side from shot to shot (since it's on top of the band) and does cause accuracy problems.
Will replacing the roll pins with solid pins stop this? Or maybe a metal band?
The bbl. itself doesn't seem to rotate at all...just the band.
At least at this point, the band doesn't seem to move around unless you actually move it with your hand.
I'm surprised because it moves easily if you touch it.
I even thought about cutting the band off and just free float the bbl., then just epoxy the front sight centered on top of the bll.
I'm not sure if the bbl. fits far enough into the plastic breech and is held tight enough by the breech to free float it though.
I suppose a metal breech might?
Since it's back to shooting right again i wouldn't be worried about the loose band, except for the fact that i can turn it by hand enough to make it shoot an inch to the right at 20 yds.
Don't want to gut shoot some poor squirrel because i bumped it against a limb or something in the woods before taking a shot and have it get away in a hole somewhere before i can pump and shoot again.
Guess i could epoxy the whole band to the bbl?
Any suggestions to head this off before it gets worse? My bbl. sure didn't seem to like the shim option!