I took the male Foster fitting back off the Big Bore and broke out my digital calipers. I wanted to see what kind of differences there were in the dimensions; if any.
Sure enough, there was a big difference.
I had to screw the aftermarket Foster Fitting in as far as it would go to keep it from leaking air. Unfortunately, having it screwed in so deeply caused the effect that Butcher eluded to; it was somehow keeping the Air-Reservoir plug for completely sealing.
As a result, the Foster Quick disconnect fittings had full constant PSI pushing against them. That's why I couldn't disconnect them once I'd pumped the PSI up to about 300PSI and above.
The Ace Hardware store down the street had a full selection of rubber O-Rings so I was able to find a slightly larger replacement O-Ring (as well as a few larger sized just-in-case replacement O-Rings) for the face of that Male Foster Fitting.
All is right with the world again.
I cast a few of the Lyman Devastator bullet from the mold that I had opened up. I was anxious to see if they would work in this air rifle. The bullets looked good out of the mold but, when I put my calipers to them I noticed that the tail end that I had opened up to .457 was slightly out of round.
I couldn't wait; I closed all the doors and window of the house and shot a couple of these lyman devastators and a couple of the bullets that JIMinPHX gave me into a box of old tax papers that I've been getting ready to shred. I wanted to see if the rifling was printing onto the tail ends of these cast bullets.
It worked! I could see that the tail ends of my Devastator bullets were engaging the rifling. And just ahead of the lube groove there was just a hint of contact with the rifling. It was the type of rifling imprint you would get from a good "Bore-Rider" bullet setup. The smallest of the bullets that Jim gave me showed a slight trace of rifling imprint but not to much. The others, none at all.
The only down side to this particular bullet is what I stated earlier. When I opened it up to .457 I didn't get a true-round .457. It is presently an oblong-round. It goes from .455 to .457.
I have a couple of Boring-Bars coming in a couple of days. I'll be able to true-up the tail end of my Devastator mold at that time.
With any luck I'll be taking this new toy out next weekend for its maiden rabbit hunt.
HollowPoint