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Thread: Hatsan AT-44 long LW

  1. #1
    Boolit Buddy
    Join Date
    May 2018
    Posts
    321

    Hatsan AT-44 long LW



    Yeah. So this is kind of an oddball. Huh? Yes.. i´ll get to that.
    Picked this one up used for a song, in 25cal with the factory option of a Lothar Walter barrel. As those of you that are regulars here on the airgun board are aware i´m not especially partial to the Hatsans.
    What makes for the exception is when they sport LW barrels. Or.. it MIGHT be.

    So. This one arrived as a basket case in essence. As they´re not especially intricate to the build though, no worries.
    At that i got it with an extra stock, a Huma regulator and what not incl spares in general and what have you.

    Scope tho.. my own.

    If you recall i semi recently did me a Hatsan Nova in 22cal, which for what it´s worth is a tac driver if ever, and the thing is that the Nova uses the same tech setup for loading lever, poppet, valves and what have you as the AT-44. Or.. is claimed to.
    For what it´s worth the more involved i get the further away i strive from anything that does NOT sport a loading lever, and indeed the AT-44 does.
    Issue i´ve got with bolt actions and the likes is that as hammer spring tension gets up there.. it´s not supposed to be a wrestling match to cock a gun and a lever makes away with that.
    Thus..

    Anywhoo..



    Oddball. Yes. Cause see, this is a single shot. From the looks of it Hatsan has made a couple of runs of these, in essence to cater to those into shooting REAL heavy pills why i thought i´d try it out. In 25cal that means pills up to and beyond 70 grains, which in turn will most likely mean.. cast boolits.
    I´ve been meaning to get into that airguns too (already do for my various powder burners so..) and then mainly for the heavier stuff in 22 and 25.
    See no point what so ever going after what can be had dirt cheap already on the vendor shelves.. so we´re strictly talking the "odd ball" stuff here.
    As you can see the loading port of this thing is VASTLY longer than most other PCP´s..
    Which of course brings the Q, why don´t mans make mags that cater to the heavier pills? In Hatsans case... i really don´t know cause their "side rotary" setup they use for for instance the older BT and AT don´t really run any chance what so ever to deform the pills, in contrast to most spring loaded mags for other guns.
    So.. someone plz enlighten me i say!
    That out of the way though, yes. I intend to keep this one as a sorts of mule/test bed to try various ideas.
    It has basically cost me of nothing, sports a really fabled barrel and is set on a platform that.. works.



    Guy i bought it off of told that he´d been down the rabbit hole for real using heavy pills. Well.. BS cause the innards of the gun show no evidence what so ever of having been modified to suit.
    I proceeded to bolt the thing back together.. and filled her up. Took a few with regular 33,9´s.. not exactly the hottest of tunes.
    I´ll tell you that.

    So.



    Same ol´ same ol´... In short the work ahead was what was to be expected. To note here though is that the poppet size sets the limit, really does, in that the major diameter of it runs out at a mere 6mm and that sure ain´t loads for a 25cal.
    In turn the stock replaceable poppet seat out of some funky white plastic sporting a really thin o-ring to seal vs the bore of the valve body.. that thing was still set to 4mm - which is stock.
    Now. The issue at hand is to "get into the good stuff" that renders that both the poppet and the seat needs to be replaced. In turn the diameter of the bore as it runs up towards the seat needs to be opened up as well.
    ..and while at it of course a way softer poppet return spring.
    So the new stuff by me, more according to plan to be blunt. That stylized retainer for the return spring/nut out of anodized aluminium in turn, it sports a No of holes to let air by right..
    Opened that up too.

    Hammer spring in turn needed to come up, severly, and at that i came to fiddle around with the actual hammer in itself too.
    There IS a hammer spring adjuster on these but in contrast to most other guns it resides "the other end" of the hammer and is in short an adjustment screw set into the base of the hammer. In other words.. run a REALLY long allen in there and go at it.
    However.
    As i upped the spring in case for a way more sturdy one that adjustment was out why i opted to turn a fresh base out of aluminium set into the stock rear plastic end cap for the entire enchillada.
    Although press fit i keep that in place with a pair of M3 allen set screws in from the side.

    This made me end up at approx 1000fps using 33.9´s which is STILL way to short why i need to rethink this a bit i believe.
    Of course i could always go the route of setting up a so called balanced valve for it but.. nah. I want to explore this here with common means first. If nothing else to see where that takes me.



    On that note i whipped up a moderator for it while at it. They ARE getting better n better no doubt. This one does not hold a shroud..and Q really is if it needs one.

    That old stock, the grey one, i got as part of the deal has been replaced by a way more adjustable one but looking at pictures i believe that "version" is what these guns are delivered with these days?
    You tell me.

    Anyways. As you can gather the basic idea here is for a "long range" PCP. If that barrel just holds what it promise the idea of mine is to do to it what i did to the approx same barrel on my BT-65 and that is to "de-choke" it, thus setting it up for use with slugs as main fudder.
    As to how this thing will hold up as ranges opens up in other words remains to be seen, but already where we´re at groups at 50 meters shows great promise.

    What i hope for though is both 200 and in turn, if possible with SOME sort of grouping still, 300.

    I´ll get back to you on this one though guys cause..
    ..to be continued.

  2. #2
    Boolit Master Recycled bullet's Avatar
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    Oct 2022
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    718
    That's pretty cool have you optimized the valve and started casting for it?

  3. #3
    Boolit Buddy
    Join Date
    May 2018
    Posts
    321
    Valve has been modified, yes.
    Nope. No casting yet. Most likely that´ll take me a little while before i get to that.

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Abbreviations used in Reloading

BP Bronze Point IMR Improved Military Rifle PTD Pointed
BR Bench Rest M Magnum RN Round Nose
BT Boat Tail PL Power-Lokt SP Soft Point
C Compressed Charge PR Primer SPCL Soft Point "Core-Lokt"
HP Hollow Point PSPCL Pointed Soft Point "Core Lokt" C.O.L. Cartridge Overall Length
PSP Pointed Soft Point Spz Spitzer Point SBT Spitzer Boat Tail
LRN Lead Round Nose LWC Lead Wad Cutter LSWC Lead Semi Wad Cutter
GC Gas Check