break barrel springers

[buffermop]

Would it hurt the gun to leave it in a loaded position for a short time. Waiting for that pesky squirrel who keeps coming back and cleans out my suet block bird feeder.

[mtdotcomm]

I dont leave mine cocked and loaded for more than a couple of hours waiting for starlings. Some will till you never to do this, others while squirrel hunting will leave a springer/brake barrel cocked all day if they have to. Leaving it cocked will eventualy weaken the spring. So, it depends on whom you talk to.
There is plenty of forums on line that discuss springers. 

[woodchukhntr]

I dont leave mine cocked and loaded for more than a couple of hours waiting for starlings. Some will till you never to do this, others while squirrel hunting will leave a springer/brake barrel cocked all day if they have to. Leaving it cocked will eventualy weaken the spring. So, it depends on whom you talk to.
There is plenty of forums on line that discuss springers. 

I have been using them for years and agree with bdlm77.  Springs will weaken over time when compressed, some faster than others.  You can get anal about leaving them cocked for more than a short time, but then there are people that get anal about most things.  I wouldn't leave one stored with the spring cocked, but for a day's hunt, it isn't a concern to me.  I wonder if anyone is anal about having the firing pin spring cocked in their loaded rifle for a long time when hunting?

[jlwilliams]

  What I will sometimes do with a springer that I want ready fast is leave a pellet in the chamber, with the action not cocked.  Just break it enough to put the pellet in but not enough to cock to powerplant.  That way you can pick it up, cock it an fire it faster than you could if you had to load it, but you still aren't leaving a cocked and loaded shooter leaning in a corner.  Partly becasue of possable spring creep, partly safety.

[S.S.]

  What I will sometimes do with a springer that I want ready fast is leave a pellet in the chamber, with the action not cocked.  Just break it enough to put the pellet in but not enough to cock to powerplant.  That way you can pick it up, cock it an fire it faster than you could if you had to load it, but you still aren't leaving a cocked and loaded shooter leaning in a corner.  Partly becasue of possable spring creep, partly safety.

+1

[lamerabbit]

Actually gas ram type rifles like the RX and the Theoben can be left cocked for sometime, but on the steel spring guns it is a bad idea.  Years ago, I was hunting rabbits with my fwb 124 and left cocked for a couple of hours, no wascal wabbits showed up, all I got for my trouble was a rifle that had lost a lot of velocity.   It went for shooting at 800 down to 650, in that 2 hours.  Some other springs might not go south so fast, but it is a very bad idea to leave them cocked for more than a few minutes.  All the spring best spring gunners that I know swap or replace their springs every few years. This does not mean that they won’t last a much longer time, but these guys shoot several hundred rounds a week out of their guns.  Anyway after that I always left a pellet in the barrel, and left the barrel just broke open, as mentioned in a earlier post.  But to answer your question, you could probably out wait your tree rat, as in that situation minutes seem like hours.........

Jim

[JPShelton]

Ever seen the movie "True Grit"?  There's Duke, in the courtroom, getting the business from a defense lawyer and a judge when, in response to the defense council's questions about the status of his side arm upon approaching the bad guys, he states that 'A gun that ain't loaded and cocked ain't good for nothin'.

I've been shooting springers for over three decades.  In the field, I carry them cocked for hours on end, sometimes, but I'm generally shooting at game within a half-hour of leaving my rig, so I reckon I don't leave it cocked all day long.  Carrying my rifles in battery probably DOES shorten the life of my mainsprings, but I replace the mainsprings and seals on my rifles bi-annually as a matter of course, anyhow, so neither I or anything I shoot with them seem to notice any serious degredadation in performance.

That said, most of my spring-piston experience (aside from a pair of Webley Omegas back in the day and a more recent flirtation with a Theoben Crusader) has been with R-Series Beemans.

YMMV, and all of that.......

-JP

[lamerabbit]

"three decades" Your still a young in!  But what does "YMMV, and all of that......."

I don't know cause all I speak is English, however sometimes I don'r speak a little redneck..... but just a little

[JPShelton]

"three decades" Your still a young in!  But what does "YMMV, and all of that......."

I don't know cause all I speak is English, however sometimes I don'r speak a little redneck..... but just a little

YMMV = Your Milage May Vary.......

-JP

[lamerabbit]

We’re driving airgun to work now,  gees’ the economy is really, really bad………

[Macphoto]

A FWB 124 with factory spring is compressed quite a bit, just with the preload, maybe 35-40%.  Tom Gaylord did a great article on spring fatigue a few years back and the results were negligible.  My best guess is that if you left it cocked for a day and it lost power, the spring had already reached the end of it's life anyway.