PDI Raven Cylinder/Set

[Patrolpointman]

Hi folks,

I'm not sure if this is common knowledge but I thought I'd bring it to everyone's attention:

I bought a PDI Raven cylinder set for when I made my Kar98k/Bar-10 hybrid and it worked very well. I recently bought a VSR and thought that I'd swap the cylinders about since I can't for the life of me get into the VSR cylinder (even though it has the removable head, might need a vice).
Here's where things come unstuck- for all the quality of PDI, the materials and processes they use are excellent, the Raven cylinder is about 1.5mm longer than the original. This means that without modifying the receiver the bolt handle sits too far back and so you won't be able to pull the trigger if you still have the trigger stop installed (like I do).
Without modifying anything I tried a different tack- I unscrewed the outer barrel one full turn and tried cycling the bolt. It *just* got into battery, I pulled the trigger, it fired but then the trigger sear wouldn't re-set- I had to jimmy the bolt handle a bit to get it to reset. Annoying.

If anyone wants to work around this problem then I'm sure we would appreciate it. I for one will try and work with what I have and see what happens!

Thanks

[Patrolpointman]

Re: PDI Raven Cylinder/Set

UPDATE:

Have taken a file to the back of the receiver so that the bolt handle will return to battery. Another couple of things to note though:

The little sprung catch which stops the trigger from being pulled while the bolt handle is up must be taken out when using this cylinder- this for some reason stops the trigger being pulled fulls top when in the trigger unit.
The last point I'd like to add is that the spring guide stop in the Raven set is about a millimeter too far back to allow the stop to be inserted while the trigger unit is attached to the body- you need to jimmy the spring guide stop into the cylinder while it's in the trigger unit (it makes sense in my head but it may be easier explained if I took some pictures).

[Patrolpointman]

Re: PDI Raven Cylinder/Set

P5030160.jpg

This is just an illustration of what I mean- the part in front of the safety catch needs to be filed down towards the rear to allow the handle to be seated properly.

[MiloXC3]

Re: PDI Raven Cylinder/Set

The PDI cylinders have a slightly larger diameter so it will require being filed down to fit in the reciever. I didn't know it was longer though.

[Patrolpointman]

Re: PDI Raven Cylinder/Set

No modification to the diameter of the receiver- as far as I'm aware, the only time you have to file out the receiver is when you install a bore-up cylinder because, as the name suggests, the bore is bigger. In fact PDI do a bore-up receiver for just such a purpose.

[Patrolpointman]

Re: PDI Raven Cylinder/Set

Right folks, bit of an update on the Raven Cylinder set:

The piston is gash.

Yep, that's right, the piston is made of cheese. Not a hard cheese like gruyere or parmeggiano but soft like a roule or dairylea. I stuck a 330 13mm OD spring in there and the sear won't catch- it just takes chunks out of the piston lip. I've got a full PDI trigger set up in this and although the finish has scratched off of the piston sear, it's still functional.

So a new piston, here we come!

[Patrolpointman]

Re: PDI Raven Cylinder/Set

Update: my mistake, the piston had been scratched by the piston sear making it look like the rim had been rounded off. In actual fact the trigger sear wasn't resetting properly because I forgot to grease this properly *dick*