A few initial thoughts on the S&T no. 4 after owning it for a week or so, albeit not yet using it in anger.
Finish - pretty good. Wood tone isn't too 'cherry red', although there are a few blemishes where the finish hasn't been applied too well. I wish they had bothered to get the saw dust out of the grooves in the top piece as well, before immortalising the dust by being forever set within the applied varnish. Rearmost wooden top piece does move about a bit. Metal work is nice.
Action - adequate, but not great. Mine chronos at 400fps on a 0.2, and the bolt is significantly harder to work than my 2.3j L96. I understand that this is usually down to a poor spring that is distorted out of the box - and can be rectified with the addition of a TM L96 spring. The rear of the bolt was also wobbly upon receipt - I needed to remove the fake cocking piece, then access an allen head bolt hidden inside the back of the bolt in order to tighten it up. The cocking piece doesn't reliably cock back on every cycle of the bolt - if the rear of the bolt is lifted as it is returned forward.
Accuracy - actually, not bad. Very consistent at circa 50m with 0.32s. The only problem is, it is shooting low and left - and there appears to be no way of adjusting either the front or rear sight on the no.4.
Plans for it - Jaeger Precision spring guide and piston on its way to me. I'll pop a thrust bearing on the back of the spring guide, and team with a L96 m150 spring. The spring guide, bearing, and better spring should sort the bolt pull out, and with the heavier piston, I should be able to propel heavier BBs better. I'll swap a Maple Leaf Autobot bucking in, and I'm currently investigating the best barrel to pop in there - internet wisdom seems to be that the very small cylinder volume (6cm of piston travel) means that you need to go shorter than the 570mm stock inner barrel - I'm thinking of a 400mm male leaf VSR cut barrel (which I might then need to internally shim to get it shooting straight in the absence of adjustable sights!). At some point, I will inevitably sand the wood down, re-stain (light oak might be nice), and oil - but given how good it looks to me at the moment, that's not high on the list.
Not having owned a VSR - am I right in thinking that for this (loosely) VSR compatible platform, I need to specifically seek out a VSR cut replacement barrel rather than any GBB cut barrel?
