Hi everyone! Hoping someone will see this. I am just about to get my first hw97k and am planning on doing a good bit of tuning and modding to it. My question is, should I tear it down to degrease immediately or wait until it is broken in?
If it were me I'd put a tin of pellets or two through it as it came out of the box before I tried re-lubing or tuning. You need to be thoroughly familiar with it before you could see any changes from new grease/springs/short-stroking or whatever. It would also mean that your barrel is properly leaded in when you start tuning.
Oh and you want to be able to isolate any possible guarantee issues before you invalidate it by taking your gun to bits.
if your 97 is a i77 use JSB exact "EXPRESS" 4.52 s and you will not need to tune, the JSB "EXPRESS" reduces lock time no end...I was ready to throw mine away till some well seasoned ft/hft shooters told me "EXPRESS" every time ! just give the barrel a pull through ..tune later if u get bored or have spare cash. good shooting mate.