Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year

Well I hope you all had a splendid Christmas and are going to have an even better New Year! This year, the Angry Angry Gun Company is planning on catching up on all those old air rifles I have sitting around in my airing cupboard, I know I have been slacking of late and it's time I put a stop to that.

Weihrauch HW 35 Luxus, needs a good looking over internally

Webley Hawk MkII rear sight needs fixing but it shoots a dream with a scope on. Bit of a clean up wouldn't do it any harm either.

BSA Meteor, might have a go at cold bluing this one.

ASI Sniper, it shoot a dream with a scope on.

Heanel Mod 1, rear sight and main spring as well as safety.

SMK 15, Most likely sell it as there is not a lot to improve successfully.

I plan to fish out my .177 Air Arms Shamal and get into a bit of HFT since my other half has bought me a voucher for four sessions at my local shooting club(bless her cotton socks).

The Air Arms Shamal in .177, has been known to shoot the nads off a gnat in flight.

She also got me a tactical vest in olive with pouches for 8 M4 mags, 4 pistol mag pouches, a chest pistol holster and numerous other bits and bobs i've yet to discover a use for, so now i've got a more up to date set up for my airsoft and steel plate challenge. Sure looks the dog's bollocks with my M4, Berreta 92, and Sig P226, and I don't have to use my DMP's and 58 webbing all the time. It's also an excuse to make some more steel plate targets!

OK. It's more a Taurus than a Beretta.

The Sig X5 is a hoot to shoot.

The Cyber Gun AEG M4 is cheap but does me fine for now.

Well, there is fun to be had in the new year and I hope you get to have some too. Have a Happy New Year one and all and above all please try to remember where you hid those bodies.

TTFN

Best wishes, Wing Commander Sir Nigel Tetlington-Smythe. 

BFPU and the Distressed look Airsoft DPMS Panther Arms 'Kitty Kat' M4

Amongst the real steel automatic rifle community, the practice of letting their rifles look like they're used and worn has become more and more popular of late. This is achieved naturally over many years of use in action; creating dents and scratches from dropping them, leaning them against walls or rocks, and wearing down the painted or blued coating from constant handling. This is known as 'battle field pick up', where a gun owner can buy a used rifle that has seen decades of use. A small percentage have inherited rifles from their fathers and these are worn from use; these are the better ones as they have most likely been well maintained and lovingly cared for whereas the former have often been abused by disgruntled squadies.

However there are short cuts to this 'distressed look' effect. This can be achieved by taking a new rifle and scrubbing the steel with variouse grades of wire wool, paying attention to the parts that are handled more. Or you can create the effect using enamel or ceramic based paints with an airbrush or feather brushing, this tends to be more for looks than practicality. A joke amongst gun owners is that if you want to make a brand new gun look old, simply take 20 foot of rope, said new gun and a car; tie one end of the rope to the trigger guard and the other to the back of a truck and drive for five miles up a dirt track!

The majority of Airsoft gun owners would have to use paint and a spray gun, feather brush or sponge, because as most Airsoft guns are made of plastic there simply is no other way. The more exspensive airsoft guns that have cast or milled aluminium bodies could be force worn with wire wool, though a more realistic look would be achieved with a selection of enamel paints; steel and aluminium look quite different when exposed.

I recently purchased a new plastic AEG airsoft gun for around £50, the Cyber Gun DPMS 'Kitty Kat' M4 with Panther Arms trademarks. 

Also comes in two tone clear and black in the UK, along with batteries , cheap charger, crap .12g BB's, and that all handy unjamming/cleaning rod.

It's a short AR used generally for CQB, and using a pot of dark silver enamel paint I lightly feather brushed it to look worn. 

Still had gun metal silver paint on the brush when iIadded a mud effect for the polymer stock, it's been removed since this picture was taken.

I used light tan paint to give a slightly dusty/dirty used appearance. You can really go to town if you want to give it a post apocolyptic or Steam Punk look.

White spirit is good for cleaning grease off the gun before starting as well as cleaning the brushes after, the box it came in made a good stand for the gun whilst treating it.

Feather brushing involves a large art brush with paint on it, 

Don't put too much paint on the brush.

the paint is mostly worked off by stroking the brush vigorously back and forth over some card. 

Work off the paint till there is the lightest amount on the brush - the brush can be topped up from this patch as well.

When there is the lightest hint of paint on the brush it is worked back and forth over the gun.

Flick the brush back and forth vigorously over all the parts that should be metal with gun metal silver paint, a smaller brush is good for scratch effects.

Most paint sticks to the edges, corners, and high spots leaving the flat inner areas darker. It's more effective if the open areas where the hands and fingers handle the gun regularly are given extra attention, such as above the pistol grip where the web of your hand goes, the front of the mag well and the controls for the fire select, mag release, charging handle, forward assist, weaver rail, and sight adjustment.

The magazine on this model is a high capacity one made of metal, along with sling studs and inner barrel.

Repeat brushing over areas of more wear and tear until happy, you can always rub down with a cloth before the paint really sets if too much is applied.

It's pretty accurate out to 35 yards shooting 280 FPS with 0.20g plastic BB's, it has a working fire select and mag catch for the metal hi cap mag and the charging handle drops the dust cover to reveal the hop up.  

Hop up behind the dust cover which flips down when the charging handle is pulled, I know there is a bit too much paint there but it's done no harm.

It will easily hit a small body size shape at this distance, and with the hop up adjusted correctly it will hit a 12 inch square plate at 35 yards nearly every time. The majority of AEG's in this price range are lucky to get 150 FPS with 0.20 g BB's, so i'm actually very impressed with how this gun performs.

A very, very cheap H&K G36 copy made by Double Eagle.

The body is two molded plastic halves screwed together with a seperate three position crane stock. This wider style of stock is ideal for wiring the batteries to the rear of the gun.

The butt stock has to be in the exact position otherwise the release lever rattles about.

Slide the butt pad down and the compartment for the 7.2 volt nunchuck style batteries is revealed.

It does have plenty of seperate short sections of weaver rail that screw on and hide a lot of joins. 

Plenty of rail space for such a short gun.

However the gearbox and gears as well as the piston are plastic, which does mean that it will not stand a lot of abuse without breaking down. You get what you pay for, though in this case the materials are of a better quality than most other AEG's of this price range.

Both front and rear sights are removable from the weaver rails and made from tough plastic, with the rear sight being flip up and adjustable for windage with a choice of four different sized holes. 

A choice of four different size appertures on the rear sight, and adjustment for windage.

The front sight is your archetypal AR sight but has no adjustment for height as it's just molded. 

Non adjustable front sight post, niether hop up or moving the sights further apart sorted out the high shot placement. Unless shooting .28g BB's at 30 yards.

From the box the gun was shooting way too high no matter how I adjusted the hop up or distance between sights, so a thin section of black electrical wire with the copper removed was slipped over the front sight to raise it and now it's spot on.

Rubber tubing slipped over the front post was the only quick fix to hand.

I like the look of it now it has been given a distressed look, it certainly makes the controls that are just mouldings look a little more realistic. For a first attempt it's not that bad at all, the fact that I used to make and paint plenty of Airfix military models as a kid probably helped a lot. I have an old, old Cyma MP5 which I will attempt next, this thing is lucky if it reaches 100 FPS with 0.20g BB's so I might have a look inside first. 

Old Cyma AEG's were of very poor quality unlike the stuff they put out nowadays, however metal wieghts gave them a good heft.

The thing I do like about the low capacity magazine is that it fires every last BB it holds, which makes a pleasant change from having 3 or 4 BB's fall out every time you drop the mag.

Low capacity magazines usually found on spring guns use every last BB.

  
These things are technically airguns so hit the criteria for this blog, be it not very powerful airguns at all. But they do shoot plastic BB's fairly accurately and that's good enough for me, however I will draw the line at Nerf guns (for the time being).

TTFN

Best wishes, Wing Commander Sir Nigel Tetlington-Smythe.

P.S. My 5 year old daughter had a go at archery recently and really liked it, so she now wants an archery setup for Christmas. This is wicked as I like archery as well, though I haven't done it for years. Might be some blogs in it as well.

The Hunger Games series of films has a lot to answer for, not a bad thing in this case.

  

.22 Sharp Innova, A Restoration Project. Fitting New O Ring Seals To The Loading Bolt

Removing the bolt from the Sharp Innova can be a time consuming, tedious job; the majority is easy but the the little catch spring can be a total bitch to remove. This job could lead to thoughts of homicide or even suicide, but just count to ten and take deep controlled breaths and all should be well.

First, remove the the small flat head screw that holds the catch in place; this sits below and to the left of the loading bolt.

OK boys and girls, are we ready to begin? This is the arse end of the Innova action.

This small flat head screw is about 15 mm long, when I was unscrewing it I didn't think this screw would end.

Okay it's off centre but it is the right sized flat head.

Once the screw is out of the way, the bolt catch is free to move out of the left hand side, however the return spring will only allow a small amount of movement.

Tap the catch this way to make removing the catch spring easier.

I used a small pair of tweezers to pull the return spring out of it's recess point in the catch, this was not easy and needed a lot of care, time and patience.

Tease that catch spring down, it's a real pain but it can be done.

To remove the catch, the bolt has to be alternately pushed with a screwdriver and pulled with pliers, this also needs special care and attention.

Catch return spring out the way to make it easier for the catch to come out.

When the catch does finally come out, be aware that the loading bolt and srping are going to come flying out, so be careful to catch the buggers.

All the bolt gubbins once removed; there's supposed to be a tiny spring somewhere but fuck knows where that's gone.

Get the replacement seals ready for fitting; they usually come in .22 and .177 and the bolt needs two of whatever calibre you need, so I chose the larger two of the four I had on hand.

Replacement O rings in .22 and .177.

I prised the old seals off the loading bolt, they might not have looked worn but they were.

Prise those old knackered O rings off

Then applying a load of silicone grease over the two new replacement seals, I slipped them into place.

Lots of silicone grease and the two O rings just slip over, you don't really need loads of grease, it's just my preference.

I then popped the catch return spring into place ready for returning the loading bolt, though some might find it easier to do this after the bolt is in place.

If you do fuck the catch return spring up it can be replaced by a spring from a Bic lighter.

Then I slid the loading bolt return spring over the tip of the loading bolt and pushed it back into the bolt hole, it's important to push it in all the way ...

The bolt will only return if the nub at the bottom is aligned with the hole.

... this is because the bolt catch can pass through the recess in the bolt when returning it into the left hand side of the breech. Once the catch is in place you will need to tease the catch return spring back into it's recess, this is reletively easy compared to removing the bloody thing!

With the bolt pushed in the catch returns back pretty easily.

Now somehow, magically, the catch sits in the perfect place so it is lined up for the screw to be threaded into place; no waggling or teasing, it just sits there and the screw goes right on through and is ready for screwing in. 

That is one long naffing screw.

Once I had finished it, I put it over the chronoscope; low and behold, the loading bolt seals were losing me around one and a half ft/lb.

RWS Superdomes gave 11.6 ft/lb with 6 fps spread over ten shots.

Air Arms Diabolos gave me a high of 11.9 ft/lb with a 10 fps spread over ten shots.

5.6mm Eley Wasps gave 11.8 ft.lb with an 8 fps spread, though one did go over 12 ft/lb increasing the spread to 23 fps, but I put that one down to a freak of nature.

H&N Field Trophies gave 11.3 ft/lb with a spread of 10 fps.

So there you have it, I could not be more happier with results like these! Not as easy as refurbing the exhaust valve with all the fiddly bits, but a lot easier than having to sit through the Jeremy Kyle show.

That's it for now.


TTFN


Best wishes, Wing Commander Sir Nigel Tetlington-Smythe

.22 Sharp Innova, A Restoration Project. Fixing The Trigger And Sear

The sear block has a slight movement back and forth where it sits in it's housing, so to cure this I thought I would put a shim in there. Too thick and the sear would not return on its spring; too thin would make no difference whatsoever.

See how the back of the trigger pushes the sear block upwards?

So to start with, I tap the pivot pin for the trigger out most of the way until the trigger could be removed.

Gently tap out the pivot pin for the trigger.

With that done, the sear and return spring came out of the housing. 

This sear has different dimensions from the one that comes with the sear liner.

Then, with a small screw driver, I worked the metalplate out from an access point on the side ...

Unhook the steel liner from this point and out it comes.

... this is there to stop wear and tear on the plastic in the breach, this is L shaped with a a small tab to lock it in place.

The sprung steel liner stops wear and tear on the plastic of the breech

I cut a number of shaped pieces from thin plastic from a disposable food carton; these were placed between the metal and the plastic wall of the housing. 

I had to take the rifle apart to get the sear out as it was wedged in with too many shims, bloody nightmare that was.

I found one was perfect; when I tried two it was too tight and believe me it took a fair bit of effort to free the sear from where it had wedged itself in. So back to one shim and in went the spring ...

One thin plastic shim was perfect.

... the sear and then the trigger was lined up and the pivot pin was tapped back into place.

Line up the hole in the trigger and the pivot pin and gently tap in with a rubber mallet.

The trigger works fine now with no free movement of the sear back and forth, I could've got away without doing it but why the hell not?! Besides, you get to see how the trigger and sear assembly is put together.

All the best.

Wing Commander Sir Nigel Tetlington-Smythe