A Calm Sunny Day For Testing The Springers

 

And Walking The Dog.

 

"Take some guns and that bloody dog and go down the woods, he needs some exercise", said the wife to me the other day. Well i didn't need telling twice that's for sure. 

Scatterbone never waits like this for a walk, as soon as i pick up a rifle and my camo jacket he starts bouncing around like a maniac.

So the s410 goes in one gun slip and and the Mercury and Hawk fit in another, pellets in one shoulder bag and target board and resettable rat target in another and of we go. Except no it's not as i just realised i hadn't cleaned the barrel of the Mercury, i did the Hawk the other day and it was gleaming now as it was in a right state before. They both needed a clean as i wanted to test for long range accuracy, so it's out the slip, given a good clean, re slipped grabbed my binoculars, and put the lead on Scatterbone.

Picture doesn't do it justice as the cloths were much dirtier than they look here.

After a 15 minute walk with a fair weight of air rifles over my shoulder most of which Scats was off the lead and sniffing about, 

Walkies.

we get to the bottom woods where i unload the rifles and threw some stuff for the dog.

Kit unloaded and the dog retrieving a stick or something.

I found a nice spot with a good 30 yards clear between two large trees with the land sloping down from my right, 

Have to be careful of cant when shooting across a slope like this. oh, and the rifle was empty when i took this picture.

i walked over to the far tree and erected the resettable target and the thick hardboard target only to realise i'd forgotten the paper, pen, and tape. Oh well i suppose i could use the AA s410 to mark an aim point an see how the springers would do, this was just to get a rough idea of their accuracy and suss out the best hold for these rifles.

This needs a repaint as i can't see the circle that easily at distances beyond 25 yards, in fact it's easier to hit the reset bar.

.

First up was the .22 BSA Mercury with a Nikko Sterling 3-9x40 AO scope with off set mounts, 

.22 BSA Mercury in need of a polish and the stock sanding and oiling.

i chose to use RWS Superdomes as they had given the best results in the past.

Superdomes do well in the majority of air rifles, so do Crosman Premier but i ran out of those.

After lining the barrel by shooting at the resettable target quite successfully as it happens, i took 8 shots at the board from 30 yards.

A pretty good group from 8 pellets and i could most likely do better, the pellet on the left was my point of aim.

I used a kneeling stance with my fore arm resting on my forward facing knee allowing me to support the rifle in front of the trigger guard with the fleshy part of my palm, the butt rested in my shoulder lightly and the pistol grip was held gently as i squeezed the trigger. This way i was completely relaxed as i exhaled and the crosshairs lowered to the point of aim, which showed that this old British springer was very accurate if handled right with the right pellet. I tried using Eley Wasps No 2 but they just went every where but the point of aim, I suppose they're alright for helping me run the piston O ring seal in.

Don't think i'll be getting these again.

Now it was time to try the .177 Webley Hawk with a Range Right 4x32 and Hawke medium double screw mounts and i had got some .177 superdomes for it also as Wadcutters are a bit naff past 25 yards, the first shot sounded like a bloody rimfire going off as there was most likely a spot of cleaning oil left around the breech.

.177 Webley Hawk Mk II looks promising, but only time will tell.

A wipe and a few shots and the dieseling had abated, she was looking tidier as i found a hood for the front sight off an Innova which fitted just peachy. But what an idiot i was as i had forgotten about the scope creep and hadn't remedied the problem, however the first few shots grouped well then the pellets started to rise up the board as the scope started to shift once more. Mind you they did it in a straight line which looked promising , but i felt the scope didn't have enough magnification for this test so next time i'll use AGS 3-9x40 with the one piece mounts.

What to do now i thought, i think i'll put half a tin of pellets through the Mercury at the resettable target from standing, kneeling, and prone at different ranges.

Scope on x9 mag and sighting on the resettable target.

This proved very satisfactory, of course not every shot was successful but the practice sure helped and i could see i was improving. The s410 carbine was fully charged at 180 bar so i did the same with this to a much more successful result, i used three magazines worth of AA Diabolos then tried another two with Falcon Accuracy Plus.

Out came the Falcons for a test.

The Falcons dropped into the mag easily as the Diabolos were5,52 mm and sometimes needed seating, the idea was to have a pellet that at 13.4 gr would have slightly flatter trajectory than the Diabolos which are 16 gr. But the jury is still out an that one as pellets in the field don't always cut the mustard like they would punching paper, besides as accurate as they maybe the Diabolos and N&N Fields are definately more accurate but they still performed well on the resettable target.

 By now the target board was riddled with holes and it was impossible to show any interesting groupings, though what i did notice was that the .22 PCP had a lot more down range power as any pellet that hit it just ripped through leaving a massive exit hole.

Time flies when your having fun and after four hours it was time to head back, so i loaded up my rifles and kit and taking my rubbish with us we took the longer route back. 

The walk back looking remarkably similar to the walk there, seen one Cotwolds green lane, you've seen them all.

I would have been even longer if i had set up the Webley Hawk properly in the first place. Any way there's plenty of time to to do that again and when i get my chronoscope fixed i can test the springers and see what figures the s410 is giving.

TTFN

Wing Commander Sir Nigel Tetlington-Smythe


 

 

 

Webley Hawk Mk II Accuracy

And General Handling.

4x32 Range Right scope fitted to the Webley Hawk and one unimpressed pooch

Now i'm happy with how the Webley Hawk is performing after a little tinkering, it's time to see just how accurate she can be with what ever .177 pellets i have. All pellets sit deep in the breech when loading, but there is no more than 10 FPS variation in velocity. I perfer pellets to sit firm and flush in the breech, but in this case i'm going to have to make a tool to seat them the same depth each time which should reduce some of the variation in velocity. I always felt that deep seating a pellet increases the transfer port size and effects a rifles power, though that is not always the case.

Making dinner while changing the main spring

With both inner and outer Relum main springs fitted the rifle takes a little more effort to cock than before, though i'm happy to note that it hasn't made the rifle any harsher to fire. 

Inner and outer Relum spring replacing the tired original with top hat, the inner spring bound up with the top hat.

To much preload to guide by hand

Blood on spring compressor to prove the point.

A block of wood helped guide the spring.

Fitted on 1st attempt.

The trigger has no first stage travel and breaks cleanly without pulling the shot, just like my other 1970's British springers. The off hand balances the rifle about four inches in front of the trigger guard, 

Point of balance shows the rifle is front heavy.

 this is at the end of the the cocking slot on the stock which is pretty long because of the one piece cocking link. 

Very long cocking slot.

The rifle is front heavy because it sits in a Mk III stock and not the Mk II it should have, 

Trigger catches on the Mk III trigger guard.

and because of this i turned the trigger guard around to give the trigger some clearence. 

Before.

After, trigger doesn't catch on the guard.

Though whether this gives the rifle a little more pull length i'm not sure, it's certainly comfortable for me to shoulder and my cheek rests on the combe without having to stoop my neck.

Because the rear sight is not adjustable for windage until i can repair it and probably fill a whole blog on it's own, 

Rear sight in need of repair.

i fitted the Range Right 4x32 scope which gives a clear and crisp view as it did to great effect when i used it for hunting with the Sharp Innova. 

4x32 scope will sight the rifle.

It's just unfortunate i only have barrel cleaning rods for .22 as the barrel could do with a good clean, though i do have a brass wire brush in .177 i will have to wait till i get some cleaning patches to clean it properly.

The brass brush alone will not clean the barrel thouroughly.

Using a left over cardboard box as a target and for sighting in the scope i went down the woods where it wasn't blowing a gale, 

Old boxes left over from Xmas are good for target practice.

five shots had it sighted in enough for me to test the grouping. I hadn't cleaned the barrel so whatever groups i achieved would improve when i got around to cleaning it, but for now it would give me a fair idea of how it would shoot even though my off hand wasn't in exactly the same place for all shots. Out of the AA Diabolo's, H&N Field Trophies and Geco Wadcutters i found the 

In the woods and ready for target practice.

Geco's to be the most accurate at 15 yards, giving me a two pence size group every time if i sat with my back to a tree holding the rifle gently and supporting my off hand on my knee. 

Pretty good for 15 yards with a dirty barrel.

There was very mild surge and recoil so following through was easy. however at 30 yards there was too much crosswind and the wadcutters loose it at that distance. What i did discover was that the scope had crept back 3 mm along the dovetails while testing the rifle, i suppose i will have to fit it more securely next time or invest in a scope stop.

Have to do something about that scope shift.

Happy with these results i headed back home where i cleaned the barrel by pushing a .177 brass wire brush through the barrel, using some Map Pro 7 gun cleaning oil on the end of 3 mm thick metal wire being careful not to touch the rifling. I repeated this about ten times then pushed through small squares of dried baby wipes, the first one came out filthy so i repeated this till they came out clean. 

Yep! that barrel was pretty dirty alright.

Looking down the barrel i could see a marked difference as it was now clean an very shiney, all i need to do now is put some pellets down it to coat the rifling before i test it again. I also need to take it out more often so i can find a hold that is constant from shot to shot, as with all my springers that would be supporting the stock in front of the trigger guard with my off hand.

Ready for a retest.

Now all i have to do is wait for a less blustery day or find a more sheltered part of the woods, until then..

TTFN

Wing Commander Sir Nigel Tetlington-Smythe

Trigger reassembly

This is how safety, sear, trigger, and two springs should sit inside the trigger housing.

Slide in safety, fit spring in sear pin hole then fit in housing,  with the aid of needle nose pliers line up spring loop over the sear hole and safety hole in trigger housing, then insert pin.. Sear pin first, followed by safety pin.

Fit circlips to secure pins.

Use pliers to get sear in correct position and fit trigger with return spring in place, then insert pin through housing hole, safety, and trigger.

Fit final circlip to the trigger and you should be ready to go, if not just try it again till you get it right eventually.

And that's how it's done