Two Breakbarrels, Big and Small

 Today I shall take a look at two break barrels, and see the odd bits of repair that have been done to them to get them up and running. Both guns are classics in their own right and deserve a little TLC at least, so here is what has been done so far to the Original Mod 16, and BSA Mercury mk11.

Diana/Mod 16 with BSA Mercury and scope

Firstly I picked up the Mod 16 which was looking in fair condition, but alas when i cocked, loaded a pellet and fired it, the pellet did not move more than two inches down the barrel. The Mod 16 is a small rifle made from pressed steel with a brass smooth bore inner barrel. It has a leather piston seal and a large leather breach seal on the cylinder which runs flush with the inner barrel and the large outer barrel - the outer barrel is a a tad smaller in diameter than the piston cylinder. The cocking linkage is pressed steel with a notch that locks onto a pin under the cylinder, you can cock it with one finger once unlatched. Cosmetically it just needs a paint job as the wooden stock is in pretty good nick.

Mod 16 breach and sight

Large leather breach seal on barrel and liner

Barrel catch is the loop piston lever

To get it working I popped a few drops of synthetic oil on the breach seal to rejuvinate it, and a little bit more of the same down the transfer port to put some life back into the piston seal. I then stored it barrel up for 18 hours to let the oil soak into the leather, and sure enough it fired just fine after that. I was getting 1 1/2 inch groups at 10 yards with the simple open sights, but I knew it should do a lot better than this. This is a junior rifle and is working just dandy at at the moment, but it does need a new spring and piston seal really. I reckon I can get away with soaking the leather in WD/40 then oil to bring it back to its former glory.

Tis a dinky lil' rifle, and pooch

Mod 16 shoulder stock

Pressed steel trigger

Whole barrel presses onto leather breach seal

Getting on to the BSA Mercury ... I find an air rifle that looks in a tidy condition, the bluing is fine and the stock just has a few surface dinks on it. The Airsporter is basically the underlever version of the Mercury and has the same trigger unit that creates a flowing curve from the piston cylinder to the stock, which makes for a a rather sexy looking air rifle in my mind. However, at one point someone has pulled the trigger while the rifle was cocked open, resulting in a very noticeable bend in the barrel at the breech. Also the rifle has had the open sights removed at some time, the jaws holding the breech are slack so the barrel moves from side to side a little, and the original spring has been taken out and replaced by one from a SMK B2. Why? I don't know, but it's sure easy to cock and probably produces about 8 ft/lb if it's in a good mood.

Smooth flowing lines of a Mercury

Ventilated rubber shoulder pad

So the first thing i did was to remove the stock, then tapping out the pivot pin i removed the barrel from the action. Clamping the breech end in a vice putting pieces of leather between the vice jaws and barrel to protect it, i used a piece of pipe slipped over the barrel till it came just short of the bend then pushed like mad till the barrel looked straight. Metal used to make gun barrels needs to be fairly soft, so it wasn't that hard a job to do. Using a long metal rule i held it flush to the barrel to see if any fine adjustments were needed, of which two or three were needed but the barrel was now true.

Straightened out barrel

Breach seal still in good nick

For fixing the barrel side play i used dial calipers to check if the jaws were out of alignment, and sure enough they were. By using the 90 degree angle on the end of a small rule i found out which jaw was bent, and again i used the vice to remedy this. By placing a 5 mm piece of metal at the end of the bent jaw i close the vice around both jaws and the end of the piston cylinder, on releasing the vice the jaw sprung back but only so far as to make a tight fit for the breech. Whoopee! Problem solved.

Articulated linkage on piston rod

I then slapped a Crosman 4x20 scope on it and it fired on target no problem, the only problem is that the scope is rather short and i have to crane my neck to use it, and the magnification is more like x2. With a lot of older BSA's in .22 the bore is a tad wider than most other .22's, so i found that using Eley Wasp no2 pellets work the best as they are 5.6 mm as opposed to 5.5 mm.

Cheap Crosman scope soon to be removed when i get something better

Some time soon i will get to sevicing and tuning the springers, but for now they seem to be doing fine. It's all down to when i can afford to buy the spares and springs for them, so it looks like i'll be doing a fair bit of busking to finance this air gun habit of mine.

Trigger guard needs a spot of paint i think

TTFN

Salutations, Wing Commander Sir Nigel Tetlington-Smythe O.B.E.

Goodbye Norica Quick

Yep, it sure is a Norica

A friend of ours was looking for an air rifle recently, so the wifey tells him, "Oh, his Lordship has a load of them, I'm sure he'll have one that you might want". So after a bit of Facebook chat he wants one for hunting and out of the .177 Norica Quick, the .22 BSA Meteor, and the .22 Relum Tornado, he decides on the Norica. Which is just as well as the other two need a lot more tidying up before i would let them go to a friend, and besides it's knocking out H&N field trophies at 11.5 ft/lb and there would be no way in hell i would be able to get the other two above 10 ft/lb with out short stroking the piston or some other drastic measure.

Norica looking sexy with it's new scope, and unpainted new underlever catch

In the previous blog on the Norica i told you the under lever catch was missing, it was held on by two M3 screws and had temporarily screwed a turned round of aluminium with an indent for the ball to catch. Around that was a sleeve of tubing to slide over the tip of the lever so the lever would not pop off when it was fired, i was only using one screw so it moved a bit then fell off eventually. A total bodge job if truth be told, but it was only a make shift measure. Now it has a piece of round steel held on by two screws with loctite to secure them, an indent for the ball catch, and the sleeve of round pipe to hide the screw holes. The lever holds perfectly, and i painted it black to match the dark bluing of the barrel and lever. Spare parts are impossible to find in the UK, not even Chambers Gun Spares have any thing but a decent exploded diagram, which is pretty handy for dismantling, lubing, and repairs. A spot of Locktite fixed the the split on the rubber buttpad, 'simples (squeek)'

As it used to look with no scope and the old bodged catch

It was suggested that our friend buy a scope and have it sent to me so i could mount it, add shims if needed, and sight it in. I recommended a 3-9x40 or 50 as the larger objective lense lets in more light and gives you a bigger field of view, an illuminated recticle as he would most definatly be hunting at dusk, night, and dawn, and adjustable objective would be a handy thing to have though not the end of the world with out it. I suggested Nikko Sterling, Hawke, and AGS as pretty good value scopes, and i must of mentioned the Nikko Sterling Mountmaster AO IR 3-9x50 because that's what the postman delivered a week later. An excellent winning bid on Ebay, boxed and most likely used once if at all, lucky bugger.

Nikko Sterling Mountmaster with Hawke high mounts

It tells you all you need to know in one spot, very handy indeed

The scope has mil dots and red and green adjustable IR, personally i perfer duplex crosshairs or 30 30 crosshairs but i found these mil dots a good second choice as they were very fine and didn't completely cover the bullseye at 27 yards. I did have to use four shims from an aluminium can on the rear mount to keep the vertical adjustment turret knob central, i find if any adjustment knobs are dialed most of the way out the erector tube holding the recticle can move when springer fires. The spring on the other side of the turret knob is to loose and the erector tube will move slightly on each shot and change your point of impact (POI), there is enough slaming around on each shot to make your scope slide off the rails. So those clever little Spanish airgun designers put a scope stop that screws on the rear of the piston cylinder, this is just as well as the open rear sights have a minute bit of side to side play. Which is no biggey when your shooting tin cans at 30 yards , but just don't make the grade when you want a clean kill on a bunny scratching his butt at 30 yards.

Just to show the clarity, it was not mounted so the ferrets were safe

Nice fine mil dots unlike some cheap scopes

The trigger pull is very heavy, in fact so heavy that it effects the accuracy to a degree, the trigger is a direct sear trigger which means that trigger and seal are one piece. So it looks like i will be giving it a tune and a looksee at what i can do about lightening the trigger pull, i reckon it will still be stiff but not as bad as it is now. Roll on another blog then.

A closer look at how sexy gun and scope look together

TTFN

Happy Days, Wing Commander Sir Nigel Tetlington-Smythe

Two Underlevers, Old And New

Relum Tornado above and Norica Quick below

Today I will have a look at two Underlevers, namely the Relum Tornado in .22, and the Norica Quick in .177.

Relum Tornado with slimmed down stock

First we have the Relum, which is in need of more metal restoration than I first thought, as the metal is slightly pitted with rust and 95% of the paint is missing. But when I rubbed it down with some really fine grade wire wool and oil it cleaned up quite nicely. I really need some rougher grade wire wool to remove the rest of the enamel then it could be painted, enamelled or blued, ooh! I'm spoilt for choice. The stock is interesting as only the fore grip is original, the rest has been slimmed down to come flush with the cylinder, and wood added to change the shape of the butt and grip. I have never seen a stock like this on a Relum before so I assume it's a home project, and I have seen a lot of Relums. I mean, you could buy them from the Co-op in the 60's and 70's, yes really! It may not be everyone's cup of tea but I like how it looks and it balances nicely at the foregrip, though that aluminium muzzle break and hood will have to go for sure.

Hole for scope stop.   Slimmed down stock.  Reshaped stock with wood added to comb and grip.  Hole in rear sight

The Tornado is about 7lbs in wieght without a scope, and about 40 inches long. It has the look of a long rifle about it and that is what appeals to me. This air rifle is going to need to have a lot of time invested in it to get it looking good and get it up for hunting - other people have reported thet they have got up to 11 ft/lbs but we shall have to wait and see.

serial number

All Relums have pretty much the same leather seal piston assembly and a double spring set up, which is a smaller diameter spring inside of a larger one, instead of a guide rod. This double spring can be replaced by a BSA Meteor spring, but it would be wise to have a guide rod made up to support this. They have a simple sturdy Eastern European build quality as they were made in Hungary, but have never been capable of more than 8/9 ft/lb. This I reckon could be improved upon by changing the piston head to seal with two O-rings and giving it a slightly longer piston stroke, which hopefully should not alter their light firing cycle much.

Another common feature on these air rifles are the rudimentary open sights. The rear sight is held in place by a dovetail and adjusts the elevation, whilst the front sight adjusts for windage by sliding it across its dovetail. This was originally covered by a simple hood. Pellets are loaded via a tap mechanism which still feels nice and tight, and the bore is the same as modern .22, unlike some older air rifles and pistols which are a tad larger. The BSA Mercury has this larger sized bore which is 5.6 mm instead of 5.5 mm, you can buy Wasp no2 pellets for the larger bore size. Interesting fact: did you know Relum is Muler spelt backwards, which is the surname of the owner of the factory!

Hole for scope stop (off center).  Loading tap.  Inlaid wood.  Rust removed with some oil and very fine wire wool 

Well, why won't this air rifle cock? I'll tell you why. When I removed the stock I found the sear pin was missing. This was replaced by grinding the base of a broken drill bit of the right diameter to size. Now it cocks and fires, but the piston seal and spring need looking at as it's nowhere near 8/9 ft/lb. The rear sight is a small hole through which you have to center the front sight (as opposed to a notch), this is not reliably accurate, so gluing some crosshairs made from a strand of copper electrical wire will improve this no end. There is a small hole at the rear of the scope rail which could be used for a scope stop if it ever needs one, however I suspect, along with the stock, that this has been added afterwards and was not produced this way. I reckon this air rifle will be fun to restore, and I have spares from the Relum Telly if they are needed. I could always use the Telly's barrel for another project I have in mind, so nothing is wasted.

Norica Quick and it's favourite pellets

The Norica Quick appears to be in tip top condition, apart from missing a small piece of metal that holds the cocking lever in place. There are two M3 holes on the underside of the barrel to hold it in place, so turning and drilling a replacement would be the thing to do until i can find the original part. However a search on the internet has turned up very little useful information and spares, I think this air rifle only had a short production run from its Spanish creators. You can find this same rifle bearing the name Hammerelli Nova which also returns very little information on the internet, so this one should be fun to work on.

Bodged underlever catch

                                  


 The Quick at first glance looks a little like a top quality under lever, but truth be told it is really mutton dressed as lamb. It was actually made in Germany for the Norica company. The stock is a nicely lacquered beech with chequering on the grip and forestock, the butt has a raised comb for the right handed shooter and a soft rubber butt pad which needs a spot of glue. The end cap is plastic as well as the chunky trigger guard, the front and rear sights are mainly metal with fibre optic and this is missing on the front. The trigger blade is stamped steel and the action and barrel are blued to a black finish, while the flip up loading breech which is vagly similar to the HW57 design is plainly plastic. This is a large air rifle at 46 inches long and is about 8 lbs in weight. It is full UK power to boot, action and stock fit snuggly together and is comfortable to hold.

                                         anti-beartrap on the Norica Quick

Loading and firing is a little long winded, but once you get used to it is fine. The plastic flip up breech is long, giving you plenty of space to load. It locks in place with a spring loaded knob on the right and hinges over on the left, this seals well but gives it a rather long transfer port. The cocking arm is heavy at 56 lbs and is hollow so has bent a little over the years. The trigger is really heavy and you have to hold the grip firmly to squeeze, this will obviously affect the accuracy somewhat and will also need looking at. But truth be told it's a good priced lower-mid range underlever that performs as well as it costs, and gives the appearance of a quality German air rifle.

Flip-up loading breach and dayglo open rear sight

At first loading a pellet, cocking the rifle, turning of the anti bear trap, then removing the safty in the trigger guard was a bit of a chore after firing break barrels, but it did not take long to become second nature. Improving the front open sight or fitting a scope will improve accuracy no end out to 30 yards, but will only help so much until I can improve the trigger pull. There is a slight buzz upon firing which Moly and spring grease should sort out and improve lock time, removing the anti bear trap and greasing the cocking linkage should make it a much quieter rifle, and Chambers supplies a decent exploded diagram to make the job a lot easier.

So there you have it, TTFN

Best Wishes, Wing Commander Sir Nigel Tetlington-Smythe O.B.E.

A Glut of Air Rifles

As many, many air rifle enthusiasts discover, the joy of airgunning can become an expensive business. What with pellets and maintanance, then scopes and other must haves for your rifle, and sometimes spares and repairs (though with a little skill and a decent set of tools, repairs and some spares can be done yourself at home!), it soon adds up. Luckily for me, a couple of weeks ago I was given 'a glut' of air rifles from a friend. They were all in a state of disrepair and needed varying degrees of TLC, so it will be my mission to fix these rifles and tell you about their progress as I go.

Note the bend on the barrel on the 1st rifle next to the BB gun

He called some months back to tell me he had some damaged air rifles I could have and all I had to do was pick them up. By the time the wifey took me to see him he had sorted out another four, two small scopes and two electric BB guns. This is what he gave me and what was broken or wrong with them:

  1 - .22 BSA Mercury with the barrel bent very noticeably upwards at the breech, no open sights, a SMK B2 spring fitted, and needing a good polish.

  2 - .177 Diana/Original Mod 16 which fires but will not move the pellet. It is needing a repaint.

  3 - .22 Relum Tornado which will not cock and is covered in surface rust with a chip in the stock.

  4 - .177 Norica Quick which is missing a piece of metal that holds the under lever in place. It also has a stiff trigger, but I think that is common with direct sear triggers as this rifle has.

  5 - .22 Sharp Innova which only holds one pump and is missing bits off the rear open sight.

  6 - .177 SMK B45-3 multi pump which jams and releases air after three pumps.


The BB guns have no chargers with them and the sights are Crosman, one a short 4x20 that actually looks more like a 2x20 and a 4x15 which is missing a mount.


Some of these air rifles are pretty easy to fix but will take a lot more time, effort, and money to get into top condition. I say some because not having had any experience with multi pumps before, I will have to trouble shoot for an answer to fix these and even then I doubt I will be able to get spares for the SMK. But this is what this blog is all about so hopefully it won't be long before the next blog with updates on how their restoration is coming along.

TTFN. 

Wing Commander Sir Nigel Tetlington-Smythe

Air Arms Shamal REVIEW

The rifle is not to large but the walnut stock adds a bit of weight

 

Well it's been two weeks since my last blog so it's about time I did the promised review on my .177 Air Arms Shamal. I've mentioned bits and pieces about it in previous blogs but it's time to do a more complete review.

Looking sexy with swivel mount sling and scope

   This was Air Arms' first attempt at a PCP air rifle (Daystate brought out the first) and is a rather sexy bit of kit, although it's quite large and heavy compared to most PCP's available today. Filling it to the max 207 bar, you don't really get a levelling off of the power curve till about 30/40 shots in - this still leaves me with about 35/40 fairly consistent shots, at which point the curve rises again briefly before dropping off again.  With no pressure gauge on the rifle itself, you have to rely on the pressure gauge on the pump. So I tend to fill it to about 180 bar and i'm ready for 40 constant shots, and thats where I have my scope zeroed in to 30 yards using Air Arms Diabolo's(8.4gr). I have an old Nikko Sterling 4-12-40 silver antler scope and the image was very misty, I was scratching my brains tring to work out what the problem was and believe it or not it was just a dirty lens and there's me thinking I was going to have to invest in a new scope (numpty).

Max fill and breach

Teat shots taken with slight gusts of wind

Bolt twists and pulls back, plenty of space under the scope

   The Shamal is a single shot rifle with a slightly tapered hole in the breech to place the pellet which means I have to point the rifle down slightly otherwise the pellet just slips back out again, but now i'm used to this it's not a problem. The bolt pulls back by a knob at the rear and there's no safety on the rifle, but I have always found that the best safety is my trigger finger - I don't place it on the trigger till a shot presents itself, and with a two stage trigger which is superbly built I have no trouble reaching the second stage with its nice crisp release of the sear. I believe it's the same 'olympic trigger' you find on the 100 series - having seen an exploded view of the 100, although most of the exterior is very similar, the internals are very different, such as having a regulator and different valve design, though the hammer and spring are the same with an allen key adjustment to adjust the spring tension slightly http://guns-nn.ru/manuals/manual_airarms_njr100_en.pdf .

Olympic trigger

Bolt locked

Bolt cocked

  

Now apart from the rare flier (which is down to me) this rifle is unbelievably accurate. At 30 yards it can put 10 shots on 2 pence piece and that's with me just supporting my forearm, so with a bipod it should be quite devastating to the local bunny and woody population. However what looks like a moderator is actually a long muzzle break but is still moderately quiet, this is attached to the fill port cap and comes off as one unit by unscrewing a cover for the 1/8 fill port as no adaptor is needed on this early model (00071). Once this is removed, you can remove the muzzle break by undoing a small screw, and a custom made moderator could replace it (though the inner barrel is wider than the 10mm you find on the 400 series), The loudest sound I hear is the spring and hammer release when fired.

Muzzel break

Muzzel break and fill port cover come off in one to reveal 1/8 fill port

  

The stock is made of walnut and is sculpted with a craftsman's eye. There is chequereing on the pistol grip and along the forearm, with a raised unique comb which fits perfectly to my cheek - just as well i'm right handed as i 'm not aware of Air Arms ever doing a left handed version! The buttplate adjusts up and down  making it ideal for me to shoot comfortably and handle for quick aquisition of target (i'm sure this is a Bisley aftermarket product).

Adjustable shoulder pad

Thumb rest on stock

 

Though the gun is heavier than most, it's quiet which makes it perfect when using in a hide even though it's 45 inches long, and thank god it has a sling for those stalking moments in the winter months. This rifle is not everyone's cup of tea but I love it, you know you've got a piece of kit in your hands that will last for generations to come, just like my Weihrauch HW35 Luxus.

Taking advantage of a still winters day shooting

 
This rifle is brimming with character and that is what I look for in a rifle. The good points far outweigh any little niggles I have come across  - in fact I find them quite endearing.

 Taking that 30 yard shot

   TTFN

   Wing Commander Sir Nigel Tetlington-Smythe O.B.E

  

  

A New Air Pump and more tales of the Air Arms Shamal

Two weeks since my last post, well Chrimbo is a busy time. With the arrival of a 9 week old Bedlington Terrier/Whippet lurcher pup things got a trifle hectic. We call him 'Scatterbone' and things are still hectic, but soon we'll have him out in the fields coursing bunnies for the pot.

I've been topping up the Shamal with air at the local gun shop for 3 quid a fill and could see that as being expensive with the amount of shooting i'd like to be doing , so today we popped to Gloucester to get Scatterbone his jabs and then went into Allsports and bought a Hills Air Pump. There's a bit of concern about moisture getting into the air reservior  with hand pumps compared to the dry air you get from a bottle and you can buy Dry Pacs to fit onto the pump to absorb any moisture, but the bloke at Allsports reckoned in all their time handling PCP's they have never seen any problems with moisture, and though they could have sold me a Dry Pac for an extra £40 on top of the £139 I paid for the pump, they said it wasn't really worth it, and they've been dealing in all kinds of guns for over 60 years.

The pump came in a box with very simple instructions on the back; simply bolt on the footplate with a supplied allen key, screw on the handle, and screw on the hose at the base (I used a 14mm spanner to secure), then you're ready to go. The Shamal doesn't need an adapter so the hose screws directly onto the fill valve(same 14mm spanner tightens this), well this one doesn't as its quite an early one (00071) and Air Arms 1st venture into PCP.

This is a 3 stage pump which means that it's 3 pumps  built inside each other working on both the up stroke and the down stroke. It's very easy to pump until the pressure in the reservior is the same as the hose. Then you're filling up the rifle and you have to put a little more effort into each stroke which increases as the pressure builds. Pressure can go all the way upto 275 bar (4500psi), though I found 185 bar was ideal for the Shamal although its written on the side of the rifle that 207 bar, 3000psi was the maximum fill level. I found that if I stopped for half a second at the end of each stroke it filled quicker, which I could easily see on the guage at the base of the pump. Being 6 foot tall it was a lot easier to bend my knees slightly and put my body weight behind the down stroke with a straight back, for me it was really little effort to fill the rifle though i reckon i might be a little knackered filling to 250 bar. At the base of the pump is a small brass knob which you tighten up before you start pumping; this will release all the air from the hose when you loosen it after filling the air reservior. You end up damaging seals and all sorts if you disconnect with 200 bar of air pressure in the hose.

All in all a good investment as i've filled the Shamal up twice already this afternoon already saving me 6 quid at the local gun shop - admittedly I could have shot longer on the first fill but the pellet speed would have started to drop off. This way I can just keep the Shamal firing 50 or so good shots at the top off the power curve, and not need to adjust or compensate on the scope other than for distance and wind. The scope will be zeroed  at 30 yards, spot on for those 50 shots.

  

On any PCP, the trigger releases a weight known as a hammer, held back against a spring - this springs fowards and strikes the stem of a hammer valve which releases some of the air in the reservior into the barrel, which expands rapidly, sending the pellet flying out the barrel. If I filled the Shamal to it's max pressure of 209 bar, a .177 pellet would exit the muzzle at 700fps. As the the pressure drops in the reservior, the pellet's speed increases creating an upward curve, until we get to 185 bar and a pellet speed of 800fps. I then get 50 shots at this speed until the pressure drops to around 100 bar, where the pellet speed will start to drop off. Back down to 700 fps over the next 20 bar used, at which point the pellet speed will start to drop more drastically, creating the downward curve, creating your power curve. If firing at the same paper target, the 1st shot would fall 3 inches low of the point of aim or bullseye, with the next 20 shots creeping up to the POI, the next 50 shots hitting the POI, the next 20 shots dropping slowly down to 4 inches below the POI, and after that dropping off more drastically.

 That is why I like to fill the Shamal to about 185 bar and top her up again after roughly 50 shots, this pretty much garauntees my POI through my scope. So for me the hand pump is ideal, supplying free air after an initial investment, and my hieght and wieght make it easy to use. If i'm out hunting I wouldn't really need more than 50 shots anyway, and if I did it's not really that heavy to carry to a hide, though if I were stalking I could see it getting a bit cumbersome.

In a later post I will do a full write up on the Shamal and let you know how well it performs.  TTFN.

Wing Commander Sir Nigel Tetlington-Smythe.