Yesterday a buddy came by to visit and take home some airgun stuff I was gifting. Since I’’m getting on in years, I decided to unload stuff my wife would have trouble getting rid of later.
So I was doing a sortof “show and tell”, to see where Ray’s interests were. I knew Ray is an expert machinist, and likes to tinker with older, yet common airguns, but mostly co2 or pumpers, so I piled some old co2 stuff into the box. But i soon realized Ray had no experience with springers, so I dug out a few old classic HW 35 springers and even a Benjamin gasram “springer” he could fool with, and maybe enjoy learning about.
But as I dug back in to the depths of my safe, I found the old gun I had been thinking about lately … the old Simple Simon rifle that fostered the USFT project. Ray’s eyes lit up when he held it, and as I showed how it worked, but it had leaked all its air over time, and needed some tlc. So after a nice visit and Ray loaded up his new airgun. Stuff, I vowed to fix it “when I got a chance”.
So in the morning, the thought kept nagging me, so I went out on the shop and took the gripframe and buttplate off and put a few hundred psi into the gun. I then dipped the muzzle end in the water tank, saw zero bubbles, and dipped the receiver end and saw a slow trail of little bubbles coming from the swinging breech (firing valve leak).
So I cleaned the water off with compressed air, filled the gun to 1600psi, dry-fired, then fired a couple pellets, and set it in the noon sun to warm up. Two hours later the gage still read around 1500psi, meaning if it leaks, its a VERY slow leak.
I cleaned the gun up, re-installed the parts, even found the original cheekpiece and fitted an old scope to try some shots. Velocity was fine at just over 900fps/10.5gr, and once the scope was dialed, I tried a couple 50yd groups … hay, not bad … 10 shots into 3/4” with maybe 5mph wind. @0 yrs ago, this gun normally shot sub-half inch at 50yds with “good” lubed CHP’s, and I assume if I pull a few patches and find some good ammo, it will do it some more.
So, now I’m thinking to maybe shoot in in a match just of old times sake.
LD
So I was doing a sortof “show and tell”, to see where Ray’s interests were. I knew Ray is an expert machinist, and likes to tinker with older, yet common airguns, but mostly co2 or pumpers, so I piled some old co2 stuff into the box. But i soon realized Ray had no experience with springers, so I dug out a few old classic HW 35 springers and even a Benjamin gasram “springer” he could fool with, and maybe enjoy learning about.
But as I dug back in to the depths of my safe, I found the old gun I had been thinking about lately … the old Simple Simon rifle that fostered the USFT project. Ray’s eyes lit up when he held it, and as I showed how it worked, but it had leaked all its air over time, and needed some tlc. So after a nice visit and Ray loaded up his new airgun. Stuff, I vowed to fix it “when I got a chance”.
So in the morning, the thought kept nagging me, so I went out on the shop and took the gripframe and buttplate off and put a few hundred psi into the gun. I then dipped the muzzle end in the water tank, saw zero bubbles, and dipped the receiver end and saw a slow trail of little bubbles coming from the swinging breech (firing valve leak).
So I cleaned the water off with compressed air, filled the gun to 1600psi, dry-fired, then fired a couple pellets, and set it in the noon sun to warm up. Two hours later the gage still read around 1500psi, meaning if it leaks, its a VERY slow leak.
I cleaned the gun up, re-installed the parts, even found the original cheekpiece and fitted an old scope to try some shots. Velocity was fine at just over 900fps/10.5gr, and once the scope was dialed, I tried a couple 50yd groups … hay, not bad … 10 shots into 3/4” with maybe 5mph wind. @0 yrs ago, this gun normally shot sub-half inch at 50yds with “good” lubed CHP’s, and I assume if I pull a few patches and find some good ammo, it will do it some more.
So, now I’m thinking to maybe shoot in in a match just of old times sake.
LD
