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johnbaz
14th Aug 2016, 07:59 AM
Hi

I'm not sure if this would even qualify as 'Gunsmithing' :-:p

Anyhow, I bought this poor old Mk1 BSA Airsporter for next to nothing from a halfwit!!

He'd 'repaired' a break in the stock but had glued it with something like tile grout or adhesive, Whilst he was telling me about it he cocked it and then dry fired it which isn't recomended for spring powered airguns, the resulting thump of the unhindered piston made his stock repair let go! It actually saved me the job of possible making the stock even worse! (If that was possible!!)

The action had gone rusty then some bright spark painted over it with black gloss paint :( I had to clean almost every bit of the steel on the slack part of a 30"x1" belt sander, I then reblued it with Ballistol Klever blue, The action looked beautiful after I carded off the residue but after about three months of not even touching it, The blued finish had turned grey :C


Some pics of the repair work..

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I still need to make an oversized round nut on my lathe to fit in the stock as the last owner had put a square nut in that resembled a roofing nut and it wore in to the wood so the factory part won't work any more :((

I made the filler from the dust that I saved whilst rubbing the stock down, I mixed it to a stodgy paste with PVA glue, I also made a piston head of steel bar and fitted an O-Ring as the leather parachute seal was kaput!!

I planed a bit of pine to fit inside the stock to the correct gap to stop it collapsing in when I lashed the two parts after glueing, 24 hours later I made two 7mm walnut dowels (Should have used beech as the colour would have been a better match!) After drilling two 7mm holes in the two parts of the stock that overlapped I then glued them in, another 24 hours later I sanded them down, I later protected the stock using Tung based oil hand rubbed in :2tsup:

BTW, I ran a Dremel cutting disc around the joints so that I could get the filler well in :wink:

PS, Sorry about the order of the pics, I tried posting them in order but they seem to have changed round in the uploading process :doh:


EDIT- I put the pics in the order that I think I posted them in..


Cheers, John :)

Michael G
14th Aug 2016, 08:53 AM
Welcome to the forum John. A nice, neat save.

Pics can be dragged around/ dropped when you write your post.

Michael

johnbaz
14th Aug 2016, 09:38 AM
Welcome to the forum John. A nice, neat save.

Pics can be dragged around/ dropped when you write your post.

Michael

Thanks Michael, I didn't realise!!

I've edited the post and swapped the pics round to the order that I did on the gun!!


Regards, John :2tsup:

Oldneweng
14th Aug 2016, 11:33 AM
Nice work John.


I'm not sure if this would even qualify as 'Gunsmithing' :-:p

This sub forum does not get a lot of threads, so I would say it qualifies.:rolleyes:

The nearest I have got to gunsmithing is changing the scope on my rifle. The old scope then got put to work lining up fence posts out in the paddocks.:D

From some reading I have been doing recently it appears that the UK and Australia have some of the strictest gun laws in the world. It was my understanding that it is almost impossible to get anything more powerful than an airgun in the UK. Is this correct? Lots of people own guns in Australia, but mostly in rural areas.

Dean

NedsHead
14th Aug 2016, 12:16 PM
Australia actually has even worse gun laws than anywhere, including the UK, you don't need a licence to own an air rifle in the UK and semi automatic rifles aren’t restricted there

Oldneweng
14th Aug 2016, 02:39 PM
Australia actually has even worse gun laws than anywhere, including the UK, you don't need a licence to own an air rifle in the UK and semi automatic rifles aren’t restricted there

What type of rifles are available? I read somewhere that it is virtually impossible for an ordinary person to get a license for anything more powerful than an airgun. Is this completely false?

Dean

KBs PensNmore
14th Aug 2016, 03:39 PM
Hi John,
Welcome to the forum.
If it's gun related it's gunsmithing. Your thread reminds me of about 20 years ago, I was spotlighting with friends and fired my Mossberg pump action 12 gauge, an almighty bang came out, everyones ears were ringing, next morning I noticed the the stock was split from end to end from what I can workout was a double charged factory load:oo: and I had a bruise on my shoulder for 2 weeks.
I got more in the gun amnesty, than I paid for it.
Kryn

mike48
14th Aug 2016, 09:19 PM
Not quite on subject, but ...
A few years ago, maybe 2012, I was in Tunbridge Wells and waiting for a train.
The church on the south side of the station and down the road had a jumble sale.
There on the "one pound table" was an air pistol for sale, a Webley as I think back.

Couldn't bring it back of course.

That rifle reminds me of my old Gecado 35 with .177 and .25 barrels.
But it had traditional cup type compression washers.

Good luck.

johnbaz
14th Aug 2016, 09:42 PM
Nice work John.



This sub forum does not get a lot of threads, so I would say it qualifies.:rolleyes:

The nearest I have got to gunsmithing is changing the scope on my rifle. The old scope then got put to work lining up fence posts out in the paddocks.:D

From some reading I have been doing recently it appears that the UK and Australia have some of the strictest gun laws in the world. It was my understanding that it is almost impossible to get anything more powerful than an airgun in the UK. Is this correct? Lots of people own guns in Australia, but mostly in rural areas.

Dean

Hi Dean

In the UK (Except for Scotland) Airguns can be owned wothout licence as long as the rifles don't exceed 12ft lbs muzzle energy and the pistols 6ft lbs, Scotland have brought as law out that ALL airguns need to be licenced but their police force strangely won't be able to cope with the licence requests and will struggle to enforce the new laws apparently so their nutjob politicians will probably make millions of people in to criminals for owning airguns that aren't licenced!! :doh: There are age restrictions for owning/using them though..

I fear the same ridiculous state of affairs will come south of the border to England as the revenue of £80 per licence will appeal to the money grubbing lot in parliament!! :((:((

To get a firearms cert for live round guns or airguns over 12ft lbs, One has to have a clean record with the police and a reason to own one, Either pest control on land with permission or to be a member of a shooting club that is certified for live round shooting..

If a person has been in trouble with the law nad have served a sentence of more than three years they can't own a gun of any kind- Not even an airgun as I understand and to own a pistol of over 6ft lbs is worse than having a rifle over 12ft lbs as all pistols over the 6ft lbs limit are banned apart from black powder shooters or something daft like they need to have a barrel length of over 12" and an overall length of 24" :~:C

Trouble is that they let the barmy old farts in power make these stupid laws that haven't the first clue of what they're doing!! :no:


Cheers, John :)

KBs PensNmore
14th Aug 2016, 10:53 PM
Sounds a bit like down under. It got to a stage, when guns were outlawed, only the outlaws had guns.
Kryn

morrisman
15th Aug 2016, 12:33 AM
Interesting web site

Trev's Airgun Scrapbook (http://cinedux.com/)

morrisman
15th Aug 2016, 12:38 AM
Interesting web site

Trev's Airgun Scrapbook (http://cinedux.com/)

johnbaz
15th Aug 2016, 02:54 AM
Interesting web site

Trev's Airgun Scrapbook (http://cinedux.com/)

Hi mm

I already have Trev's site bookmarked, He has some beautiful old airguns!! :cool::cool::cool:


I let a friend have my HW98 and my BSA Airsporter RB2 some years ago, He's thinning his collect6ion now and I already have the HW98 back..
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The Airsporter is coming back to mine this coming week! (This will be number 139 :U )

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Thanks, John :)

Oldneweng
15th Aug 2016, 01:34 PM
Thanks John. As Kryn said, it sounds similar to down under. I don't disagree all that much with the laws as they stand today. A lot of people complain about not being able to get semi-automatic weapons. They are available for landowners for the purpose of killing vermin, but only on the listed property(s) as far as I understand. I don't know of anyone who has one. I am perfectly happy with what I have. They don't get used much. The biggest use by far is for snakes, using 22LR pellet cartridges. For some reason they seem to favour locations which make them hard to capture by other methods.

Dean

jack620
26th Aug 2016, 05:59 PM
Hi John,
I'm currently restoring a BSA Meteor Mk5. What brand of Tung oil finish did you use on the stock?

The meteor came with a black painted barrel and cylinder from the factory. I plan to remove that with paint stripper and blue the barrel Birchwood Casey cold blue. Apparently heating the barrel in very hot water between coats of cold blue improves the finish.

Cheers,
Chris

johnbaz
26th Aug 2016, 08:00 PM
Hi John,
I'm currently restoring a BSA Meteor Mk5. What brand of Tung oil finish did you use on the stock?

The meteor came with a black painted barrel and cylinder from the factory. I plan to remove that with paint stripper and blue the barrel Birchwood Casey cold blue. Apparently heating the barrel in very hot water between coats of cold blue improves the finish.

Cheers,
Chris

Hi Chris

I used a mix that's sold by a chap in Wales, THIS (https://woodfield-gcp.co.uk/) is the place but it looks like they've stopped selling it :(

I must say, I much prefer a nice blued finish to the black enamel that Beesa ended up using :2tsup:

Shall we see pics when the Meteor is finished?

I only have one Meteor now, It's a mk1 and was nickel plated at the factory apparently, It's an early one with the serial, N268, It's .177cal..

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I've a few Mercury's that have the black paint finish, The Mercury Challenger (bottom) is blued though :wink:

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Good luck with the resto :cool::cool:


John :)

jack620
26th Aug 2016, 10:25 PM
Hi John,
I hadn't realised you are in the UK. I'll search for a stock finish locally.

I'll certainly post a pic when I'm finished.

cheers,
chris

NedsHead
28th Aug 2016, 01:25 PM
What are the benefits of using Tung oil over Danish oil on a rifle stock? until now I've only used Danish oil on my rifles and just the generic stuff from the hardware store

jack620
28th Aug 2016, 09:42 PM
I think Tung oil is glossier?

johnbaz
29th Aug 2016, 09:27 AM
Hi

Tung oil gives a satin finish, A truely gloss finish is attained with Tru oil although i've never used it as I don't particularly like Glassy finishes on gunstocks!!

Here's a couple of Daystate stocks that I refinished for a chap, He was happy as larry as he tried himself using Tru oil, It stayed extremely tacky and was sticking to the fleece of the gunslips! :o, They also went very pale and the grain had all but disappeared :(

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I've never used Danish oil either!!, All i've used is the Tung oil based mixture and BLO :2tsup:


John :)

eskimo
2nd Sep 2016, 10:17 AM
I have used a poly varnish and acetone mix in the past using a french polish method...its harder to do than shellac but the finish was hard and glossy smooth. Worth the stuffing around.