BSA Airsporter

[bullmastiff 615]

My friend has just been given a BSA Airsporter MkII and as I managed (with help from members on here!!!) to revive my old Relum he's asked me to help fix it up a bit, so -

Question is what will I need to replace? we've given it a good clean and it seems to firing straight and true but is just under powered, so I'm guessing mainspring, valves and seals. Will these need replacing and is there anything else to look out for???

 

Any help for a budding novice gunsmith certainly apprieciated!!!

 

Cheers

 

Luke

Edited July 17, 2007 by bullmastiff

[jasper65 6]

Sounds like the spring could need replacing and the piston seal, the tap on these guns sometimes leak but they need a heavy engineering grease to inside the tap houseing! a way we used to tell if the seals had gone on Air Rifles was to obviousley make sure the guns not cocked first and try and blow a gob full of smoke down the Barrel! if its leaking you'll see the smoke either come through the breech washer or past the piston seal and through the underside of the stock..

 

Airsporters are pretty easy to disemble! knock the pin out of the cocking lever at the back on the trigger housing back block, you may also need to unscrew the cocking lever catch screwed into the bottom of the cylinder! once you have removed the cocking assembly you're laughing.

 

Unscrew the back block, you'll want to clamp this is a vice with Rubber jaws or something as the back block will be under pressure of the spring, keep unscrewing the block but keep the presure pushing down as when the thread reaches its end you'll feel the spring release, be carefull not to strip the thread! remove the spring guide and the spring! tap the piston out and check the piston seal, the newer models was fitted with a O - Ring, rplace all this and clean and lubricate everything, also take care when pushing the piston back into the cyclinder as it has to pass over the threads at that end, greasing all the threads will help, assemble in reverse as you took the gun apart but be carefull not to cross the thred when you start to screw the block back in.

 

I wish I had a old Airsporter to take some pic's of, I had a few in the late 70's and 's includeing the S models, its been a long time since I stripped out a Airsporter so my description may be a bit tacky, but as a kid I loved it and was always pulling the Airguns apart ...

 

Cheers

 

Jasper

[bullmastiff 615]

That's exactly what I needed, thank you. I get the idea for most of it and I'm sure once I've got it stripped down a bit I'll get the rest. I'll take some photo's as I strip it down. sort of before and after!

 

P.S. any idea what exact calibre they are? seems to be four choices nowdays!!! 5.5mm, 5.51mm, 5.52mm, and 5.6mm!!! just for the correct pellet type!

 

Thanks again

 

Luke.

[Guest baldie]

Hi Bully, if its a genuine mk11, it will have a leather piston washer [if memory serves me right] which is a little more difficult to replace, but generally not needed.What they always need, is correct lubrication, and for this , the best thing is some silicon oil, but you must only use this on a leather seal, and NEVER use it for metal to metal lubrication, as it will seize the two parts together.It will be 5.56, and the best pellets for it are blue tin wasps.check out this place for spares, they are excellent.

 

http://www.chambersgunmakers.co.uk/BSA%20p...01-3%20plan.htm

 

this is the mk1 and 11 page, and shows the cone shaped piston washer, which contributed to the airsporters legendary power.Has the gun got a self raising tap, as the underlever is pulled down? the mk1 had.

[jasper65 6]

Chambers is the one mate! Silicone Oil 35! I still have half a bottle of this stuff from when I was a kid! none dieseling and clear as a bell, a good oil of choice Luke or I don't know if you can still get but "Dri Slide" was good stuff or graphite oil..

 

Cheers

 

Jasper

[Guest baldie]

Just to throw another spanner in the works bully, some of the early cone shaped piston heads, didn,t have a washer, but a phosphor bronze piston ring, instead, which obviously are much harder wearing, providing the gun was lubricated regularly.

Silicon 35 thats the stuff jasper, abbey made it, and other great airgun lubes.Dri slide was very good as you say, [its an american product] also Tri-flon....remember that?

[jasper65 6]

 

Oh Mate I remember being a kid and a avid reader of "Airgun World" as I'm sure you was they used to rage about the Silcone 35 and tri-flon. Can you remember there was also a advert advertising a Diana G80 as a high powered Rabbit killer , it was a pea shooter to the old BSA Hunting Rifles. there used to be a guy in the Mag called Rod Lynton who would field test different guns each month and leave me drooling at some of the guns he tested! I remember one test of the Mercury S and coming out in goose bumps cause I had to have one! I ended up trading in a standard Mercury with a Orignal 4 x 32 scope, a Super Meteor and £35 just to get one . I'm gutted when I see kids now turning into Internet junkies with no focus in life! I'm sure you was the same but I couldn't wait to get in the woods with my Air Rifle either after school or skiveing .

 

Just found these up in a old draw! a couple must be nearly 30 years old . I'm a real hoarder and have bits of Airguns round my Mothers in the loft which I'll sort out one day. one thing I'm after too mate is a BSA Mercury should you come across one? either the S model or standard preferably in .177, trying to re-live my childhood a bit here....

 

Cheers

 

Jasper

[Guest baldie]

Rod Lynton spoke to him once or twice on the phone.

I remember his test on the airsporter-s......my father bought me one before the next issue came out, and i sent it back to him [he emigrated to france] last month, to shoot rabbits on his veggie patch.That gun was one of the first off the line, and must be nearly 30 years old.

Mercury-s....yep, want one too, but i want a mercury challenger more

The BSA,s i,ve unwrapped, and seen that bottle of oil, the little plastic tube of pylarm,s and the steel target holder with half a dozen targets........and the smell of linseed off the walnut "s" stock......i will remember that smell till i die.

I had airgun world from the very first issue, which, if i remember right, was august 1977, and came runner up in the comp, in the 3rd issue, for a trio of sussex armoury jackals.....i won a feckin pellet dispenser, but got my name in the mag, which i thought was brilliant. Do you remember the thrill of opening a "new" type of pellet? and trying them? i can still remember opening, h+n pointed in .177, and h+n hollowpoint in .22.....my dad would bring me a tin on his way home from the pit on a friday, if he had owt spare, from the shop, i eventually was to work in, and serve a sort of apprenticeship as a gunsmith, starting off as a saturday lad.

[borderboy 80]

Has anyone bought anything from chambers gunmakers recently...? The spares seem a good price, i was quoted £17 for a mainspring from airgunspares.com ... they want £5....

[jasper65 6]

Rod Lynton spoke to him once or twice on the phone.

I remember his test on the airsporter-s......my father bought me one before the next issue came out, and i sent it back to him [he emigrated to france] last month, to shoot rabbits on his veggie patch.That gun was one of the first off the line, and must be nearly 30 years old.

Mercury-s....yep, want one too, but i want a mercury challenger more

The BSA,s i,ve unwrapped, and seen that bottle of oil, the little plastic tube of pylarm,s and the steel target holder with half a dozen targets........and the smell of linseed off the walnut "s" stock......i will remember that smell till i die.

I had airgun world from the very first issue, which, if i remember right, was august 1977, and came runner up in the comp, in the 3rd issue, for a trio of sussex armoury jackals.....i won a feckin pellet dispenser, but got my name in the mag, which i thought was brilliant. Do you remember the thrill of opening a "new" type of pellet? and trying them? i can still remember opening, h+n pointed in .177, and h+n hollowpoint in .22.....my dad would bring me a tin on his way home from the pit on a friday, if he had owt spare, from the shop, i eventually was to work in, and serve a sort of apprenticeship as a gunsmith, starting off as a saturday lad.

 

I was a adicted Pellet and gun sniffer mate , one thing I like on a Gun is a decent peice of wood! I brought a Airsprter S from a old company what used to advertsie in Aigunwold called "The Mart At Lowerstoft", I asked them if they could send me one with a decent grained stock and as promised they did, when it arrived it had some lovelly grains in the English Walnut that stretched from the forend right through to the butt, I loved the gun but as most lads do with age I got into Girls and sold it to buy her something, I saw the gun a year later in a right mess! the guy I sold it too decided to replace the main spring and while undoing the cylinder scratched a entire ring round the blueing ...

 

Reading your last post I did the same as you but worked under a Government trainning scheme for Viktor Coates the Gunsmiths, I did about 4 months and went to work one day where the actual Gunsmiths was based away from the shop and the doors was locked, it turned out the Gunsmith had did a runner with alot of the takings and done a bunk, after that I just carried on with my own Airgun repairs and a few mates! jacked a few up too ...

 

I'm still a Fanatic about the old BSA Springers and still have a couple of old guns. A Cadet and Cadet Major which are still pretty accurate guns considering their age..........

[J Darcy 5,871]

started with an airsporter S....bloody loved that gun, remember stripping it down for thre first time and really struggling to replace the end piece once new spring was in. of course we didnt have a vice i only used Eleysin mine... but did once try "Barracuda's"...lol.... they dropped like a stone! The good old days.....

[bullmastiff 615]

Has anyone bought anything from chambers gunmakers recently...? The spares seem a good price, i was quoted £17 for a mainspring from airgunspares.com ... they want £5....

 

Got all the bit's for my Relum Tornado from them. One of the few companies to still supply parts for it and Technical drawings/parts list!!!

 

The owner had a heartattack not too long ago so I think it's his son's / friends that are running the business part time whilst he recover's, so could take a while for the part's to come through (Mine took just over a month!)

A guy at work has used them for a while (didn't even know he was into Air rifles until he caught me trying to get mine apart at work!!!) he said their second to none :thumbs-up:

 

This is going to be my first real taste of British airgun engineering so should be interesting to see/feel the difference between this and the russian counterpart.

 

Oil wise I've got some 'Power' airgun oil by Napier, will this be ok for internal moving parts? if not is there any standard engineering oil/grease I could use instead? I'm sure we've got something at work I could use???

 

Thanks again for the info etc. it's nice to see I've stirred up so many fond memories of these guns, I'm rather looking forward to this!!!

 

Thanks again

 

Luke.

[Stabs 3]

Just gave my old Airsporter to a young cousin of mine who is developing an interest in rifles. I bought that in my early teens so it's been with me for 20 years and it was far from new then. Real nice red coloured wood that I used to sit and oil religiously. No safety catch on it and it didn't half clunk but I accounted for a fair bit of tackle with that old thing in my youth.

 

One thing I would be interested in is a stutzen....always fancied one

[borderboy 80]

... Found this whilst searching for information on fixing up old rifles.... Spring Gun Tuning is it a good guide??

 

YIS

BorderBoy

[jasper65 6]

Just gave my old Airsporter to a young cousin of mine who is developing an interest in rifles. I bought that in my early teens so it's been with me for 20 years and it was far from new then. Real nice red coloured wood that I used to sit and oil religiously. No safety catch on it and it didn't half clunk but I accounted for a fair bit of tackle with that old thing in my youth.

 

One thing I would be interested in is a stutzen....always fancied one

 

 

Them Stutzens are probably pretty collectable now Stabs! I don't think there was that many made but what a coupe it would be if you could get hold of one in decent nick now. there's a Gun Auction in this neck of the woods every 6 months which deal from Shotguns to Air Guns and all the tat associated with field sports, I've seen some cracking old guns go there is the past! the best one I saw go about a year ago was a Fernwerk Sport .177 still in its polystyrene box and mint for £120, a lad round this way brought it and stuck it on the BBS and got over £200 for it, here's a link to the company that runs the Auctions which are well worth a look plus you can order a catalogure of all the equipmet going through....

 

Cheers

 

Jasper http://www.geoffreycollings.co.uk/site/frameset/2/core.htm