On The Bench....Vulcan Mk1

[Dervburner 2,549]

I dug out my .177 mk1 Vulcan yesterday. I had this rifle new in 1979 when they first came out, it was bought for me by my uncle from John.S.Topliss gun shop on Wighay Bridge, Huchnall. When I first had it, I used it daily, and it’s had so many pellets through it that I couldn’t even begin to guess, it had so much use that I’m surprised that it wasn’t completely worn out long ago, so for the first time it had seen daylight in a few years, I put a few jsb diabolo’s through it. After a dozen or so shots, it settled at around 11.5 ft lbs but with the horrible ox spring, that I fitted many years ago, it was harsh as hell to shoot. Also, many years ago, in my “wisdom” I had attempted to lighten the piston by drilling lots of large holes in it. Well, I don’t really know if this turned out to be a positive modification or not, but the lightened piston in conjunction with the ox spring certainly gives the feeling of a fast lock time. Whatever, it’s fairly fierce and nasty to shoot as it is, so I thought I’d have a look through my stash of bits and bobs and see if I could do a bit of tune to make this old rifle nice to use for a bit of a nostalgia trip. I couldn’t believe how tight the piston was, I had to tap it out with a hammer and old flat blade screwdriver. The replacement spring guide that I’d fitted years ago had snapped and broken away from the trigger block and the thing was pretty much destroying itself. A long time ago, the nasty recoil had snapped one of the front stock screws and at the time I couldn’t remove it from the cylinder. My repair of sorts, was to weld a nut onto the cylinder over the original stock screw hole, and use a different screw which happened to be an allen head bolt. That’s another repair that I intend to address. I’m hoping that this will turn out to be a worthwhile project, and it will be interesting to see how well I can get the old rifle to perform. At the moment, I’ve only stripped it down and done a bit of cleaning up. I’ve found a spring with guide and top hat that will fit nicely, so I’ll take some more pictures as I go along with this little project. I’m assuming of course, that somebody somewhere might be interested. Anyway, a few pics to start with.....

[villaman 9,982]

I will definitely follow this post , interesting on how it turns out

[eggy74 31]

[Dervburner 2,549]

Well, now I remember why I welded the nut onto the cylinder all those years ago. After grinding the nut away, I attempted to drill out the offending snapped off stud. It turns out the the remains of the stud is harder than my hss drill bits. Hmm, now I’ve got a plan that’s so cunning that it might just work

[Jonjon79 13,358]

Nice thread 

 ......... I'll be watching this with interest - I like seeing these classics come back to life.

 

I believe that action is the same as my Beeman C1 (?).

 

Thankfully the C1 came to me already restored and well sorted

......... these old rifles have got bags of character and, this is now one of my favourites. 

 

[Dervburner 2,549]

56 minutes ago, Jonjon79 said:

Nice thread 

 ......... I'll be watching this with interest - I like seeing these classics come back to life.

 

I believe that action is the same as my Beeman C1 (?).

 

Thankfully the C1 came to me already restored and well sorted

......... these old rifles have got bags of character and, this is now one of my favourites. 

 

Yes, I’ve got another idea for the front fixings, but I don’t know if I’m going to get on it before the weekend. One way or another it’ll get done and should be shooting nicely when it’s finished

[villaman 9,982]

22 hours ago, Jonjon79 said:

Nice thread 

 ......... I'll be watching this with interest - I like seeing these classics come back to life.

 

I believe that action is the same as my Beeman C1 (?).

 

Thankfully the C1 came to me already restored and well sorted

......... these old rifles have got bags of character and, this is now one of my favourites. 

 

That metal works looks superb , who did it Geoff bullock

[Jonjon79 13,358]

30 minutes ago, villaman said:

That metal works looks superb , who did it Geoff bullock

Who is Geoff Bullock?

[villaman 9,982]

1 hour ago, Jonjon79 said:

Who is Geoff Bullock?

One of the best , LSD tuning 

[Jonjon79 13,358]

9 minutes ago, villaman said:

One of the best , LSD tuning 

Ah yes, I knew I'd heard the name somewhere

 

No, it wasn't Geoff but, I'm sure the chaps in question will be very pleased with that accolade. 

 ......... It was done by our Jimmy and his grandson Ethan - they did a cracking job.

 

And, our very own Si worked his magic on the internals.

 

 

[villaman 9,982]

1 minute ago, Jonjon79 said:

Ah yes, I knew I'd heard the name somewhere

 

No, it wasn't Geoff but, I'm sure the chaps in question will be very pleased with that accolade. 

 ......... It was done by our Jimmy and his grandson Ethan - they did a cracking job.

 

And, our very own Si worked his magic on the internals.

 

 

Christ my eye sight must be going then

[bigmac 97kt 13,816]

4 hours ago, villaman said:

Christ my eye sight must be going then

Twat

[bigmac 97kt 13,816]

On 15/04/2021 at 19:00, Jonjon79 said:

Nice thread 

 ......... I'll be watching this with interest - I like seeing these classics come back to life.

 

I believe that action is the same as my Beeman C1 (?).

 

Thankfully the C1 came to me already restored and well sorted

......... these old rifles have got bags of character and, this is now one of my favourites. 

 

Jon she still looks good mate

How many times a week do you have to polish the action lol

Atvbjimmy

[Jonjon79 13,358]

7 hours ago, bigmac 97kt said:

Jon she still looks good mate

How many times a week do you have to polish the action lol

Atvbjimmy

Honestly mate, it's needed nothing - it's as good as the day I received it

[Dervburner 2,549]

After being busy with other things since I started this project, I had a bit of spare time this afternoon. Having failed to remove the snapped off stud from the cylinder I decided to cut and tap M6x1 some 10mm bar which will need to be welded to the cylinder to take the front stock screw.