Bowkett Meteor (stripped, pics and questions)

[Garvin]

Fascinating. Thanks.

[lightning22]

The spring spec on this is as follows......

Overall length = 240mm

Inner diameter = 12.8mm - 0.5"

Outer diameter = 19mm - 0.748"

Wire diameter = 3mm - 0.118"

I'm guessing that the nearest thing to this off the shelf would be a Titan XS.

Rich

[Hsing-ee]

The spring spec on this is as follows......

Overall length = 240mm

Inner diameter = 12.8mm - 0.5"

Outer diameter = 19mm - 0.748"

Wire diameter = 3mm - 0.118"

I'm guessing that the nearest thing to this off the shelf would be a Titan XS.

Rich

POK! could wind one up from those specs I guess.

[lightning22]

POK! could wind one up from those specs I guess.

I'm sure he could! I thought putting it here would be safer than writing it down somewhere and losing the paper.

Rich

[lightning22]

POK! could wind one up from those specs I guess.

POK! isn't doing springs again at the moment..

[Tenuc]

Thanks Rich for revealing the mysteries of the JB Meteor tune, it's an excellent guide.

My first new gun, some 50 years or so ago, was a MkI Meteor in .22 calibre. I used it as my main hunting gun for about 10 years, before moving on to a HW35. I re-furbed it 10 years later, and both my boys learned to shoot with it, until they moved on to bigger and better things.

I retired 18 months ago, and with nothing much to do, got the old meteor out of the wardrobe. It was in a sorry state, with erratic cocking and little power, so I fitted a new mainspring, washer and seal.

When I chrono'd the gun after it had settled in, I found it was pushing out 11.4FPE with Daystate FT pellets!!! I think it's amazing that a gun of that age, with such a small swept volume can deliver this result???

I hope you have fun with yours, when its back together again.

[lightning22]

That's excellent power for a Meteor!

I spoke to John the other day, the seals were made specially to his spec and are no longer available

The good news is that you can always use the std seal.

Rich

[Hsing-ee]

When I chrono'd the gun after it had settled in, I found it was pushing out 11.4FPE with Daystate FT pellets!!! I think it's amazing that a gun of that age, with such a small swept volume can deliver this result???

That is very high power for a Meteor, mine does about 9.5 ft/lbs and seems to be happy with the standard spring. The sear arrangement doesnt look like one that would respond well to increased mainspring pressure.

One thing about the Meteor is that its transfer port is very short and has a very small volume. Perhaps this is the secret to its efficiency?

[Tenuc]

That is very high power for a Meteor, mine does about 9.5 ft/lbs and seems to be happy with the standard spring. The sear arrangement doesnt look like one that would respond well to increased mainspring pressure.

One thing about the Meteor is that its transfer port is very short and has a very small volume. Perhaps this is the secret to its efficiency?

The spring I used was a Titan from J Knibbs, and there is a thick steel washer in the breach end of the piston. The piston seal is home-made from some shoe leather, soaked for a week in Neatsfoot oil. It had a new breach seal and I lubed the compression chamber and spring with a 50/50 mix of LT2 moly grease and lithium grease, liberally applied.

I've found old springers with leather washers like to run 'wet', with a nice puff of smoke lingering in the barrel after the shot, although not too much or you get detonation and poor accuracy. I also put 2 drops of motor oil down the transfer port after each tim of pellets, and leave the gun standing barrel up over-night.

As you mentioned, the mk1 trigger was never the best bit of design, but it is no worse since the rebuild than it ever was - heavy but predictable. I can still get 1" groups with it at 30yd on a good day!