The Lion part 1

[Kingplinker]

Well chaps as you know I was given a very sad Lion air rifle which didn't even have the guts to spit out a pellet

Here are my findings

Everything is loose , that said the bits that are welded are welded very well in fact I doubt not even the toughest trade grinder will scuff the surface welds !

I took the stock off , well I say took off but what I meant to say was it more kind of ' fell off ' with a little push .

First of all I noticed that the rear of the action was nearly in two parts , again welded or ' cooked ' as I now refer to as Mr Wangs welding attempts . It didn't worry me that the only thing holding it together were HUGE blobs of molten larva as it was still better prepped than my old spot welded Capri .... Ghia .

The funniest thing I found was the metal slab for locating the stock screw on the trigger guard , it looked like it was thrown on by a blind man on a galloping horse and just kinda stuck were it fell and if that wasn't bad enough they then welded it on a drilled a hole in it off centre obviously .

The spring and internals came out easily enough and yes it has to be the crudest gun I have ever set eyes upon but I am 100% certain that Iwill get it back to it's former glory - well I guess a 4 year old could too to be truthful but I like to inflate my ego once in a while .

I am now sourcing another spring and am getting rid of the rust and will post a few pics as I go along , trust me you will want to see them

I love guns but never liked welding much

Dave

[johnbaz]

Crumbs Dave

i bought one of these a while back, the flippin' thing was powerful but shooting miles to the left, also the underlever wanted to go back to nowhere near the spring clip thingie that's supposed to hold it...

a mate at work wanted it to play with so now he'll be terrorising tin cans on his back garden (that's if he aims loads to the right )


John

[Kingplinker]

Crumbs Dave

i bought one of these a while back, the flippin' thing was powerful but shooting miles to the left, also the underlever wanted to go back to nowhere near the spring clip thingie that's supposed to hold it...

a mate at work wanted it to play with so now he'll be terrorising tin cans on his back garden (that's if he aims loads to the right )


John

LOL

Same with this one John it's like some kind of magnetism is keeping it from locating back into the ' plumbers pipe fixing '

I will no doubt make an excellent plinker though !

atvb

Dave

[Hsing-ee]

I think the problem will come when you arrive at the point of polishing. It will disappear like a bar of soap in a hot jacuzzi.

[Kingplinker]

I think the problem will come when you arrive at the point of polishing. It will disappear like a bar of soap in a hot jacuzzi.

My autosol wouldn't go near it through fear of recrimination

atvb

Dave

[Hsing-ee]

I was in a rush on Saturday when a bloke said he had a broken rifle (with a few bits missing ) and would I have a look at it if he finds the bits? I saw it across the room. I think its a Chinese? sidelever with a sliding breech. He said it didn,t have an anti bear trap. It looked like it had a large screw going into the side of the stock, roughly above the trigger. It looked a pretty basic wooden stock. Any ideas as to what it could be? I was wondering if its a BAM/Smk. just curious as to what it could be and how good/bad it might be. I assume value would be about £30 maximum working? Thanks chaps

I think that is what they call a 'Fast Deer' in the US. It is lower power than the Lion.

They are made from poor quality materials and it is very questionably whether the time and effort put into making them work well (if ever) is worth it. You could make a BSA Meteor shoot like a Feinwerkbau Sport with the same effort. But some people like a challenge! I think ten pounds would be the most you should offer for the one you have seen.

This is the stripping and tuning guide for the sidelever Chinese gun should you make the plunge ...

http://www.charliedatuna.com/airgun....0Tune%20up.doc

I think SMK used to import them to the UK.

[jumbuck]

My Mate found a Lion air rifle in the stream that ran through his parents garden. Bluing had gone and was a light gun metal grey, stock was pale brown and looked like it had been cut from old wash board wood. Considering it had been in the stream for at least 5 years it shot better than my BSA Mercury i had at the time. I am going back 30 odd years. From memory it was a break barrel, typical Chinese cheap looking stock and was in .177

Don't have a clue of model, don't worry about things like that when a kid

[Kingplinker]

UPDATE :

Dug this back out of the cupboard today and wish I hadn't , stripped it right down today and the thing pretty much fell apart odd bits of metal fell out when I took the internals out , god knows where they came from .

I think I will leave this one as it's simply worn out and sourcing parts may be more hassle than it's worth , shame as I would have liked to get it to atleasts fire something . Glad it didn't fire as it looks bloomin dangerous !!!

Was worth a try though .

Dave

[silva]

I'm not so sure the Lions were really intended to be fired.
Their main use in China, was to be waved in the air by millions of infant young pioneers at milk time in the mornings at nursery, wearing armbands and shouting "Death to The Yankee Capitalist Imperialists", before they were old enough to go to school, join a cadre and get a proper SKS carbine and start denouncing their parents..
A proper learning tool for growing up good citizens.

[ogilkes]

Dave

I'm actually after one of these for parts, so should you be wanting to dispose of the aforesaid item, let me know....

UPDATE :

Dug this back out of the cupboard today and wish I hadn't , stripped it right down today and the thing pretty much fell apart odd bits of metal fell out when I took the internals out , god knows where they came from .

I think I will leave this one as it's simply worn out and sourcing parts may be more hassle than it's worth , shame as I would have liked to get it to atleasts fire something . Glad it didn't fire as it looks bloomin dangerous !!!

Was worth a try though .

Dave