Cock ups and abuse---Whats the worse you have come across?

[silva]

I saw a mk 1 or 2 airsporter for sale at Hale car bootsale in cornwall about ten years ago.
It had a recoil pad made out of the the cleated yellow sole of a workboot screwed to the stock, also for some strange reason the owner had dribbled fibreglass resin and camoflage skrim netting over the whole gun and painted it green.........and he wanted a vast sum of money for it. Is it still out there I wonder ?

[I. J.]

Ive seen a few bodges in my time. Like the Sharp Ace whoes owner filed flats on top of the barrel so normal mounts would fit.
I did hear of one customer who, on wanting the change the spring in a WH77 but didn't see the joint near the trigger, ground out the retaining pins in the front part of the cylinder and changed if from the front end !!
The nutter who filed a slot in the top of a Webley Hawk and used a modified piston to fire rim fire cartridges in the barrel.
And again with the S & P Galaxy air cartridge system. The owner had modified the original cartridges to the extent that the bolt occasionally blew out backwards. To counter this he knocked a 6 inch nail into the stock behind the bolt.
The Sharp Innova that had the exhaust valve blocked off and the owner had pumped so much the pump arm was 'S' shaped.
The Daystate Midas (brass cylinder) whoes owner had engraved his name deep into the air cylinder.
The owner who drilled the stock of his Daystate to accept a stock screw and, yes, youve guessed it - he didn;t take it out of the stock and ended up damaging the air cylinder.

ATB
Ian

[ken moran]

Theres a BSA Meteor ? getting fixt on you tube, and all you can hear is bang bang crash bang all though the tape, and the words, "I know what im doing" and the untidiest bench you ever saw!

[clarky]

Worst I ever come across was a Webley Nemesis Pistol purchased brand new which did not have the major trigger spring inside the grip.
Took it to the Webley factory where the general Superintendent/stroke workshop fitter/counter advisor (yes they had reduced staff levels to the absolute minimum shortly before It closed) hastened to suggest I had removed the spring deliberately so that I might get a new gun.
3 weeks later the spring broke. Thanks heavens they shut it down before it got embarrassing.

[royalscotsgrays]

hi some guns i have looked at in the 20+ years fixing them i have had a super 10 where a shop had striped it and put it back together and wrong and bent the valve then said they did not touch it .had a t10 with 25 pellet stuck in the barrel and the same t10 a 2nd time with 22 pellets stuck a fwb 127 with pellets and 3 drill bits in the barrel and the best one this year a old .22 NAC so over sprung when i took it out of the stock the pin blew out of the back breaking two ribs . i striped one old gun and found a piston sill made of string and ptfe tape. thanks mark

[Leonardj]

Here are just a few that were the subjects of a recent post to the AVA forum:

http://www.network54.com/Forum/40594...ion+to+Detail-

[I. J.]

Ian, I though that Webley barrels were choked to stop this, from the olde days when you used to be able to take out a breech seal and stick a firing pin in?

I was offered it as it was for sale. I didn't ask for a demo and didnt want to be in the same house as this nutter.

ATB
Ian

[keith66]

I have a very sad Bsa imp mod D that somebody tried to carve scope rails into with a cold chisel. But the worst was on an old belgian side by side 12 bore hammer gun i was given many years ago. At some stage it had lost the barrel hinge pin and it had been replaced by a bicycle cotter pin, it was off the face by 1/8" & the locks were held in with wire wrapping. The left barrel could be set of by blowing on the trigger.
The scary thing was that someone had used it like that. It was promptly deactivated lest someone blow themselves up!

[duofold]

When I was a teenager my older brother bought me a Diana air rifle that I used for many years and loved.

At one point the front bolt that holds the mechanism to the stock came out and was lost. I hunted high and low for a replacement and the only thing that I could find that fitted was one of those chrome ball top bolts that are used in wash basins and sinks - that attach the chain for the plug on older sinks?

I tightened it using a bar thorough the hole used to attach the plug chain. It was still in place years later.

When I moved out of my parents home (work, marriage that sort of thing), the gun was left there and I looked for it a few years ago without success.

My brother then told me he sold it and his own Weihrauch to a gun shop when he was skint. I bet he got not a lot for both guns and I don't suppose that the plug bolt helped either