BSA Merlin, tiniest underlever ?

[micky2]

Not for Baz. He may even share the method.
Now where's my knitting basket?

Yes that would be the way to get the centre point marked out for drilling. as long as you use the right bore size needle.

[Benelli B76]

Yes that would be the way to get the centre point marked out for drilling. as long as you use the right bore size needle.

Was going to use some rod I have but it was not a tight fit in the bore. Delrin also is terrible to cut with a hacksaw or drill as it is fairly soft and blades and the drill wanders. Used 3 drills in increasing sizes up to 4.5mm to keep the hole centralised to where it had to be. Worked great, the rifle groups well. Found that wood files are best for filing Delrin, give a better finish.

Baz

[Airsporterman]

Inspired that - well done!

ASM

[Benelli B76]

Inspired that - well done!

ASM

Thanks for compliment, I found out later when I did it there was also a crazy spring loaded seal arrangement missing from the transfer port. Had to make up a large home made seal (about 10 x 6 mm) before it would shoot.

Baz

[1066]

I remember having one of these in .22 new in around 1963. Although I thought it was a grand little rifle at the time it didn't last long. After a few months the fore-end split, I was heart broken but my old scout master fixed it by inletting a couple of brass plates and screwing and gluing it together.
The loading port was also the rear sight, it was made of something like black nylon, it got progressively harder the push down once the pellet was inserted, so much so that I resorted to using something hard to press it down.

This flattened the top of the sight, the stock split again and the game was up. I've not seen one since but only recently I came across a bit of the underlever mechanism when I was cleaning out my old Dads shed, no idea what happened to the rest of it.

[Hsing-ee]

Sounds like you have improved on the original design. Would be interesting to see what one would be like if you made a similar design up from bits of a BSA Cadet and some mild steel. Heavier, but 5 ft/lbs would be nice.

[ggggr]

Would be interesting to see what one would be like if you made a similar design up from bits of a BSA Cadet and some mild steel. Heavier, but 5 ft/lbs would be nice.

I've often thought that about them. An underlever based on the Cadet would have made a brilliant kids gun. The Merlin is more in size and weight to a Webley Junior.

Anyhow--I had a look at one for somebody yesterday and it was different to the others I've seen. This had a double hook coil spring for the trigger. One end hooks on the safety sear spring and the other on the front of the trigger. The others I've seen have had a hairpin type (flat or round) that goes behind the trigger. I've only seen Mk2 versions with the separate rear sight, rather than on the transporter/loading tap, but I have seen 3 trigger spring types and both trigger guard types, which shows again that BSA used up old spares on new models if they could.
On the one I looked at yesterday the transporter base/ O ring and spring (bent washer) were out of the gun and the transporter/loading tap would not go into it's housing due to the gun having been repainted. I cleared the paint before trying the transporter/ loading tap. Then the little washer goes into the hole in the end of the cylinder with the pointy bit facing outwards and the transporter base and O ring go on top of that with the O ring facing the transporter/ loading tap. It does a pretty good job of stopping the tap coming up too far and falling out. I'd guess people have either forced the taps out over the years or that little spring/washer loses some tension.
On the one I did yesterday, it had had a new mainspring fitted, which if it had been my gun, I would have collapsed a couple of coils. However the face of the cocking arm and the piston were good so it should be ok.

DO NOT TRY TO TUNE THESE GUNS! They are fragile and the cocking arm can slip off the piston and due to the design the action wants to lift itself out of the stock resulting in a broken fore end. If you have a slightly tired mainspring, I would use it and enjoy the gun for a low powered fun plinker. The one I did yesterday was hitting bottle caps at 7 1/2 yards so that is not bad for a child's gun.