Quote Originally Posted by Benelli B76 View Post
There was a mashed up leather washer in the end of the cylinder and the piston had a hole drilled in it for a screw so it looked like it originally had a seal. I drilled the hole deeper as it was shallow, the steel was very hard, in fact the whole rifle is good quality not like some other Gems I have seen. Think I have lost a little swept volume with the large seal I made but it shoots well and produces very small groups even with a smooth bore. Also fitted a new breach seal.

Baz
I bought one of the small ones (cannot remember which model) a few years back and that had a broken flat wire mainspring. It didn't have a piston washer, but just a leather disc at the end of the cylinder. The piston had a hole in the end, which looked like it was for the lathe tailstock. I decided to drill and tap it and fit a leather washer and do away with the disc in the cylinder. I cannot remember whether I made a shallow cup washer or just cut a disc of something thicker. I decided to try the mainspring out of a Webley pistol in it and it worked! Low power but easy to cock. I found the thing shot quite large groups with my preferred classic pellet, the Milbro Caledonian. However, the groups tightened up a lot using Bulldog or Smk Spitfire (the same pellets). I put this down to them having a thichker flange behind the dome.