Daystate Mirage XLR

[IanSea]

I first tried one of these lovely little rifles about 18 years ago and was instantly smitten. The price was out of my league though. A beech stocked version was £450 and the walnut version was £499 which was an awful lot of money for a single shot pcp at that time. For comparison a Falcon FN or Air Arms S300 could have been bought for around £270ish.

I've kept an eye out for one over the years but, with the restrictions on posting that have come in over the years, I didn't hold out much hope of getting one. A few weeks before Christmas I spotted one for sale in Freeads, which was only about thirty mile away, so arranged to go and have a look. The seller had inherited the rifle from a relative who had been an FT shooter and wasn't interested in keeping it. A deal was struck and I ended up going home with the rifle.

The rifle was sitting in what i presume is a modified LR90 stock with a hamster, adjustable butt pad and raised cheek piece. The original beech stock was also included but was marred by previous attempts to install a hamster and adjustable butt pad. As I shoot left handed I'll be on the look out for a l/h stock from a Mirage, LR90, Firefly or the ambi stock from an RWS series 50. If this doesn't work out I'll look at modifying the LR90 stock to be more ambi or making a new stock.

The other problem I have is that, while the rifle was holding air when I bought it, on trying to fill it up with air it started to leak from the filler. I bought a new filler assembly from Best Fittings and installed it before filling the rifle, whilst listening for leaks. As no leaks were apparent I considered it a job well done but the next day the rifle was empty. I tried cocking the rifle before filling again but a loud hissing noise from the valve area indicated that the seals had called it a day.

As Daystate now charge £175 for servicing a non electronic rifle I've ordered a set of seals for £12. If anyone has resealed a Mirage I would welcome any pointers before I dive in. As only 260 ish of these were made I don't expect a flood of experts but if anyone had experience of stripping an LR90, Harrier or Huntsman MK2 this would probably be helpful.