Wanted: John Bowkett tuned Meteor

[Shed tuner]

How about a Vortek 26mm seal and adapter sized to 1"?,the parcel arrived safely today,many thanks

I'd leave the seal unsized until you've tried it. the cylinders are rolled steel, so not exactly perfect, and you want to keep it a good bit tighter than for a true cylinder, to allow for variations in the bore. Also check the tightness for the entire length of the stroke not just a bit - it is likely to vary, and be larger at the end Finally, as per my thread, defo worth putting a 22mm dowel / pipe with a sheet of emery wrapped / glued around it to smooth out the cylinder / take off any high spots. Also do the cocking slot and rear section of the tube, as any high spots or sharp edges can damage the seal.

Finally, if it does prove to be way too tight after all of the above, size it very conservatively, as a sized seal will wear in much faster initially (within around 100-200 shots) before stabilising, so if you size it perfect, it will be under in less than half a tin of pellets.


A decent seal is the most important change to a meteor for efficiency, as the o-ring requires a decent true bore to seal, and the meteor's is anything but !


PS a vortex seal isn't very flexible due to the solid design - an HW 26mm seal is a far better bet, due to the thin, flexible lip. Once again, not an issue so much on a decent, true cylinder, but on a meteor

HTH - JB

[jirushi]

With help of a friend who has good metal working skills and equipment, I tried to follow JB's Meteor tuning recipe, for as far as I know the ingredients.
Quad ring (plus almost 1 ft/lbs), 3 mm transfer port, 10 gram steel top hat, 2mm off the face of the piston head, scope stop screw, increased preload on the barrel latch spring.

Result: 10,8 ft/lbs in my Mk4 using 15.89 gr .22 JSB's. Smooth and accurate. A dry "thud" and no nasty vibrations.

The trigger is quite heavy. I need to test this setup in my Mk5, as I've found with previous equal power tests that the Mk5 trigger is way more adjustable than the Mk4 trigger.
On the Mk4 trigger, there's only one setting where the sears engage; a tiny movement either way, and it doesn't work anymore. On the Mk5, there's lots of room for adjustments. Not sure how this works.

Haven't got photos of the Mk4 yet, but here's the Mk5, which has an old spring, a green nylon Chambers spring guide, 10 grams worth of steel rings to act as a piston weight, and a Lightning barrel (the Meteor barrel was damaged by - I think - darts, and grouped like a shotgun). It's putting out 9,1 ft/lbs.

I need to work out how to secure the front stock screws better. After about 50 shots, they need to be re tightened.

Lastly, I've just received a parcel from Hsing-ee, containing another squared off piston head and Maccari piston buttons. Thank you Hsing-ee! More experimenting on the way.

[Shed tuner]

job done. You could add more mass to the piston. Also try it with lighter pellets - hobbies and FAPs - as the piston is still very light for the bore and stroke.

[piggy589]

Another possibility could be to try an earlier Mk1 or 2,the pistons appear to have a thicker wall and possibly greater mass.

The trigger mechanism is definitely superior.

[Shed tuner]

The trigger mechanism is definitely superior.

yes, I sold my mk5 (?) and got a mk1 - much better trigger.

[piggy589]

I'm down to one and a half Mk1s now,still not entirely sold on the aftermarket piston seals.

The leather items always seem to produce consistent high power levels.

[johnbaz]

Were the mk1 Meteor ever factory nickel plated?

I have this .177" Mk1 Meteor that is nickel plated but it's worn through in places so may have been factory done or maybe as an aftermarket option some time after, I think it's been done for a lot of years!!

Serial is NH286..








John