Wanted: John Bowkett tuned Meteor

[Hsing-ee]

Apparently they were harsh on firing.

A far sweeter tune is Shed Tuner's version, converted to a parachute.

[BSFNUT]

Does J Budd also put in a breech bolt as Bowkett did ?

[johnbaz]

I have a Mercury that was tuned (And customised a bit!), It had an axis bolt/nut fitted among other stuff done, It was done by a gent called Ed Bishop, I think from Essex, It's a lovely rifle and much more positive on the lock up that the other Merc's I have




I was told (If my memory serves) that the axis bolt assembly came from a Haenel but it looks more like a HW affair to me!






Cheers, John

[Bluefan]

I have a Mercury that was tuned (And customised a bit!), It had an axis bolt/nut fitted among other stuff done, It was done by a gent called Ed Bishop, I think from Essex, It's a lovely rifle and much more positive on the lock up that the other Merc's I have




I was told (If my memory serves) that the axis bolt assembly came from a Haenel but it looks more like a HW affair to me!




Cheers, John

That looks very foxy

[jirushi]

@johnbaz, very foxy indeed!
If you want to bin the Meteor cylinder, then I might be able to refurbish it :-)
I am going to do some experiments on a Meteor Mk5, to see how good I can get it.
I'll leave my pristine Mk5 (photo) as it is, for originality's sake.

The actions to be taken:
- fit a screw at the rear of the action, to act as a scope stop. Yesterday some nice Sportsmatch 13 mm rings arrived, which fit well, but I think a scope stop will still be needed.
- fit a HW style barrel axis bolt
- increase the preload of the barrel latch pin spring for a better lock up
- remove about 2mm from the top of the piston head
- perhaps add a piston weight
- enlarge the transfer port to 4mm
- deburring/polishing the relevant areas
- Hsing-ee has been so kind to offer me his Maccari piston buttons thank you Hsing-ee
- and I have ordered a nylon spring guide and top hat. I believe I will have to apply some molybdenum grease on these
- there will also be a spring from Piggy to experiment with different spring lengths thank you piggy
- I'd also like to change the front stock fixing screws to allen bolts
- Maybe - maybe - I'll fit a Lightning trigger mechanism. The trigger casing is the same on the Lightning (and Spitfire) and Meteor, it's simply a matter of making a few holes. I have a spare Lightning trigger mechanism. Not sure if it will improve things, not sure if it will be any lighter.

I know this all sounds a bit far-fetched for a Meteor, but the idea of doing all this makes me kind of happy and excited.

Cheers :-)

[Shed tuner]

http://www.airgunbbs.com/showthread....wer-BSA-meteor

JB

[jirushi]

http://www.airgunbbs.com/showthread....wer-BSA-meteor

JB

Very nice thread JB, thank you.
You got some great results from your Meteor.
HW piston seal, HW breech seal, top hat.

Is there any chance that you could make another HW seal carrier?
And have you fitted a scope (stop)?

Ps. Just saw that you're looking for a PH Phoenix, I sold mine a while ago, but I still have a seal kit and one or two spare hammer springs if you would like to have those. I was thinking about what to do with them just yesterday

[johnbaz]

@johnbaz, very foxy indeed!
If you want to bin the Meteor cylinder, then I might be able to refurbish it :-)
I am going to do some experiments on a Meteor Mk5, to see how good I can get it.
I'll leave my pristine Mk5 (photo) as it is, for originality's sake.

The actions to be taken:
- fit a screw at the rear of the action, to act as a scope stop. Yesterday some nice Sportsmatch 13 mm rings arrived, which fit well, but I think a scope stop will still be needed.
- fit a HW style barrel axis bolt
- increase the preload of the barrel latch pin spring for a better lock up
- remove about 2mm from the top of the piston head
- perhaps add a piston weight
- enlarge the transfer port to 4mm
- deburring/polishing the relevant areas
- Hsing-ee has been so kind to offer me his Maccari piston buttons thank you Hsing-ee
- and I have ordered a nylon spring guide and top hat. I believe I will have to apply some molybdenum grease on these
- there will also be a spring from Piggy to experiment with different spring lengths thank you piggy
- I'd also like to change the front stock fixing screws to allen bolts
- Maybe - maybe - I'll fit a Lightning trigger mechanism. The trigger casing is the same on the Lightning (and Spitfire) and Meteor, it's simply a matter of making a few holes. I have a spare Lightning trigger mechanism. Not sure if it will improve things, not sure if it will be any lighter.

I know this all sounds a bit far-fetched for a Meteor, but the idea of doing all this makes me kind of happy and excited.

Cheers :-)

Unfortunately it went to the dump years ago, Or at least i'm pretty sure it did!!

I bought four Meteors that had been at a boy scouts camp and were wrecked!

I managed to put two working rifles together and had two lots of scrap left over!, The guns had square Airforce springs fitted and the piston heads with the '8' hole in the end were actually torn off, I managed to weld two up, Also two had been fired whilst the barrel was open and the jaws were pointing uppards!, Two stocks were salvagable. The other two were used to practice chequering on with a home made chequering tool, It was rubbish!!


If it does turn up in the garage you're welcome to it but i'm pretty sure that all that was left was two pistons that were torn apart!!


John

[Hsing-ee]

Does J Budd also put in a breech bolt as Bowkett did ?

I don't think he does, I think you could just use a shoulder bolt and a nut. Bowkett may have used the HW bolt, which is wider and so some machining is needed. The lock-up on the Meteor is OK, the jaws will spread if you over-tighten the stock bolts or if they see heavy use, the trick is to squeeze them back into alignment with a padded vice with the barrel out. The actual jaws are hollow so you can't thread them, you have to use a bolt and nut.

Mercuries can be retro fitted with a Mercury-S bolt and nut but also need some machining.

[johnbaz]

Have to say that I dislike meteors, I thought the jaws were just very soft but then realised they're a sort of tinplate type construction with an inner yoke brazed or welded in to the outer part, If you look through the pivot holes there's a space between them, not sure if it's the same for all the marks, I've a mk1 and a mk2 but haven't stripped them yet to find out!!

This is a scrap cylinder from a Meteor, Can't remember which type it is though!!







I much preferred the Cadet/Major that preceded the Meteor


John

[greenwayjames]

I don't think he does, I think you could just use a shoulder bolt and a nut. Bowkett may have used the HW bolt, which is wider and so some machining is needed. The lock-up on the Meteor is OK, the jaws will spread if you over-tighten the stock bolts or if they see heavy use, the trick is to squeeze them back into alignment with a padded vice with the barrel out. The actual jaws are hollow so you can't thread them, you have to use a bolt and nut.

Mercuries can be retro fitted with a Mercury-S bolt and nut but also need some machining.

If you read the first four sentences of the text alongside the photo you will see that he did in fact thread the one jaw and the reason why.

[piggy589]

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

[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.