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Thread: Interesting Customized Hy-Score Pistol

  1. #1
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    A Interesting Customized Hy-Score Pistol I couldn’t pass up

    As a vintage Airgun collector I always go for perfect all original guns. When I saw this however I had to have it. The Hy-Score as much as I like it was still made as a economical pistol with many features not quite up to firearm standards, of say the Haenel 28 or the Webleys. However someone customized this pistol and tried their best to upgrade everything. The most obvious is the walnut hand checkered grip. It is perfectly milled as precisely as a factory would do it or even better. He must have milled a new trigger guard to intigrate the grip and got rid of the one that was sheet metal. Though difficult to see in the photos he even had to mill into the trigger guard a keeper for the trigger spring. The back sight on a Hy-Score is really poor, he changed it to a milled one with a milled height adjuster. I assume this was a gunsmith with considerable skill. Don’t know if he was repairing a old Hy-Score or just upgrading it. Looks to have been done many years ago. Interesting question is why would someone spend so much time and effort on a relatively inexpensive air pistol?

    Press the link below for many pics. At the end of the pics hit “3 more” the last pic is this gun beside a standard gun.

    https://imgur.com/a/aNJIHti
    Last edited by 45flint; 13-11-2018 at 09:15 PM.

  2. #2
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    Interesting.

    Have you shot it? Looks to me like the rear sight is set far too high for the front blade. Might hit around point of aim at about 50 yards?

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    Quote Originally Posted by Geezer View Post
    Interesting.

    Have you shot it? Looks to me like the rear sight is set far too high for the front blade. Might hit around point of aim at about 50 yards?
    No haven’t shot at a target, just oiling it and shooting at a Chrony to get it back in shape. Not sure you are correct it you look at the last pic comparing this with one I have sighted in. Looks about the same? Also the gun has a milled riser where I can adjust, it in the middle right now. These guns have a rearward moving piston. This causes the barrel to dip and they have to sight these high to compensate, per Andrew Lawrence’s paper he wrote on making this pistol. Test the theory when I get a warm day.

  4. #4
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    Quote Originally Posted by 45flint View Post
    No haven’t shot at a target, just oiling it and shooting at a Chrony to get it back in shape. Not sure you are correct it you look at the last pic comparing this with one I have sighted in. Looks about the same? Also the gun has a milled riser where I can adjust, it in the middle right now. These guns have a rearward moving piston. This causes the barrel to dip and they have to sight these high to compensate, per Andrew Lawrence’s paper he wrote on making this pistol. Test the theory when I get a warm day.
    I was thinking the same. Just looks a bit too much to my eyes. Probably wrong. For that exact reason. Enjoy, nice score (no pun intended).

  5. #5
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    Now that's a nice looking and executed custom job, I think your evaluation is spot on with the upgrading.

    As to 'why' well we can only speculate,but many a Webley have had the sights and grips changed by enthusiastic owners over the years, as have Crosman gas pistols.

    A nice find - well done

  6. #6
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    Quote Originally Posted by Mark D View Post
    Now that's a nice looking and executed custom job, I think your evaluation is spot on with the upgrading.

    As to 'why' well we can only speculate,but many a Webley have had the sights and grips changed by enthusiastic owners over the years, as have Crosman gas pistols.

    A nice find - well done
    Very good point, over here there is a cottage industry making custom parts for Crosman CO2 pistols. Webley wood grip upgrades are pretty common as well. This is the first I have seen on a Hy-score, not surprising given the grips are so integrated to the pistol.
    Last edited by 45flint; 14-11-2018 at 12:45 PM.

  7. #7
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    That grip is indeed very nice and obviously the result of a lot of work,

    as for why, I get it, There is an endearing quality with the hy-scores, I agree some parts are made to be functional rather than high standard (trigger shoe, rear sight) however they do work and the actual pistol is very well made, nicely balanced, easy to cock and just good to shoot, my Haenel 28 whilst of very high quality materials is a bugger to actually use, as a display piece the Haenel wins but as a pistol to shoot and enjoy for what it is the Hy-score win's every time, this would probably be the reason time has been spent improving on the few small shortfall's it has, I'd have improved the trigger shoe also though
    Steyr LP10, Steyr LP5,
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    Quote Originally Posted by nige346 View Post
    That grip is indeed very nice and obviously the result of a lot of work,

    as for why, I get it, There is an endearing quality with the hy-scores, I agree some parts are made to be functional rather than high standard (trigger shoe, rear sight) however they do work and the actual pistol is very well made, nicely balanced, easy to cock and just good to shoot, my Haenel 28 whilst of very high quality materials is a bugger to actually use, as a display piece the Haenel wins but as a pistol to shoot and enjoy for what it is the Hy-score win's every time, this would probably be the reason time has been spent improving on the few small shortfall's it has, I'd have improved the trigger shoe also though
    I agree the wrapped sheet metal trigger is the worse part of the Hy-score aesthetically. But even this guy with his obvious skills could not beat that one. But in life 3 out of 4 isn’t bad. Lol

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    Interesting as I further tested the pistol I finally got to sighting it in. When I first got the pistol I questioned whether the customerizer ever finished this part. The back sight had only the slightest V notch that did not match the front sight at all. I was going to file a normal wide notch the same as the original to match the front sight. Before this was done I tested the pistol and it was hitting very low. I had to raise the back sight and to do this I had to use his adjuster much further up. Not sure he intended this cause I had to file it slightly to get it to fit there. It could be he intended to file the front sight, but I really didn’t want to do that. Now, in the pics below it zeros in the middle of the 3 tier adjuster. Also the further tension helps to hold the adjuster in place. Before it was backing out with every shot. I then also widened the back sight to match. Feel like I finished what was maybe the original intention? Funny after all this work customizing the pistol, I don’t think he ever finished the sighting? Using the gun with the small little notch would have been impossible? It could also be he used the pistol with its original sight for years and then decided to replace it but never finished this part of his work?

    If the custom sight seems high it is because it is a inch further back and thus the upward angle needed to compensate for the downward flip of the pistol is further exaggerated.

    https://imgur.com/a/ZURoX5e

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