Gamo whisper IGT project

[Anothermiss]

Hiya folks, for anyone interested in this sort of thing...
I'm a PCP man through and through these days (purely a hunter)
However, I read most of the airgun threads that go up on here, which then made me fancy something a little more traditional and decided I'd go for a lightweight springer if one came up. And it did. Sort of. I picked up a "spares or repairs" gamo IGT whisper on here, which sounded like needed a new ram. So I my head, I would get a spring conversion/tune kit for it and go from there.
Gun arrived and was tested to be circa 9ftlb but consistent.
I went about stripping it ( a doddle, really and I'm no engineer) only to find the ram had plenty of pressure. Someone had tried to preload the ram with washers, I'm guessing in an attempt to get the power up. Piston crown was in good order, action/cylinder was absolutely caked in what I think is axle grease or similar.
I cleaned that off and polished the bits up with autosol to an nice clean finish. The cocking slot was rough so I rubbed this down. The cocking "shoe" (it's actually part of the arm) was sharp enough to cut flesh, literally. That's now rubbed and polished.
TP was tiny and I suspected the culprit for the low power. I opened that a fraction (this subsequently sent the rifle a little hot, so it was immediately stripped down again) and the TP was finished off. The firing cycle was actually eased by the TP adjustment.
Of note... Getting to the TP was a cow-bag. The barrel axis screw smashed a torx key (no cheap tat, either) and research taught me they're glued in at the factory. Because the action is coated in plastic, heat wasn't and option. Bring on the drill... After much time, care and swearing, the barrel axis bolt eased and was removed. And chucked in the bin. I was able to order a new one from knibbs. By this point, my "cheap light springer" had turned into a labour of love. To reduce that power and create a little barn ratter, I'm going to chop the barrel (well, my mate is. He IS a competent engineer, thank god) to 10in and have a mod adapter fitted.
So, cutting away at the plastic and discarding that awful plastic silencer, I revealed a lovely clean metal barrel.
Upon inspection, the factory crown is burred and the bore isn't even central to the barrel. That will be turned to ensure the bore is central to the mounted adapter.
That's as far as I've got so far. Updates will be uploaded rather slowly.

I make no wonder that gamo seal the barrel in a plastic sarcophagus if that's how there finished. They should be ashamed, to be honest.

Dan

[Anothermiss]

And perhaps, one day, if the project works out... I'll come to the boinger bash...

[AndrewE]

That's way more effort than I could be bothered with. Well done for putting the effort in and I hope you get something usable in the end.

[mattyw1987]

After having a go with one of these I feel you will be rewarded well as it’s one of the harshest rifles I’ve ever shot, also I really wasn’t keen on the plastic barrel sleeving either especially the breech block.


I converted a gas ran Diana 340 to spring and it was so much nicer to shoot so that’s always a option too bud.

[TonyL]

I'll watch with interest and hope the project turns out successfully, Dan.

Any thoughts as to converting to spring or will you be sticking with the gas ram?

Be nice to see you at a Boinger Bash?

[Anothermiss]

Cheers guys. I'm not averse to a spring conversion but the ram seems to be in working order so I'll give it a fair crack of the whip first.
Andy - I never expected to recreate a fenman but needed a project to keep me out of bother whilst we endure this scrappy weather! Let's see how we go...
And matty - yeah, she was teeth chattering when I fired her the first time around. It's already been "worth it" as I've had already had hours of warm, indoors entertainment

Edit: sticking with the ram means I'll get to test the barrel before investing any money. I hope the non centralised bore isn't a warning of things to come.

[mattyw1987]

Cheers guys. I'm not averse to a spring conversion but the ram seems to be in working order so I'll give it a fair crack of the whip first.
Andy - I never expected to recreate a fenman but needed a project to keep me out of bother whilst we endure this scrappy weather! Let's see how we go...
And matty - yeah, she was teeth chattering when I fired her the first time around. It's already been "worth it" as I've had already had hours of warm, indoors entertainment

Edit: sticking with the ram means I'll get to test the barrel before investing any money. I hope the non centralised bore isn't a warning of things to come.

I can’t fault you I reduced the cylinder on my Remington express to 25mm by recreating venom style work for something to do and enjoyed every minute, my Diana 340 had a grub screw through the transfer port to throttle it back and I had a new bsa lighting that had a tiny maybe 1.5mm port and a absolutely massive piston weight and was horrible to shoot.

I don’t understand why they feel this is a good idea or we will be happy with them… have fun bud.

[look no hands]

This is probably why BSA have been producing shocking stuff for so many years, if you're willing to pay smallish money for a Gamo then fair enough but when you start paying a lot more for BSAs (pointing the finger towards the new Meteor Super) that are not much better than Gamo's, then you can understand why HW's are favoured by many.

[mattyw1987]

This is probably why BSA have been producing shocking stuff for so many years, if you're willing to pay smallish money for a Gamo then fair enough but when you start paying a lot more for BSAs (pointing the finger towards the new Meteor Super) that are not much better than Gamo's, then you can understand why HW's are favoured by many.

100% agree and I really wanted to try a meteor super but just cocking it and looking over one at local rfd put me off fast for £300 and to me it’s a £180 rifle.

[Anothermiss]

100% agree and I really wanted to try a meteor super but just cocking it and looking over one at local rfd put me off fast for £300 and to me it’s a £180 rifle.

Exactly. I wish I'd taken a picture of the off centre bore at the muzzle end now to show you guys but I've it at my friend's workshop. It was so far off, I initially thought it was an optical illusion of some sort.

[look no hands]

100% agree and I really wanted to try a meteor super but just cocking it and looking over one at local rfd put me off fast for £300 and to me it’s a £180 rifle.

I shot one a few months ago and it was shocking, the strange thing is, it doesn't look much different than the Brocock Independent build wise and that is a mixture of Gamo and BSA parts, they can shoot nice after a fettle but the Meteor Super should shoot better for the money.

[mattyw1987]

I shot one a few months ago and it was shocking, the strange thing is, it doesn't look much different than the Brocock Independent build wise and that is a mixture of Gamo and BSA parts, they can shoot nice after a fettle but the Meteor Super should shoot better for the money.

Shame as they could of made a rifle that appealed to a lot of people if they had just made it nicer internally and competed with the hw99 on price.

Sorry for derailing your thread will stop now.

[look no hands]

Shame as they could of made a rifle that appealed to a lot of people if they had just made it nicer internally and competed with the hw99 on price.

Sorry for derailing your thread will stop now.

Totally agree and that pains me to say that.

[Anothermiss]

No need to apologise. This is my first experience of gamo rifles. I Suppose that intrigue got the better of me, too. I've tried BSA a few times now and always, without fail, been bitterly disappointed with the product. I've wanted to like them so much (they usually look good) but as a product to use, I have found them poor quality.

[look no hands]

No need to apologise. This is my first experience of gamo rifles. I Suppose that intrigue got the better of me, too. I've tried BSA a few times now and always, without fail, been bitterly disappointed with the product. I've wanted to like them so much (they usually look good) but as a product to use, I have found them poor quality.

I have a couple of early Supersport Customs (a special edition BSA made) and they are lovely, not as good as a HW but miles ahead of what they produce now, at one of the bashes, Chris (Baldinio) had 3 Lightnings for sale, one early one, an XL and a newer SE version, the quality of the later SE was awful and shot like a bag of spanners, if BSA had just made the Custom model the standard set up then they would have had a good chance of having a bigger slice of the market and even better if they had improved upon it over time.