Feinwerkbau LG150 T

[18 Wheeler]

In May I purchased an FWB LG150 from Rockdrill on this very forum. He accurately described it as a good shooter which cosmetically had seen better days.
The correct model designation is LG150 DT (D=Sleeved barrel, T= Tyrolean-RH)

Having received it I was undecided on what to do with it initially, after shooting it a few times and learning a little more about this particular model I decided it was worth putting some effort into the rifle to restore some of it's former good looks. So here's a rundown of what was involved a little bit of history, some photos and a few links which I found interesting and informative.

Should the cogniscenti spot any glaring errors please point them out and I'll edit this post. The information largely comes from various threads on the excellent Vintage Airgun Forum , a selection of books, a few conversations and my own observations. I've put links at the end of this thread, many thanks to all those who provided the original work, especially Messrs Garvin, Driskill,Blackwell et al.

Photographs. Click slideshow at the top right of the linked page, it will save a lot of subsequent clicking. Here.

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A bit of history:
Introduced in early 1963 the FWB LG150, made at Feinwerkbau's Oberndorf factory, was the first commercial application of the WAW Sledge System (Westinger, Altenburger and Wohrstein), providing the shooter with a "recoilless" match grade air rifle.

ARH describe it as "the most technologically advanced air rifle in the World" in their 1969 catalogue (7) and it is the only rifle they award the maximum 5 stars.

The barrel shroud/weight is fixed, you had to make the decision at the time of purchase as to whether you wanted it or not, but it does stabilise the muzzle nicely when on target. Those without look rather anaemic!

The LG150 was replaced by the LG300 at the beginning of 1969.

From the serial number I believe this rifle to have been made in 1966.

Stripdown:

Using the manual and parts diagram (1+2) made stripping the LG150 a straightforward job, no special tools are needed and the spring is only under moderate preload. With the action fully stripped the quality of the manufacture really shows through, despite it's age there were virtually no signs of wear to any parts.

Despite being heavy it really balances beautifully with the weight on. A further supplementary weight (5) was available which afixed to the front of the stock for those seeking an even greater front bias.

Next came the metal work prep which took about 15 hours. Some areas were quite badly pitted and to make headway I needed to use 80 grade ally oxide paper, then through the grades to 1500 followed by the fun bit using mops and several grades of polishing compound. I was keen to retain all of the original stampings and that requires a slow cautious approach.

John fom the Melbourne Marksmen kindly organised the re-blueing, which left me to make a start on the woodwork.

B.B.Pelletier in his Airgun Blog (4) points out one of the weaknesses of the LG150. The stocks are prone to cracking at the pistol grip, he estimates that more than half suffer such damage, and this one was no different. It had been repaired and under test the repair was stable but left some cosmetic damage. Much of this was remedied during the sanding and general prep, the chequering has a small area still showing damage but I feel that is a job for an expert, I'll put it on the to-do list.

There were numerous dents and pressure marks on the stock, these came out nicely with steam and following a few hours of sanding the stock was looking much better. The first coat of oil is always a nice moment, and on this shapely Tyrolean the grain pattern is exceptional. I gave the stock the full CCL treatment, about 15 coats in total and it has come out a treat as I hope the photographs show [Link above and at (8)].

Other small jobs include making up a blanking plate for the forend where the supplementary weight would secure and there are two tiny areas where the blueing didn't penetrate as fully which may get treated.

With the reblued metal work back it was a simple matter to reassemble the action. The seals and buffer appeared new and were retained.
Test shooting the rifle I felt it could be better, so restripped it and applied a tiny amount of LT2 to each end of the spring. This seemed to have a significant effect, there was no spring twang and the firing cycle felt much tighter and better damped.

After 20 test shots I put it over the chrono. A ten shot string using RWS Hobby gave an 8 fps spread and a mean MV of 634fps for 6.25 ft/lbs ME. Accuracy was excellent, at 8 yards the result was a single hole slightly larger than a single pellet from 5 shots.

It's interesting comparing the LG150 to the LG300. The cylinder is longer, as are the barrel and cocking lever. I wonder if the latter was in part a response to stocks breaking? It is possible to apply a large lateral force at the end of the cocking stroke, a shorter lever would reduce this significantly.

The Tyrolean stock is fantastically curvaceous, with a prominent palm swell and the pistol grip is both chequered and stippled. It even "works" for lefthanders like myself.

Overall it's taken about 30-40 hours for the refurb. I'm happy with the end result, it's a very handsome airgun which I'm proud to own. Now that the appearance matches the performance all is well with the world.

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Links and further reading:

(1) FWB 150 Manual
(2) FWB 150 Parts diagram, link to FWB site which lists all models including the LG150.
(3)Serial numbers and Date of Manufacture. LG150 and LG300 (scroll down past the Walther serial numbers!)
(4) BB Pelletier's Airgun Blog. Part One, Two, Three .
(5) Supplementary weight.
(6) Tyrolean 150s rare?
(7) ARH Catalogue 1969. [This was e-mailed to me so I don't have a link except for this page].
(8) Photographs

[Hsing-ee]

Lovely guns.

[Herpquest]

An excellent job and a beautiful gun mate. I am seething with jealousy!!
ATB
Eric

NB. Having just looked at my PDF file of the 150 schematic and parts list, part number 1 is listed as 'barrel with sleeve', so it appears that they are one unit
and not two seperate parts.

[pennineway.fswo]

Having seen, handled and shot this rifle I have to say it is the best restoration I have seen and it shoots superbly well.
A truely handsome air rifle, well done Nick
ATB
John

[Mr Smiths Mate]

Must admit for a southerner....you have made a great job Nick.......hope your supper was ok

[air-tech]

Beautiful indeed.

As a little note - the 150s I have seen have only had the weights fitted if there was no barrel shroud.

At one time I was thinking of buying one without a shroud but with a weight and was given to understand that perhaps the stock on these models would not accept the shroud?

[Garvin]

That's a very impressive restoration job. Lovely rifles IMO and well worth the cost and effort of doing all that work. Enjoy!

[rockdrill]

Glad to see you are enjoying my old gun.

The crack repair looked terrible before I had a go at blending it down.

Lovely job on the restoration.

BTW the breech seal, piston buffer and the spring were all brand new Macarri replacments.

[basa]

when martin advertised this rifle,i dithered over buying,im glad i did, as i dont think i would have turned her, into the beautifull shooting machine that she is now,well done,enjoy,lovely wood.

[18 Wheeler]

Thanks for that Rockdrill. It turned out nicely in the end.

I'd assumed the seals were new, you can still see the crosshatched pattern on the breech seal etc and the spring was perfect, now I know why. Thanks.

The ME is healthy with Hobby and I'll try it with some other pellets soon, as I've been advised that R10s can yield higher ME's and it will be interesting to see what it does with JSB's etc.

Air-Tech: It may be that the supplementary weight isn't compatible with the shroud, I'll do some more research.

This stock has the shallow cutaway and mounting point for that weight but I'm just going to make a small blanking plate to tidy up the appearance. FWB's habit of introducing numerous small changes during production means these little anomolies are bound to crop up. There are at least three different types of front sight fixing by way of example.

Eric: Thanks for the info on the barrel sleeve/weight.

Mr.Smith's Mate: Southerner by birth, so I had dinner not supper. (Eventually)


Thanks for the positive comments gents, much appreciated. If anyone finds other relevant/interesting links please let me know and I'll add them to the list at the end of the op.