Swedish Air rifles

[hawkeye]

I got one that would not pump up or hold air ... great fun sorting it.
The pump is basically an old style cycle pump and can be repaired as such. The inlet valve is like one of the old fashioned cycle inner tube valves that have a bit of rubber tubing on them to act as an air seal. But I did try a modern equivalent and found the thread was not quite the same. I found some new latex (?) tubing to seal the original ... from a fishing shop; the stuff fishermen use to go on floats to pass the line through. Works well. Resealing the exhaust valve was more of a challenge as you must get the seal just right. I made a new seal from a water tank ball valve seal. Not having 5.4mm ball/pellets, I started out using rolled up moist tissue balls to test my seals. At the start it just went 'phut' and travelled about 2 feet from the muzzle. Then I found a kid's paintbrush with a round plastic handle that was a perfect fit in the breech. So I cut some short lengths and used that. It took a long time to get it all right ... I shot the plastic bits into an old fleece I wear in the garden. Velocity was initially enough to go about 6ft and bounce off the fleece. But then I got it right as one plastic piece shot right through the fleece. Wonderful. This had taken about 4 days on and off.
Ammo: I have had no joy finding 5.4mm ball in the UK but they are available from H&N; or at least they list them on the website. I tried 'forcing' a 5.5 into the barrel but it was not good. So I made a 'sizer' to form 5.5 down to 5.4 and this works well.
So... if you can find one they are good fun but with that bicycle pump design I think they are quite hard to pump up above a plinking performance.
Cheers, Phil

Thanks Phil, very informative , where did you find yours ?

[Phil Russell]

Thanks Phil, very informative , where did you find yours ?

I found it in a bundle of maybe 5 other rifles ... Original 15/16 etc, some A/F etc at an auction for a ridiculously low price. I had no idea what it was at the time, thinking it was just a 'kid's toy rifle'. It was only when I started to look through various books that we found out what it was.
As I say ... great fun.
I did try to get 5.4mm ball in Sweden and Norway about 18 months ago. A shop selling air guns in Malmo (Sweden) had never heard of 5.4 ball. The Norwegian shop, at Lillesand, said they do sometimes have them but had none when I visited. Interestingly, during conversation with the owner (it was a soft air / air gun shop by the way) he told me there was no power limit on .177 but that all.22 air rifles needed a licence. I hope I understood him correctly.
I am still looking for 5.4ball.
Cheers, Phil

[hawkeye]

I found it in a bundle of maybe 5 other rifles ... Original 15/16 etc, some A/F etc at an auction for a ridiculously low price. I had no idea what it was at the time, thinking it was just a 'kid's toy rifle'. It was only when I started to look through various books that we found out what it was.
As I say ... great fun.
I did try to get 5.4mm ball in Sweden and Norway about 18 months ago. A shop selling air guns in Malmo (Sweden) had never heard of 5.4 ball. The Norwegian shop, at Lillesand, said they do sometimes have them but had none when I visited. Interestingly, during conversation with the owner (it was a soft air / air gun shop by the way) he told me there was no power limit on .177 but that all.22 air rifles needed a licence. I hope I understood him correctly.
I am still looking for 5.4ball.
Cheers, Phil

Thanks Phil , as for the ball shot in 5.4mm Protek have them from time to time .