LOV 21 Upgrade

[zooma]

When I came back from a trip to our local supermarket this morning there was a note from our local postman to let me know that a small package had been left in the shed for me.

The small box was collected and when opened I found three really nice and crisply formed 3D printed parts to upgrade my LOV 21 pistol. These had been "printed" in black and when fitted they matched my LOV 21 perfectly.

Within a just a few minutes all of these parts had been fitted to my favourite CO2 target pistol (!) and the improvement was immediately noticeable, so I will cover each upgrade individually as I think any of these parts will be of at least some interest to anyone who either owns or is considering buying a LOV 21.

The biggest single piece was the adjustable palm shelf. The LOV 21 does not have a palm shelf and this three piece unit adds an adjustable unit that looks good, but more importantly it works really well too.

This cleverly designed main unit clamps onto the steel piercer cap that protrudes out underneath the grip and is fixed in place with a single recessed chrome headed cap screw. This cap head is fairly substantial and needs a 6mm hex key to tighten it up.

Once in place the palm shelf can be adjusted up or down to fit the size of your hand, and once you are happy with the adjustment it can be fixed in place by tightening with a 3mm hex key. As this fixing screw is mounted more or less centrally it is also possible to angle the palm rest to the most suitable position too!

A further adjustable post that sits of the palm shelf can also be adjusted inwards or outwards to ensure that you position your hand in the same place every time, and this is also fixed in place with a 3mm hex key. Adjusting this post can also be really helpful in positioning your index finger as it can be used to turn your hand either towards or away from the trigger blade so to a limited degree it also adds a trigger "reach" adjustment too!

The large front sight block looks really "industrial" but serves two purposes. Firstly it houses its own front sight blade unit that comes already screwed on, and this can be replaced by similar units of different sizes that can be screwed on instead of the 3mm wide blade supplied. Also, there are two recesses in the underside of the main unit that can be filled with one or two 44 calibre steel BB's to add nose weight (if required) to give some balance adjustment to the pistol.

The original moulded front sight blade can be left in place or cut away - it does not really interfere with the sight picture and actually helps to radially locate the new unit so I have left mine in place - at least for now!

This complete unit can be slid over the front of the pistol. The unit is a fairly tight fit and should not slip off, but a recessed cap head screw is fitted underneath and this can be gently tightened up with a 3mm hex driver just to give it a "pinch" to make sure it does not move.

A simple rear sight blade is the third upgrade part. The bent steel rear sight that comes on the LOV 21 is OK, but it is what it is, and this larger flat plate simply fixes onto the back of it with a (pre-cut to size) piece of doubled sided foam tape. There are small walls moulded into the new sight blade on both sides and at both ends of the base so it is easy to align squarely over the existing sight blade and fits easily.

Once the front and rear upgrades are fitted the sight picture is both sharper and clearer, and improves the overall sight picture enormously.

So within a few minutes it was possible to upgrade my LOV 21 to include many of the desirable parts you would expect to find on a full match pistol, and it makes the pistol better balanced, easier to hold, and has an improved sight picture .

This is a superb small set of upgrade parts for this popular and inexpensive CO2 single shot target pistol that can further improve its already impressive performance .

[zooma]

I am meeting IJ at the Rossendale Club tonight and we will compare my LOV 21 update to his "modified" LOV 21 (unless his sticky weights fall off !)

I think this could encourage us to consider again that previously mentioned "low cost CO2 pistol series"

We could start by adding a "low cost CO2 Pistol series" to the MPL postal competition (starting in January 2019 - June 2019) next time as this competition could be shot at home (or at a club if you have the chance to do so) making it the ultimate inexpensive series to take part in when you would be sure that those with deeper pockets could not buy anything more expensive than the price limit.

The MPL series was always designed to offer good inexpensive shooting "on a level playing field" that did not favour the wealthy shooters, so this would be a worthy addition that we should consider too.

We could put a price cap on any pistol that is permitted to be used and even list them to make sure everyone knows what would be legal and what would not be accepted.

The price cap would have to be agreed - but how about £125 to include as starters to include those that buy them in the UK and have to pay a little more than those who import them from Poland etc?

[1066]

That sounds an excellent idea Bob - I have a run a few (unscientific) tests with my own Lov 21 and found the velocity very consistent over a string of 30 shots giving around 490fps with a spread of less than 10fps. I have also tested potential accuracy by firmly clamping the pistol to a fixed point and trying various pellets. I only have a distance of just under 9 metres from the clamped position but with R10 pellets all shots would score 10's on the 10m target.



The downside is - these pistols seem to be in short supply. "Sureshot" list them at £90 (+£20 delivery) but when I tried to buy one they were out of stock and not sure if they would re-order.
The only other supplier I could find with any stock was "City air weapons" at £100 (+£20 delivery)

[I. J.]

Tis true. I did indeed try Bobs LOV21 tonight, ( well the rental was very cheap ), and yes, I did find the modified back sight plate a great improvement over the standard to the extent that I have contacted 1066 by PM.

ATB
Ian

[MrChipShoulder]

The £125 would rule out my CP88 long barrel
You do have a habit of stopping my guns Lol
Alisha would be fine though with her SMK VICTORY
She’s always up for shooting that !

[zooma]

The £125 would rule out my CP88 long barrel
You do have a habit of stopping my guns Lol
Alisha would be fine though with her SMK VICTORY
She’s always up for shooting that !

Hi Rob,

The price cap that I have suggested was only that ( a starting point for the discussion), and I would welcome any contributions to advise what inexpensive CO2 pistols should be considered for this proposed MPL postal series and the typical price that we have to pay for them.

As long as the CO2 pistols are single shot and .177 - and fit into the "inexpensive" category - it would be good to have them mentioned here.

Hope your first MPL competition is going well for you and Alisha

Bob.