Alros Starfire CO2 8 Shot

[Mark D]

After what was a 5 year search on a regular basis I managed to acquire these two 8 shot CO2 Alros Starfire rifles.

The sporter came from the original owner and was purchased in Sepember 1999 according to the receipt. It is in pretty much mint condition. The TH model needed some tlc to get it operational.

The Thumbhole stock model came with the 'magnum' silencer (It has no baffles in it) and is just marginally quiter than the standard unit on the sporter.

The action on the sporter is a polished finish and has 'Alros Starfire' CO2 stamped into it. THe TH model is a matt finish on the block with no details on it apart from the plaque on the pistol grip.

My guess is Alros almost hand built these and used CS stocks and Lothar Walther barrels hence the difference in finish and the obvious signs of 'shed engineering'

Both have just been resealed and have yet to be set up for accuracy and performance.

[IMG]DSC03453 by Mark Davis, on Flickr[/IMG]
[IMG]DSC03452 by Mark Davis, on Flickr[/IMG]
DSC03454 by Mark Davis, on Flickr
[IMG]
DSC03458 by Mark Davis, on Flickr[/IMG]
[IMG]DSC03456 by Mark Davis, on Flickr[/IMG]

[Unframed Dave]

Very nice indeed Mark. I have the trailsman, plainsman co2 repeater and shadow 400 pcp repeater.

Dave

[vintage]

Nice find Mark. Iv'e been after one myself. However, I live in hope. Lol😁

[Cinimod]

Hi Mark,
I see in your post that you've had your Starfires resealed, I'm looking to do my recently aquired one as the bolt seal has a couple of nicks in it and I need to refinish the stock but I'm having trouble separating the action.
If removed the stock bolt and what I assume is all of the Co2 tube but it still won't lift out vertically from the woodwork.

Any ideas....dom

[Mark D]

Hi Dom

When you say you have removed all of the CO2 tube, I take it that you have removed the barrel and then the hidden grub screw under the front grub screw hole that holds the CO2 tube in place.
The CO2 tube then unscrews in an anti clockwise fashion. You should then be able to lift out the block complete with the trigger guard.
On my TH model it needed a lot of effort to remove the tube and the wriggle the action out as it was a very tight fit. HTH

Nice to hear of another Alros Starfire surfacing.

Be good to see a photo and any details of markings on the action block.

[rapidshot]

Morning all. Back in the 90's I purchased a second hand Alros Shadow M400 in .22cal for £150 , the stock was very nice indeed with an Alros Emblem set into the bottom of the pistol grip. The cocking mechanism was a bit agricultural but worked fine. Very accurate rifle from memory. Was offered £300 for it so I let it go.
I had also picked up a Starfire as CO2 rifles were becoming popular and I wanted to give them a try. It took 2 x CO2 bulbs but a couldn't get it above 8 ftlbs. Anyway, I tried to contact Alros but found it impossible. As I lived in Leek, Staffordshire I nipped over to their trading address at Cold Meece not far outside Stoke/Hanley. It was a small industrial unit ...I banged on the door and a gent answered...turned out to be Alan of Al -Ross. Really nice gent. I explained the issue and he invited me into the workshop. Apart from the two of us it was deserted. I was expecting him to ask me to leave the rifle with him but he took it straight over to a large workbench that had a lot of...probably 40.. Blued barrel blanks lined up on it...he chose one ...took the action out of my rifle...and literally drifted the barrel out of the breech with a copper/brass drift and hammer. He then compared the barrel to the ones lined up on the bench and chose one longer than the original. Then drifted this into the breech, changed the hammer spring from a selection that were in small tins on the bench.I can't remember there being any grub screws to secure the barrel into the breech but there may have been..After reassembling the rifle, which included a silencer, he tested it using a Skan chrono......11.4 ftlbs...I was happy with that.
I then started chatting with Alan and asked why had it been so difficult to make contact by phone. He then went into some detail.....he and his business partner were having difficulties between them, no detail given, and the business was struggling to source wooden stocks for the rifles at a cost effective price...he told me that Webley, Air Arms and the 'big boy's ' had priority over everybody else....and he couldn't find a viable source of stocks anywhere in the UK. He showed me a bench that had maybe 30 rifles on it ready to assemble...barrels, breeches, buddy bottle etc etc. To be honest, and it's quite a vivid memory, he looked and sounded totally browned off ! I asked him how much I owed him and he said give me £40 ...which even back in the 90's was too cheap...he wouldn't accept more....he gave me the old barrel back and told me that the previous owner had chopped the barrel as it was way too short. By the way, Alan told me that they only used Lothar -Walther barrels which was something that I didn't know at the time. Not long after my visit I heard that Alros had gone out of business....I still wonder today what happened to all of those unassembled actions that lay on that bench ?

[Cinimod]

Hi Dom

When you say you have removed all of the CO2 tube, I take it that you have removed the barrel and then the hidden grub screw under the front grub screw hole that holds the CO2 tube in place.
The CO2 tube then unscrews in an anti clockwise fashion. You should then be able to lift out the block complete with the trigger guard.
On my TH model it needed a lot of effort to remove the tube and the wriggle the action out as it was a very tight fit. HTH

Nice to hear of another Alros Starfire surfacing.

Be good to see a photo and any details of markings on the action block.

Ahh, that would make a difference then. I assumed, wrongly then, that removing the cylinder would release the action with the barrel still on.
I think I must have left the valve in the block and that's what's catching on the stock. I've screwed the cylinder back in yesterday at it still works so I'll have a go at taking the barrel out first tomorrow.

If you want to see pics have a look on the other forum as I never managed to upload pics on here successfully. My action is blued shines but has no other markings......dom

[Mark D]

Thanks rapidshot, thats a nice bit of factual data to add to the story of the 'Alros' air rifle company. Such a shame to see it come to an end so soon and not see any of the range get developed into 'improved' models. Nothing like the opposition squeezing out competition by pressurising the supply chain! Be nice to find out what happened to all those actions after Alros ceased trading.

I have heard of a Mk11 version of the pcp Tomcat from the original owner who still has it, which used the same action as the Trailsman inc the bolt action. Have not seen or heard of the straight pull bolt action Tomcat which was shown on the sales brochures.

Certainly the Starfires that I have, show signs that they were hand assembled with parts from other manufacturers, trigger guard, barrel. The charging unit looks original, if you discount the one used on a Sharp GR75, that works identically. These models are 20+ years old now and with just a service and a change of seals both of mine work well.

[Cinimod]

Thanks for the heads up about the Allen screw under the barrel, I would never have thought about there being one there. It certainly made life simpler and the cylinder came out with no problem at all.
I have baulked at taking the hammer and trigger apart at the moment as there's not a problem with it but at a later date may do it out of curiosity.
Anyway I can now refinish the stock, so thank you.
Just an aside how did you know there's a valve release screw under the barrel as there's nothing on the internet about stripping these?..dom

[Mark D]

Glad you got that sorted Dom

It was Stuart ( grieva) who gave me the heads up. Great thing about this section of BBS always someone willing to help out with tackling these scarce airguns that we seek to collect.

[grieva]

Had it a long time Dom and plenty of time to fiddle, look after it was once my pride and joy,
Stuart(grieva)

[Cinimod]

Had it a long time Dom and plenty of time to fiddle, look after it was once my pride and joy,
Stuart(grieva)

Evening Stuart,
Rest assured it come to a good home it's here to stay with me and be used and looked after. It's an absolute gem and very easy to shoot. Did you work on the trigger as I've heard that they were quite crude but it's very light and predictable for a single stage.
I can tell you looked after it as the bluing is very good still, the only thing I'm going to do is to refinish the stock to oil and I'll need to replace the bolt Oring....dom

[grieva]

Evening Stuart,
Rest assured it come to a good home it's here to stay with me and be used and looked after. It's an absolute gem and very easy to shoot. Did you work on the trigger as I've heard that they were quite crude but it's very light and predictable for a single stage.
I can tell you looked after it as the bluing is very good still, the only thing I'm going to do is to refinish the stock to oil and I'll need to replace the bolt Oring....dom

I did make a trigger spring from some correct size spring steel and it has worked ok for years, the bolt o ring is change by removing the barrel this gives plenty of room to refit a new one to the bolt, sorry I can't remember the size.

[junglie]

I did make a trigger spring from some correct size spring steel and it has worked ok for years, the bolt o ring is change by removing the barrel this gives plenty of room to refit a new one to the bolt, sorry I can't remember the size.

Nice one Stuart hope you're in good fettle.

[grieva]

Nice one Stuart hope you're in good fettle.

I am Martin, hope you are the same, cup of tea here when you want it.