A bit boring really

[Shed tuner]

Whats the latest...?

[Dornfelderliebe]

Whats the latest...?

I reassembled it after giving the loctite two days to cure. The 'loctite' was not the genuine article when it came, I fell for another bay vague listing but it seems to have worked.
I set the liner a bit too proud at the breech so filed it 'till it fitted and dressed it up.
I regreased the breech detent a la Tinbum video and it snaps shut with a satisfying clunk now that the liner is the correct length.
The barrel bolt has stopped the lateral barrel wobble that it came with.

I fitted a Welsh willy spring kit and parachute seal which is not over heavy to cock given that the barrel is 60mm shorter.
Now for the but.
It's massively down on power, doing only 280 fps with Marksmans.
When firing it sounds like it's slamming and that will be due to the WW parachute seal being too loose in the cylinder. Conversely my Aussie seal 26mm seal conversion won't even fit in the cylinder.
Remember the cylinder was reamed but he could not get his reamer all the way to the bottom of the compression section.

I wonder whether apart from the seal not working, the piston cannot do it's full stroke.
I shall revert to using the BSA head where the head protrudes further than the seal and am now waiting for a new BS210 seal.

This Meteor piston felt very tight when I opened it (usual seized piston suspects accepted) so it will be interesting to see how it feels now it's been reamed.

I still feel the choke is too tight but I am going to nothing about that yet.

[Shed tuner]

when you look at the cocking shoe, how much clearance is there from the piston slot ? i'd allow at least 1mm. preferably 2.
meteror is 1" bore so 25,4mm. a sized HW 26mm seal worked well in mine, but has to be the flexible parachute style.

as you say, i'd not mess with the choke yet (or ever)

[TonyL]

Very well done re the barrel fit and breech bolt fix, Tom. Won't be long until you get this other issue put to bed and then the resulting rifle should provide immense fun and satisfaction.

[Dornfelderliebe]

Thanks chaps I know it's still early days but the sense of satisfaction thumbing those Marksmans into the breech, when testing was huge.
I now need to work out where I mislaid all my H & Ns.

[Dornfelderliebe]

Some good news to report folks.
Today I switched over the piston head to a long stroked O.E one and put a quad ring seal in. I also triple checked the cocking shoe which was clear even with the Welsh Willy head. It is now further from the piston.
The new buffer washer had to be sanded slightly to get it in and reassembled her.

I fired a few Marksmans and tested velocity 508 fps or 11 fpe. More importantly there is now a nice soft plop and no clatter/slam noise.

Wanting to check for dieseling I fired another 30 or so and checked velocity again

520 fps or 11.5 fpe. I am now a happy bunny.

This time I peered down the cylinder with a torch and could see a slight ring of metal sticking out around the cylinder end.
A parachute seal would have hit this but the BSA piston head would fit inside with the O ring seal just behind.
Clearly what I thought to be a tight choke has made no difference.

Power without control is however, no use to any one so now I've got to fit a scope and the shim washers which as the breech block is smaller than a 99 may be visible, then test for accuracy.

[Shed tuner]

awesome. Yes sounds like either that piston head interface with the end of the cylinder, or the piston hitting the cocking link ends/shoe when the seal was in compression, were the power rubbing culprits.. or possibly both !

Either way, seems like you have a nice outcome now If the accuracy is a bit off, try the ball bearing / polishing paste trick in the muzzle to form a crown, nothing drastic...

[TonyL]

Sounding very, very good, Tom. Likely culprits as Jon has pointed out and now behind you. I hope the good news continues with further testing.

[Waddy]

I really want to see this rifle, amazing job









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