Airmasters Mastersport FTS/Vmach

[murkywaters]

So I posted up a few weeks ago about a rifle I bought through an auction (original post), I could see it was a HW77K with a serial number dating it to 1986, with the chrome action, moderator and walnut stock I could tell it was something special, but I wasn't sure on what it consisted of being the auction was online so I couldn't try it out - sight unseen just online pictures.

With the action being chromed this threw me out and still does, I would love to more about this specific gun, why, when and where the chrome was applied, was it an Airmasters one off or a previous owner decided to have it done, either way it fits right into the mid 1980's where Airmasters were producing these beautiful guns.

Once I got the gun home you could see it had been sat around for a few years, the chrome had tarnished, the stock was flat and dull but in really good condition with no dings dents or chips, so I stripped it all down to restore. This is when I knew the internals were not FTS unfortunately, it had a Vmach kit installed and badly, the piston was really tight in the comp tube and the chrono confirmed this with 8ftlb, so I sized the piston seal, cleaned, fettled, polished and used correct lube in small amounts, its now at a consistent 11.2ftlb, the action has come up really nice with a light polish of Autosol.

The stock, I love this stock, it has some stunning figure to it combined with being an iconic shape from the era, it just needed the right treatment, after preparation I have been adding thin light coats of Trade Secrets Rapid oil and drying for a few days, this is where the figure has really started to pop, after drying I couldn't wait to rebuild it.

Now it is all back together with a Tasco scope to match the rifles age and it really is a stunner, at the moment it could do with a tin or two pellets through it just to bed in the internals properly so I'll enjoy doing that.

Below is some images I took this morning, thanks for reading