ABAS Major inf wanted

[kevin.ronnie]

Hello just acquired a really nice abas major that i have to replace the main spring on , as far as i know they strip from the front of the pistol , could anyone tell me if there is any reverse threads that i need to know about , any help would be greatly appreciated .

rgds kevin

[wrightonn]

Hi, Kevin,I have 3 of these, lovely pistols, very easy to strip. You can find detailed internal drawings on Trevors airgun scapbook, There is a 3 page article on the Abas in this months Airgun Shooter, hope this helps ATB,Ray.

[Rich1894]

Kevin, I have pm'd you some instructions on how to strip the ABAS - thy are interesting guns, and hard to find as not many were made. The company that made them, A Brown and Sons is still going and manufacturing shotguns, but when I contacted them they advised they no longer have any spare parts for the ABAS Major.

[kevin.ronnie]

thanks to Rich and Ray for the info it will definatly come in handy.

rgds kevin

[Abasmajor]

thanks to Rich and Ray for the info it will definatly come in handy.

rgds kevin

I would also like to express my thanks to Richard for taking the time to provide me with a copy of the ABAS stripping instructions requested via PM.

Regards

Brian

[kevin.ronnie]

My ABAS as now been stripped and repaired thanks to the help i was given by BBS members , the pistol looks like it as had very little use but when i took the old main spring out it was in eight pieces , i have never seen anything like that before .

rgds kevin

[Abasmajor]

My ABAS as now been stripped and repaired thanks to the help i was given by BBS members , the pistol looks like it as had very little use but when i took the old main spring out it was in eight pieces , i have never seen anything like that before .

rgds kevin

Hi Kevin,

Glad you managed to successfully strip and service your ABAS Major. Would you mind telling me the Serial Number and if it is a first pattern, which had wooden grips and a cocking lever release button at the base of the grip, second pattern with plain brown plastic grips and no release button, or third pattern which is the same as the second pattern but had chequered brown plastic grips. Only around 1,800 of these pistols were ever made at the end of the 1940s. Mine is a second pattern (Ser No 760) in good general condition and although not quite as powerful and easy to shoot as my Webley Senior, still performs well. I know of only three British made air pistols which used tap loaders being a variant of the Lincoln Jeffries moedel, Cogswell & Harrison Certus and the ABAS, so a nice and quite rare pistol to have in your collection.

Regards

Brian

[kevin.ronnie]

Hello Brian , my pistol has got brown bakerlite grips with ABAS on them and the serial number is 1563 , i'm not sure what spring i fitted , i've a feeling its a webley mk1 , although the new spring is smaller than the original it is still pretty powerfull.

rgds kevin

[Abasmajor]

Hello Brian , my pistol has got brown bakerlite grips with ABAS on them and the serial number is 1563 , i'm not sure what spring i fitted , i've a feeling its a webley mk1 , although the new spring is smaller than the original it is still pretty powerfull.

rgds kevin

Hi Kevin,

Thanks for that. The grips and relatively high Ser No make your ABAS a third pattern example.

The rarest and most desirable are the first patterns with the nice wooden grips. The most commonly seen version is the second pattern having smooth plastic grips, with your third pattern being second rarest. The vast majority had a blued finish but some later examples have been found with a black crackle finish presumably to save production costs. There is also a rumour that a few were assembled much later on from unused original parts.

Regards

Brian

[wrightonn]

Hi ABASMAJOR
If you are compiling a register of these pistols,I have the following-
Ser no 251,walnut grips,stamped on left hand side "ABAS MAJOR" AIR PISTOL No 1"
Ser no 1401,brown plastic checkered grips stamped ABAS
Ser no 1518 (as above)
Some spare parts ( not for sale) Ser no 873
I have a two part article on the ABAS by Chris Winnard Airgun World Oct-Nov 1978.According to Winnard early pistols up to Ser no 141 (approx) had separate sear to piston,push button lock to cocking lever,and were available in " blued finish,black crackle,and aluminium"
This months article in Airgun Shooter mentions "checkered walnut grips, and enamel finish". Anybody have or seen these?
ATB Ray

[wrightonn]

above post should read,
ser nos 1401 and 1518 stamped"ABAS MAJOR" on left hand side.
(my typing is not very good) sorry about that,Ray.

[Abasmajor]

above post should read,
ser nos 1401 and 1518 stamped"ABAS MAJOR" on left hand side.
(my typing is not very good) sorry about that,Ray.

Hello Ray,

Thanks for the information relating to your pistols.

I'm not really compiling a register of ABAS Majors, but am generally interested in their history and development so any information is gratefully received.

Regards

Brian

[Elkiebruno]

Hello Ray,

Thanks for the information relating to your pistols.

I'm not really compiling a register of ABAS Majors, but am generally interested in their history and development so any information is gratefully received.

Regards

Brian

Hi all. I have aquired one of these today and looking at the excellent info on this thread, mine is a third pattern. I bought it off a colleague who doesn't appreciate the history or engineering that went into some of these early pistols etc, so I am glad to have saved it. The metalwork has quite a bitbof surface rust and the metal looks blacked so I should be able to restore that with nonproblem. The main issue is that the pellet barrel is missing along with the rear sight. The barrel looks tapered with a smaller diameter to the right, looking down the barrel. I am currently researching this v nice pieceof kit and hope to restore it, and preferably with original parts. I am an ex Royal Navy weapons engineer and also spent some time working in Parker Hale's r&d department (yes. I can service the PH dragon but would rather not), so as a last resort will probably have to make the missing parts but don't have any specsor drawings. Is there any resources available? Or do I need to start designing the missing parts? Any help would be appreciated

[PaulK62]

Ten years after this thread was started, I find myself in the same situation as Kevin. If anyone has any Abas Major disassembly/reassembly instructions, tips, or advice that they could share, it would be greatly appreciated.

Thank you,
Paul

[Garvin]

If someone would be kind enough to send me some Abas disassembly/assembly instructions, I'll put them in the gallery.