Haenel 310 Disassembly, Part 2

On I go...

The first time I disassembled the rifle (yes, I've done it more than once in the past few days...) I punched the pin out, removed the pin punch and something went "sproing-klunk" inside. I try and avoid that.

I found that it's easiest to have the action like this, held in a vise.

The pin is punched out.

A stout rod or pin punch takes up the spring force by hand and the pin punch is withdrawn from the cross pin hole.

Then the spring is relaxed...the spring force is not great.

The pin is grooved?

I pulled out the spring and piston assembly.

It's always something new with airguns.

The tube feeds the shot from the magazine and acts as one long transfer port for the compressed air (see the slot just in front of the piston seal?)

That tab at the end with the sides cut off would have to be navigated around in order to use a spring compressor. Notice the large sear surface.

Another view.

The nasty, greasy,leather seal. That small setscrew locks the piston head in place.

So I removed it.

The piston face unscrews with a spanner...

So I made one out of some steel pipe.

I milled away to make a spanner.

Unscrewing the piston face.

All the piston parts. Now it's just cleaning, reassembly, testing, disassembly, tweaking, reassembly...to come later...

Haenel 310 Disassembly, Part 1

I recently bought a Haenel 310-2 and Haenel 311 from a gentleman who answered one of my "WTB Beaters" posts on the yellow forum. The 310 had low power and is missing the front sight hood and rear sight elevator. There's some good info about the 310 up on Tom Gaylord's blog (part 1&2, part 3&4), as well as this Russian forum post, And muzzle.de although it's about the 310-4...
The 310 shoots 4.4mm round ball. I'll talk more about that later but I wonder if anyone knows of a source for precision round lead balls in 4.4mm (called "punktkugeln") from Germany? I found a few websites but am hesitant to order online in a foreign language...JG Airguns does have shot but I fear it's the same shot as the other US sourced shot I have which is not round (if it is truly round, let me know!). JG Airguns also has used Haenel 310s for $99.99 which is a pretty good deal if they're in ok shape.

The 310-2 held by my hard working imp.

The front sight is missing the hood. ("korntunnel")

And the rear missing the elevator.

Modell 3.102? Or 3102 or 310-2...nomenclature is confusing.

The 12 round magazine.

The magazine well.

Inserted into the rifle.

Low power...although Tom Gaylord had similar velocities...

One screw removed...

And the middle screw...

And the front trigger screw.

Shorter screw is the front screw.

The action.

The magazine well.

I pried off the cover.

The pin for the bolt pushes out. I straightened the bolt and pulled it free.

Pin holds the end cap.

The somewhat complex safety knob end...

I pulled out the trigger group. The piece of sheetmetal also pulls off. I believe it is a cutoff to keep the gun safe when cocking.

The parts removed so far. I have no great incentive to disassemble the trigger group.
More to come...

Installing a Morgan Adjustable Pad on a Beeman R1

Completely struck out with that vintage Morgan pad. The base had been fitted to something pretty svelte. So, that's just one more reason to keep buying more airguns. Given enough new airgun purchases, the old pad will eventually fit one of them.

Since I was still in Morgan mode, I decided to fit the new model Premium Morgan I got from Nick a while back. Making the gun selection wasn't so easy. At least four or five different rifles were candidates. Eventually, I decided to fit it to a .22 cal Beeman R1. I consoled myself that I'll just eventually buy more pads.

Started by removing the old pad and white line spacer. Bolted down the new base using the existing stock holes. The base appeared to be well centered so I didn't need to drill new holes.

Above and here you can see the overhang. The aluminum needs to be ground away to fit.

I'll try to carry the contour of the buttstock through the lines of the base.

Traced the stock profile onto the base. Remember this is the gun side, so any angles cut need to flare outward slightly--especially at the heel where the angle is more severe.

I blackened the area with a magic marker. I know that using the pencil to trace will leave the plate a few hundredths or more larger all around. So, I guess I'm starting slow.

Started at it with a file. Rubbed the file with chalk first to help prevent the aluminum from clogging the teeth. Was only marginally successful. Used the file card to clean quite a bit then gave up and went to the bench grinder. Grinding aluminum on a bench grinder is probably best avoided. The wheel loads up with aluminum very quickly which minimizes the cutting action. Then there's the danger that the aluminum will heat and expand in the pores of the wheel and cause the wheel to shatter in use. I'd like to avoid that. Dressing the wheel frequently helps prevent excessive loading. A belt sander or a sanding drum with a coarse grit (something like 60) would have been a good alternative.

After the initial shaping. Guess I could have been more aggressive on the removal.





Coated the base in dykem layout fluid this time...

and reinstalled. Found a sharp scratch awl and scribed a very fine line around the perimeter.

As always, click any pic for an enlargement. The scratched line is pretty evident.

Went to the drill press next with that 60 grit sanding drum. Kept the base angled slightly to create the taper to match the buttstock. I did most of this by test fitting and by eye. There are tools from Brownells to make this easier and take some of the guesswork out.

Looked really close, so I block sanded it to 220 grit.

Then used a 3M fine finishing pad to remove the scratch lines leaving a nice matte finish. This single step took about 3 minutes.

It'd be fine to call it quits here and get on with your day. The pad is fitted alomst seamlessly over about 80% of the perimeter.

Still, I want it right.

The black line is the only area that still stands proud.

Back to the sanding drum to work that area down slightly. Then the 220 grit sanding block and again with the 3M pad.

When I was satisfied that it looked right, I hand buffed the sides with Mothers Mag and Aluminum Polish.

Final installation--don't forget the all important adjusting bolt. The lines/angles look good on the stock-to-base transition. I like the angle at the toe.



Pad installed high.

And at the lower end of the travel.

One down, several more to go.

Fixing the Crosman 622, Part 2

This is one of those posts where I'm reminded how much I have to learn about working on airguns...

I set up the receiver half with the valve and tube in place.

Carefully aligned, I spotted for one of the cross pin holes with an end mill.

Then I tried to drill through before reaming to 1/8"...disaster! The tube hole started getting oblong as the drill drifted towards the outside of the tube...

I forgot to clamp the piercing assembly in place...if I had just put the piercing guts in and clamped with an empty CO2 cylinder it would have stayed put. But I didn't. At least I caught it before I was all the way through.
This highlights why I buy "beaters", guns that other guys have given up on. If (when) I do screw up I haven't caused some horrible historical loss to the world supply of collectable airguns. Chances are anyone else repairing it would have swapped out a valve assembly that didn't have a big chunk out of it. At least that's what I tell myself as I weep my self to sleep at night.

So now what? Well I do have this hole in the underside of the tube...

I reamed it to 3/16"

Spotted through the valve body to the piercing assembly.

Then removed it and drilled down shy of the gas hole and reamed to 3/16" for a slip fit (not a press fit)

Of course that dowel pin is a little long. It should provide some extra insurance for the tube and piercing assembly.

Ground to fit inside the housing.

Here's how the spring goes on the feed pawl.

Small end against the bushing.

That screw, which I thought wasn't stock, but is, in place.

Finally I returned to the reason for getting into the gun...the spring that actuates the magazine index...that is where the end goes. You cock the gun while carefully keeping all the parts together with your hand then use a screwdriver to bend the long end of the spring under that boss.

Here's another view.

Otherwise it goes together in reverse of disassembly. Use a pin to hold the trigger in place before you put the housing together and screw the trigger pivot screw in (pushing the pin out).

Well it works! I've shot through two CO2 cartridges so far and it held gas for three days in a row.
I'm getting 380-390 fps with 14.3 grain Crosman wadcutters which is about the same energy as the manual's quoted 375 fps w/ 15.5 gr. pellets. It is possibly one of the most fun air rifles I've shot. You can shoulder the rifle and "blam, click clack, blam, click clack, blam..." You get the idea. Maybe I'll work up the nerve to try porting it and using a heavier hammer spring someday for more velocity but as a plinker it's perfect.

Benjamin Marauder Baffle Modification

Several of the first .22 cal Marauder owners had some accuracy problems traced back to the pellets clipping the baffles in the shroud. The early baffles have 0.247" holes--fine for .177 caliber pellets, but a bit on the close side for the .22 cal--unless everything is perfectly concentric. Apparently, Crosman has fixed the potential clearance issue on the new .22 rifles. Many shooters have found that the early .22 cal guns will benefit by opening up the holes in the baffles to about 0.280". This does not seem to increase the gun's discharge noise at all.

I've had no pellet clipping issues with my Benjamin Marauder, nevertheless, as I was going to be away traveling with the rifle, I thought I'd eliminate the possibility. It's such a simple job, I'd recommend it in a second.

As always, step one is make sure the rifle is unloaded. It actually took longer to download the pics than to do the modification.

Remove the fill cap that covers the Foster fitting.

Find a 5/64 allen wrench and loosen the two set screws on the barrel band.

Pull the barrel band off the front.

Unscrew the end cap from the shroud.

Tip the buttstock up in the air and the o-ring and followed by the four baffles will slide right out. (If they don't slide out, it's no big deal--just go to the next step).

Grab the shroud and unscrew it from the breech.

You'll feel some slight resistance from the o-ring on the baffle mounted on the muzzle.

Slide the shroud forward off the front of the gun. If your baffles didn't fall out earlier, use a wooden dowel rod and push them out.

Personally, I doubt that this final baffle could clip the pellets. It's so closely centered on the muzzle and a snug, press-fit, I just don't think that it could be far enough out of alignment to make pellet contact. If you don't want to drill this one out, that's probably just fine.

Appears to be covered in lead dust.

If you want to remove it, a 7/16 open-end wrench placed over the barrel helps to remove it. I gave the wrench a smack from a small dead blow hammer and the cap popped right off.



A lathe, drill press, hand drill, maybe even a tapered reamer, would probably suffice to open the holes. I used the Taig lathe with a 9/32" drill bit in the tail stock.

Each plastic piece took about 10 seconds.



The aluminum end cap took almost 20 seconds.
Reassembly is in the exact reverse: Install the press fit baffle on the muzzle first. Hand pressure alone should seat it. Mine clicked as it bottomed into place. Slide the shroud back over and thread onto the breech. Re-install the baffles. The large open ends face the rear of the gun. Drop in the o-ring and thread the shroud end cap down. Finished.

While I was tinkering, I figured I'd clean the barrel, too. 9/64" allen wrench removes the bolt.



There's a small bushing on the bolt.

Pulls right out the back.

I very carefully pried out the small o-ring that seals the bolt nose. This was a pain as there's minimal working room in the magazine opening.

Cut a piece of brass hobby tube to fit into the bolt hole.

Like so. This will ensure I don't have to clean up JB Non-Embedding Compound from the inside of the bolt channel.

Cleaning rod goes right through. The brass tube is not a press fit. I simply held it in place with my hand as I worked. Patched the barrel clean then cleaned out the o-ring groove with a nylon bristle bore brush followed by the dental pick and a the corner of a cleaning patch. Reinstalled o-ring (more fun) then lubed the ring lightly with a diver's silicone grease and called it good.

Lubed the bolt with a dive grease and reinstalled the allen bolt/bushing. Almost forgot to mention, you can just see the screw on the top rear of the breech. It's got a spring loaded ball on the end that puts pressure on the bolt. Screw it in or out to add or subtract pressure on the bolt. Adjust to your liking.

If you don't feel like messing around with the baffles in your rifle, Crosman will simply send you the new parts if you've got an early model. It should take you about five minutes or less to install them.

Fixing the Crosman 622, Part 1

Well I got started on fixing the problems with the Crosman 622.

The valve with the stripped out mounting holes and Helicoil stuff.

Drilling the mounting holes out.

Just deep enough to kiss the bottom of the hole.

Tapped #10-32 Helicoil (which is larger than #10-32)

The helicoil loaded in the insertion tool.

Inserting...

The helicoil in place.

The original holes are #8-32 I think, but I was able to go to #10-32 no problem except that I had to turn the heads of the button head cap screws down. I used Stainless screws because that was what I had on hand...

In place.

I discovered another small problem, although I doubt it will effect the functioning of the slide.

With the Halves screwed to the valve I noticed there's still a bit of a gap...


Easily pressed closed by hand. I checked and one of the frame halves is tweaked slightly so that it's not flat. There's no good fix for that. It's not a huge deal if I get the whole tube&valve mounted securely.

Checking to see how much room I have to work with for pinning the valve parts together.

I think that this is how I'll pin the valve & tube together although I may make the pins go in horizontally. That way I can assemble the valve & tube connected to one of the receiver halves which should keep everything aligned more or less. I'm taking my time as screwing this up pretty much would wreck the valve body. I'm open to any and all input in the matter...

Morgan Adjustable Pad - A Bolt for an Old Model

Part of this is a shameless plug for Nick. At this point, most of you know that he sells Morgan adjustable butt pads. I've had five rifles set up with them in the past. Why? Because categorically, an adjustable butt pad is the single biggest addition that one can make to a rifle to improve the ergonomics. The pad can be raised or lowered easily--providing the correct head position for scope or sight alignment. Depending on how the pad is installed, it also typically extends the length of pull by about an inch and a quarter. For many of us, that's also not a bad thing. Nick stocks two models of the pads: the plastic-base #4 "New Model" and the machined aluminum base #14 "Premium". While the basic #4 model is easier to fit, the #14 Premium model isn't that much harder to attach and it still costs less than a cheap scope. If you get one, you'll end up with a couple for all your "go to" guns--they're that nice.

A new style "Premium" #14 Morgan pad is on the left. It is much nicer than the old version on the right.

The new Premium model has a machined base to fit against the gun. The pad can be set for height incrementally on the machined sliding interface. The old model has a die-cast base with interlocking grooves. It works really well but Morgan's casting die was damaged a few years ago and Morgan took the opportunity to refine and update the design.

I bought the old vintage Morgan a week ago at a local gun show. It was missing the main adjustment bolt that holds the rubber recoil pad to the base on the gun. Figured I'd just go buy a bolt and be done with it. That didn't quite go as planned. The slot is substantially wider on the old base. The new base looks like it was redesigned to accept a more readily available 3/8-24NF bolt.

FCC Disclaimer: Due to new FCC regulations I should mention that I got the new Morgan from Nick Carter. I do not believe any money traded hands. Nick and I send airgun stuff back and forth on a regular basis and rarely is cash money involved. It just comes out in the wash.

The head of the bolt from the new pad didn't fit the counterbored slot in the old base. The only thing that matched up was the bolt threading. 3/8"-24. It's probably not possible to commercially obtain a bolt with this oversized, shallow head in this thread size. I'd venture that this was a custom fastener made by--or for--Morgan years ago.

Following the path of least resistance, I bought a 1/2" diameter shaft axle bolt. The new Morgan mounting bolt is on the right for size comparison. The head on the axle bolt is huge, allowing excess material for fitting to the slot in the old base.

A piece of 220 grit emery paper on a granite surface plate was used to remove the casting irregularities on the old base. This step is critical to obtain a flat, true fit against the gunstock. With the new Premium model, this step is already done by the manufacturer.

Here's the slot that the bolt head must recess into. The larger slot is 0.661" across the flats, the smaller counterbore is 0.429".

Installed a nylok nut on the axle bolt...

And chucked it into the taig fitted with a 3-jaw scrolling chuck. The nut is kinder to the soft aluminum jaws on the 3-jaw than grabbing the coarse threads of the bolt.

Turned the shaft down to 0.368"--roughly the OD of a 3/8"-24 bolt.

Had to reposition the tool post to get right up to the bolt head. Left a small shoulder to fit into that small inner 0.429" slot in the base.



Once at size, I changed to a left-hand knife and finished the shoulder to 0.423" in diameter and 0.080" tall. Then faced the inside of the bolt head to make it flat.





Cut the original threads off.



Mounted it back into the Taig and set up the threading die holder on the tailstock assembly. Not shown: First cut a slight taper to ease the start of the die. As always, used lots-o-cutting fluid.

Cut about 4 or so full size thread then took it out of the lathe and went to the vise. Threading die went into a die stock.

Easier this way. Cut thread to the small shoulder then flipped the die over and re-cut the thread full depth to the shoulder.

Filed 2 of the flats down to fit the slot in the base. Used the bench grinder here too.

File (or grind) and test fit. File (or grind) some more and check again. Stopped at 0.657". It was faster than setting up the milling attachment and plenty good enough.

Got a nice fit that just clears without binding on the sides, and maximum surface contact in the counterbored slot.

Faced the head of the bolt down to 0.110" thick. It must sit below flush in the slot or it will drag against the gunstock.

How long to make it? The nut in the recoil pad sits 0.578" deep from the face of the metal plate. Measured that amount from the base, then threaded a 3/8"-24 nut down to mark the location to cut as well as chase the thread afterwards.



A wire wheel deburred all edges.



Finished with Formula 44/40 bluing solution.



Final fit. Aside: The base is about 1.64" at the widest point and 4.60" top to bottom.

Pad is down tight and achieved full thread engagement.

The rehabbed vintage Morgan. Now, the question I should have asked first: Since it's been previously fitted, do I have a gun that it will still fit? A quick look at stock dimensions in my notebook is not particularly encouraging. I did some very quick and dirty measurements months back for Nick when he was deciding which pads to stock. The Air Arms Pro Sport and the Beeman R1/HW80 look to be pretty close.

It'll be a few days before I know for sure. Worst case? I'll fit the new model Morgan pad to a gun instead and this one can wait a bit longer.

Update: I checked the measurements on all the airguns in the safe. Nothing fits. Judging (Guessing) by the size, my best bet is probably going to be a vintage Crosman 160/180 or a more current 2260. Something like a reasonably priced QB78 will probably also fit the bill. I'll keep an eye out.