Disassembling an early Crosman Model 760, Part 1

I decided to get the Crosman model 760 I bought last week into working order.

Hmmm, There's some sort of cap over the pivot pin.

Notice the surface rust. It appears the caps cover the roll pin.

A small pin punch removes a pin from inside the roll pin.

A tiny bit bent. A nice detail to cover up the ugly roll pin.

Now to remove that roll pin.

Punched it out. Seems there was a bit of wear in the pump arm pivot hole...just a bit...

Loosening the barrel band set screw. The barrel band is pot metal.

The plastic front sight and barrel band.

Removed the piston. It's steel with the same type of cup as on the modern 760.

Punched out the forearm roll pins and disassembled it all.

I have enough spare parts...found a replacement in my junk drawer for the one with the wallowed out hole. It's from an early 1377.

Another setscrew in the top holds the barrel on.

I removed three screws from the receiver.

Unscrewed the brass bolt knob.

Separated the two halves. Unlike the current model 760, nothing flew out and there was plenty of space inside.

Crosman 180 Stock Refinish Part 2

Found a small block of walnut in the pile. There's a great lumber yard/mill work shop nearby that always has small pieces of walnut, cherry, chestnut, etc for cheap. If I see a good looking block or small plank, I'll add it to the collection.

This was the only walnut chunk I had that looked wide enough for both the butt as well as the forend tip.

Can't just trace the outline of the stock and cut. Remember that the toe continues the line outward.

Toe (angle on the left) has to be accounted for by leaving some extra wood at the bottom. The heel on the right is almost a straight cut.

Drew a rough idea of how the curve should look from the side. Gotta think a little bit in 3D before starting the saw. Cut the end off and set aside. That will be for the forend.

It's easiest to cut the curve for the shoulder first, as the block still has flat sides to set on the saw's table. Don't ask why I know this...

Good enough. A large sanding drum will be used to finish the curve later.

I took the corners down, as well. Less to plane or sand off later. Took care to leave enough for the toe of the butt.

Set a sheet of 80 grit garnet paper on a granite surface plate. Make the base as flat as possible to fit against the stock. I repeated this procedure on the gunstock as well.

I'm doing this quick and dirty. Eyeballed a couple stock screw holes, clearance drilled and countersunk.

Not shown: Used a transfer punch to mark the hole locations on the stock. Drilled the stock for the wood screws. Ended up using a couple deck screws. Not elegant? Well, they're strong
and have black oxide coloring. No need to blue. Did a dry test-fit then it was Gorilla Glue time.

Moving forward. Here's the excess walnut from the butt. Laid the 180 stock on top of the walnut block and traced the angle. A quick cut with the chop saw and I'm ready to sand.

Again, the granite block is used to get flat surfaces on the walnut and the stock end.

Used a ruler and drew 3 lines for reference. When gluing these together, they'll help with alignment. The lines are at 90 degrees from the cut on the walnut.

This is why I drew those 90 degree lines. I can set the base on the drill press table. Spotted and drilled a clearance hole.

Counterbored.

Transfer punched and drilled a hole in the stock. Used another deck screw to fasten the walnut to the stock.

Glued and drying here. Due to the angle between the wood surfaces, I thought it would be very difficult to clamp the parts together for the glue bond. The deck screw made this easy. After drying, the screw will be removed to inlet for the gas tube. If I got this right, the glue bond should be stronger than the surrounding wood.

More to come.

Crosman 180 Stock Refinish Part 1

The stock on the Crosman 180 is pretty...well, plain. It's hard to get excited about an airgun, firearm--anything for that matter--when you don't find it visually engaging. "Utility grade" is the kindest phrase I can find to describe the 180 stock. "Ugly as sin" also works.

Side left.

The flip side.

This isn't my first choice for a shoulder connection interface. Stocks look unfinished with this type of butt. Even a thin plastic butt plate is better than this. At least make it look like you tried.

No going back now.

A few minutes along.

There's some decent grain under that brown varnish. Took a bit over half an hour to strip the stock with a hand sander. Used garnet (as opposed to aluminum-oxide) paper. Faster cutting action and the garnet paper tends to last a lot longer.

Went down the street to my aunt and uncle's house to get some saw time.

Eyeballed it.

Looks pretty good. Now I have to fit either a recoil pad or a butt plate.

Ok, now I'm really committed. Guess I'll be making a new forend tip to match.

More to come.

Weekend Yard Sale Scores

We hit some yard sales Friday morning. The 2nd sale was a junk dealer I recognised from the local flea market. I asked him if he had any pellet guns. He pulled a plastic receiver 760 out from a space in the corner of his garage, I said "no thanks", but as he put it back I noticed another one in there. He said, "it's the same" but I asked to look at it anyway.
It was a Coleman era model 760 metal receiver w/ brass bolt handle, metal trigger for $10. Not terribly exciting but something to buy. Looking through an open door I spied a 38T hanging up on his livingroom wall. "It's jammed", he said, so I got a .177 38T for $15.00. Of course I already have a bunch of them but 15 bucks is a good deal. Turns out it was a pellet stuck between the cylinder and barrel. It had an old bottlecap style Crosman CO2 cartridge still in it (no gas). I'll mess with it later but a good buy.

The 760 of that era was a much better product than the current all plastic ones.

Steel trigger and brass bolt handle.

The 38T. Maybe I'll do some customization?

On Saturday I dragged the kids out early to a yard sale down the road from us. Last year the same people had a sale where I bought a number of airguns, but this year there were none. What I did find was a box of pellets and bb's for $20.00

9 full boxes and one partial box of "Copperhead" dome and wadcutter pellets, an old tin and a plastic box full of Crosman "Superpells", Sheridan .22 Diabolos and about 10 RWS 6mm Flobert blanks.

The Superpell tins, with one on the tin. I guess I'm on my way to collecting vintage pellets.

A huge amount of bb's (bbs? beebees?) probably 6000-8000. Maybe it's time to build a full auto bb gun?

An old tube of Federal steel "Air Rifle Shot".

I also bought a box of gun parts and scope mounts for $10. A new Pachmayr butt plate, pistol sight, revolver grips (I already checked, it wouldn't be easy to mount them on the 38T).

The pistol front and rear sight. No name. Should be handy at some point for a project.

4 "Realist" scope mounts with only one base. If you have a gun that has the bases but no rings I'll make you a deal! Without the other bases they are of little use to me.