Vacation Time

Wow, Nick and I are really off the back on getting anything posted lately.   Hopefully we can turn that around soon.  In the meantime, this is all I've got.

I was in the Laurel Highlands of Pennsylvania last week for some R&R.  Lot of great hiking opportunities around Ohiopyle.  

We were fortunate to be able to do some shooting on the property we'd rented for the week near Confluence, PA.   The weather forecast was pretty grim with rain almost every afternoon/evening, but I did manage to send a few pellets downrange.  Knowing ahead of time that the weather would be uncooperative, I packed just a single air rifle and air pistol.  Brought the still relatively new-to-me Beeman R1 Laser and a Webley Tempest.  Here's a few pics.

Finally, (and this is unrelated to the vacation) I bought a Benjamin Nitro Piston pistol a few weeks ago and have been trying to make it do what we all want--a decent trigger and hit what I aim at (well, most of the time).  The factory trigger is pretty much awful.  Long and heavy.  In the trigger guard, there's a screw that's supposed to adjust the trigger, but it's too short to reach the sear.  A longer (about 2X longer) screw gave the desired effect.  Still working on the accuracy part of the equation, and that's a multifaceted problem.  The sights supplied with the gun are terrible.  A red dot didn't help much either. The detachable cocking piece doesn't work too badly, but of course, the impact point varies if it's left on the gun or taken off for the shot.  I'm not sure what I envision, but I am going to try a few things and generate a couple blog posts along the way.

As always, thanks for reading.

Beeman R1 Laser MK2

About two months ago, I walked into Precision Airgun and Chuck handed me this really heavy rifle case.  Then he gave me that Cheshire cat grin.  I pretty much just hand over my wallet at that point.  I wonder if he takes direct payroll deposit?










It's a Beeman embroidered Boyt soft case.

Opened it up and it was holding a mint condition Beeman R1 Laser MKII.




 






















It's a .20 caliber.  The scope is a Leopold 3-9 with the EFR.   It's held in a Beeman Dampa-Mount base.

The Laser stock appears to be a maple laminate.  It was released about the same time as the  Feinwerkbau 600/601 series match guns and the stock material and construction are the same.  The grip and the forearm are stippled.


















An old receipt was still in the case for the gun.  It came from Airgun Express.  The rifle was originally sold on November 11, 1998.  Also from the receipt, I see that a box of Crosman Premiers in .20 cal has almost exactly doubled in price since then.

Outside of the old Beeman catalogs, the information and pictures of this model are pretty scarce.  I've no idea how rare they are, but I'd never seen one in the flesh before. 

 Here's a better shot of the stippling.

The MKII has a higher comb than the original R1 Laser.  The earlier version also has a rosewood grip cap. 

I've put several dozen shots through the gun. It's a bit buzzy.  I think after all these years, it's probably in need of some fresh lube.  Try to get it over the chronograph before taking a look inside.





















This is the only thing I'm not in love with.  The original Beeman muzzle brake, while it works fine, doesn't have any appeal to my eye.  Probably replace it with something more svelte--like a Beeman Crow Magnum brake.

More soon.

Beeman R1/HW80 Caliber Change

I'll cut to the chase as I'm time crunched today. I have a .22 cal Beeman R1 (HW80) and I wanted to convert it to .25 cal. Long story involving having a .25 cal R1 years ago, the gun was stolen, couldn't replace it with another .25 cal at the time so I bought a .22 cal and...blah..blah..

So, after almost three years of looking, I was finally able to pin down a .25 cal barrel/breech block last week. The replacement Weihrauch barrel assemblies don't come with a cocking lever arm attached. The cocking arm is riveted to the bottom of the breech block. A spare rivet is not provided--but can often be ordered. I opted to not order the rivet.

No pics of rifle disassembly as we've covered it before here. I pounded out the rivet holding the cocking lever to the .22 cal breech block and set the .22 cal assembly aside--maybe for good.



Often, the rivet can be reused, but not this time. The pin has a 5mm shaft diameter.

Lacking a piece of metric drill rod, I turned down a piece of 0.250" W-1 steel to the required 5mm diameter. Actually, it needed to be 4.99mm.

Cut the new pin a few thousandths longer than the width of the breech block.

Used a file to bevel each end into a slight dome.

I've seen a couple one-off replacement cocking lever pins that have used e-clips on each end. That looked like it would require widening the slot in the forend of the stock. Too much work for a guy like me. Figured there was another way.

Center punched the breech block.

Didn't bother to fixture the breech. I lined up and drilled through with a #36. Not shown: Tapped the hole with a #6-32 plug tap.

Filed a small flat on the pin for the set screw to bear against. This will lock the pin in position yet make it easily removable.

Breech block, pin, set screw and cocking lever. What more could a guy ask for?



Blued the pin with Birchwood Casey Permablue paste.



Set screw snugged down. Lucked out on the length of the screw. It's flush with the block. I like this more than the factory's method of assembly.

Done! Reassembled the rifle and now I can work my way through those thousands of .25 cal pellets that have been mocking me on the shelf. Should I ever want to revert to .22 cal, it's now a ten minute swap with the replaceable pin.

Something else soon.

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.