September 2010 - still a work in progress ...
Bought another Meteor (Mk5 in .177 - NH serial number) through an online forum site .. bought it on the strength of these photos ...
... and I took a few when it arrived that are a bit clearer ...
In the above photo you can see the mounting holes for the rear sight, front one is threaded, rear one is for the little lug on the bottom of the sight unit. A previous owner had managed to snap the little plastic lug off inside the hole - you can just about see it poking up. I managed to get it out by pushing a red hot pin into it, waiting for it to melt onto the pin, and pulling it out.
You can see that there were some horrible scabby bits on the barrel, I suppose that there were 4 areas about 1/2 inch in diameter each that were especially bad with rust. The bore was good though, and came up clean and bright with a bronze brush . All in all it was absolutely as I expected it to be, and I bought it to provide me with some fun in restoring it and shooting it. It's actually in better nick than the Mk 5 .22 Meteor I bought at the start of the year for the same price, so I'm happy all round. This is a detail of the same part of the barrel from the now refinished .177 .
I didn't shoot it as it stood when it arrived, but judging but the state of the seals and all the excess lube in there I suspect it would have been lucky to be over 4fpe out of the barrel and would have dieselled horribly.
First inspection of the breech seal showed it'd turned to cheese, but they always do on these guns; too much of the wrong lube for 30 years will do it every time. Took the stock off and tapped out the hinge pin (it pretty much fell out) then I removed the barrel. If you haven't done this before, be aware that the spring loaded catch that sits under the breech is held in place by the hinge pin, and as it's spring loaded it can take off across the room once the hinge pin no longer retains it in place. This one was held in place by 25 years of crud, so it actually took a bit of wiggling with pliers to get it to come out.
This barrel hinge pin was way past re-using and the gun had the horrible wobble that's pretty standard in old break barrel guns. I've tried a few things with previous guns, but a really good fix here is to put a slightly oversize spring pin in. It holds tight to the inside of the mounting hole below the breech and gives a snug fit into the holes on the front end of the cylinder. It also has the advantage of being slightly flexible, thereby allowing the gun to opn and close without adding strain onto the parts involved. It really does resolve the wobble, and in the absence of running a special part up on a lathe to replace the original hinge pin, it's a cheap and durable way to get the barrel tight again. You can just make it out on these photos of the finished gun.
When I took the stock off there was only one of the original screws in situ at the front end but I planned to replace with countersunk socket head machine screws mounted into brass collets sunk into the original screw holes (they fitted with a bit of gentle sanding), and which sit flush with the woodwork. It makes for a much stronger fixing, and is less prone to coming undone. I did this with the .22 Meteor I sorted out a few months ago and it worked really well. This from the .177 ...
The trick with this is (while the barrel is off) to re-tap the original mounting holes on the cylinder to take an M5 countersunk machine screw, fit some in with the stock in place and tighten to the right tension. Then file the screws down from the inside so the thread fills up all of the available hole but still sits flush with the inside of the jaws where the barrel mounts - like this ...
Woodwork was actually quite good for the year and it only needed some sympathetic attention. What I did was use some Birchwood Casey Stock Sheen, and give it the once over. I then used a good quality furniture wax to reseal any gaps in the varnish, and give an appropriate patina/finish to the stock. I've previously totally stripped and refinished stocks with oil for Meteors and while it probably makes for a better looking stock in the end, it's a long dull process to do on a £40 gun.
I had a 20 minute bash at the trigger guard. Like the other metal parts on the outside of the gun it was more than a bit manky with surface rust. It was rubbed down with fine sandpaper, buffed with wire wool, wiped off with thinners and sprayed with 2 coats of satin finish black Hammerite. Quite pleased with the result;
Turned my attention to the cylinder assembly. I started by stripping and degreasing it .. never seen so much horrible grease in a gun - literally spoonfuls of the stuff!
We, the enlightened ones, know Meteors were never meant to go above about 9.5fpe, and many have been destroyed over the years by owners jamming an Ox spring in there in the hope of higher power. I actually had a bit of a job getting the spring out without it flying out across the workshop - my spring compressor allows for about 7 inches of decompression and this spring was still under some serious tension with the end out of the gun by this much. I put an original Meteor spring in there when I rebuilt it. I made a point of running an M5 tap through the rear stock mounting hole so I could use an M5 domed socket screw when I reassembled the gun.
The piston was fine apart from being covered in far too much grease. I gave it a light polish but to be honest it was in good order. The aluminium piston head was in good order too, but the 'O' ring seal was knackered, so I put a new one on along with a new buffer washer. The retaining washer needed a bit of a buff up, and it all went back together fine. This was then lubed with Abbey Silicone Oil and left to soak for a day. When the reassessembled piston assembly was inserted into the cleaned out cylinder it was clear then some air was escaping past the 'O' ring when the port was covered and the air in the cylinder was compressed. I took the assembly back out, took the 'O' ring off the head again and put a double wind of PTFE plumbers tape in the groove to sit under the seal and give it a bit more diameter .. only about .25mm. Reassembled again with appropriate lube on the piston and this time it was fine. I put a new Meteor spring in (appropriately lubed with moly grease), compressed it all, and rebuilt the gun.
Cosmetic issues proved to be pretty minor really, barrel cleaned up well when I got stuck in and refinished it with a full rubdown and respray in satin black Hammerite (3 coats). Cylinder was done to match, although it meant losing the colouring in the 'BSA Meteor' lettering along the top. The nice thing about Hammerite is that it gives a finish that doesn't look too shiny and new .. the point is to protect the gun and tidy it up, not reinvent it. Also, the paint, when fully cured out (about 2 weeks) is almost as good as an enamelled finish and should last for years.
I'd already got hold of a set of open sights that came off a Mk1 Scorpion pistol that went straight on to the Meteor, and pretty much match the age of the gun.
I know it's a bit OCD, but the devil is in the detail. I've resprayed the blade from the front sight with matt black Plastikote, and when I reassembled I used 4BA countersunk socket screws (cut & filed to length) to retain both the front & rear sights.
I appreciate this isn't original, but it is better as the socket head screws are neater and less likely to get chewed when being slackened/tightened.
The gun is now finished, and I have tried to add pics to this blog to cover the stuff I haven't talked about. If you're interested enough you can always mail me with any questions - I'm no expert, but I'm happy to give an opinion.
What I've now got is a hand finished Mk5 BSA Meteor in .177 that looks good, shoots brilliantly and knocks out a consistant 8.5fpe which fits perfectly with any expectations of a 30 year old BSA Meteor. This may improve a little when the gun settles down. The trigger was reset to release at about 1.5lbs, and I have to say this is the best trigger I've ever had on a Meteor. The trigger on my .22 Mk5 isn't as nice as this and even though I rebuilt both of them, and set them up using the same process I'm not sure why, I'm running it with a Nikko Sterling 'Mountie' 4x20 scope which is roughly contemporary with the gun (1982-4).
It's set up for 25 yards, and shoots flattish from 10 yards out to about 35 yards, and still giving 5.2fpe at that distance so good for light hunting and pests. Am I happy with it? Yes. Will I probably end up with another old gun to sort out? Yes, just don't tell the wife. :)
Additional 11th October 2010; Approx 250 AA Field (4.52mm) pellets put through since the rebuild. Gun has settled down at a shade below 9.2fpe with the ft/sec spread being +/- 8 around the average of 699ft/sec over a 10 shot string. At 25 yards the chrono has it at 592ft/sec so it's still hitting at 6.5fpe, and that's good enough to use for pest control.
Gun is shooting smooth as anything, and is a pleasure to use.
Since the barrel is as solid as anything I've swapped the Nikko scope for a newer AGS 6x40 Mini Mil-Dot. At 25 yards it's grouping at about 1/2 inch with the odd flyer, and holds zero brilliantly. I'll put a photo up when I think on, but you probably get the idea that I'm more than happy with it.
