Meteor whisperer

Actually it's quite possible to increase BSA Meteor power up to close to the legal limit and retain pretty good accuracy. I've modified a few. The modifications however are perhaps a bit beyond the average DIY fettler but not really too complex. Basically you need good sealing, maximum useable stroke and a stronger spring but not ridiculously stronger. You need to keep the spring as straight as possible in operation too You'll also need a small lathe to make up some new parts. First thing to do is throw away the agricultural piston head and poorly sealing O ring. Also the horrible primitive badly fitting spring guide made out of wrapped around sheet steel. You'll need to make a custom bolt on piston head to suit a decent modern seal, a steel top hat and close fitting rear spring guide. I've used titan NO 5 and No 13 springs to good effect. 11.5 fpe is easy to achieve and it's not too difficult to render your Meteor illegal, but do that and you will lose accuracy and wear the thing out too quickly, and possibly get nicked. I've modified four to date with slight variations and they all work really well. Full power and as accurate as any Meteor. I could go into detail about how it's done but that might not be a responsible thing to do. You work out the detail. if it's an older true 0.22 which translates to 5.58mm use Marksman 5.6mm pellets. They work really well and give better accuracy. Shoot safely and within the law.

This is an old conversation I came across just surfing the web but for the benefit of anyone doing the same thought I'd stick mu six penny worth in. Yes you can increase the power of a Meteor up to respectable legal levels without wrecking the thing and without making it harsh to shoot. I've done it. The first notion to get out of your head is that you need some massively powerful spring. You don't, if you think you do you're lacking a basic understanding of how an air rifle works. Strip it down. Polish the cylinder bore and the inside if the piston tube where the spring fits. Get a rod or a stick with a slot sawn into one end and wrap cloth around to get a snug fit apply brasso or some other metal polish and using a cordless drill work it up and down to achieve a good surface finish. Clean thoroughly with white spirit or something similar. Get one of those bolt on piston heads and get a new buffer washer made or cut one down to 2mm thick. They start off at 5mm. This slightly increases the amount of air available to compress. Make sure when the piston bottoms there is still a small clearance for the cocking arm. You'll also have to put a couple of washers inside the piston sleeve. The bolt on piston head is stepped down to what is usually a 5mm thread, which in turn takes a 5mm nylock nut for attachment. Fit a BS210 quad section O-ring for better sealing. Get a good quality standard strength spring and assemble with top hat guide at the front and slip washers or a nylon spring guide at the back Assemble with good quality gun grease, but not too much or you'll get dieseling until it clears. So you have a slightly bigger cylinder capacity, better sealing, less friction because of the polishing and a bit of pre-load by virtue of washers, top hat and slipper rings or plastic guide making the cocking action only very slightly heavier. You've also added a little bit of piston head weight. The washers are heavier than buffer material. My Mk 4 .177 Meteor averages 228 mps (748 FPS) according to my cheapo Chinese Chrono using equally cheapo Marksman pointed pellets weighing in at 9 grains. That works out at 11.19 Foot pounds. With 8 grain pellets that can reach 11.4 foot pounds, but lighter pellets give less "rat stopping power". It cocks and shoots as smoothly as any 8 foot pound Meteor and accuracy is not compromised. Start putting much stronger springs in and yes you might get a little more power but you'll lose the smoothness and accuracy. Not much point if the thing is unpleasant to shoot and you can't hit anything. That's about as good as it gets for a Meteor and turns it into the perfect 25 yard rat gun. That's as good as most commercially available air rifles you can buy, usually for a lot more cash. Might make a youtube video some day, hope this helps.