Crossman Rabbitstopper project

[Hunter]

As promised, here is a back date on the project

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This is my workbench in my room where I build and tweak paintball/air guns.

 

 

So, as you can see the guns in a million bits, but quite a few plastic parts that came built into the gun will be changed to machined metal custom parts, such as trigger mechanism ( tacky plastic rubbish ) and sight rails.

 

First job was to strip the horrible stock off, and give it a sand down, to take all the dents, scuffs, and old varnish off it. It will later be oiled, then waxed, rather then a plastic varnish coat.

 

The metal bar laying next to the sanded stock is the barrel of the rifle.

 

 

Once I managed to get all the horrible ribs out of the wood, along with the dents, I had to sand the front end down because it was not made correctly.. poor engineering.. still.. it will see better times soon.

 

Bellow is a picture of the stock which has been oiled with Danish Oil which is perfect for all hard wood and soft wood types. You can even use the stuff on green wood (fresh wood)

 

 

Oh dear.. more bad engineering.. serious this time. I will have to have the front of the barrel re-crowned because it has been so poorly engineered that it affects accuracy/airflow at the end of the muzzle. Here are pictures.. you can see that they attemted to crown the muzzle, but did not do it properly, and has been made slightly too far to one side. I will have to put this barrel into a metal lathe tomoro, and machine a new muzzle on it, with a perfect crown.

Heres a couple of pics.. look at the muzzle and you will see something looks wrong. Was difficult to get on the camera clearly.

 

 

 

Next update tomoro.. if the barrel re-crown works out..

[Hunter]

Update on the project, I managed to succesfully crown the barrel muzzle!! I was worried about this as it would cost a fair bit to replace if I did it wrong. Here are some pics first of the newly crowned muzzle, (compare it to yesterdays pic) and some photos of the inside of the barrel, which is very difficult, but you can just see the rifle grooves inside the barrel that spin the pellet up to and amazing speed, using gyroscopic effects to maintain better range and accuracy is the prime use of rifled grooves inside the barrel. It is very improtant to have a correctly crowned muzzle, or the pellet will be damaged as it reaches the muzzle.

 

 

 

You can just make out a slight spiral effect in the blue light. This is only a very small section of the inside of the barrel, the rifled grooves are from one end of the barrel, to the other, and probabley make 2.5 X 350 degree revelations inside, meaning the pellet will be spun over around 2.5 times before exiting. As it is traveling at 600+ feet per second, this means the pellet will spin several hundred times per second before reaching its target.

 

 

(red pic was done by using a laser light to illuminte the walls of the barrel It is not so clear, but better then the blue light.

[Hunter]

Todays update:

 

I bought a decent gun case today, shown bellow is roughly how it will fit in, apart from its missing half the parts..

the gun stock has now had 2 coats of oil, and 4 coats of wax. Its almost perfect..

Again, thanks to the chaps at Chris Potter Guns for supplying this.

 

 

And here is the silly and purley ugly recycled plastic trigger.. (probably)

I will be making a metal trigger, im hoping out of brass or carbon steel depending on what I can get my hands on. Carbon steel can be heat treated amd hardend, where as brass is shiny and will not rust. It will also match with the bolt.

 

[Hunter]

Todays work, (sorry no updates yesterday, I was unwell and unable to work on the rifle)

 

I managed to get the barrel, and Co2 vavle cylinder painted in Hammerite today! these were both rusty, and due to the already weak metal, this will give it a little future protection.

 

 

To paint metal work, you need to 'dab' the paint on, or you will have a streaky finish, or it will run to form bubbles on the surface.

 

It may seem weird to be painting a gun.. I wouldnt usually do that.. but in this case a fine layer of hammerd finish black Hammerite is very much needed.

 

Over the next week, I should be receiving Tr.Robbs airgun parts for the rifle, and hopefully be fitting these aswell. With a bit of luck, I will be able to finish the gun in the next week or two!

Im just off to put the final coat of wax, (5 coats) on the stock to finish that of, and then check that the paint hasnt run on the barrels. If it does, you get a big mess which means letting the paint dry, cutting it off, and repainting the damaged area >_<

[Hunter]

So! the first of the TR Rob parts came today!! very quickly made and sent here...

 

Here it is: the fine metal milled bolt casing and new stainless steel bolt, rather then brass. The new bolt assembly is on the Right hand side... of my hand.. and is pre assembled with the new stainless bolt.

On the left hand side, is the old plastic bolt assembly with the brass tacky bolt that does not fit properly, so air is lost around the seals, because the plastic has worn down!

 

[Hunter]

Trigger time!

 

In my (gloved) hand, is a very nice peice of bar-stock Stainless Steel!! lovelyyyyy stuff.. means more then gold to me.

As you can see, the plastic trigger is on top of the metal. There is enough Stainless for me to have 2 tries at getting the trigger rite. But it it very hard stuff, and very difficult to work with. I cannot use machines to make it, as it will over heat the Stainless and it will become weak, as the trigger will be only a fine peice of metal. So, its Files, and Hacksaw job.. doh.. >_<

Stainless is hard to find in chunks like that, I was veryyy lucky to get it!

 

 

 

[Hunter]

Tonights update, as promised, here are pics.

 

Yes, I did end up using a disk grinder to cut the steel, but only a bit. First, I began cutting the steel disk from the side, to get the right thickness.

 

 

But after I got the size I wanted, I disk ground the whole disk in half, which was a big job!! it nackered one disk, and required water cooling to prevent damage to the metal under very high friction temprature caused by disk grinding.

 

 

 

Disk required plenty of water cooling!

 

 

Just before I finished cutting it in half, the disk grinding disk exploded into hundreds of fine bits all over the workshop, so I quickly turned it off, and this is the damage.

 

 

Well after replacing that, I finaly got it cut. So far to this point it has taken 45 mins of work.

 

 

So, then back in the vice with the newly cut part, and this was now cut down the middle by hand! this took a long time, and a lot of oil to prevent damage to the hacksaw blade, and to ease the effort put into cutting. I used 3-in-one.. which is not very good for that job.. but it helped. It even started smoking from the heat of the saw.

 

 

Once this was cut, it now provides the useful size/thicknes to begin work with.

(I will use the left hand peice of metal. On the right hand side, is the original thicknes of the Stainless steel disk).

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

So tomoro I will try to get round to cutting into trigger shape. But I do not know if I will have time, so it may be untill Sunday that I will put in the next update..

Until then, hope you enjoy the pics, and let me know if there is anything you want to suggest for this project, and I will consider doing/making it :smilez:

[Hunter]

Well even after working all day Saturday aswell, I managed to do some work on the trigger last night.. so here are last nights updates, and I will try to do more later, however Luke is comming around my place mid day, to get his gun sorted out, which he bought brand new from Chriss Potter guns. :great:

I am also re-conditioning a gun for Chriss Potter guns, which will go up on sale again once sorted out, but I dont have time to do any pictures and info on that gun, as I am too busy unfortunatley.

 

So here are the trigger pics.. I have marked out the trigger on metal, buy spraying over the trigger on the metal, using the old trigger as a template to help get a rough idea of where to cut/drill. Drilling saves a LOT of work, buy removing metal that would otherwise need to be sawed.

 

 

 

 

 

So thats the rough trigger outline done. Now there needs to be a lot of fine cutting/filling to do. I will put new pics up tonight if I get around to working on it.

 

Yesterday, I also got my new silencer, (much bigger then the old one), new silencer adaptor, and front dovetail scope block, for mounting the scope too. Youl see what this is when I begin assembling the rifle.

 

[Hunter]

Here are the updates.. sorry for the 2 day delay.. but here they are.

 

Continue on the trigger, I spent all day working on this.

As you can see bellow, it took heaps of hard work sawing, and filling this metal down. Its very hard stuff..

 

 

 

Once the filling was done, 2 more cuts had to be made on the trigger mount (the part which is inside the trigger mechanism housing) as this needs to made thinner then the trigger which is in contact with the finger.

 

 

After this, a LOT of fine filling had to be done to begin perfecting the trigger shape.

 

 

Then drilling 2 holes, and in the picture bellow, cutting a thread into the bottom hole to screw in a peice of metal which holds the trigger out under spring tension.

 

 

Next, I cut off a small peice of a wood nail, and put a thread on it. Then I screwed it into the bottom trigger hole.

 

 

Not to forget polishing the whole trigger after filling!

 

[Hunter]

Result? here is the work of 2 days of sawing, filling, measuring, drilling, thread cutting, and polishing.

Much better the its plastic replacement.

 

 

 

 

Bellow, you can see what the small pin on the trigger is for. It pushes against the small sprin on left left underside of the trigger. This pushes the trigger forwards.

 

 

Next, fitting it into the trigger mechanism.. phew, it fits!

 

[Hunter]

Assemble time..

 

Screwing on a silencer means an adaptor had to be made for the ultra thin barrel on this gun.. here it is, fitted shortly after getting it in the post.

 

 

Next job was to build the cylinder that holds the Co2 pressure. I am putting the main valve into place in this picture.

 

 

This is where the bolt assembly sits..

 

 

A complete barrel and Co2 cylinder, ready to be built together.

 

 

Phew.. done at lat.. this was a long difficult job to get all the new parts assembled.. but here it is. The new silencer is also pictured.

 

 

The small cottun bud is used for cleaning hard to reach spots in the bolt action. Very useful! I also use them for controlled touch-up painting.

[Hunter]

The gun is already going! I just havent had time to update it, so I will back date that now. I have been hunting with it, and had good results.. but I will post some pictures of the final testing when I try out 3-4 different types of ammo.

 

So, at last screwing the silencer on to check the adaptor is strong enough.. it didnt move a bit, so im sure it will never move. I had to put it on with a rubber mallet, smacking the top of the adaptor down onto the barrel.. carefully.. it went on with a fight.. so it will never come back off.

The silencer simply screws onto this adaptor, and can be removed when ever.

 

 

I also did not trust the strength of the single hole and tiny bolt holding the wooden stock to the gun, so I fixed this by re threading the hole, and putting another bigger bolt in it. But I still did not trust it, so I drilled a second hole through the stock, and metal cylinder at the front of the stock, threaded the hole in the metal, and drilled+ counter sunk the wood stock to fit a nice new bolt like the other.

Im pleased this worked, as the other hole had cross threaded so many times from whoever had it before, that it would not hold the stock. The metal is also cheap so it was difficult to keep the thread strong.

 

[Hunter]

Ok at long last, I have the completed gun in my room..

I have been unwell latley and unable to do any work on this, but I have atlast got around to completing/testing the rifle.

Before getting complicated, here are some pictures from this morning! (Sunday)

 

 

 

 

I was hoping to get out for some hunting, but due to it being winter, all thats in the forest are squirrels.. and wood pigeions. These two animals are eating all the time, so are always out and about, unlike rabbits hidding underground.

If I cant shoot anything, then it will have to wait untill after new years, when im back from Romania.. so I will show you the hunting results later.

 

First, il need to do a zero test to check the guns accuracy, pellet prefrence, and shooting style prefrence. Every gun acts differently with different ammo, even if its the same model gun, made by the same manufacturer.

I will try out several different types of pellet, and put the results up, to find out whats best.

My shooting I would give for this gun is 26 yards max, so I have meusured it out, and I will shoot every type of pellet at the same range, and without adjusting the scope.

 

Here is a selection of pellet tins I will test.

 

 

Setting up a good zero range for a new gun combo is very important. You dont want to go straight out hunting because you can shoot a rock out of your window in the garden.. you need to find out what the maximum range your gun can take on a clean kill, and hold consitant accuracy.

 

Here I set up a nice place to lay prone and shoot, with a box to rest the gun on.

 

 

Just as important, you need to have a very good target and backstop. I have a grass bank to catch any pellet that does not reach the target, and a steel back plated target.

Do not shoot at stones, hard wood, or trees, as its very possible to get a ricochet if the pellet hits at a funny angle, or can not penetrate at all. The reason not to shoot trees is A) it is bad for the tree and will cause damage, and because the tree is round, if your pellet does not hit sqaure on, it will wizz off and possibly hit somone. I was unfortante to have a near accident like this.. and nearly lost my possibilities of shooting on this land.

 

Nice gun rest, nice back stop.. ready to go!

 

 

 

Little dot in the distance, can be braught to this:

This is not photo shopped, and looks much clearer without out the circles when you veiw with your eve, and a camera has a different veiw angle to us, it picture the inside walls of the scope, rather then our long range veiw angle, we see straght through the tube without the sides, so it looks like a cheapo scope, but its nothing like this when you look with your own eye.

[Hunter]

Here is a picture of the best pellet group I had at 26 yards (around 30 meters) This is about the maximum hunting range I would use this gun at, but today I picked up a new gun, I am excited about this as the power is amazing, and accuracy is promising, so could well end up with an airgun suitable for 40 meter kills.. I will go into that later, but for now I will finish of the Crossman Rifle project.

 

The target bellow shows a 10 shot group, about as big as a 10 pence coin, at 26 yards. This is the only kind of accuracy I would accept from an airgun, and for hunting purposes.. you need spot-on accuracy to ensure a clean kill.

 

 

And here is the result of an evenings hunting. While zeroeing the rifle sight, I heard Squirrels in the forsest, so finished up with the targets, and headed down to see what was going on.. along with the rifle. Turned out to be at least 4 squirrels in one small section of the woods, and many more further along. I only had the good opertunity to get shops of at these two, the rest ran after seeing what was happening.

Both of these were taken with clean head shots, one using Air Arms Diabolo Feild pellet, and the other with a Webley Lazerdome pellet. These are similar in weight and design, so have proved to be the best in this gun. I have not yet eaten squirrel meat, but it is said to be quite a speciallity in some resturants in London. Untill then, these two are fox food.

 

 

 

Please do PM or write anyone qeustions here, il be happy to help. I hope you enjoy the read!

Edited March 25, 2006 by Hunter

[beatingisbest]

great! its really interesting how much work and all the different things you had to do to this rifle to get it to work very well! well done!

[blackthorn]

well done kid very impressed

[milo_05]

Very Very good.

One thing, it says 26 yards around 30 metres, a metre is longer than a yard so it should be around 23 metres?

Overall very impressed especially that trigger.

[Chezney]

Woah amazing work! thats amazing

[reddeer 40]

Nice work!!

[Hunter]

Very Very good.

One thing, it says 26 yards around 30 metres, a metre is longer than a yard so it should be around 23 metres?

Overall very impressed especially that trigger.

Too true, I got them the wrong way round it is 26 yards though.

 

Thanks for your replies.. im often doing this kind of thing as I have too much time to kill, so il post up any more projects that I do

[buzzer1]

Good job there Hunter :thumbs:

 

All the best

 

Buzz

[Frank]

Amazing work Hunter. :thumbs: Well done.

I cant seem to get the last few pictures you posted, it just comes up with boxes and crosses in them?

Keep up the good work.

Any more news on your firearms appllication?

[stupidsalmon]

Right click on the crossed box and click "show picture"

Nice work hunter

SS

[steve3562]

omfg m8 ur now my god how did you do that?? you must know loads about guns wanna take alook at mine for me??

 

 

 

steve

[Frank]

Right click on the crossed box and click "show picture"

Nice work hunter

SS

Thanks SS.