Making my own leather seals and resealing the BSA Improved D
I recently purchased a 98 year old BSA Inproved
Mdl D. And although it was shooting 14.3 CPLHP at 500 FPS, those in the know said it should be doing 600 FPS with the lighter RWS Hobby’s.
Close inspection of the seals revealed the seal was shreaded.
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This photo shows the new seal and the shreaded seal.
I read up on how to make leather seals on the American Vintage Airgun Forum, and being a former leather maker, I felt confident I could reproduce the cup seals of yesterday, after all it wasn’t like you could go down to the hardware store and buy them.
The BSA Improved Mdl D is simple to work on, requiring only a screwdriver to reduce it to it’s basic parts.
I started by buying a shoulder section of a bull hide, and then cutting it into 2 inch squares. I then drilled 1.125 inch holes 1/2 inch deep into a fir 2×4. I soaked the leather in alcohol for 24 hours and then set the leather squares over the holes and pressed a socket into the leather forcing it into the holes with my bench vice. Once dried, I cut the leather flush with the 2×4 and then removed the dried leather cup from the board.
I soaked the seal for 24 hours in Neets Foot Oil, I then fit the seal to the piston and filed it to shape and dimension. I had preordered a lube kit from airriflewarehouse and once getting the seal filed to the correct dimensions, I lubed it in neets foot oil and moly and forced it into the BSA.
The new seal next to the old one, and by the way it now shoots the 14.3 CPLHP’s at 545 FPS so I am sure with the Hobby’s it will be close to the 600 FPS mark.
I love doing this stuff, getting these old rilfes shooting again is so rewarding.
Roachcreek
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Viewing 15 replies - 1 through 15 (of 15 total)
very nice roach
thats all ive been trying to make
i dont want any snaps all i wanna do is cover the knife and sting a lanyard or belt look to it
i am going to try and soak the leather in oil or something to soften more fto work with it
Or you can grind the big horns meat and stuff the used gut to give a different meaning for “man sausage” 😛
Greetings from indonesia, all.
It’s my first post here, I’ve been lurking and i have to say mod/machinist is my fave due to it’s frequenters’ posts tone.
Roachcreek, i have an older version of your BSA, a Lincoln-Jeffries. I didn’t know it has quite a decent fps, all this time it just sit there on the stand in my workplace.
How accurate is it?
I’m still waiting for my Talon clone to be finish by a local GS. In the mean time, i’ll go back to my lurking position
Roachcreek
I’m not judging
😆
Crow.
About you knife scabbord, here is a style I came up with, it requires no snaps, however it still snaps into place, it is retained by forming the leather.
It is a simple yet elegant design. As you can see, it has been used on many hunts.
The knife is a one off made by little known maker, Alan Borcuk. Alan has mastered the old Japanese sword waterline tempering method, at least I think that is what it is called. The bone insert is giraffe.
I admired it when he brought it to my place elk hunting, so he gave it to me.
Roachcreek
My oldest boy’s ex girlfriend drew a once in a lifetime sheep tag here in Oregon several years back.
It was inedible, I mean really foul tasting stuff.
Then he won a Stone sheep hunt in Canada, and hunted for a little over a month on back packing hunt. I don’t think the meat was too good on that one either.
Having said that, Oregon lost it’s original sheep population due to homesteaders shooting them, whether they used them for food or shot them because they feared they would infect their domestic livestock is unknown. I used to think it was for food, but there are so many better eating critters out there.
Of all the wild food I used to provide for our table, my kids prefered rattle snake. Personnaly I think elk backstrap and tenderloin is about as good as it gets, but my next rip to asia, I want to try the Philippine cobra, you can buy it in several forms, cooked, freshly killed and skinned, or alive in a wicker basket.
Roachcreek
A happy man and good info, Thanks.
nice bow here
i am retying to locate a hickory “log” wedge around 7 feet long as this winter i am going to try n make my own long bow
i have nice directions for doing it
and your right once you shoot good with a traditional bow you dont forget how its just natural
and also a good skill to posess
Crow,
I got that bow from a gun trade with my father when I was 15.
I had found a old M1 Carbine on the ranch, there had been military manuvers there in 1943, and someone had broken the stock on it and covered it up, I found it in 1964 after a massive storm and snow melt exposed it. I traded the M1 action to my father for the bow, which he purchased for the trade.
It is an Indian Archer, 50 lb 62 inch recurve.
A few years back, I had loaned it to my oldest son, and got it back recently, like riding a bike you never forget how to shoot one.
And of course I was kidding about the Big Horn Sheep, and unfortunately not about the crazy exwife.
Wok,
Your just plain nasty.
The thing you thought was a dildo is the handle on my wifes comb, the lube is hand lotion, and of course the Stoli is Stoli. 😎
And yes I do have the best sex life in the world. 😀
Roachcreek
LOL….. i didnt see that i was checking out his new Merrels and the long bow in the closet
roach a lil more info on that long bow
i recenlty got a new string for my 48 lb recurve and have been hunting deer with it
at 20 yards im on a pie plate
good enough for deer
Thats quite a SEX BOX contents are:
Booze
Lube
Milk of Magnesia
Dildo
😯 😯 😯 😯 😯 😯 😯 😀 😀 😀 😀 😀 😀 😀 😀 😀 😀 :popcorn: :popcorn: :popcorn: :popcorn: :popcorn: :popcorn: :popcorn: :popcorn: :popcorn: :18: :18: :18: :18: :18: :18: :18:
so to aquire the condorms from the big horns
did you just
insert yourself,, then bung out the sheep and leave the”condom” on once all done just sie a knot in it? lol
id like to hunt some bighorns someday but ill leave the pillaging to hoot
i just wanna take one home for the freezer
Crow,
Condoms were traditionally made from sheep intestines years ago.
Up on the mountain there were no domestic sheep, we had Big Horn sheep, but the brush was so thick that I could not run them down on horseback and rope them, so I would run them down on foot to get the needed supplies to make condoms.
And yes I know what your thinking, and that was an added benefit.
The crazy woman I was married to at the time did not like sex all that much, so I did not need that many condoms, as a result most of the time it was a catch and release on the Big Horns, little play on words there.
And at 6000 foot elevation it kept me in good shape.
The sex life is much better now since I moved and remarried, and I don’t get scratched up so much from the brush and beat to hell with the hooves and horns. 😛
Roachcreek
nice job roach
i have been trying to make a leather sheath for my buck 119 special nife as i lost my original one
i have a big ol hunk of leather but i keepmessing it up
so now the knife sits in the kitchen drawer as its useless with out the sheath lol
so thats how you used to make condoms up in the cabin ehh?
Good job RC, thats some good looking work
Viewing 15 replies - 1 through 15 (of 15 total)
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Crow,
If your trying to form the leather, you should use either water or rubbing alcohol.
Oil is there forever and will not shape the leather to form it.
Water of course dries slowly, and you have to protect carbon steel from rust if your using your knife or gun as a form.
Rubbing alcohol dries much faster and you only have to oil your knife or gun afterwards. THe only danger is if you get cheap mexican leather that was tanned using urine, then things get really fucked up, but your nose will tell ou that you have the wrong leather.
Roachcreek