If the towel starts steaming I would be getting it way too hot. A moist towel around the tube, with it clamped in a vise. I used some sandpaper to clean the join area on the tube as far back as I could go.Īnd lightly holding the barrel against the paper sanded the other surface. It's separated by about 4" from the front. F so I could in theory would not need to heat the gun up too much. It has a very low melting point of 275 deg. I bought some " Tix" solder from Brownells. The last part of my puzzle had to do with getting over my fear of desoldering the rest of the gun. At least soldering gave Dunlap some fits: "I either spoil the bluing and get a good soldering job or am so careful about the finish I get a lousy sweat joint." ( Gunsmithing by Roy Dunlap) So I read what I could and felt much more confident. I decided to peruse some gunsmithing books and read everything I could on resoldering shotgun ribs, which is an analogous problem. In any case, I had some data about what not to do, but still felt that I didn't have enough of a plan. This is entirely down to poor preparation. Here you can see that there are some large solder blobs (the gun was pretty chewed up and I think had already be resoldered partially so at least the front sight isn't my fault), and that I've had to buff the metal down to the bare brass.Īfter cleanup it wasn't so bad, but you can see gaps in the solder line.
Oh, o k, here are two pictures of the loaner rifle. It'll look ok if he polishes it up though. I'm not even going to post pictures of the results, it was that humiliating. The front section of the barrel was resoldered, but I ended up globbing a large amount of solder on and the finish was completely ruined. A kind gentleman sent me one, and I did a marginal job. So I asked around on the forums to see if anyone had a beater gun that I could practice on, with the understanding that I would probably ruin it. The main complaint was that it lacked power (more on that in another post) but there was also the issue of the front section of the barrel being loose.īeing a paranoid sort of guy, I reasoned that if I tried to fix his barrel without any experience I would end up destroying the gun. It is also durable as hell, and will likely last a few lifetimes.An old friend of mine asked whether I could fix his Benjamin air rifle, "bought with my own money", new, when he was 12. It’s capable of taking down small game around the property as well as firing accurately during target shooting. Overall the Benjamin 397 air rifle is a great choice for any purpose you may have in mind.
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Free workout! The requirement of a few pumps before every shot will keep you in great shape ?.Just make sure you always leave the rifle with one pump when you’re done using it. A pneumatic pump power source will never wear out a gun, and the 397 has the capability of lasting decades without wear or tear, or a loss in firing power. For target shooting between 10 and 30 yards, only 3 or 4 pumps are really necessary. While you can pump the gun up to 8 times before each shot, doing so is not necessary depending on the distance you’re working with and how hard you’d like to hit your target. You will not have to purchase c02, or deal with attaching clunky canisters on your pretty rifle There are a couple benefits to this form of power: The 397 is a pneumatic bolt action single shot, which means that you will need to “pump” the gun before every shot. One aspect that really makes this model unique is the bolt action pneumatic pump power source, the details of which are discussed below. The 397 features a sturdy hardwood stock, open adjustable rear sites, a firing speed up to 800 fps, 36.25 inches in length, and a weight of 5.5 pounds. There are no plastics on the 397, and every piece of it has been carefully selected for quality performance. Crosman makes tiny adjustments to the gun frequently, culminating in a model that over time has become carefully crafted for optimal performance. The Benjamin 397 air rifle is an awesome American pellet rifle that has been in production for decades.