The $100 challenge.....

Now the owner of an Air Chief Junior, mine arrived in very good order.

Edited by mercs - 28 Aug 2023 at 8:01pm

I'd say angled, the seal was angled. And it sat flush with face of breech.

I thought I'd do a quick few things to no great finish to see if would react to a bit of tlc.(mostly I wanted to play with new dremel)
1 tidy up crown.
2 tapper the breach hole where pellet goes in.
3 polish bore with cutting compound.
4 play with sight to even up.
5 grind down trigger sear
6 cut trigger return spring as it has way more tension than it needs
7 Polish trigger sear face and on piston too.
8 Pop seals and reseat.
The breach seal is also tapered billbob, as is the face on mine. Seems to lock, and shoot ok so I'll be keen to see how straitening it goes.
Ran 20 shots through it then a did a five shot group.

Five shot group
10m, outside, no wind
Sitting in door of car with elbow on knee holding forend . No sand bag and table this time.
AA heavies 10.3gr
18mm vertical
24mm horizontal


As nothing has been done to any degree of finish, could be promising.
Trigger pull is a lot shorter and snapper now.
And not sighted in. Rear sight was to "I recon about there" then not adjusted. Searching for grouping before worry about bringing on target properly
But that's it for now have other guns want to play with tonight.


Edited by kruzaroad - 25 Aug 2023 at 4:52pm

So I’ve had an interesting morning with the black mamba.

Cleaning first. Took a good few patches through that barrel before they started comming out clean(ish).

First one was properly black 😂😂😂
Man I love the smell of Hoppes no9! I’d wear it as aftershave if it didn’t sting so much!

Then tried to mount a scope. That’s when I noticed there is no recoil lug recess hole on top of the tube 🤔
The only mount I have is a gamo one piece which is quite low, but I was hoping the 3 Allen keys and the long clamping dovetail might keep the scope in place. Rear sight was in the way so I took that off. Put rings on and mounted the scope, and it looked damm good, but of course now the damm breech won’t open 😡. So back on went the rear sight. I decided to change my sight picture so I can see the bull at 10m, and “zeroed” as best I could accordingly.


Snugged up the stock screws, which were a little loose and started re-leading the barrel.
After 40 shots it was all over the place!!! 😳😳😳

Checked the stock screws and they were loose again😡
Tightened up all 3, then it would t cock??? 😡
Figured out the screw in front of the trigger guard can’t be snuggled up tight, won’t cock, needs to be about 1/8th turn backed off. Seemed to not move for the rest of the shooting session, but the two fore end screws did, after every shot 😡
Spent the next hour tightening the fore end stock screws after every 5 or 10 shots.
They seem to loosen and if left alone will settle then stay there, but I do think some lock tight is needed after all the stripping and tinkering is done.
My best group, after cleaning and releading, with slightly loose stock screws is slightly worse they yesterdays.
I need to get a scope on there!

Billbob, how did u get the silencer off? Gentle persuasion with a hammer?