FWB 602 short gate install

[wquiles]

Ebay member nikonos sells a short gate for the FWB 60x rifles that allows for using a scope (which is how I want to use my FWB 602). The new gate needs to be cut, but it took a little bit more work than I expected.


Here are the parts that come in the kit on top - the original gate is on the bottom:



The instructions are excellent:



Cut gate and clean it:







Everything fits great (so far). Note the kit is actually fully ambidextrous - it can go on the right or left side of the rifle:



But I noted right away that the gate did not "locked" in the down position. I can press it down with my finger, but comes up slightly once I remove my finger:



Upon reviewing things, I noted the problem was the pin diameter:





So I made a press spacer out of Delrin:














Now the gate fully engages and locks down in place (like the OEM gate did before):




With that out of the way, I tested the scope mount:







I needed it to move forward more, so I decided to "modify" it to give me more clearance:





Much better:





But I still needed it to move forward a little more, so back to the mill. Here is how it looked after the second milling operation. The scope still sits a little too far back, but it is OK for now:






Will

 

[tiptop]

Dang! With the machining tools you have I'm surprised you didn't just make your own low gate. I think I've read that the kit you bought only works well on the 601 - maybe the pins on the 601 are smaller diameter than those on your 602. I have a 601 with factory peep sights that I bought a few months ago. I did make a different front sight insert out of plexiglass with a small hole drilled in it. On a bench at 10 meters it is incredibly accurate and consistent, even with the peeps. Originally I bought the gun thinking I might put a scope on it but I've decided to leave it as is and see how good I can get with it shooting offhand at the distance it was designed to shoot. I have other more powerful scoped guns for longer distance hunting and target shooting. I love the quality of these guns and the FWB 300s as well. They're like the Rolls Royce of airguns.

 

[wquiles]

Thanks for the kind words. I sometimes do end up making stuff in my "shop", and I thought about making one from scratch, but having the kit made it much quicker to get the rifle shooting with a scope

I should add that without the mod, the rifle will not fire. There is another guy on another airgun forum that had the same problem I did with the kit, and he also had to made a mod for this to work

Will

 

[JoeWayneRhea]

Great work Will !!! You got me wanting to make an excuse to come up and see you so we can play in your shop. Truly excellent job. I'm glad you were able to make it where there are rings on both ends of the turrets ..I see a lot of these that have both rings on just the back of the scope . I'm sure it works fine , but it looks really odd to my eye .

 

[wquiles]

Thanks Joe for your kind words. Yes, these 600's are not the easiest to scope!. But I am spoiled with them 10M rifles now - putting 5 shots in a hole just a little larger than the pellet at 12 yards is doable when I do my part. Makes me want to save my money to get the FWB PCP Field Target Models, which get into the 800fps or so (about 11.5-12 ft) - now that would be awesome for longer distances  

 

[T-Higgs]

Wquiles,
i just joined here and this is one of the first posts I stumbled on. I'll say it again, you do good work. This really is something that anyone wanting to short gate a 600 series FWB should be aware of. If you can get a copy of the EXACT, original gate that is on your rifle, it will make the job much easier and perform better. 

(I'm the guy from the other forum mentioned earlier)

Higgs

 

[wquiles]

Nice to see you here Higgs - lots of good content to learn and to share

Will

 

[ADeuel]

I've got a 603 that came with a scope and no sights. The loading gate had been cut back for scope clearance and the scope was mounted with a BKL high cantilevered mount on top of a pair of BKL risers, this made the scope way above the travel of the cheek piece adjustment.

I had a hunk of Birch Laminate left over from a stock I had made so I made a new higher cheek piece for the 603. worked great, now I have adjustment for height. The rifle is heavy enough that it doesn't feel top heavy with the scope sitting that high above it. I mounted a 36X Leupold target scope on it that has a nice short eye relief and it is very comfortable to shoot.

These 603's are absolutely amazing with a high power scope, no movement at discharge and you can watch the pellet go thru the same hole time after time!

ART 

 

[JoeWayneRhea]

Guys say it all the time that PCP rifles don't recoil ...Yes they do , shoot a 600 series rifle , then pick your PCP back up . SSP are unbelievable first time you shoot one !!

 

[ADeuel]

The 603 has a recoil reducer on it that gives you a dead calm shot cycle. When I got my 603 I discovered that the recoil reducer wasn't working because it was corroded and the pin that pushes the compensating weight backward wasn't moving so it was shooting like the normal SSP rifle which is very low recoil anyhow. I managed to get the reducer apart and cleaned-up to the point where it was working again, meanwhile I ordered some repair parts for the reducer from Neal Stepp of I.S.S. After I got everything together and adjusted again I noticed a big difference in the shot cycle....I didn't think it had much recoil before but now it was dead!! When I ran it over the Chronograph before the recoil reducer was working it was running an average of 572 FPS, after it was working it was shooting at 553 FPS, the recoil reducer was using 19 FPS of pressure for it's cycle.

ART

 

[tiptop]

Maybe the difference in felt recoil between SSP and PCP is because the typical SSP only shoots around 6 fpe for 10 m target?

 

[wquiles]

I can feel/tell the recoil on all of my PCP's (Theoben Rapid 7 MKII, 22 cal, 20 foot-pounds), Benjamin Discovery (22 cal, tuned to about 17 foot pounds), and very slight on the FWB 602. On the FWB is of course the faintest, since it is only like 6-7 foot pounds, and since the rifle + scope is heavy, but the recoil is there.

 

[T-Higgs]

I also used the BKL one piece with a bit of droop comp. and one riser. Works well! The rifle deserves a better scope though. It's fine for ten meter but I occasionally shoot silhouette with it and more magnification would be nice. 

 

[wquiles]

I hear you loud and clear on these FWB deserving a good scope. Right now I just have a nice 10x, but Istill feel that it would be nicer with even higher magnification, given the intrinsic accuracy these rifles are capable off

Will

 

[T-Higgs]

"wquiles"I hear you loud and clear on these FWB deserving a good scope. Right now I just have a nice 10x, but Istill feel that it would be nicer with even higher magnification, given the intrinsic accuracy these rifles are capable off

Will

Totally agree Will!
I've often said, " if you consider yourself an airgunner, you owe it to yourself to experience, and preferably owne, a fine, Olympic grade, ten meter rifle". I don't care what your chosen discipline is, shooting a state of the art ten meter rifle gives you a quantifiable level of what air rifles are capable of. It will deepen your respect for our hobby/addiction.
It's a bit of a goal of mine to own a few of the great ten meter guns. Perhaps a 300s, D75, Walther LGR or LGM 2. All in good time and as money will allow I suppose. 
Will, you seem to be pretty talented at metalwork, are you a machinist by trade? Just curious. Wood is my medium. 

respectfully,
Higgs

 

[wquiles]

Higgs,

Thank you. I am a self-taught machinist. I started making my own modifications/improvements for high power LED flashlights (back then the Maglite C and D were our host of choice), and instead of relying on parts from others, I got a small lathe, found a great mentor in Illinois, started making parts for others (which helped pay for the machining parts/supplies), bought another small lathe and mini mill, metal bandsaw, then got a larger gunsmith lathe and knee mill, etc. Now, 10 years later, I added Mig welding to my "shop" (corner in the garage), and a belt grinder, so I can work on a few more things.

I have many videos on youtube, I have taught others to cut threads, and get started in machining, so I try to give back as much as I got back when I was getting started. That is also why I like documenting so heavily with photos - so that others can copy/duplicate/improve on what I have done. One of these days I want to get my own 3D printer as some parts are not "easy" to make on a conventional (non CNC) setup as mine. I still got much to learn, but I can't deny it is awesome to having the machinery to make parts when I need them.

Will