A friend of mine asked if I would repower/refurbish his 35 year old (he had the original receipts) .177 HW77. It is a stunning gun in appearance, as years ago he totally refinished the stock and gold inlaid all of the original stamped markings.
Upon receipt, I mounted a new Vortex Diamondback 6-24x50 FFP scope on it, on top of Sports Match High Vertically adjustable rings. I then proceeded to test the rifle. Even though it was down on power, and one could feel how dry the lubricant was in the cocking stroke, it shot amazingly well (see photo 1)
I then proceeded to tear it down. The trigger assembly as found (photo 2) indicated how hard and dry the grease had become while in storage for a couple of decades or more. The same condition existed on the compression and piston components. The breech seal had totally hardened and fragmented as I worked to remove it (see photo 4).
I cleaned, polished, adjusted, and lubricated the Rekord trigger and set it aside.
Once all of the old grease and seals had been removed, I polished all of the parts, then fitted new seals, lubricating as I put them back in place.
I removed 1 1/2 coils off of the Vortek PG4steel HO Kit, with the goal of ending up between 12 and 13 fpe, as the owner has hand issues and I wanted to be certain it was easy to cock, and that we maxed out the accuracy potential.
I then exchanged the scopes to a new generation Hawke Airmax 6-24x50 FFP scope, as it is 1" shorter than the Diamondback, and clears the loading port, where the Diamondback covered about 1/2 of it when adjusted for proper eye relief on the other end.
You can follow the rest of the pellet testing via the photos found below to whatever extent you like, but in the end, the accuracy and smoothness of this old rifle was amazing, achieving an average across two 10 shot groups of .16" c-t-c, shooting the H&N FTT Trophy 4.52 pellets at 799 fps, producing 12.4 FPE.
A really fun project that should last the owner and his family another 35 years and beyond.
DZ
Upon receipt, I mounted a new Vortex Diamondback 6-24x50 FFP scope on it, on top of Sports Match High Vertically adjustable rings. I then proceeded to test the rifle. Even though it was down on power, and one could feel how dry the lubricant was in the cocking stroke, it shot amazingly well (see photo 1)
I then proceeded to tear it down. The trigger assembly as found (photo 2) indicated how hard and dry the grease had become while in storage for a couple of decades or more. The same condition existed on the compression and piston components. The breech seal had totally hardened and fragmented as I worked to remove it (see photo 4).
I cleaned, polished, adjusted, and lubricated the Rekord trigger and set it aside.
Once all of the old grease and seals had been removed, I polished all of the parts, then fitted new seals, lubricating as I put them back in place.
I removed 1 1/2 coils off of the Vortek PG4steel HO Kit, with the goal of ending up between 12 and 13 fpe, as the owner has hand issues and I wanted to be certain it was easy to cock, and that we maxed out the accuracy potential.
I then exchanged the scopes to a new generation Hawke Airmax 6-24x50 FFP scope, as it is 1" shorter than the Diamondback, and clears the loading port, where the Diamondback covered about 1/2 of it when adjusted for proper eye relief on the other end.
You can follow the rest of the pellet testing via the photos found below to whatever extent you like, but in the end, the accuracy and smoothness of this old rifle was amazing, achieving an average across two 10 shot groups of .16" c-t-c, shooting the H&N FTT Trophy 4.52 pellets at 799 fps, producing 12.4 FPE.
A really fun project that should last the owner and his family another 35 years and beyond.
DZ
