ASI Sniper project

Dried and rubbed back slightly this morning. Far from perfect, intentionally left in some age related marks. Thats my line As originally it was varnish/lacquered ill shellac polish this one.

Around an hour polishing. Small stock so its really quick progress

Looking great young man. Far better than the standard factory finish that they came with. I reckon this will make a lovely lightweight plinking rifle when it's done.

Skid said:

Looking great young man. Far better than the standard factory finish that they came with. I reckon this will make a lovely lightweight plinking rifle when it's done.

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Thanks mate im happy enough with how the woodwork is looking. Its a nicely shaped stock on the sniper too in my opinion.

Yes, thats all i hope for it really. A nice little plinker, ideal

Shiny enough yet?

Spot on mate

Ive been slowly making the breach shims on and off. Its turned out allot harder than i thought to make these by hand! They started out as old delrin top hats.

Down to 1.4mm and they are still a little too thick. Barrel goes on but is tight, it also needs to be perfect for the pivot bolt to line up, even a fraction of a difference effects the cylinder spread i guess.

Pics..not too interesting, maybe next update they will be finished

Backgardenplinker said:

Ive been slowly making the breach shims on and off. Its turned out allot harder than i thought to make these by hand! They started out as old delrin top hats.

Down to 1.4mm and they are still a little too thick. Barrel goes on but is tight, it also needs to be perfect for the pivot bolt to line up, even a fraction of a difference effects the cylinder spread i guess.

Pics..not too interesting, maybe next update they will be finished

View attachment 919213View attachment 919214View attachment 919216View attachment 919215
View attachment 919217

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Labour intensive job to do by hand. However, it looks like you're getting there

Brilliant going, BGP

Making shims, you definitely have more patience than me lol

Dan

The breach shims are finished! Below are the final measurements i ended up with. They really arent proud by much, just enough to take up a minute gap.



View attachment 920252

Looking over the rest of the rifle, theres much to do. I need to do further galling measures, probably file down the linkage a fraction more. Its rubbing still, not much but it is and its going to feel horrible to cock.

Trying another spring which needs to be cut slightly. Guide design 'grabs' a springs end coil. Im going to size a delrin washer to fit in the cupped shape and negate that.

So a few rebuilds probably, checking it all and see how power looks.

Need to clean up trigger mechanism and re-black the fixings. Stock could do with a little more polishing. Lastly i may have to replace the seals if not happy with the energy/cycle.

I wont ever do an ASI Sniper again, note to self

Backgardenplinker said:

The breach shims are finished! Below are the final measurements i ended up with. They really arent proud by much, just enough to take up a minute gap.

View attachment 920226View attachment 920227
View attachment 920228View attachment 920229View attachment 920230
View attachment 920252

Looking over the rest of the rifle, theres much to do. I need to do further galling measures, probably file down the linkage a fraction more. Its rubbing still, not much but it is and its going to feel horrible to cock.

Trying another spring which needs to be cut slightly. Guide design 'grabs' a springs end coil. Im going to size a delrin washer to fit in the cupped shape and negate that.

So a few rebuilds probably, checking it all and see how power looks.

Need to clean up trigger mechanism and re-black the fixings. Stock could do with a little more polishing. Lastly i may have to replace the seals if not happy with the energy/cycle.

I wont ever do an ASI Sniper again, note to self

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A labour of love though surely?
Good work so far

Skid said:

A labour of love though surely?
Good work so far

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Yeah, its always a labour of love . For something so small and simple the Sniper holds so many challenges

Ive rebuilt the Sniper for a kind of test phase.

Its been in bits on my worktop for months so will be nice to use it again for a while rather than it being a kind of no end in sight project. Only pics ive taken recently were the guide base with an added washer.



Im not happy with the cocking, theres a click from the link and still some minor lever rubbing on the cylinder. Tried various plastic/delrin sleeve type pieces between cylinder or over the lever but they either cracked and failed or were tricky to keep in place. There is allot of tension here when lever runs at the cocking angle. In the end i ground down and polished the metal on metal areas and applied lots of grease. Im hopeing with some use it can sort itself out! Unfortunately changing the cylinder from a similar but not identical rifle really upset the clearances. It works though and that is an achievement!

Rifle is shooting ok, its not as good as i'd like but allright. Around 550 fps with a 7.0 grain. New seals would be interesting to try. Ive found a thicker shorter spring worked better here which is unusual. I got marginally more energy with a different setup but it was buzzy and unpleasant.

The open sights are by no means the finished article, a fair few fixings are missing, theres no elevation as such, no windage adjustment knob but that is working. I had a spare sight hood that looks ok and fits. Im amazed i got them working on first try, genuinely amazed

Not quite finished yet then but up and running ASI Sniper. At 10 meters on the opens, it is accurate for plinking and actually grouped nicely

Looking good and it seems accurate enough. Probably got an elevation wheel and spring.

Nomis said:

Looking good and it seems accurate enough. Probably got an elevation wheel and spring.

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That would be great. Ive got a feeling its an obscure thread size needed to fix to rear breach hole.. Like a 4.5mm if that exists? Cant find a bolt that passes the sight frame and fits. The wheel ive got, the bolt is much too small.

I also doubt the front and rear are a match. Thick front post and narrow rear notch. An appropriate mismatch for this Sniper

You're definitely putting that "high-power" and "micro-accuracy" to work now. Looks pretty decent on the accuracy, not sure how much power it'll easily make though in .177, I'd expect 6ft lbs would be about it's limit? I think they're only about 6 or 7ft lbs in .22 like the paratroopers. An interesting project anyway, well done so far...

Skid said:

You're definitely putting that "high-power" and "micro-accuracy" to work now. Looks pretty decent on the accuracy, not sure how much power it'll easily make though in .177, I'd expect 6ft lbs would be about it's limit? I think they're only about 6 or 7ft lbs in .22 like the paratroopers. An interesting project anyway, well done so far...

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Cheers mate. I wish it was cocking correctly but its not a bad barrel and trigger is just about predictable enough to work with.

It doesnt appear to have much more to give on power side. New seals would be of benefit i reckon and go from there. 6ft lbs is a nice target, I've heard they can do more in 177!

My first air rifle; I have one around here somewhere, you have convinced me that , at least, I can improve it.

Yours looks like I'd like mine to....

Nice...

Backgardenplinker said:

Cheers mate. I wish it was cocking correctly but its not a bad barrel and trigger is just about predictable enough to work with.

It doesnt appear to have much more to give on power side. New seals would be of benefit i reckon and go from there. 6ft lbs is a nice target, I've heard they can do more in 177!

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Looking great.

I converted my .22 to an HW30 seal and it still only manages 4.5ftlb. I think I could do better with the spring which is a cut down Titan (No.7 I think).