My SMK 19 Stripped, what next!

[brettguise]

So I assembled the gun on Sunday and had it put through the chronograph yesterday. After much effing and blinding that I couldn't get the trigger fitted back, Id been inserting it wrong all along and managed to do it (lesson learned for next time).

I lightly greased the spring guide and top hat and the piston. I went just upto the washer thing on the end of the piston and didn't get any on the end. I put more of a coating on the spring itself and fitted it all back to together.

To finish off I degreased the trigger unit and dropped a few drops of gun oil upon assembly.

So the verdict

Took it to be chronographed (forgot to do this before taking it apart and bare in mind this gun is about 7/8 years old never had a service and had a good few tins of pellets through it) it was doing 10ft/lbs consistently. The guy who chronographed said he was impressed at how consistent it fired from the readings given by the chronograph. I felt pleased at his comment and the gun seems a lot smoother to use. Due to the bad weather I haven managed to test it for accuracy yet as this was the main problem I had with this gun in the first place. When my new scope arrives Ill fit a scope to this and have a go at some backyard target practice.

What I would advise to do differently

If I was to do it again I wouldn't be a tight ass and id definitely get the tuning kit and the trigger. With the tuning kit id of prob got it on the legal limit and the trigger would certainly improve upon the terrible one that is supplied with the SMK19. Id also chronograph before and after to get the results from that and possibly make a video of the gun firing to compare the change in the guns general noise, recoil etc.

Following Ians advise above I may possibly see how it fires and maybe remove the spring to add a bit more grease to it. I added what I thought was enough but didn't go to overboard. It may be that I added just a little less than I should have.

All in all I'm pleased and I thank everybody from the advise given on this forum and through pm from a few members I really appreciate it. I'm hoping now to start my next project soon. I'm looking at cleaning out my shed and getting a bench setup in their to begin working on them in my spare time. I'm looking for something a bit more tricky now that will require a kit and parts to get it working. My advice for anybody wanting to have a go like me would be to just have a go! Be careful with removal of the spring and seek advice on that but other than that its pretty straight forward and theirs some great guys on here who will share their knowledge with you.

[Ianhw77k]

Nice one mate, glad it is at least consistent as that is what you were after. If you need more power then you get into the realms of new springs or added pre-load etc, then you are better off with a kit I would think.

As for the grease on the spring, Dunkman knows his stuff there but if the spring is too twangy and is already well greased you could try a bit more grease or some thicker grease but a tighter fitting spring guide or a spring sleeve may be needed. Spring sleeves are great things and easy to make.

I'm really glad you gave it a go and we have another tinkerer on the forum

[brettguise]

Nice one mate, glad it is at least consistent as that is what you were after. If you need more power then you get into the realms of new springs or added pre-load etc, then you are better off with a kit I would think.

As for the grease on the spring, Dunkman knows his stuff there but if the spring is too twangy and is already well greased you could try a bit more grease or some thicker grease but a tighter fitting spring guide or a spring sleeve may be needed. Spring sleeves are great things and easy to make.

I'm really glad you gave it a go and we have another tinkerer on the forum

I may look into something like a spring sleeve if that will remove the twang. Do you know how to fit a silencer to one? Don't know if that will do much difference to the noise at all.

Glad I belong to the tinkerer club! Don't know where to go from here though. Id like a restoration project to sink my teeth into but what guns are best to do this with? I don't know if I should go for a Weirauch or an old BSA or something. I was going to try to fit a Vmach to my Weirauch but the gun shop owner said it fired so nice, consistent and no twang as it was he would leave it a while and when next serviced get the Vmach installed.

[Ianhw77k]

I know you mentioned a BSA Meteor before but personally I wouldn't bother. I've done one and what you get for your efforts is not really worth it IMO although others will disagree.
I like underlever guns myself, the better SMK underlevers respond well to tuning (XS36 ans XS38 I think) or an old BSA Superstar. I also rate some of the Spanish springers like Cometa and Norica but not so much Gamo.

The sky is the limit really, there's so many springers out there to choose from and pretty much all of them will respond nicely to some fettling. Asking people here about which springer to choose will only get you other people's opinions (see above)

[brettguise]

Thanks for that Ian. Its nice to know though what others would recommend having a play with. Where would you go for parts for the SMK's though? Chambers don't stock SMK parts.

[Ianhw77k]

You shouldn't need any parts really but if you do then you can get them, Venoman can get a lot of things for SMK guns and most SMK guns are copies of better known guns so you can adapt parts to fit.
I recently found an Indian website where I can order a new piston seal for my SYNSG, not that I need to as Venoman can get them.

A lot of gun snobs say you can't get parts for SMK guns, its total rubbish, don't listen to 'em

[Dunkman]

Nice one!. Glad you are pleased with the results and are now a confirmed 'Fettler' .

Regarding grease, I have tweaked an SMK19 and there is one thing to bear in mind. There is hardly any spring preload on these guns and the spring is pretty wimpy compared to other guns. From the factory they lube them with some form of very light grease that is almost a thick oil. The factory lube acts as a lube and nothing else, hence being a 'twangy' gun BUT it also means the spring has an easy time as it doesn't have to overcome the friction of heavy grease (yes Grease is a frictional product- It forms a barrier to prevent metal to metal contact under pressure).

A thick grease or two much grease will drop the power a fair bit on an SMK19 as the spring is so light. If you could get a heavier duty spring you could then use more grease to act as a damper but keep the power levels up. It's a bit of a juggling act to get it right.

Really pleased you got the results you wanted with the gun