Sunday, September 9, 2012

Air Rifle Maintenance - Installing a Breech Seal on a B3 Air Rifle


The maintenance of your gear should be an essential part of your daily routine. While the majority of repairs can be outside the expertise of the average person or require specialized tools, there are a few minor repairs that can be done to your equipment to keep it in the best operating condition possible. One of the simplest and easiest repairs that can be done to a B3 air rifle is installing a new breech seal. This will also help to keep it performing properly.




The first thing you will need to do is order new breech seals if you don’t have any in stock. My breech seals were ordered from Archer Air Guns and arrived in a very timely fashion. They were also decently priced and the shipping costs were reasonable. The price of an individual breech seal figured out to be only a $1.75 each. The breech seals came in a package of six for $6.99. Two packages were ordered since the breech seals in both my B3 air rifles will be replaced and only two are required (one for each rifle). The remaining breech seals will be kept for spares.




Next make sure your air rifle is unloaded. Then, use the lever located under the barrel to cock the rifle and expose the breech seal. Once the breech seal has been exposed, you will then be able to access it so that it can be replaced. The breech seal will get hard and brittle after a while and will affect the power of your B3 rifle if not replaced on a fairly regular basis. A package of six breech seals should cover your replacement needs for several years of regular use of your B3.






Once you’ve located the breech seal, use a screw driver or similar object to pry the old breech seal out. Once you have the old breech seal out, make sure to get all the old pieces of seal out and clean the chamber before replacing the seal.




The new breech seal can be easily installed by hand and then the firing chamber can be closed to set the breech seal. Total time for this simple repair is less than five minutes and will keep the power of your B3 at a respectable level.

These air rifles can often be found at a relatively low cost at yard and garage sales. Many times these air rifles are being sold simply because they have lost power. In most cases, these air rifles only need to have their breech seal replaced to restore their original power levels.

Got maintenance power?

Staying above the water line!

Riverwalker


5 comments:

Anonymous said...

I need to get a set of those seals, I think I own one of those Chinese underlever cocking action and have ZERO replacement parts for it. A few 'extrys' wouldn't hurt the budget at all - Thanks for bringing this up!

Some of those Chinese air guns are a bargain. They make (made?) the QB 57 bullpup rifles that made a great briefcase sized short range small game / vermin rifle. Heavy little guys (most springers are heavy compared to pneumatic pump powered firearms).

riverwalker said...

To: anonymous 7:35

The breech seals are cheap enough that replacing them on a fairly regular basis won't break the bank.

It doesn't hurt to keep a few extra parts on hand...just in case.

These B3 air rifles are heavier than they look. I've got two B3's for plinking, small game and varmints...my total investment in both is only $80 (one is scoped and I keep several thousand rounds of ammo for both).

Not real familiar with the QB57 and haven't seen any in my area or I probably would have picked it up.

The QB57 is basically a take-down, single-shot side lever air rifle. It’s a hit with a lot of people but does cost in the $80 to $100 range. You can still buy them “new” but the "condition" is probably going to vary a lot from one air rifle to the next from what I’ve heard.

Thanks anon.

RW

Ken said...

...GodBlessCrosman...hehehe

riverwalker said...

To: Ken

Crosman is good too...

RW

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