My First Vintage springer. Slavia 619

[Petey]

We all know it's bound to happen.I had to have a vintage springer.
It all started when I saw Jimdaero's Slavia 620 and started poking around the web.
Until his post I had never known of the Slavia.
The thing that got me most interested ,apart from being an AG,is the Slavia (now CZ)was made in Czech.

So I poked around some more. For me this was a really cool discovery .
1) It's an airgun and it's old. 619 was made in the early fifties I believe.
2) Slavia was acquired by CZ some time in the fifties...the same CZ that Made those beautiful motorcycles I used to dream of as a kid.
3)  My grandmother who is now 91 ,and a very youthful at that.
Descendent of the Family Lazansky(Lazansky Palace) in Prague.
lived in Prague and attended school there as a little girl.

So I was making all types of connections here and the thought of owning one of these was Really ringing some bells for me.

Long story short I found one!  Poor little thing was so neglected.  It had the wrong screws in it . the Piston seal was a blob of goo. It's tiny stock in need of repair.   
Ya I like the imperfect ones....they need a home too.
Bummer is I dove into this one so fast when it arrived I didn't take any before pics.

So I cleaned her up and shined up the furniture. Got the proper size screws . Made a new leather piston seal....My first. Cleaned out the insides. Gave it what I call a "Tiny Tune".
And Viola!  My little 619 Lives again.  Now I say Little because if you have never seen one of these...well they are Tiny. Just 36 1/4" long and a little Pencil for a barrel.
She works so nicely. Quiet like a mouse passing wind.  You could shoot this from the bed and never wake anyone!

Enough of my gabbing ....Here she is . My Slavia 619.









She has a little surface rust in spots. Any tips on cleaning that up?




Made my first leather piston seal...that was fun.

[Tom @ Buzzard Bluff]

 Nice little Slavia! The metal is remarkable for its age.

 For light rust such as I see in the pics I start with a simple buffing with Ballistol on a bit of rough cloth. You'll be surprised how much that will remove.

 If that treatment is insufficient I move to 4/0 steel wool well wetted with Ballistol. That will usually get rid of most light surface rust and minor pitting.

 For preservation I prefer RIG.   Tom

[robert w]

nice petey kinda looks like my romainian training rifle . its small and not as nice as your rifle but that 1 looks good for its age . as for rust i use some eds red on a piece of very fine steel wool and rub very lightly so as to not thin the blueing . sometimes i wet the rust area and let it sit for a day before doing the rubbing

[jimdaero]

here is that link for the mainspring for cz guns. I ordered one for my 620. i will let you know how it goes.
http://target-tune.in/international/categories/Spare-Parts/SPRINGS/CZ/

[airnutz]

Congrats Petey!  I am happy for you to have found interest in the Vintage Gems.  The Slavia guns are well respected here and still have an avid follower group.  Good find for sure, it looks very nice!

[northern lights]

Nice gun I have a 618 I picked up a couple of years ago. I enjoy shooting mine it,s like a super accurate bb-gun. Mine likes dasiy wadcutter an shoots those 370Fps . super easy to break the barrel an very quite. When you are 80 yr,s old you will still be able  to handle it.

[Petey]

Ed,
You are an inspiration.
 80yrs Young and still plinking away. I love to hear this kind of things.
Happy Shootin To Ya!
Petey.