Old Haenel 303 Super

[AmBraCol]

We were given an old Haenel 303 Super that a friend had cut down for his grandkids.  My boys learned to shoot a scoped rifle with it.  It's far from stock, the original sights are long gone and the stock is too short - but it works.  Or kind of did sort of...  But it was giving me fits to catch the sear when cocking and it hadn't been torn down since it was in my possession (almost two decades) so after searching for info on the 'net (there isn't much) I finally screwed up the courage and took it to pieces.  See the first attachment below.

As I was taking it apart a weird "washer" was removed from where the spring contacts the spring guide.  Hmmm... upon closer examination it was shown to be the last coil of the spring which had fractured somehow.    See the second attachment.

After cleaning up the grease and washing everything out and disassembling the piston, the piston seal seemed to be in good shape, but with flecks of broken steel embedded in it!  After some brushing with a wire brush the leather fluffed up nice again and the metal flakes were removed.  It uses a curious "nested" piston seal.  The outside seal that contacts the cylinder walls has a smaller seal inside it and inside of that is a metal cup washer that the seal screw passes through to hold it all together on the end of the piston.  See third attachment.

I currently don't have any of the greases folks talk about using for tuning here, so did what I could with what is at hand.  Such is life in a third world country sometimes. It all went back together again, the seal was put together with a healthy dose of silicone divers' grease.  The spring was slathered with a copious quantity of bearing grease.  The broken coil was left out, but a washer was sanded down on the drill press on a mandrel and then the hole was opened up to fit over the spring guide.  This was then placed over a rubber hose washer with a good dose of grease between them and around them and all over them.  Assembly was in reverse order from the disassembly.  Things usually seem to work best that way. I couldn't find my cleaning rod so the bore was not given the much needed attention it should have.  A couple of shots were taken by "guesstimation" since the scope was cannibalized a while back for another project.  Note to self: "When guesstimating for a shot indoors at the pellet trap, it is better to stand closer than one might think at first."  Yep, missed the pellet trap entirely, put a neat hole through the door that holds the trap and a ding in the metal louver of the bathroom window.  WOW!  Wish I had a chronograph so I'd have an idea what velocity I got!  My guess is the dieseling of the inappropriate grease gave this lil' rifle a bit more OOMPH than it usually has.