And yet another FWB 300S

[chuckinohio]

  Another one of the Pilkington Competition $120 FWB 300S rifles from their big used club rifle blowout sale.

 

 

  The idea for the stripped and polished bare metal finish came from forum member 'wildman510'.
The patina on the rifle as received was not going to work for me, it just looked too low rent and dingy for my liking, so after seeing the post by Josh, I went with his idea and polished the whole thing out.
  The process was all done by hand, and I went all the way down to 1500 grit white ScotchBrite before polishing with Mothers Mag polish.
There is still some very light pitting on the top of the receiver from the surface rust that was present on the rifle as received, but it actually serves to cut down the glare from the bright polishing job, so I left it alone. It almost looks like it was done that way on purpose so I'm not going to sweat it.
  I originally received a right handed rifle, so I sent the stock back in exchange for a left handed stock as ordered, and received it late this week.
The stock wasn't in real bad shape and only had a few dents and scrapes from handling. It received a 320 grit sanding to remove the old shellac or varnish finish, and then was finished out to 1200 grit. it is currently in the process of being finished out with coats of Minwax Wipe On Poly finish and rub downs with 4/0 steel wool to keep things slick looking.

  After the final de scuzzing and clean up of the internals, it will get a Maccari Arctic spring and his seal kit before going back together for testing and tweaking.
  The rifle will, in all probability, be relegated to use solely as a Mini Sniper and close range bird feeder defender, so it will be scoped with a suitably large and ridiculously high magnification Sky Lab scope of some make yet to be determined.

  Blatant plug for Pilkington Competition to follow-

  They were over whelmed with responses and phone calls for these rifles when they posted them for sale, and yet there was no sense of frustration or 'hey!' from them. They went with the flow, and even though it took a bit longer to get them all out than they had originally thought, all is well as ends well, in my book
  Jessica at Pilkingtons was helpful and cheery, and even though they sent the wrong handed rifle originally, they wasted no time in making it right by changing the stock out for the correct one that I had asked for.
  Given the opportunity, I wouldn't have any qualms about dealing with them again.

[VillageSniper]

Looks good,

   It looks like you got a universal model!  I was going to order one from them, but thought they were surely all gone as they had been flooded by e-mails.  The stock looks like a beautiful piece of walnut.  It should turn out nice.  Waterlox and Tru-oil look great on walnut as well.  It looks like you have the metal work polished good enough for a re-blue, but it looks nice bare as well.  Do you have to coat it with a spray or anything to keep it from rusting anymore?  Like Birchwood Casey Barricade? If you are in need of any FWB mounts, Michael Tawn sells the Sportsmatch 1 and 2 piece mounts with the crossbar that locks into those receiver grooves.  I have bought several pair from him and he is a good person to deal with.  And the prices are very competitive.  Nice score.

Vs

[chuckinohio]

  After polishing the steel with the Mothers compound, I then gave it a final polishing with Wenol Ultra Soft compound, which when it dries and is buffed off, leaves a protective finish on the steel bits.
  I believe that the Mothers compound leaves a protective film also, but I have had excellent results with the Wenol on motorcycle parts in the past, so opted to use it on the rifle as well to see if it holds up suitably.
  If the polished finish proves to be problematic, off it goes to David Slade for a re blue job!!

  Thanks for the info on the mounts also, I will definitely inquire about them.

[palonej]

Thanks for the follow up Chuck!! This could have turned into a cluster &$@".....glad it worked out the way it did.

[chuckinohio]

  It didn't turn out too bad in the end after all.

  Some of the guys are still waiting for replacement stocks, either right or left handed, to replace the wrong ones that they received, and one guy even got a stripped stock in place of a complete one.
  I sent back a stripped stock, and asked for the same in return, but they sent a complete left hander instead.
  I think that they may have then sent out the stripped one that I sent them, to a member here in exchange for his left handed stock that was wrong for him............

  Despite all the rigamarole, Pilkingtons still tries to make it right though, so no reason to think that they are shucking and jiving. The case is probably just missed communications between ordering and shipping I suppose.

[chuckinohio]

Looks good,

   It looks like you got a universal model!  Vs

  Actually, the stock is from a 300S Match L model .

  The Universal has an adjustable cheek piece.

[Calmark]

That Feinwerkbau is looking pretty sharp with all of that polishing work put into it.  A maccari seal set and spring will have it back to shooting to its former glory, I'm sure.

Now I know what happened the day those bargain FWB 300s went up for sale.  I e-mailed and called a few hours after the ad was posted and never heard back.  I can imagine how they got swamped with orders!  Too bad they ran out before I could get in on the action.  I would have liked a fun restoration project like we see here.  If anybody got a LEFT-handed junior model before me, then you are a lucky dog! 

[daveh]

Chuck,

Your gun looks totally awesome!! I may have to follow in your footsteps with the polishing, we'll see, mine has that pinkish/brown patina on the receiver, but the remaining blueing is pretty good. The photo from my prior post looks much worse than in real life.... Anyways, I'm waiting on a new piston ring from a fella in Canada, 1.5-2 weeks, so will continue cleanup and wait before putting mine back together.

Very nice job with yours, it is a real beauty!!

Dave

[wildman510]

Looking good.  I still have to do my stock.  I just received my hawke 2-7x32 scope and its a nice match.  Im using the artic spring and its shooting a nice 720fps with jsb exact rs.

[VillageSniper]

If any of you guys want to share your tune-up procedures, please do.  I am considering doing my mini sniper, and would like to know which lubes go where, etc.  I have found certain things before, but would like to learn more.

Thanks,

Vs

[wildman510]

If any of you guys want to share your tune-up procedures, please do.  I am considering doing my mini sniper, and would like to know which lubes go where, etc.  I have found certain things before, but would like to learn more.

Thanks,

Vs

I just put a light coat of moly on the piston and maccaris clear tar on the spring and a little molly on the compression tube.  Also blasted out the trigger cause from what I read its suppose to be dry.  Usint the artic spring it fit better but was a few inches longer and it got rid of all spring noise.  Maybe an old timer will chime in with some better help.

[chuckinohio]

  Mine isn't all the way back together yet, I am still polishing and cleaning.
I'm using Ultimox 226 on the piston and compression tube, and SuperLube everywhere else that gets lubed.
  I polished the piston to a near mirror finish, and am contemplating jeweling the OD of the compression tube.
  I douched the trigger assembly out with RemOil, and then blew it dry with compressed air.

  It's going to be re assembled with a Maccari seal kit and Arctic spring as well.

[wildman510]

Im still trying to decide if I want to get mine reblued.  I got a crow with her yesterday.  The gun makes head shots too easy.  I really like the looks of it without the shroud and weight also.  I wonder if anyone else had luck removing theres.

[chuckinohio]

  The barrel weight and integral front sight assembly came off with some persuasion, it was a pretty tight interference fit on my rifle.
  The shroud came off with far less fuss. The epoxy or glue that they used to install it wasn't very secure, and it was already loose when I got it.

[chuckinohio]

  Got the 300S back together and shooting up to snuff, resurrected from the discard bin to a somewhat glorious new life as a backyard defense weapon................





  Yeah, the pics are pretty sketchy, I don't know what is up with the camera. It surely could not have been my fault...........

  Rifle was rebuilt with an ARH breech seal and piston bumper, and the Arctic spring that they offer for the FWB 300.
  I was able to muscle the action back together with the Arctic spring installed, but there was substantially more preload with it -VS- the old spring as removed. While I am sure that the old spring was played out, the difference between the two springs was quite noticeable to the eye, and to the old cookie grabbers when re assembling the rifle!!

  There is a noticeable difference in cocking the rifle now. It is in no way difficult, but you can tell that there is more spring loading up in there. The cocking cycle is smooooth and everything latches up snickety pop with no fuss.
  The new breech seal provides a solid squish when re latching the cocking lever. There is an effort required to go the last 1/4 inch to latch the lever, telling one that the compression tube is sealing to the barrel breech nicely with the new ARH red seal.

  Power wise, I do not have a chrony to run it across, but judging by my calibrated ears, eyeballs, and shoulder, this rifle is flat out cooking now.
  The shot cycle isn't the docile 10 meter power, it is a solid thwump and has to be shooting in the high 600's. There is no violent jarring, the recoil mechanism acts appropriately, dampening any felt recoil, the rifle only twitches slightly, but it is a noticeable increase in power level.

  I originally lubed the recoil sled pins with Moly paste, and when fired, the rifle would not return to the forward, in battery, position. I found that I had to nudge it back into battery with my thumb, much like one would do with a Diana 54 after firing it.
  I removed the Moly from the pins and re lubed them with 'Tetra' brand Fluoropolymer oil, and the rifle now returns to the forward position under the influence of the spring at the front of the recoil sled. The pins are a very precise fit in their respective bores, and I suspect that the moly was too thick, gumming things up more than it was helping. I came to this conclusion after some web research on the FWB recoil sled and its maintenance, and the info was correct, use a light lube and nothing too thick.

[mafatone]

WTG chuck! Looking good. Tell me this wasn't the best $120 you ever spent.

[chuckinohio]

  I wish that I had gotten 3 or 4 of them..... 

  It was worth the price of admission just playing around cleaning this one up!! I had fun doing it, learned a few things, and saved some substantial coin along the way. It's all win baby!!

  Forgot to add above-
  I made the black muzzle thingy from a piece of 1/2 inch schedule 40 PVC cut to length to replace the front sight and muzzle weight.
  The shroud was re epoxied to the barrel, and the PVC bit was epoxied on as well. I used a single wrap of Gorilla tape on the barrel to make up the difference from the OD of the barrel and the ID of the PVC to snug things up before gluing in place.
  Paint was Krylon Fusion in a satin black, which gives a nice semi gloss finish and is pretty darn tough for rattle can paint.

[VillageSniper]

Congratulations!  Nice work on the rifle.  It looks really good.  I believe you can order the springs preset or scragged from ARHQ for a few extra bucks.  This may help reduce some of their length as a guy goes to install the new spring.  The JSB RS pellets are always a good choice in these rifles, especially if scoped for a little sniper work.  My brother has 2 of these tuned by David Slade, one shoots about 670 with the dual FWB springs. (your rifle may shoot in the low 700s with these pellets and your single spring set up) They are both so quiet that it is hard to believe, almost totally silent.  The pests never get spooked.   I am interested in tuning my 300s mini as well and I greatly appreciate your posts.

Thanks,

Vs

[mafatone]

You got to see, as me, what a real trigger group looks like. Newer isn't always better.

[mafatone]

I have two 300s's, one with a single spring that shoots 724 FPS and the other that shoots 674 FPS with the double spring . IMO I'd rather shoot the slower double spring gun as it's smoother and more accurate opposed to the hot spring. The extra 50 FPS isn't worth the trade off IMO. The Pilkguns was a true bargain and I'm very happy.