0 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 Gunsand 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

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

0 Shooting After Surgery - Mounting a Scope on a B3 Air Rifle

There hasn’t been an opportunity to do much shooting after my surgery. The doctor said to pretty much forget about using the twelve gauge shotgun, the M&P 15 or my Mosin-Nagant for a while. That left my choices fairly limited. It was time to drag out the springer for a little shooting practice.

I recently picked up a little 4x air rifle scope (Tasco) at the big box store and decided to mount it on one of my springers. At a cost of $5 (it was clearance priced), I figured this might make a nice addition to my springer. It might even help an old guy with bad eyesight actually hit the target. Cheap scope on a cheap gun makes a good combination for my pocketbook.

There’s not a whole lot of expertise required for mounting a small scope on an air rifle. Just line the mounts up on the grooves in the receiver and tighten them down after checking for proper eye relief. Then shoot a few rounds and make the necessary windage and elevation adjustments till you can hit center target. 

I also took the time to change out the breech seal. This one was in pretty bad shape and I wanted to get the power of this air gun back up to speed. The breech seal will go bad after a while and the power of your air rifle will be significantly diminished if not replaced. I’ll cover that aspect in another post later. Many times you can pick up these B3 springers at garage or yard sales for $40 or less. Usually the only thing wrong with them is the breech seal has gone bad.

Shooting from a kneeling position and a standing position at a fifty yard target (the distance to my trash cans), the pellets were hitting off to the left. After some adjustment, I got four pellets to pretty much hit center mass. Then to double check everything, I put up a new target and shot a few more rounds. Everything still looked good.

If I see another possum digging in my trash, he better watch out!

Got springer with a scope?

Staying above the water line!

Riverwalker

Detail: Shooting After Surgery - Mounting a Scope on a B3 Air Rifle