I've got it nearly to my liking now. I had to put the bbl into a padded vise to get the breech off. One twist with a drift in the rear screw hole, and it slid off easily. It was nice to be able to see the deep jet black lustre blue that "Power Without Powder" was using in those halcyon days, in the protected area behind the breech opening. The rest of it's plum brown, in comparison...

I couldn't set up in the drill press. There isn't a suitable press vise there for something as small as that 140 breech. I tried laying the breech on top of one of the vise rails for some semblance of level, but couldn't get it. A vise for round stock just got added to my list. I did it all by hand on the top of the work bench. The steel on the breech is very hard- it almost looks like case knit coloring on the bottom of the breech. The bbl steel was kind of hard to work with- porous and crumbly. It wanted to tear under the bit, rather than cut. I had to take it very slow and gentle.

Couldn't come up with a 0.20" drill. Two closest were .196" , and .205" I made do with the .196" The bottom of the breech sits almost flush with the compression tube, and there's no leaks.

I sat down with it to group:



That's 6 of the Daisy 14.3 gr h.p.'s at 12 meters, 6 X on the 4-12 Banner. 5 pumps each shot. I have no explanation for that flier at top- it was shot #4. I certainly didn't yank it.

For a 50 year old bbl, that ain't bad at all. I now have to determine which pellets this gun likes....



That's 17 of the Daisy pellets at 12 meters. I was varying the pumps, and also shooting as fast as I could from a rest under the fore-arm. Lowest number of pumps was 3, and the highest was 10. The only pellet not to make it through both sides of the tin was the 3 pump shot....



Not bad at all, considering how that "tin" metal hardens up once it's been penetrated...

That's good news on the modern bbl hole lining up- filed away for future reference, just in case...

Regards,

Doc Sharptail