So the " gun " here is just a vintage airgun as 90% of my " guns " are ( because they're easier to get and can be shot at home ), but the work I did does apply to firearms.
I had 2 little Slavia 618 youth air rifles, made by CZ in Czechoslovakia ( one late 50's to early 60's, the other later 70's ).
If you're an American over 40 ( I'm young) who had any exposure to spring air rifles as a kid it was probably a Slavia of some kind imported by the Precise Imports Company ( you may remember PIC Solingen & PIC Japan hunting knives ) .
Anyways back on track.
The first one I bought turned out to have a worn out mainspring and wouldn't shoot reliably ( grouped great when it did though ).
The next was an earlier example in better condition that turned out to have absolutely zero pretense of accuracy.
The obvious solution would be to just do a simple barrel swap but the good barrel had a simple screw pin front sight that I didn't like, so I knew I would have to save the dovetail front sight off the bad barrel.
This is was my first attempt at cutting a dovetail into a barrel, and I didn't have a jig or special 3 sided file so I had to just wing it.
This was attempt #2 after an initial failure, cut and re-crowned of course.
(https://i.postimg.cc/zBTXNTJD/20240807-150754.jpg) (https://postimg.cc/Q9xrk99v)
How the gun shot originality ( I typically shooting at 10yd, sitting, knee rested ) with me aiming 6" to the left.
(https://i.postimg.cc/tCBR9qH6/20240807-150836.jpg) (https://postimg.cc/mtFWwGkZ)
And how it shot after.
(https://i.postimg.cc/xTfTrkBY/20240807-150830.jpg) (https://postimg.cc/DmNKLz2Y)
I was holding low though, it shot quite high even with the rear sight all the way down but at least it wasn't a foot to the right.
I needed a taller front sight, much taller actually because I planned to use it's little dovetail at the rear to mount a William's 5D-AG peep sight.
Here is the front sight I made from scratch, yet another thing I hadn't done before.
(https://i.postimg.cc/1Xs0QswX/20240808-112345.jpg) (https://postimg.cc/ftqS74HQ)
(https://i.postimg.cc/gjHDXnm3/20240808-112321.jpg) (https://postimg.cc/9wzTsX4f)
Next was to use a damaged rear sight I saved after replacing it on the 1sr gun and make a dovetail filler.
(https://i.postimg.cc/T3pVGkLV/20240808-112245.jpg) (https://postimg.cc/DS3JPPc0)
And here are the final accuracy results with the appropriate height front sight, and aperture rear sight.
(https://i.postimg.cc/8zb5fJKP/20240808-140055.jpg) (https://postimg.cc/YvhkJ9BJ)
(https://i.postimg.cc/VL7qxy6s/20240808-112413.jpg) (https://postimg.cc/w7mRNGLn)
I definitely just an ameture who would never do such work ( sealing vintage airguns is one thing ) for somebody else, but I have proven to myself that I can actually make a good shooter out of what would otherwise be a wall hanger.
Very nice. I picked up a BSA supersport custom with out sights a while back on the cheap, and this is what i came up with:
(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/54686240800_d7e61ea79b_b.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/2rjrh9G)
It has a Williams adjustable on the rear, but I found an Anschutz rifle sight to fit on the front.
(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/54439551048_76f27390df_b.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/2qWCVT7)
It looks great, but isn't quite high enough. I am going to have to look for something else, but it seems to work, only the Monte Carlo stock puts your head too high.
Nice looking rifle, a lot of the German springers are certainly attractive.
Is that a FP-AG with the knob adjustment?
Aside from these little youth models I basically don't like springers, the little ones are great because they lack all the things I dislike about springers in general which is mostly the length weight hold sensitivity and fixed velocity that's often more than I'm after.
I've got a number of co2 pistols all the way from new stuff to vintage going bac to the 70' and a couple Crosman co2 rifles from the 60's, but otherwise my main love is American made multi stroke pneumatics.
I've pneumatic got rifles and pistols going back as far as 1935.
I bet your collection is very nice. I started getting into springers as I found a Diana at a yard sale, and just started picking them up. They were a challenge to shoot right, but once you figure it out it becomes something you really want to master.