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Slavia · Moderator

Here we go again. It seems like recently there has been a resurgence of interest in the SSP 853, spurred by the availability of $100 refurbished guns from CMP:
http://thecmp.org/cmp_sales/rifle_sales/air-rifles/sporter-air-rifles/

The 853 with its Lothar Walther barrel is very accurate, although not very powerful. It's designed as an entry level 10m competition gun, so it doesn't have to be. Its accuracy and durability has been proven in the hands of thousands of 4H'ers, JROTC, Sea Cadets, etc. People are discovering that it can also be a good basement or close-range plinker. Its cheaper cousin the 953 (with a Daisy barrel) isn't far behind. I have two, formerly 4H club guns. They have been languishing in the background for years, and it's time to pay them some attention. The plan is to play with one and leave the other in factory condition:

I had one of them apart, and of course over several years some of the parts went missing. The first step then is to get it up and running - here are my solutions in the hope someone else might find them useful. The parts should all be available from Daisy, but I find it simpler to make the jaunt down to Charlie's Hardware:

I was missing the small spring that latches the bolt closed. That was a simple drop-in replacement with a ball point pen spring. You can see how the rear of the bolt toggle latches against the slot in the receiver:

The front mounting screw is a Phillips head screw with a matching screw nut on the other side. I replaced it with a 6-32 screw and a nut made from a "T" nut. (The original "T" nut is on the left in the photo.) I used the screw as a mandrel and spun the "T" nut in a portable drill while cutting it down with a Dremel until it fit in the gunstock's counterbore. The screwdriver slot was cut with the Dremel and an abrasive cutoff wheel:

The middle mounting screw is identical to the front, except that there was a plastic spacer. My spacer is a roll pin cut to length, also by spinning and cutting with the Dremel:

The rear mounting screw has a coarse wood-type thread screwed into the pot metal of the receiver through a plastic washer. I used a 6-32 machine screw, which "self-tapped" its way into the pot metal. It's plenty secure, but had it not been so I was prepared to drill the hole to the outside and tap it. The washer is a fender washer shaped with the Dremel:

The gun comes with a double-loop sling that attaches with a QD swivel to an adjustable stud on the cocking arm. (bottom in the photo.) I'm sure the original will show up as soon as the project is done, but for now I have a replacement. I used a luggage strap and buckle to make a single-loop sling. It was too wide for the QD swivel, so I cut it with scissors, fused the cut (synthetic) fibers with a lighter, and stitched it together. I like slings for shooting and have other full-length slings. I thought about putting a stud in the butt, but went for the target-type (front mount only) sling instead. Two attachment points would let me use the sling for carry, but the gun is so low-powered it probably won't see much field use. The target sling will work for my purposes:

That's all I have time for right now. The gun is in shooting condition, so on to the modifications. More later.

lampy · Veteran Member

I'm following along.....

Slavia · Moderator

O.K., here come the mods.

I did the "Pilkgun" mod on the trigger:
http://www.pilkguns.com/daisy853tm.shtml

This mod works by moving the trigger back, thus pre-staging the sear. Button head and flat head screws have smaller sockets, so the heads can be made smaller than cap head screws. I had a 8-32 button head on hand - resulting in a smaller head after grinding, and less material removal from the back of the trigger guard. I followed the instructions exactly, with no other mods. No shims, no polishing, no nothing.

The factory 853 trigger is a rough single stage trigger with tons of creep. After the mod it becomes a single stage trigger with little or no creep, depending on how the screw is adjusted. Pull weight is the same as before, and over travel is slight - small enough that I gave up thoughts of rigging an over travel limiter. The instructions say to move the screw in until it breaks, and then back out 1/8 turn. I was out 1/2 turn before I perceived creep from the extra sear engagement, so I left it there. A little extra pressure and it goes off. The safety works as before. This is a mod worth doing.

The fore end of the stock is pretty blocky, so I tapered in the top a bit with a belt sander and rounded off the sharp edges:

I like heel rests on my guns, both pistols and rifles. I believe they promote more consistent hand position and trigger address. This one was carved from a scrap of wood with the Dremel and a 1/2" drum sander. The spacers are from a .177 pistol barrel belonging to a gun that has since become a carbine:

I fluted the comb a bit (again, with the 1/2" drum). This was both for looks and for a more comfortable grip:

The position and shape of the flute was determined by the shape of my hand, and the opposite side was made to be the same:

It feels great, like it was a part of my hand.

More later.

Slavia · Moderator

I'm going to use a scope on this gun, with low mounts (what I had on hand). Even with the low mounts I needed a little higher comb so my eye would line up naturally with the scope. Also, the the top of the comb slopes downward towards the butt, so positioning your head for proper eye relief also moves it vertically. This adjustable comb extension solves both problems.

I made it out of a piece of 3" PVC pipe. I didn't have any laying around, so for this one part I had to go down to the hardware store and pay full retail. That amounted to about 80 cents. I bent the PVC by softening it in a pan of boiling water. I formed the curve around the stock itself, and "ironed" the flat parts with a couple pieces of wood. The PVC gets pliable like taffy when heated, but it only lasts a few seconds until it cools. This was a process of heat, bend, heat, bend, etc. until i got the shape I wanted. Trimming was done with the Dremel and a belt sander:

The extension is attached to the stock with machine screws over fender washers, and the slots will allow it to be adjusted upwards should I go to higher mounts in the future. The screws terminate in hidden "T" nuts on the opposite side. Using "T" nuts for their intended purpose is a bit of a stretch for me - usually I morph them into something else with a Dremel:

The original muzzle brake has a permanently attached (and high) front sight that causes an annoying blurry image in the scope. I replaced it with a brake that I made once for another project. The brake is a plastic roller of some sort, shaped with the belt sander and shimmed to the barrel diameter with heat shrink tubing. It's held in place with a single set screw, threaded into a brass anchor super-glued to the plastic:

Lastly, I put a small piece of vinyl tubing on the barrel just ahead of the stock. It's to increase the barrel diameter enough so I can use my plastic bipod:

More later.

Slavia · Moderator

The scope has been around in the family since the 1970's. It is a 2.5X32
Tasco. It has the advantage of being a single-plane sighting system (your eyes only have to focus on one thing). It is in good shape and has a bright clear image. 2.5X is probably plenty for the operating ranges of this gun, and recoil shouldn't be a problem with the pneumatic design.

I started working on it a couple of years ago. It was not A.O., but is now. I played with the mounting rings for the objective lens until it was parallax corrected for 50 yards with the objective bell screwed on tight. Unscrewing the bell brings it down to 10 yards in about 2.5 turns. Thick silicone grease adds some drag to the threads. The glare shield (with my calibration tape) is PVC pipe glued on to the objective bell.

The guns I use most have replacement flip-up caps, so I was lucky enough to have caps that fit both the PVC pipe and the ocular bell. The elastic bands were shot, so I joined the caps with rubber strips from a bicycle inner tube.

They say it's better to shoot with both eyes open (something about tensed facial muscles). I have trouble doing that, but when shooting from a bench a blinder on my non-dominant side helps. This same blinder fits all my scoped rifles. Adapting this rifle was simple - it's just a 5/8" (Weaver) dovetail ring turned sideways.

Just in case you're wondering, I don't have a fetish for scope rings. When I got my HW97 last spring I ran into a bonanza of sorts. The rings that came with the gun weren't tall enough, and the rings that came with the scope were for 5/8" Weaver-type dovetails.

I also use bubble levels on most of my guns. The vial for this one came from a cheap Walmart torpedo level. It's super glued into a piece of brass tubing, and the mounting tab is a piece of the same tubing soldered on. The scope ring has the dovetail portion cut off, and the vial assembly screws into the hole that formerly had the stop pin.

As I have done on other scopes, I soldered a 1/4" shaft to the elevation turret screw for a Radio Shack knob. This time around I only did the elevation turret because I only had one tall dust cap in the junkbox.

More later.

Slavia · Moderator

With the low scope rings, loading is a little awkward. That situation is not unique to this gun - my Sheridan is the same. I had this tool on hand that works pretty well. It's a retractable ball point pen. The "nose" has been modified to form tweezers of a sort. The ink tube was emptied and shortened to push the pellet out (a soak overnight in rubbing alcohol gets rid of the ink). You pick up the pellet, lay it in the loading tray, and push the button. I use the same tool on my B3's and HW97, only there I push the pellet out of the tool and into the breech with my thumb.

So that's the end of the mods. It feels better in my hands, and the trigger is much improved. The next step is the (tedious) surface preparation, and then final finish.

Exposed metal will either be blued or painted black. The PVC will probably be bed liner. I'm not sure about the wood. Camouflage was a thought, because I have never done it - but it doesn't fit the purpose of the gun.
Bed liner is a possibility, because I like looks of the black 953. The stock has some interesting grain patterns, and a "natural" wood stain would tie together the stock and heel rest. Another thought would be a more modern look with a blue stain (green as a second choice). That one was vetoed by the aesthetic counselor daughter. What do you think?

rws48 · Member

You are a very handy, handyman.
I'll be following this as I'm fascinated by your work, great pictures and details.
Thank you.

Slavia · Moderator

Finished! The very first blotchy swipe of stain told me bedliner was the way to go. So...

Sealed with shellac. Gray primer so I could see the coverage of the black bedliner. Black semi-gloss paint into the screw holes because the bedliner goo would just fill them in. Then bedliner, and finally clear satin acrylic to kill some of the bedliner's grit.

The cheek piece was from a piece of 3" PVC pipe, which was a dense foam sandwiched between solid PVC walls. It bent just fine with boiling water, but for painting I sealed and sanded it with shellac. (The alcohol in the shellac didn't soften the PVC.)

Scratches in the scope tube and plastic brake cleaned up with black shoe polish. Haze in the clear scope caps came out with Flitz. I repainted the blinder holder, bubble level, and scope caps by scuffing with 0000 steel wool, priming, painting, and clear-coating like the stock.

Rust stains in the nylon sling came out with lemon juice and cotton swabs.

I used cold blue on the screws and washers that hold the cheek piece because they are big and obvious. I left the other screws galvanized for some visual detail.

Everything got a touch of Armor All, buffed out with a soft paint brush until it dried.

lampy · Veteran Member

Slavia · Moderator

It is lighter for sure, but accuracy is about the same. I think it's not only the weight, but also the position of the brake that influences accuracy. Maybe I got it on the sweet spot by dumb luck, who knows.

Once I removed the front sight from my Slavia, and when I put it back accuracy went to heck. The Slavia has a long, narrow dovetail for the front sight, so I experimented with different positions (0.050" increments) and the accuracy came back. Browning and Ruger both sell adjustable barrel weights that do the same thing. Maybe I need to do some experimenting with this one, also.

http://www.browning.com/customerservice/qna/detail.asp?id=107
http://www.ruger.com/products/mini14TargetRifle/features.html

lampy · Veteran Member

AirGunEric · Site Admin

Good job on the rifle!

One thing to mention, however;

shawn706 · Member

They reason why is simple. The Daisy sporters, and the 499 are a zero profit commodity for Daisy. They actually lose money on them. There whole purpose is for promoting youth shooting, and shooting programs.

Daisy makes all their money on the Red Ryders, and cheepo air rifles you give the little kids. And most of those sales come from places like Walmart who don't sell the competition guns on their shelves anyway.

Daisy is the zebco of airguns. If you were to look at most of the precision teams in the country, it is likely most started from sporter teams shoot Daisy sporters.

CMP, 4H, and the Scouts get these discounts because of the volume. Georgia 4H alone probably buys 10K 499s a year.

AirGunEric · Site Admin

It's not 499's I'm talking about ($100.00 rifles)- it's the Avanti 800-series guns ($300.00 rifles)- which are their top-of-the-line product.

lampy · Veteran Member