How do I put my spring back in?

[Tripplebeards]

I messed around with my browning 800 express 22 Cal Springer pistol today. I wanted to lighten the trigger pull. I couldn’t find any YouTube videos about it but I found one of the Hatsan 25 which isn’t similar I found out after I got it apart. I messed around and took everything apart, polished up the Sears, and checked the Trigger pull. It originally broke at almost 4 pounds. I rechecked it after I put the trigger housing together and it was breaking close to 3lbs or so. There was a spring in the trigger assembly that I pulled out and replaced with a ball point pen spring. I cut it a hair longer than the factory. I tried a couple different lengths. It breaks at 24 ounces now. It should help with my accuracy once I get this darn thing back together. I couldn’t get the trigger housing out and didn’t want to break the plastic hook holding into the action so I thought I had to pull the spring out because I figured it was caught underneath it... Which of course it was not. I have the trigger mechanism all back together and the gun ready to go a crypt for the spring. I tried to compress the spring by myself several times. The closest I got was I was out in the garage by myself. I pushed the plastic housing that holds the spring into the action up against a couple of 2 x 4 studs and then I stuck the barrel into my ribs and pushed as hard as I could. I had a compressed all the way a couple of times but I needed a third hand for someone to put the pin back in. I’m guessing I need to get up and find someone to help me to install the pin once I have it compressed. Any suggestions?

[rking22]

You need a spring compressor. I have done many of them using an appropriate barclamp. Take the barrel off and cut a hardwood block to fit in the yoke. Get the end cap, spring and action between the jaws and tighten the clamp to draw everything together. This works on R1 and R9, as well as RWS 34 that I personally have tuned.
Actually while it’s apart , look up tuning spring guns and clean and lube the mainspring correctly. With spring guns, the firing behavior is the most important thing, smooth and not twangy or rattly. I have not fooled around with any of the new high powered springers, the R1 was plenty enough. Truth is, I got rid of it and went to a nicely tuned R9 and much prefer it. Smooth discharge and lighter weight, Record triggers need no work, the standard amoung sporting springers.

[Winger Ed.]

I'd clean it all real well while its apart, then get someone to help drop in the pin for that third hand.

Be sure your area is clean and bare.
It helps when a part jumps out and you think it went into lunar orbit because the shop is so cluttered ya can't find it.

I learned this while putting a Rem 700 bolt together, and again after I found a 1911 main spring plug
a few weeks after it jumped out and headed towards Mars.

[rking22]

Be very careful about trigger adjustments on springers, especially barrel cockers. They can remove a finger when loading if the sear slips and you are not fully controlling the barrel. I know nothing about the design on your gun, just a caution. When you are shooting, be sure you are holding the barrel open when your finger is in the loading area, aka bear trap. I cock with my left hand, then stick the stock under my left arm between upper arm and chest, keep muscles tensed somewhat so if the sear slips you will not lose control of the barrel. If the sear slips and the barrel is not being held, best case is it will bend the barrel and break the stock. Worst case, your finger was in the gap between barrel and tube! There are better descriptions and probably u tubes on the subject. I had the sear slip on a Theoben Classic, even prepared for the possibility, the barrel almost got away. That is a +1000 dollar gas ram breakbarrel! Would have killed me to damage it!

[Tripplebeards]

I saw a home made compression jig made out of a car jack and a 2x4 frame. I might try and spend a few minutes trying to make a meg shift one tomorrow. If not I have a buddy conning over that can drop the pin in while I compress it again.

https://youtu.be/7ZU-_Vd-g20

https://youtu.be/CcQ_qURI_Zc

Thanks for the heads up on the slipping sears . I’ll have to watch mine when I test it out. Always wondered why spring shooters always held onto their barrels while loading it.

[rking22]

The car jack based ones are big time overkill, if you have a bar clamp out in the shop it will do fine. When I saw you had removed the first stage I thought it would be prudent to warn about the bear trap. Some trigger systems use the first stage to carry the main load of the spring with lots of engagement. If yours is designed that way, you have a much narrower engagement and more likely woopsy. Just be cautious, lots of energy stored in that spring!

[Tripplebeards]

I didnt remove the first stage in my pistol just the rifle. Ill watch out. I cocked it a good three or four times and wiggled the trigger back and forth quite a bit see if I can get it to go off accidentally and it didn't. Imo its a usable gun now vs before with a 7lb trigger. If I have issues with the pistol I'll put the factory spring back in as I can live with a 3lb trigger on that. I never adjusted anything on the pistol trigger (there are no screws for adjustment) other than polishing all three sears and putting in a lighter spring so the sear engagement has the same amount of engagement as it was before.

[Tripplebeards]

I made a wood frame this morning and used a scissor jack to finally put my spring back in . I removed the trigger housing beforehand and found that the trigger assembly needs to be installed in first. There is a metal ring that goes between the spring and end cap. It sits far enough in that it will not release the trigger housing without being removed. That ring binds when pushing it in with the jack and I had to Keep wiggling the action back and forth to unbind it after every little turn of the jack. After an hour of fingering out the technique and getting it in I had to remove the spring again to install the trigger housing first. I then reinstalled the spring. I cocked the trigger before assembling it and I believe it needs to be uncocked before assembly or it won’t hold spring tension when cocked? Anyways it would not hold when cocked so I took all part for the second time and rechecked my homework. I also put the factory spring back in. I figured it might not have held after cocking because the spring tension/pull weight was to light as well. So when I put it back together with the factory spring I made sure the trigger wasn’t cocked this time. Once back together I cocked it and it held just fine. I tested the pistol by cocking and shooting it about a dozen and a half times. At first the trigger broke at 3lbs twice then went up in pull weight to 3 1/4 lbs the next two rounds. Then it went back to 3lbs twice. After that it dropped to 36oz and stayed at that pull weight for a dozen or more shots consistently. Maybe I pulled my rcbs old school trigger pull scale at a different angle my first couple of shots or it just took a few shots for the stars to align. It pulled close to 4lbs when I started and now down to 2 1/4lbs with the same amount of long travel. Just about all my centerfire postulate triggers brake at 2 1/4lbs so I can live with the same on my springer pistol. Imo way too much work and should have left it alone but I’m glad I did it. I talked to my Smith last night and he told me he doesn’t work on air gun triggers just because most are a PITA and to put my factory spring back in before assembly(shoulda listened). Well, all is good and my pistol is back together! I was really doubting I would get it back together and function properly for a while. The last time I put the spring back in I put the barrel in my ribs and pushed it against my door frame and then tapped the pin in place. I have purple mark on my stomach from pushing but at least it’s done.


I was for sure when I bought this pistol new eight or nine years ago i swear it was advertised with a nitro piston...obviously it dose not have one. I think I bought it from a distributor off of eBay...lesson learned. The stock is set up with a spring to absorb recoil so it’s not that big of a deal. I figured since I had it apart I could’ve spent 50 or 60 bucks on a spring but I don’t shoot it that much the way it is so I figured I would just get it back together.

When I first bought it the scope base flew off after about 15 or 20 shots...twice. I switched from blue to red Loctite and it hasn’t moved since.