My grandson got a pellet rifle from his maternal great-grandfather who has since passed and asked if I would try to restore it for a keepsake even if it didn't shoot again. It was obtained in Germany when the giver was in the Air Force there. Over time the rear trigger guard screw was lost and the stock bolt had loosened allowing the stock to freely rotate and the hanging guard had rubbed it removing the finish completely around the stock at that location. It had more than a bit of surface rust and once disassembled quite a bit of internal rust as well. While cleaning up the rust I oiled the leather seals and and those seemed to expand enough to possibly develop pressure again. I then cleaned up the stock damage and stained and refinished that portion with TruOil reduced 50/50 with mineral spirits and then applied a few thin coats over the rest of the stock to get a consistent shine. There was quite a bit of bluing remaining so I just applied cold blue over all the metal to help fill in the lighter spots. Also had to replace the missing trigger return spring. Once reassembled it did shoot again although there was no way to tell how close to original power. When my grandson came over to see the finished restoration he fired it about ten times and said he would retire it at that point. Hopefully some day he will have an heir to take a few more shots with before passing it on.
The markings showed it was an ATOM "Rocket" and is .177 caliber. In all my years I had never seen anything like it and when googled only one hit came up showing a picture of an identical one with a similar looking one with another brand name someone on an air rifle forum had but no info about it's age or origin could be found. An unusual design for sure and the buttstock even has a considerable amount of "cast on" so appears to have been built for a left handed shooter, something my grandson commented on while shooting it as he tried to line up the sights.