chinese B-3 .177

[Muddly]

Had $15 that was burning a hole so I bought the little booger to have something to play around with. Well, surprise surprise surprise! This thing SHOOTS! Even with the crappy sights( open on the rear of the receiver) 10 pellets touching at 15 ft( across the living room) is not problem. Its quiet and has a very good trigger. I'm careful to avoid the " bear trap" issue but this little booger is a nice rifle. Its pretty quiet too. From what i've been reading it ought to be cranking about 500 fps. I'm new to air guns, but i know not to use petroleum based lubes on the piston  due to dieseling. What is the proper lube for a spring piston rifle? Anyone else have one of these " flea market specials"? Mine has no markings on it whatever. Not even " Made in China"

[Victor3]

Here's a tutorial on lubrication...


http://www.pyramydair.com/blog/2005/08/lubricating-spring-piston-airgun.html

[ChungDoQuan]

Your B3 likely needs cleaning more than anything. Use a degreaser, or grease cutting cleaner on the barrel, then shoot it a couple of hundred times (at least 10 shots right after degreasing. Pellets are lubed, so just shooting it will keep the barrel lubed. After 200-500 shots, you can do this procedure to clean it and increase the power a bit:

http://air_guns.tripod.com/restoring_air_gun_power.htm

That's about all you can or need to do without getting a spring compressor and taking it apart to clean and lube it. Keep your eye on the breech seal.  (The little rubber gasket that seals around the breech end of the barrel.) The Chinese make seals out of yak butter, or something. You can replace that seal with a neoprene sink washer when it fails, or Archer Airguns has real ones for cheap. By the way, there's no "anti bear trap" on the B3's, so hold the cocking lever while you're reloading. It's never happened to me, but if the trigger gets pulled while it's open, the breech can bite off a finger. I've got two, a .177 and a .22. Both are really good guns for what you pay. Not really powerhouse guns, but hard hitting enough and accurate enough for general plinking or even close range smaller varmints.