I'm working on two air rifles that are both around 32-years-old. One's an RWS 38 that needs a new spring. I took it apart and the spring came out in 3 pieces. I checked the piston seal while I had the gun apart and I daresay it looks pristine. I just took some moly paste, lubed it up along with the piston sleeve, and I ordered a PG2 kit from Vortek. Should be here before the end of the week so I can put it back together again and hand it back to my friend.
The other rifle is a Feinwerkbau Sport124 with a piston seal that totally crumbled inside the compression chamber. I also had to remove all the old, crusty moly lube from the piston sleeve. The bits of crumbled seal was stuck up in the compression chamber, but I used some Break Free CLP to loosen it up and took a custom tool (that I made) and got up in there to scrape it out. Ran the whole thing under hot water to flush everything out, dried the receiver tube and am now just waiting for parts. I have the new piston seal, breech seal and safety spring on order from AirRifleHeadquarters, which should be here in a week.
Neither rifle had to be deburred, so that says a lot about Germany craftsmanship and quality control. Hopefully, after I get these rifles put back together, they'll last another 30 years!
It was weird how the FWB rifle is disassembled, but you live and learn.
As for my own RWS 350 Magnum, it came back from Vortek with a properly fitting PG2 kit and a new muzzle brake. I just have to go shoot it after I get a new scope for it.
