How do I start off this post... At noon today I decided to work on tuning the .25 Marauder I just purchased. While shooting, every once in a while I would notice that the bolt would have a difficult time going in. This puzzled me since I've never had this issue with my .22 Marauder. After this reoccured around 4 times, I decided to try and figure out what the problem was. After examining many of the parts I noticed something in the breech opening. Upon closer inspection I saw the O-Ring was in the breech. I pulled it out and it was torn to ribbons!
It appears that the previous owner put way too much moly past or grease on the bolt and it had worked it's way onto the O-ring, causing some sort of friction and tearing it in the process.
Well, needless to say I decided to disassemble the Marauder which was probably a good thing. I found other adjustments that had been made that were causing other minor issues (like the clips being way to hard to insert and some screws that were either way too tight or too loose). I looked up some information and found that the breech O-ring is a 1/4" inner diameter x 3/8" outer diameter x 1/16" size, which is a #5 size O-ring. I immediately went to my local Ace Hardware and they only had two left in stock, so I purchased them both. Upon arriving back home I inserted the O-ring and cleaned the parts and only lubed the parts that were supposed to be mildly lubed and reassembled the Marauder. After that the Marauder seemed to be back to normal again.
So I pump it up and start shooting again. I shoot about (4) clips and when I go to pump the Marauder up, my Benjamin Hand Pump starts acting really weird!
I look up some additional information on the Hand Pump and find a thread with all kinds of people who have had the same problem with the Hand Pump in the past.
I found out that for some dumb reason there is one particular O-ring that always goes bad. It is a #007 O-ring. At this time it's already 5pm. Uuuggghhh!
What a crappy day!
So I rush over to my local O'Rielly's Auto Parts store and ask them if they have any O-rings. The young guy at the counter comes back with a box and BINGO! They had some #007 O-rings. Fantastic! I purchased (6) so that when this happens again (it seems it's inevitable) I'll have them on hand to fix it quickly. So I replace the O-ring and reassemble the pump. It's now working like it did before the issue.
That about sums up my afternoon. A bunch of hands on rebuilding of my .25 Marauder and my Benjiman Hand Pump. I hope they both are malfunction free for a while. I think I'm going to start saving up for a carbon fiber tank. This pump going bad thing will get old fast! One thing I can say is that I now know a whole lot more about how both operate than I did this morning. I guess that's worth something.
Now if anyone on here has a questions about either, there is a good chance I might beable to answer it.
