Umarex B2 (Renovation / strip / rebuild)

UMAREX CHINA 62 (B2)

We were given a B2 rifle by a Farmer who shoots at our Club, It was in a hell of a state , red with rust and wet with oil where it had been smothered to stop the rot - bit late for that!!.The stock however was in very good condition and not covered in the thick brown gunk that the Chinese call varnish. On closer examination it had the word UMAREX on the breech. Umarex is a German company, the gun looked identical to the Westlake B2 models, however on stripping it the only difference was that it had a metal screw on cap at the rear of the cylinder instead of the flimsy plastic push on ones the Westlakes have, everything else looked the same. Below are pictures of the stripped gun.

The piston was in good condition , no rust, but the leather seal had disintegrated - luckily I had a replacement.

Rust was quite bad but it had not pitted the metal

the insides were in good condition, once cleaned and de-greased they were quite serviceable.

the above shows everything cleaned up and the exterior had been wire wooled and polished to get it smooth

Gun is not worth re-bluing so we decided to prime and paint with tough satin black paint

Assembly of these is quite straight forward, the new piston seal was a tight and there was a reasonable pre-load on the spring.

Had to change the 2 side screws that hold the stock on and other than the piston seal everything else went back on with the correct lube.

Pleased with the finish and the first 20 or so pellets were of good power and the trigger is very sweet, not at all heavy.

I cannot find out much about this model other than on the clone list for B2 rifles there is a reference to the Umarex China 62, what i do not know is, is this a B2 made in china stamped Umarex for Umarex or is it made by Umarex and copied by the Chinese?

link to portal --http://chineseairgunportal.brutuz.com/clonelist.htm

B2 Rifles - where most people start

It is fair to say that one of the most common air rifles about is the Chinese B2 rifle, This is mainly due to price and the fact they have been around for years. I purchased my first one about 6 years ago for the princely sum of £20.00.
Any one who is familar with these guns will know that they are generally poor quality, particulary the stocks, usually coated in a thick brown finish that is very difficult to removed, and when removed usually reveals where the stock has been filled. the gun is an all metal break barrel with a release mechanism  for the barrel so you dont have to force it open to cock. Single stage trigger which is heavy.
These guns get critisied heavily by a lot of gun snobs but they are responsible for a lot of people getting into the sport and then buying better guns as they progress. It has been said that they could put people off because they can be inacurate but then a £600.00 gun can be inaccurate to the same degree with the wrong pellets. You have to persist with a new gun until you find the make of pellets the barrel shoots well and you have to get a few 100 pellets through it to settle it down, a B2 is no different just not as fancy or as powerfull.

The above are 2 standard B2 rifles , the top one is the classic stock seen on most models (stock extension not standard), the one below is still a standard stock but has a plastic butt and no finger grooves Current price for these is about £40.00 but you will see some retailers charging a lot more, available in .177 and .22 there are custom models available with a better quality stock £70.00 and also carbine versions £70.00.

Overall an excelent plinker, good gun to work on and improve. If you fancy having a garden plinker for some fun for not a lot of money this is the place to start.