TargetTalk

The manual for this air gun says: "The plunger head is factory lubricated and requires no oiling". But I'm skeptical about this. That oil has to wear out sooner or later. Does anybody lubricates the plunger head anyway or is it really lubricated for life?

Strange things happen when you oil the plunger, Something akin to deiseling seems to occur and accuracy dissapears until you get the cylinder dry and the plunger clean again. I am not certain about the deisel effect but I can guarentee the accuracy problem will appear. Good Shooting Bill Horton

We do lubricate the plunger head and have been doing so for 13 years. Raymond, the Daisy gunsmith for more than 30 years, uses what looks like Vasaline on the edge of the plunger head. I know it's not Vasaline but he never shared what it was. It's fun to watch him repair the guns at the IBBGCM match as he stays busy. We have been using Super Lube for the past 5 years after Scott Pilkington send me a tube to try. It does not harm plastic or 0-rings used in air guns and we have not had any problems again using a light coating. The plungers do need replacing depending on how much the gun is used. We now replace the entire assembly after seeing how much tension the spring loses over a few seasons. It also is much faster to replace the entire assembly, about $5, then taking the plunger off and installing a new one.

Daisy has had three very different plungers in my 4-H career. Some of the older guns do not working correctly with the new plungers which are slightly larger then the older white in color plungers. We have 33 of these guns some of which are now 13 years old and the amount of work necessary to keep them working correctly is staggering. I just replaced a shot tube and a rear sight yesterday but after that many years of service at least we can repair them ourselves.

I still have a few of the white plungers for our older guns and some fellow coaches told me that they lightly sanded the new plungers to fit into the older guns. I have not tried that but when I run out of the white plungers I will get it a try.

Daisy has a very good PowerPoint on CD about the repair of the 499b and another about their 853 air rifle family of guns. The model in the slideshow is Denise Johnson, their National Accounts Manager and the lady to order parts from.

Good Luck,
David Haire
Tift County 4-H, Georgia

Thanks guys. Hey David, I'm interested in getting one of those PowerPoint on CD about the repair of the 499b. How can I get one?

And you say you lubricate the plunger head. How you do it and what lubricant you use?

I can send you a copy of the CD, you can e-mail me your mailing address at: david.haire@tiftcounty.org

We apply a thin coating of Super Lube around the rim of the plunger head using a q-tip. Super Lube is a synthetic grease made by Synco Chemical Company in New York. I found a large tube at a local gun shop, they use it to oil fishing reels that they repair.

David