Buckley Reservoir Airgun

Buckley Reservoir Airgun The plan is to build three working rifles based on Buckley's reservoir design. The build of this airgun will be presented on this page with updates as I can make them. Changes have been made from the books design and I have incorporated some ideas of my own. Get your own copy of the book - Buckley Reservoir Airgun Book

March 9 - 2009 I added a few CAD pictures of the concept4 rifle. I tried to make the barrel a dark blue, but by the time it was converted appears medium blue. Included some pictures of the barrels and airtank. I had ordered four feet of 5/8" aluminum. A to much as I laid out how I can cut the parts and will be able to get six gun bodies from the piece if required. I have aluminum for the action blocks, just need to cut it to size. Hoping to get going one some of the parts this week and may have to wait till next week when I will have more time??.

I have changed the screws from socket head cap screws to slotted stainless machine screws.

13cu inch, 3000PSI, air tank and 1400 PSI regulator.

German made barrels. Very wide grooves and narrow lands.

The aluminum gun body material.

March 7 - 2009 After weeks of designing and reviewing Mr. Buckley's design, I took the time to create a CAD version of the rifle. I then changed the design to improve the cosmetics of the rifle. Taking design cues from other rifles and the CP Sport pistol. The airgun Schaefer built has also played a role in my design. Link below the pistol picture.

Schaefer - Modern Stock Reservoir Airgun Page I have ordered most of the materials to build this rifle. Aluminum, wood and received the air tank and regulator this past week. It allowed me to get the design more complete. Still deciding on what material to use on some parts. Thinking stainless, but it is very hard to machine. I have the barrels and enough to build one complete rifle. The two others will be completed without air tank at this time as cashflow is tight. Enjoy reading about the build! The reason I call this Concept 4 is due to this being the 4rth design I have considered. Here are a few CAD images of the proposed airgun. The butt stock will see some changes, probably look more like one Scaeffer has on his. He informed me that the stock in teh book is to high and would require adjustment for each individual to find the most comfortable spot on the shoulder. Compare the design with Buckley's orginal and you will see how much can be done with this design.

Will be posting pictures of the build as I go along. I have been corresponding with H.M. Buckley and for now will not be posting any detailed pictures, only the overall construction. Some design and performance notes on my build: * FPS = under 500 (for now) * Length = 38.06" - Pending stock and barrel length changes * Construction materials - mostly aluminum, wood - walnut grips and forend stock * Barrel Type & Caliber = .22 cal x 24 inch, made in Germany (from Mac1 Airguns) Blued and Crowned * Air Supply - 13 cubic inch, 3000 PSI tank and 1400 PSI regulator * Color = Still researching, possibly anodized or black oxide finish

Concept4, Page 2 - "Buckley" Airgun Details & Pictures Making the Airgun On this page will be showcasing the making of the airgun I designed using Buckley's reservoir design as a base. There are still a few things to be worked out in the design

as I make the airgun. I was going to build three, but decided on two. The reason being I have enough material to make an additional two rifles and can finalize the design and make the others using all the improvements from the first two airguns.

March 21 - 2009 Last night I worked till 9:30 pm. I had a chance to work on the actions for the two rifles I am making. Unfortunately I could not finish the 1.0 inch bore. We have boring bars but do not work well in the mill. I would like to do it on the lathe we have, but my dad isn't keen on switching chucks on a big lathe because of accuracy. So I may outsource the bore. I did finish the barrel bore. Got a good snug fit between bore and barrel. Will be using three set screws and possibly some lock tight when complete. Also, if I do get the aluminum parts anodized, I am sure that will add some material for a tighter fit? Action block for the airgun was placed in a vise. Proceeded to drilled through under size. I used a CNC mill so I could circle interpolate the holes. Basically make a CAM program for the CNC machine to read and move the tool in a circular path.

Here I was checking the fit of the barrel. A few more thousands of an inch and the barrel started to slide in. If I had taken one more thousands of an inch (0.001")

the barrel would have been to loose. Aluminum machines easily so really watch your increments when machining.

I need to make some changes on the grib-trigger mount. A little to wide for comfort. Will make those changes soon. I have added the copyright to all pictures. Mainly to support Mr. Buckley's design, as well as the changes I have made. I am taking more pictures then I show and may use them to create my own book in the future with complete plans. Send me an email if that would be of interest. Thanks for reading. March 14 - 2009 Got to the shop at 11:00 am. Worked on a customer job till 1:00 pm and then setup to cut and square the aluminum blocks that will will be used for the actions of the airguns. I had 1.5 X 4" alumium on hand, and only needed 1.5 X 3" so cut off an inch to save on machining and perhaps use the cutoffs for something else?

Action blocks for the air rifle squared up and milled to size.

Created a layout of the two trigger guard - grip frame. Helped in figuring out how to mill the grip bodies. Most of our clamps for work holding were used up on our big mill so I improvised using a vise.

Milling the trigger guard-grip frame profiles.

One trigger guard-grip frame profile complete. The other needs a little milling. I ran out of time. Still need to create a recess for wood grips, screw holes, mill slots etc.

Hoping I can get more done during the next week as time allows. Will try to update this page weekly to show progress on the airgun making.

Concept4, Page 3 - "Buckley" Airgun Details & Pictures Making the Airgun Continued from Page 2. Showcasing the making of the airgun I designed using Buckley's reservoir design as a base.

March 28 - 2009

This past week I outsourced the 1.0" and 5/8 bore to a local machine shop. It set me back a few dollars, but it is okay. If/when I build more airguns I will invest in my own tooling. I am only showing one rifle in the pictures, but there are duplicate parts. I didn't have the time or means to bore 6" deep. The handles have been milled to 0.625". Received the female quick coupler for the bottle, had to buy a set. Ordered 5/8 brass rod for the probes. I bought all the stainless set screws and screws for these two rifles. I have been thinking about the bottle adaptor. Think a steel part for prototyping will be the way I go. To be followed with brass or stainless once the design is sound and everything fits properly. More to come!


January 2010 During the Christmas holidays I had some parts made. The air tank thread is the same as a paintball gun and meets no commercial tap size. The company that lathed the parts for me used stainless and glad they did as I was thinking of going brass. I have to finish the parts, but will hopefully get to it before the month is over. I will add more on these pages when I am able to do more work.

July 3, 2010

I had started the action block myself but had to source out the boring as I didn't have the tooling necessary. Unfortunately the job shop messed up and I had them redo the bore for the bolt as it was 0.025" off center. It is now a perfect fit but doesn't look as good as solid block. This was last year when this was done.

I finally did a little more work to the "Concept 4" project. I milled the slot for the trigger in the trigger guard/handle. The screw holes also are now in place and need chamfering. I also machined the action block to fit the handle using a slot to keep

the assembled gun tighter together rather then relying on screws alone. Spent about 7 hours do the work and will be a few weeks before I can continue.


October 9, 2010 It is the thanksgiving long weekend in Canada and the wife is working nights. I so I spent today and hopefully Monday working on this project. Setup and drilled the remaining holes for mounting the valve, trigger and sear, and the spring retainer.

I setup the action block and used one corner as my reference as you can see in the CNC screen using an edge finder. I used the CNC mill as it is faster to move to location and have more tooling for then a manual. I used the CNC in manual mode and drilled all the holes for mounting the valve body, the spring end holder, and trigger and sear holes.

Drilling the holes for mounting the spring retainer. I drilled through to get both sides at the same time. Since the drill was sharp and using a high speed, I managed to get the hole straight and accurate. I checked with a caliper and was about 0.001" out. Can't beat that when things go well machining.

The trigger and sear holes , I used a center drill to get the holes marked and spotted. Using a caliper I scribed a line at the location for the holes. Works great for aluminum and eventually the action block will be milled to reduce the weight and scribed lines will be machined away.

On the hand grip frame all the mounting holes where chamfered.

The bolt has a slot milled into it and requires a set screw that guides it. The screw is stainless steel and harder to lathe but works. Once lathed I had to grind and retap the end so that it would thread into the hole. I still may have to lathe it down a little more when I go to finish the action block to its correct width.

I assembled the grip frame and action and made the spring retainer cap. Monday I will try to finish off a few more parts. Like to get the airguns firing soon and then finish them off.

October 11, 2010 On the Thanksgiving Monday I was able to work on the barrels and mounted the valve on the action block. Here I show the lathing of the groove of the barrel and some milled flats that the set screws will hold the barrel in place.

Here the valve is tapped. I did one hole at a time to ensure that the holes would line after. The tapped holes are shallow as I did not want to break through to the valve and have the possibility of loosing air or creating a danger.

I chamfered the holes to mount the valve and the spring holder on the front.

Here I show the air rifles as far as I with the build.

A couple of pictures the brass breech and the barrel with an O-ring seal.


October 31, 2010 Here are pictures of some of the machining I did on October. I am far behind with posting pictures as I was to busy with machining and excited about how close I was to being able to fire the rifle. First picture shows the drilling the port in both the action block and valve.

Valve body with screws in place and valve. Valve body is CNC machine and stainless. I had to polish the inside against where the valve seats. One valve sealed on first attempt, still hacing trouble with second valve. I will have to make another plastic valve and see if that was the issue.

Here the slot for the hammer/striker handle is machined.I test fitted all the parts and seemed to fit well at that time.

Here is a close up of the hammer and spring end cover in the background. Buckley uses a very simple sear and trigger, with a groove in the hammer to set the sear into.

November 3, 2010 Here is a close up of both the valves. Spring end nut in place and plastic seal. Two 1/8 holes transfer air from the bottle to the valve body. I am thinking of machining the inside of the valve to store a higher volume of air but not sure it is required. Perhaps later after I get the rifle registered I will rework the valve to push more volume to get a high FPS.

I made a very quick tool to be ablet o screw the nut into the valve body. At first I was going to drill four holes into the nut, but settled for two. If it needs more later I will add them then. That is the reason for the spot drill on the nut.

The valve body, valve, spring and spring retention nut layed out.

November 6, 2010 I began work on the trigger and sear. I used CAD/CAM software to create a program to mill the outline of each.

Here is the semi finished look at the trigger and sear. From here I cut them out on a band saw and then used bench grinder to remove excess material. I also predrilled the 1/8 holes and drilled them after.

I test fitted the sear and trigger using 1/8 drill bits. The extra trigger and sear are laying beside.

Charged the tank to 2100 PSI, thats all I have left in my scuba tank currently. I used a shoulder bolt for the handle and test fired the action with no barrel. After a successful test and ensureing the seal was working on the valve I continued.

The barrel installed and loading the first pellet.

Here is the result of the very first shot. There wasn't enough tension on spring to get any penetration. Made a small alteration and next two shots penetrated well.


November 13, 2010 Here are pictures of some of the machining I did on November. Rifles are almost complete as machining is concerned. I have to make the stock and add the wood. Then polish all the aluminum and do a final fit on all parts. First picture I am taken off extra material and milling the action closer to final size.

Milling the 45 degree angle, before and after.

Here the grip area is milled to finished dimension.

Here I am milling the action block top area and the scope mount groove. Before and after.

Test fitting a scope mount afer machining the grooves. Next picture the two actions machined.

Setting up to mill a groove that will mount the aluminum stock arm. Before and after pictures.

A final fitting with pins to guide the grip to action. You may notice an extra pin along with the brass pins for the sear and trigger. I had to add one to keep the trigger from rotating to far forward.

Machined the bolt and tapped a hole on the end. Then assembled with o-rings. I did another test fire and now waiting for time to finish the rifles.

I plan on adding one more page after this one to show the final completion of these rifles. I may add more pages to detail how I make out with registering my rifle an show the group shots I get. Thanks for viewing the pages.

Concept4, Page 8 - "Buckley" Airgun Details & Pictures Making the Airgun Continued from Page 7. Showcasing the making of the airgun I designed using Buckley's reservoir design as inspiration.

Posted July, 2012

The following pages show a little more testing. Then after almost one year, I got back into finishing these rifles. First pictures are from November 27, 2010. No pictures in 2011 as I did no work on airguns. Did some shooting in my basement to see how the gun would work.

Target wasn't for maybe 30 feet. Next series of pictures are taken this year. I finally started with the wood parts.

Starting in March 26, 2012.

A lot have hand filling the wood grips. I am not really a wood worker and own very little tooling related to woodworking. I used basic files and a copy saw to trim the wood. Spent

a lot of hours trimming filing to get the correct feel. Theast picture, had a thought about making a screw adaptor to mount a Airforce airtank inplace. But seems it might be rather long to accomidate.

Next group of pictures if from April 7, 2012 During this day I reworked my valves. They simply did not seal well so I decided to try the tapered plug style that is common. Leaks were gone and seems to fire well. PIC 126B shows the hand grib setup. I milled off about 1/4" as the hand grip was just to wide. Made for a much more comfortable feel afterwards. Since the rifles were disassembled I decided to polish the aluminum. A good polish is hard to capture with a camera but looks great! Remaining pictures are from more wood work. A neat little trick, if you want an idea what the wood will look like finished use some mineral spirits or turpentine to bring out the grain.

I did a little velocity testing on the airguns. First shot was very dissappointing as you can see from the Chronograph, 39 FPS! Turns out that when I had put the rifles together I had switched the valve bodies and a slight mismatch blocked the airway.

Pictures taken April 9, 2012.


Posted July, 2012 In May I got down to sanding the wood pieces after spending a lot of time filing the hand grips. Getting a smooth finish requires hours of sanding. I started with 150 grit, then 220, 400, and finished with 600. I know another builder who will go to 800 grit paper and will sand a few times between coats of linseed oil. I found oiled linseed oil at a local retailer and having never used it to finish wood before, I had to basically jump right into it. First coat applied looked great.

These pictures are from May 10, 2012.

I do not show every coating on the pictures. May 15 I was at the 5th or 6th coating. Having sanded the wood between each coating and rereading the instructions I found, I left more oil on the wood and wiped off the excess. Sure looks great when wet, to bad it doesn't stay that way when dry.

These pictures are from May 15, 2012.


Posted July 10, 2012 These pictures represent work I did on May 24 & 26, 2012. I modified the spring cap that holds a 1/2" diameter spring to be able to hold a 1" stiffer spring. I wanted to get the FPS (feet per second) higher with minimal effort. Turns out it actually got worse. My FPS went down to about 600 and when I put in the original spring was back up to 720. I will do a shoot string sometime to see just how consistant the rifle is.

May turned out to be really cold this year. I took the rifle to my dad's shop to do some indoor shooting. Wanted to determine the accuracy of this rifle. I set up to site in the scope in the picture below. Since I hadn't fired this gun awhile and removed the scope a few times I started at 36 feet. Not bad for a first shot! I took four more shots and moved to 72 feet.

Then moving the target out to 84 feet. I actually shot better at the further distance as I settle down some and relaxed. I am using Crosman Premiere HP 14.3, 22 Cal pellets. Accuracy is not to bad.

One thing I noticed was the skirts were dinged on a lot of pellets. I had to weed through to ones that looked usuable and shot with them. Eventually will have to try JSB or better brand of pellets in the future.


Posted July 10, 2012 Here are some pictures from the first real outdoor shooting I did with this rifle. Photo taken on June 30, 2012. Target is out about 75 feet and let my nephews have a go at it.

Here are some pictures to show off the completed rifle! Three years is a long time to build this rifle.

After nephews had paper punched a few holes I tried my gun vise, steady rest for 5 shots. Lower righthand target shows the results of 5 shots.


Posted July 10, 2012 Here are some pictures from the first real outdoor shooting I did with this rifle. Photo taken on July 9, 2012. Target is out at 100 feet.

I shot the first three lower targets and then went on to shoot both upper corners. I managed to do a lot better on them. With the first target and this one, I counted 50 shots. I started with pumping my 13CU tank to 3000 PSI. After 50 shots I was down to 2000 PSI. Will be a great gun to plink with!

I wanted to try a little further so moved the target out to 130 feet. Just over 40 yards. The center target was shot at 130 feet and the four corners back at 75 feet. As you can see by the quarter I placed by the group, not to bad for not having real steady rest. Used the yellow measuring tape to support the forend.

This concludes the pictures or this build. Feel free to comment about anything you have seen or would like to know. Email is below. Thank you for following this build. ~ Pedro

Buckley Reservoir Airgun

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