The greatest guns you ever regretted parting with.

[pianoman 3,587]

Gentlemen good evening.

I was just wondering, and reminiscing, as I see from some of the posts, there is an occasional mention of an air rifle that was sold, or traded, or let go of, or swapped... and usually followed by that immortal sentence "...ohh I wish I still kept it" "God why did I sell it for a...?" Weve all had them. Those brilliant once-in-a-lifetime, milestone air guns that made marksman hunters out of us, that enabled some of us to undertake military service with a skill level ahead of most of the other recruits on the training ranges and gave us some golden memories of great evenings out and alone, till the dusk turned to night and the dawn sorties that brought you a bag of rabbits no one would believe you could have made.

 

There is perhaps a generation of shooters among us here, who would never know that once, you could buy an air rifle from your mum's mail order catologue and pay for it in small weekly payments. Imagine opening a NEXT or RED catologue today, and there you would find spring and pre-charged air rifles with NO LICENCE REQUIRED! stamped on the pages and you could pay for them at a few shillings over 30 weeks!

 

Well the guns were little other than an 8-10ft/Ilb spring rifle, a garden plinker, usually a Milbro Diana, Relum, BSA and Webley models on offer... But you got one and loved it because that's all there really was.

 

Till one day in your world...a bunch of rifles from Weihrauch and Feinwerkbau appeared.

 

And a small, but capital epic arms race in air weapons began. And the power levels rose and the quality went up and and unprecedented levels of accuracy were becoming norms.

 

And you finally got your hands on one.

 

My great gun moment came when I got one of the first Weihrauch HW35E Export rifles in .22cal. the company had launched into Britain. It was an amazing gun for it's time, and it had been Weihrauch's full power hunter since the 1930s; the full 12ft/Ib monty. It was being seen in the early airgun press performing amazing hunting shots in the hands of John Darling . The Tasco 3-9x40 and 4-12X40 Moonlighter were the only scopes to have .

 

It turned me from a keen garden target plinker into a successful air rifle hunter (after a bit of adaption and a lot of practice) and gave me my first true taste of what a world class hunting air rifle could do.

 

I went from that to a Feinwerkbau 124 Sport .22 which was a stunning air rifle in 1979/80 when it was introduced in the UK. And then back to Weihrauch when the first HW80 was introduced. It symbolised everything that top German air rifle engineering and gunsmithing had been building towards and so I traded the FWB. And I've been a massive HW80 fan ever since.

 

But that HW35E and FWB 124 Sport were definately special...I'd love to have those two back as they were. Those are my great guns I wish I still had.

 

What's yours?

 

 

Simon

Edited November 17, 2010 by pianoman

[zini 1,939]

Had a couple Simon really like yourself.

 

HW97K and 95K tuned by Tony Wall, but the rifle that I really miss is my ProSport at the moment in .22.

 

Si

[pianoman 3,587]

Good morning Si.

I know, and I can honestly feel for you mate. My ex-wife tried to make me sell my guns as assets to be devided but, I (sorry about the pun) stuck to me guns! If I won the lottery I'd go buy em back for you for the simple reason I've really enjoyed the clips on YouTube of your shooting with the Prosport and the Weihrauchs. In the absence of that fateful tumble of numbers, get yourself a new PS whenever you can before it's no longer available.

 

Or can you pull rank on the guy who bought it from you and order its return?!!

 

Cheers mate

 

Simon

[rossy08 33]

hello simon pal

 

i once had the pleasure of owning a carrea 707 carbine, was quite young at the time and never really gave it a proper run for its money,

 

it spent most of its time beeing cleaned in my room. had it from brand new to.

 

off all the guns that i have had its the one that i always think off, and regreat selling, just wish that id had it when a bit older and more in to the sport like i am now days. or just bothered to take it out more, instead of chaceing girls and boose like i was at the time.

 

oh well live and learn

 

woman come and go,the pubs always open tomorrow,but the passion for guns always stayes.

 

atb

 

Andy

[benji benji 60]

ive had loads of guns the best were theoban fenham r10 rapid but now got another s410 and career 25 cal worst gun ever owned a stealth piece of shit

[SEAN3513 7]

bsa air sporter is the one i wish i still had

 

i do still have my rellum sport......i saved up my mums no6 coupons for it ( them where the days)

 

looking a bit worse for wear....but still shoots bang on........couldnt even estimate how many pellets its had through it...........must be in excess of 30,000.

 

in more recent times it would be my first logun profesional mk1........i still have one but not the first one i owned ( still one of the nicest actions you'll ever use)

 

 

cheers

 

 

sean

[BASE JUMPER 18]

mine has to be my old gunpower stealth had it from new owned it for 5 years never let me down once god i miss it and the funny part is i only sold it about 3 months ago

[pianoman 3,587]

Interesting notes on Gunpower Stealth from Basejumper who misses his and benji benji who clearly hated the one he had. I've heard this gun is one you either love or loathe and here's proof it seems.

 

Andy pal, that's so true mate. The rifles I have are all getting on now but, I'll never part with them for anything. They have survived one mad wife, three bitches and a couple of cows in the time I've had them. My partner Jo is great; she never stops me from getting off to go shooting whenever I want to, consequently I'll do anything she wants help with or needs. That career 707 was one pcp I nearly bought. It was freakin radical-lookin' like a bloody triple O/U shotgun on steroids but man, they were powerful and accurate, whether on FAC or sub12. I bought the TX200 pair that I have now instead.

 

Sean hi mate. I was wondering when a BSA airsporter would come up the list. I never had one but I knew a few who did. All of them regret letting that one go. I was at Guns International, Barnsley yesterday as Karl the owner and friend is retiring and selling-up (Got a further couple of great Hawke scope bargains) There was a chap with an absolutely mint Airsporter underlever getting a new cocking pivot fitted. He's had it from new since the mid 1970s and absolutely loves it still. Strange how plain it looks today. It seemed really sleek and purposeful when it came out.

 

Hang on to that Relum Sport. Your mum must have happily smoked a warehouseful of players No 6 cigarettes to get you that rifle with the coupons. That's a nice bit of social history!.

 

Simon

[donnyc 1,203]

Custom built AWT .22 .Better than a Ripley..

[festa 206]

hi lads

well i have 2 regrets my 1st springer and my last springer my 1st was back in 1988 when i became the proud owner of na hw80 .22 i couldnt shoot it for shit lol but that was due to lack of experience and trying to do to much to quick lol (typical 18 year old lol)and now i come to think about it i cant remember what happened to that gun ..and my last springer was my prosport .22 i loved this gun and as witnessed by si (zini) i didnt really miss much with it these are two gun i wish i still had

 

atb gary

Edited November 17, 2010 by festa

[BASE JUMPER 18]

Interesting notes on Gunpower Stealth from Basejumper who misses his and benji benji who clearly hated the one he had. I've heard this gun is one you either love or loathe and here's proof it seems.

 

Andy pal, that's so true mate. The rifles I have are all getting on now but, I'll never part with them for anything. They have survived one mad wife, three bitches and a couple of cows in the time I've had them. My partner Jo is great; she never stops me from getting off to go shooting whenever I want to, consequently I'll do anything she wants help with or needs. That career 707 was one pcp I nearly bought. It was freakin radical-lookin' like a bloody triple O/U shotgun on steroids but man, they were powerful and accurate, whether on FAC or sub12. I bought the TX200 pair that I have now instead.

 

Sean hi mate. I was wondering when a BSA airsporter would come up the list. I never had one but I knew a few who did. All of them regret letting that one go. I was at Guns International, Barnsley yesterday as Karl the owner and friend is retiring and selling-up (Got a further couple of great Hawke scope bargains) There was a chap with an absolutely mint Airsporter underlever getting a new cocking pivot fitted. He's had it from new since the mid 1970s and absolutely loves it still. Strange how plain it looks today. It seemed really sleek and purposeful when it came out.

 

Hang on to that Relum Sport. Your mum must have happily smoked a warehouseful of players No 6 cigarettes to get you that rifle with the coupons. That's a nice bit of social history!.

 

Simon

 

 

I HAVE JUST SPAT MY COFFEE ALL DOWN MY MONITOR I LOVE THE PART ABOUT THE MAD WIFE AND THE 3 BITCHES ETC

[Phantom 631]

Only rifle I miss is my Crosman PowerMaster 66! Multi-Pump!

 

Other than that, the only guns I miss are my Colt Python .357 (thanks to that tw@t in Dunblane) a Walther PPK and much more recently (well about two years back) I had to sell my Wather CP99 Umarex Co2 powered pistol.

 

Phantom

[Keano 74]

A had a 1.77 pump action rifle about 15 year ago cant mine the name .But it was a deadly thing on vermin (wish a sill had it)

[benji benji 60]

oh and another 1 i miss loads is a webly wolf cub had that a few years shot just about everything with that

[andyfr1968 772]

Hi, Simon.

 

I had a FWB 124 in the early 's and oddly enough, I chopped that in for an HW80 as well. I really liked the but I always felt the Sport just felt better somehow, nicer to shoulder and point whereas the was a bit of a lump.

 

Another gun I really miss is my old Sharp Ace. I know multi pumps are old hat now but that really was a lovely gun to shoot and very well screwed together.

 

I don't really miss the 410c that I recently sold, I was bowled over by it when I first bought it, my first and only PCP but it just left me cold somehow after a while, too clinical I think...

 

One gun I'll never miss selling is my HW90 'cos I'll never sell it...!!!

 

Cheers.

Edited November 18, 2010 by andyfr1968