As many of you here know, I recently had a bad experience with a new Theoben Fenman. Many of you Theoben users said I should not be put off and should persevere. So I did!

The reason I was after a new rifle is because it was recently my birthday so thought I would treat myself.This morning I bought a second hand Rapid 7 Mk I (originally made in July 2000 according to the serial number). It was in pretty good nick so I bought it.

Took it home and ran it over that famous chrony of mine. Was pushing out accupells at 10.53 FPE and H&N FTT's at 11.86 FPE. Not bad I thought. Had a little fiddle with the hammer screw thing at the back and had it pumping out accupells at 12 FPE. Was surprised to find that it was pushing the FTT's out at over 12 FPE now, so tuned it down a bit.

Fitted my Simmons 4-12x40 scope and went outside, with a magasine (7 shot) loaded with accupells to zero the scope. And one magasine was all it took. Shot one, down and to the left, shot two, bit more central but still slightly off to the left and low, shot 3 was straight but low, shot 4 was slightly low, shots 5, 6 and 7 were dead on target!

Shot a few more mag's of accupells which proved to be very accurate indeed. Then moved onto the H&N FTT's which I think the rifle prefers (and so do i now). 5 mags fired at the same target, all with 5 different bullseye's and the results were 1cm groups at 25 yards. Not bad for my first morning with the Rapid i thought. All these shots were fired in the prone position, hence deadly accurate. Tried a few mags from a standing and knelt positions. This rifle is so well balanced it was easy to hold very still, and accuracy was still no problem.

Thought after I had fired about 150+ shots to check it out on the chrony. Bl**dy hell this is a quality piece of kit. With the accupells it fired off a mag with a shot to shot variation of 8 FPS and an average of 11.97 FPE. The mag of FTT's had a shot to shot variation of only 3 FPS and an average of 12.04 FPE. Will test it out a lot more in the next few weeks to work out its limits and how it likes to eat other brands of pellets. A b*st*rd magpie decided to sit itself in my range as I was heading inside, but in this good mood I thought I'd give it a break and let it live!! Will save the hunting for another day. We have loads of magpies around here, they are a right pain in the a$$.

I'm really really happy with my purchase. Got it from Target Sports of Bolton, guys were really professional and helpful. Top marks to them on supplying such a great rifle. Was £495 before you ask.

cooky <img src="http://jsramsbottom.co.uk/bbs/e/icon_smile.gif" alt="Smile" width="15" height="15"><!--graemlin:--> (grinning from ear to ear)