"Nostalgia aint what it used to be."

[I. J.]

Yesterday, at the Gorby Collectors Fair () I managed to pick up an unopened box of Marksman pellets (£1.50 ). Now these pellets were the ammunition of my youth. Every Saturday I would go to the local pet shop, which just happened to sell these pellets and with my full weeks pocket money buy two boxes. We are poor 'op north'. On special occasions like birthdays I would be treat to Eley Wasps (in the blue tins).
Nattering yesterday to Gareth and a few others the subject of ' the good olde days' appeared, as usual when a group of collectors of most things get together. I think it was generally agreed that a large proportion of the Collector sales market is now catering for the 'Rose Tinted Glasses' brigade and the deprived youth punters. The people who, now older, can afford to buy the rifles they could only lust after in their youth. The apprentice wage earners after 35 Exports, BSA 'S' types, BSFs, Vixens, (+ FWB Sport) etc.
Also the people, with Rose Tinted Glasses, who remember buying a specific 'wonder gun' that could shoot out the eye of a gnat at some incredible range. Truth be known the '40 metre fly' was probably a 20 yards sterilized milk bottle (off which the pellet bounced.)
The box of Marksman pellets will take pride of place on my desk as a paper weight come talking point and reminder of my youth. I dare not open it in case I'm tempted to try the pellets and find out in truth, that they are/were actually CRAP ! and my shooting over the years has deteriorated even more. Does this realization put me off the sport of collecting? Offer me a Normay Vixen, a BSF at a reasonable price and find out !

ATB
Ian

[wild dogman]

I think your spot on IAN

[Nocity]

[QUOTE=I. J.;2976416]Yesterday, at the Gorby Collectors Fair () I managed to pick up an unopened box of Marksman pellets (£1.50 ). Now these pellets were the ammunition of my youth. Every Saturday I would go to the local pet shop,

Taylors, Pennys Street ? Ah nostalgia.

[Nocity]

Ian

You forgot to mention the FWB Sport.

ATB
John

[I. J.]

[QUOTE=Nocity;2976491]

Yesterday, at the Gorby Collectors Fair () I managed to pick up an unopened box of Marksman pellets (£1.50 ). Now these pellets were the ammunition of my youth. Every Saturday I would go to the local pet shop,

Taylors, Pennys Street ? Ah nostalgia.

Thats the one!

Ian

You forgot to mention the FWB Sport.

ATB
John

My mistake.
Theres a good article in this months AGW by BTDT about the 'Sport.

ATB
Ian

[yoshiwolves]

taylors penny st, yes i remember them,,, bought my first airgun world from them 1978 and was hooked on airguns ever since,some time later also bought some of the "new" pointed jackal pellets in the long plastic tubes, wern,t so much pointed as more like off rounded !! they sold ASI rifles, remember looking at snipers and paratroopers in the window,,
my first rifle ( mercury ) bought from shooters gunroom darwen st, they had only just opened that week, 2 min walk from taylors,,, ah the memories, lusting after the fwb sport, hw35, etc staked up on the gun racks,
i guess i fall into the nostalgic ,rose tinted glasses brigade then

[mowerman]

'the deprived youth punters. The people who, now older, can afford to buy the rifles they could only lust after in their youth. The apprentice wage earners after 35 Exports, BSA 'S' types, BSFs, Vixens, (+ FWB Sport) etc.'

Oh, I think you can put me in there!
Now I'm just a depraved collector.
Paul.

[Firestorm]

Ian,
very nice of you to remind me of my "pellet of choice" from the mid 70's - Marksman....

trouble is, it also reminded me how old I am...

Russ

[Gwylan]

In the '60s, I thought Marksmen were pretty good, though it may have been a shrewd choice of name by the marketing department.... they went from the cardboard box into my pocket, along with the toffees, fluff, bits of string, and pocket knife.... happy days..!

gus

[baldy1]

I loved that crib card you had stuck on the butt of that nineteen nought blob BSA, you had a big grin on for each shot, nice one mate.

[Lakey]

One thing you forgot to mention Ian, (and sorry I failed miserably to hunt you out at the collectors fair and introduce myself) is that if you were buying two boxes of Marksman a week, that is one hell of a lot of practice week in, week out.
As we all know practice makes perfect, so I bet you were a lot handier with the airgun in those days.....??

I am lucky now if I fire one box or tin a year

I swear I could hit empty shotgun cartridges off a fence in my mates garden at ooooooooo going on 100 yards at least. And all that with the then dreaded combination of a Webley Mk1 Pistol, and .177 Marksman pellets bought from Earleys (I think thats how it was spelt) pet shop in Blandford.Sadly the guys in Conyers gun shop know how old I was, so I couldnt get the pellets from there

After the webley I moved up to a new ASI Sniper in .22....... Happy Days!


Lakey

[I. J.]

my first rifle ( mercury ) bought from shooters gunroom darwen st, they had only just opened that week, 2 min walk from taylors,,, ah the memories,

Shooters Gunroom with the gunsmith a certain Mr Richard Spencer who went on to design and develop the Air Logic Genesis rifle and the Whisperer silencer system.

.... they went from the cardboard box into my pocket, along with the toffees, fluff, bits of string, and pocket knife.... happy days..!

gus

I used to carry them round in my mouth. Luckily it didn't cause me any of the brain damage they warned us about wibble wibble ....
Happy days indeed.

I loved that crib card you had stuck on the butt of that nineteen nought blob BSA, you had a big grin on for each shot, nice one mate.

You mean THIS crib card which I use to wind up the very small percentage of HFT shooters who take the sport ultra seriously. That and the fact Mil Dots keep falling off my peep sights - ask GLW.
That 1913 BSA produced a 5 hole group - open sights - at 20 yards yesterday! Unfortunately the group wasn't in the middle of the target.

is that if you were buying two boxes of Marksman a week, that is one hell of a lot of practice week in, week out.
As we all know practice makes perfect, so I bet you were a lot handier with the airgun in those days.....??
...... Happy Days!
Lakey

I used to buy two boxes every Saturday but by Monday I was searching for odd ones! Yes, I was 'handier with a gun' partly due to the fact I could see the targets clearer.

ATB
Ian

[baldy1]

THATS the one mate, and i think you put some good scores in mate, it would be very interesting if John put up some scores, regarding how these old air rifles and pistols did on the day.

[Phil Russell]

Oh dear ... showing age, but it is good to remember.
I started shooting with a friend's rifle in his garden. Not sure what make but it would be the late 50's / early 60's. His dad bought pellets in boxes of 500 (Marksman?) and counted them out into bags of 100. We had to buy the pellets to use at 6d a bag. Great fun shooting toy soldiers.
I remember another friend having the pop up breech BSA Merlin ... great cudos to a novel rifle. We all wanted to shoot it!
At age 16 I got a summer job with the Income Tax office in B'ham (my sister was a tax inspector there). Wage about £6 a week. On my first Friday I got my sister to take me to a gun shop in central B'Ham (somewhere behind Corporation St) and bought a new rifle for just about my week's wages ... possibly Webley Ranger. It would have been around 1960 then. I was hooked. Great fun in the garden again ... trying to shoot matchsticks or even toppling sunflowers by slowly weakening their stems. I sold the Ranger a few years later to get money ... I regret it now.
So yes, maybe we are reliving youth. But who cares?

Cheers, Phil
(father of Batfink who took out a 40 yard woodland target at the Fayre with a FWB 300 she bought that morning. Fluke I guess.)

Old enough to know better, too old to care.

[Gungeek]

You can still buy Marksmen pellets from John Knibbs International, I believe. Regards ... Geek