When you were young--which gun

[ggggr]

A bit of a follow up to the "guns of youth " thread this----Which gun/guns do you wish you had known about and bought when you were young. Criteria for this being what you could have afforded then. I wanted a Webley mk3 but they were selling for a lot 2nd hand as they had stopped making them a few years earlier. I think if I had known that they had existed, a Webley falcon would have been interesting and affordable to me. A diana 25 and/or a 27 would also have been on the cards (at that time they were on the 70,s series and didnt have much of a name round here). I think I could have run to an earlier mk1,mk2 airsporter but not sure if the pre war stuff would have been affordable. As there was only one proper gun shop nearby and Manchester Airguns was just opening up, there would not have been much chance of coming across anything other than the ads in AGW (this site has been great for me). Its strange that I had never heard of the falcon as it would have been an old gun by that time, going out of production some 7 or 8 years earlier. Over to you fellow old timers.

[lodmoor]

My letch was much simpler, I had a Diana Mod 2 pop-out (and a holster) but my mate had nicked his father's webley MK1 and was I green!

All things come to those who wait mind, earlier this year he came to visit and brought said pistol as a gift, over fifty years later!!!!!!

[humperdingle]

I always wanted an ASI Magnum... Dunno why, it just sounded cool

Until I got my 2nd hand HW80 when I was around 14.

[keith66]

This question didnt bother me as my first rifle was a BSA Meteor followed a couple of years later by a Feinwekbau sport

[keeko]

An Original 45, A Relum thingy , cough cough. A Webley Victor,
a BSA Mercury and a Mercury S,and a BSA .177 Airsporter (one of my favourite guns ever). There was more but those were first to mind.

[MrGreengrass]

As many BSF B55'S as possible.

[edbear2]

At my local gunshop in the 1970's ......Cole's of Cirencester....... once I got my "white paper" shottie cert. at 17, the owner, who I really got on well with (probably because it was my second home since aged 13).... would let me look through the second hand, and "old" stuff, Large walk in cupboard he had, for anything cheap .......he had boxes of schimel gas guns and the like, which at the time I believe had been banned, and had gone "on ticket".....also prewar bsa's, old webleys, and lot of old Winchester .22 pumps ......I can't remember exactly what else, as I was after a Greener GP shotgun at the time, but I do remember a minty westley richards "highest Possible" pistol in there....he wanted about £10 for it and said.."that will be collectable and worth a few bob in a few years time, if you put it away safe".....He said the same about the old air rifles, but at the time a new Mercury seemed more appealing

So my answer.......I just wish I could go back in time, armed with what I know now!........The shop is long gone, and god knows what I ignored by my lack of knowledge my not listening to wise words.


Its called being a teenager

[ggggr]

I know what you mean Ed----but this was more about what you would have got to shoot with. I saw a Webley mk2 in Agw and liked the look. I saw a Merlin and got one 30 years later (i wouldn,t have liked it if I had got it as a 14 year old). I had a ropey mk3 or 4 meteor TE which was good fun and saved and bought a mk6 Airsporter. Its just I didnt know about a lot of the affordable stuff that they had stopped making. I had never heard of a Webley Victor until a few months ago as I had not bothered with guns for nearly 30 years and that would have been a bit late for me. I think that the medium powered guns would have been most interesting and affordable to me and therefore, with a 14 year olds funds and thinking of guns that I would have used, it would be the Falcon,Diana and a Cadet Major.
I reckon my mates would have taken the P-ss out of them but all would have been usable for informal (illegal but it was different then) plinking down the river.

[leyland]

BSA Meteor .good old gun.

[The armourer]

I had bad taste, ie, worse than now, I always lusted after my next door neighbours ASI Sniper!!!!!!

[Zatnikatel]

I had bad taste, ie, worse than now, I always lusted after my next door neighbours ASI Sniper!!!!!!

My first proper (if you could call it that) rifle

The first gun I really wanted when I started shooting was a Webley Tempest, I eventually got one but it took me some years to do. I still have it although it doesn't get much use these days.

atb, Glyn

[edbear2]

I know what you mean Ed----but this was more about what you would have got to shoot with. .

O.K.......my first, new in the box, air rifle...was a daisy 1894 winchester BB gun ( Christmas present)........I tore away the wrapping as I knew it was a gun....but I really wanted a "proper" air rifle.I was mad on westerns, so my parents thought It would be perfect!

BUT......

My first, bought with my own money....paper round and "borrowed" pop bottles from building sites on evening "missions" (remember getting the money back!)......was THE gun that an older friend let me have a go on, and I wanted one as soon as I held it.......a NIB BSA mercury in .177...complete with fall off every 1/2 tin of pellets, BSA 4x20 scope........and the sad thing is......for the life of me I don't remember what happened to it

[horse62]

My first rifle was a BSA Meteor that my dad bought home from the scrap yard where he was a lorry driver. He cut the main spring down to reduce the power and it was great fun in the garden.

Then I part exchanged that with a bit of cash for a BSA Airsporter and that got me hooked and I went and bought a brand new BSA Airsporter S in 1980 and it cost me 3 weeks wages as I was just 17 then.

I kept that for 20 years and it was pristine when i sold it with a nice tasco scope for £100, oh how I wish I had kept it!!

[Prewar]

I tried Nick Jenkinson's Venom HW77 at a FT club in Devon in the mid eighties when I was about 13. That's what I always wanted, the stock was great, and it was really smooth to shoot . I got a job mowing lawns for £5 a week but never managed to save enough to get one P.S. Is Nick on the BBS?

[Oldandshaky]

When I was a young lad growing up in a Lancashire village airguns were pretty rare. In those days you could go to the post office at eleven years of age and buy a gun permit for about ten shillings, this covered you for airguns and shotguns so most of my pals had 4-10s..

My first gun was a muzzle loading 10 bore wild fowling gun bought from an antique shop for the princely sum of £4. It was as tall as me at the time and was definitely overkill on the local rabbits unless at long range with bird shot into a group when you could pick up 4 or 5 when the smoke cleared.
This of course was in the pre Myxomatosis years when there were warrens with hundreds of rabbits in them and because meat was rationed rabbit was a welcome dish to many folk and a young lad could make a few shillings selling them.
The first airgun I ever wanted was a .22 BSA standard but never got one until this year. The first airgun I ever bought was a Cadet Major brand new from the nearest town I can't remember what it cost maybe about a tenner but if I had my time over I would have stocked up on prewar BSA's and Webley's..
Dave....