Milbro

[harry mac]

Reading the couple of threads below about the Milbro Cougar has reminded me that Milbro introduced a small junior rifle at about the same time as the Cougar called the Bobcat. Did these rifles not sell very well or something? It's just that I've never yet seen one for sale.

[Hsing-ee]

Gareth W-B owns one, or one of his family do. It was a simple re-hash of an earlier Diana break-barrel, fitted with an exciting black stock and faux silver 'receiver', giving it the look of a small semi-auto .22 rimfire like a Browning or Remington.

They might have been smooth-bore for use with darts, and I imagine few are left as they were junior guns for kids, thus having a short life-expectancy.

Good marketing idea and a pretty little gun, although bordering on the toy-like. Not many little guns like this made today, nearest would maybe be the vastly superior HW25.

Here is the spec from Walther's book...

Mibro Diana G85/1 Bob Cat

Appeared in 1978 ... clever use of an obsolete design, the Model 15/G74, with which it shares the barrel liner and cocking lever lock-bolt. 2-piece cast alloy receiver contains the air cylinder ... simple trigger... shapely wooden butt ... too long for many juniors.. plastic ramp mounted blade and adjustable rearsight.. efficient auto-safety. Average accuracy but has advanced features making it among the best in its class (sic). Weight 3.7lbs.

[harry mac]

They might have been smooth-bore for use with darts, and I imagine few are left as they were junior guns for kids, thus having a short life-expectancy.
Good marketing idea and a pretty little gun, although bordering on the toy-like. Not many little guns like this made today, nearest would maybe be the vastly superior HW25.
[/I]

Yes, I seem to remember them being smoothbore. The fact that there aren't many junior guns on the market today is a sad indication of how "inappropriate" it's become to teach kids to shoot these days.
Thankfully, my own little lad has got a Webley Junior air rifle waiting for him to grow into up in the loft. Seeing as he's only 15 months old at the moment though I'll just have to keep making sure it's in working order for when he's big enough.

[Iain K D]

Walter also mentions, in the 3rd edition (ie, post Milbro's collapse) that it appeared to be being manufactured in the US as the Marksman 1750 - because there were some slight differences to the original UK production.

There's no relationship, is there, between this Milbro design and some other Marksman break barrels (junior sized, but in 'sporter' style) and the currently produced Biathlon rifles? Just wondering as I think they do all have a similar style of barrel catch.

Iain

[harry mac]

I've never had the chance to examine either type. But they do seem to have a similar layout.

[KurtNicoll]

I had one in the early eighties and I would agree that it was a good idea let down by very poor execution. It would fire approximately 20 pellets before the power would drop away dramatically. I suppose this was due to the piston washer over flexing. It would when left over-night revert to firing at nominal power levels then dropping back down after approx 20 pellets. Shame really as it had the makings of a really good beginners gun. I'm afraid to say that it highlighted what has been wrong with UK manufacturing for so long, good ideas let down by poor production. Would still buy a G80 if they still made them though, great gun!