Rekord/Record Jumbo .. Walther .. ?

[LeeH]

I had one of these pistols in .177 over 20 years ago, and lost it when a 'mate' stole it and I was unable to get it back. I remember I liked it a lot, but never really knew much about it, the manufacturer, the model, etc. I recall it had 'Made in West Germany' stamped on it. I'd love to get another one but wouldn't know where to start beyong posting in the Wanted section. Any info at all would be useful.

[LeeH]

just found this if anyone's interested

http://www.cinedux.com/resources/Rec...0s922x1314.jpg

[mickson]

I had one of these pistols in .177 over 20 years ago, and lost it when a 'mate' stole it and I was unable to get it back. I remember I liked it a lot, but never really knew much about it, the manufacturer, the model, etc. I recall it had 'Made in West Germany' stamped on it. I'd love to get another one but wouldn't know where to start beyong posting in the Wanted section. Any info at all would be useful.

They are indeed a great fun pistol, the article you posted is fair comment, but they also produced the "Jumbo" de-luxe which had adjustable rear sight and very nice walnut grips, they do appear from time to time in the sales section...mike...

[LeeH]

If memory serves (I was drunk a fair bit of the time in those days) mine had an adjustable rear sight. Surprising how angry I got when I remembered the pistol getting nicked. I replaced it with a G10 repeater .. not really in the same league. G10 ended up being hoiked out of a 5th storey window into a canal .. that's the most accurate I ever got with it and the best range it ever achieved. I have some nice pistols now, but might have a scratch around for another Record.

[Iain K D]

It was introduced in about 1983, initially with fixed sights and then with an adjustable rearsight, which John Walter described at the time as the 'Jumbo Target'. He also mentions that it had been uprated - fitted with a stronger spring - to boost its power for the UK market from the original 225 ft/s to nearer 260 ft/s, which he describes as (German) and (British) sub-variants, although suggesting that the stronger mainspring would simply become standard anyway.
A couple of years later he gives what I assume are actual measured velocities, 259 ft/s with Eley Wasps and - woo hoo! - breaking the 300 ft/s barrier (just) with RWS Hobby.

Some of the simpler break barrel pistols that FB Record also produced are, it would seem, still in production. Not though, the Jumbo, which is a pity (never owned one myself, but always thought it was a nice little pistol). I suppose as a plinker it wasn't really quite as competitive once Umarex started to make their good CO2 pistols?

Iain

[LeeH]

I've got an HW40 and it perfoms brilliantly for what it is, I've also got 2 BSA Scorpion pistols - one in .177 and one in .22 as well a a few other pistols including Crosman pump-ups and CO2. I've had two of the Umarex CO2 guns - a CP88 and a S&W 6" revolver but sold them both as they didn't really do it for me. I don't expect for one minute a Record would outperfom any of them, and in reality I reckon that I'd be disappointed with the reality rather than the memory of the one I had.

It's interesting, thinking about the Record pistol feels a bit like having a look back at a time in my life and attaching, insane though it sounds, the idea of sorting out another Record (like the one that got stolen) to sorting out my perspective on some of the other crap that was going on for me at the time. That's a bit deep. Thank you Dr. Freud .. there's a cheque in the post

[GRAZY]

The "FB RECORD JUMBO" was producer from 1982-1997 according to the BLUE BOOK. It is a great and unique design as it has a oval piston with rifled barrel through the middle. I think the pistol is great fun and accurate for its compact size. I don't think they go for much as there seem to be a lot about I paid £60 for mine in great nick but with no box but then seen 2 boxed versions for the same. Definitely worth a go as they will get harder to find. I was also warned that they are hard to strip and so far haven't tried.

[Bessa]

I handled one back in the day. Sort of a short snubby HW45...well maybe.....matt finish quite high in hand etc.
It was fairly accurate from what i could remember but didnt exceed 320fps in .177 cal. There was an airgun review of it around 1988 airgun world which suggested it was very well made and had a max vel of 320fps with light match pellets.

[elewis411]

Hi everyone.I have a record jumbo,it has walnut grips but non adjustable sights.I have recently chron'oed it and it's doing around the 280 fps mark with h+n hollow points which it shoots fairly accurately.A really nice fun pistol that feels really well balanced in the hand.I had the handbook with mine but no box and i paid £80 for it...

[Rob M]

These are nice little pistols, a very ingenious design and reputed to be the smallest rifled-barrel spring air pistol. The 'FB' stands for Fritz Barthelmes, who was the designer IIRC.

The rifling is very shallow on these barrels, but they can be surprisingly accurate with practice. They good fun, excellent little plinkers.

Downsides are, they're made of an alloy that can get brittle. You sometimes find them with cracks around the breech end, especially if they've been dry-fired. Also, if the pistol's not been oiled, corrosion can occur between the steel screws and the alloy body, which can get so bad that the threads in the alloy body just corrode away to powder. I use a thread-sealing compound on mine to try to prevent this. Also, spares are getting difficult to find now, it has an odd elliptical piston and piston head washer. With patience it would probably be possible to make one if necessary. The breech washer is just an o-ring.

Good fun, these little pistols!