Joe Wilkins Predator

[borg-drone1]

Hi,

I built my Predator from raw parts supplied by Joe Wilkins who has now passed away.
I re-finnished the action and made a special stock on paper which was made for me at Custom Stock at sheffield.
Steve and me fitted a regulator and we went to western park to demo it, people were blown away it was the best rapid fire gun on the scene.
I then went on to make again from parts supplied by joe the RED predator which was a slimmer version i added special bearing plastic's in the slide to make it run sweet.
Steve and me went to lots of events with the red Predator i would turn up on the speed shooting line and makes lots of rapid fire noise knocking down all the targets and people were blown away with my gun...
I showed it nick NICK JENKINSON and he fell for this Rifle big time.
Nick eventually became its owner and as far as i know still has it.

I never bothered Joe for any more parts i think he was a bit miffed that i sold the Red Predater as it was such a good example.

Joe Wilkins the master Airgun Smith went on to make several more over the years mainly in silver raw alloy finnish a few were black but not many.
They are a great gun joe's design is very unique and very ahead of its time.
Sadly he passed away but his Rifles live on through his son Steve who has his own designs.

I no longer work for Steve at Ripley Rifles but see and speak to Steve from month to month.

I did the finnishing /reg setup and light turning on the early rifles up till the end of the AR4's under Steves Watchfull eye (fantastic Boss to work for).

I still have the first Blue special edition Ar4 which i may be selling has a S/N of
001 and my name engraved as its builder under the anodise.

NICK JENKINSON IF YOUR READING THIS DROP ME A LINE AS I WOULD LIKE TO KNOW IF THE RED RIFLE IS STILL OK.

Russ.

[borg-drone1]

bump

[Sportsmatch]

Russ
Which model ar4 is it,
is it the silhouette version
what length action is it and type of stock fitted
Gary

[borg-drone1]

bump, bump

[ianpendle2]

Hello

"people were blown away it was the best rapid fire gun on the scene'

What type of action does this have which makes it rapid fire? Any pics?

This has got me interested.

Ian.

[Dave.]

Pump action, cocked and loaded using a small grip under the forend. Approx 20 shot mag I think.

[borg-drone1]

yes it was pump action, very fast i made the one i sold Nick pump by gripping the fore end off the stock and moving it forward.

It would be good if Nick Jenkinson did a write up on the red one i sold him.

There was one which was semi-auto to full auto but it was never produced as
it was very scary and other manufacturers said it could be banned even though it was street legal i watched a proto type empty its mag in seconds
but it was scrapped when it was not to be produced.

Don't bother asking Ripley as it can not be made now no designs or parts are left.

Joe Wilkins was a brill engineer like steve his son.
It was a honor to have known him.

[Paddler]

Hi,

I built my Predator from raw parts supplied by Joe Wilkins who has now passed away.
I re-finnished the action and made a special stock on paper which was made for me at Custom Stock at sheffield.
Steve and me fitted a regulator and we went to western park to demo it, people were blown away it was the best rapid fire gun on the scene.
I then went on to make again from parts supplied by joe the RED predator which was a slimmer version i added special bearing plastic's in the slide to make it run sweet.
Steve and me went to lots of events with the red Predator i would turn up on the speed shooting line and makes lots of rapid fire noise knocking down all the targets and people were blown away with my gun...
I showed it nick NICK JENKINSON and he fell for this Rifle big time.
Nick eventually became its owner and as far as i know still has it.

I never bothered Joe for any more parts i think he was a bit miffed that i sold the Red Predater as it was such a good example.

Joe Wilkins the master Airgun Smith went on to make several more over the years mainly in silver raw alloy finnish a few were black but not many.
They are a great gun joe's design is very unique and very ahead of its time.
Sadly he passed away but his Rifles live on through his son Steve who has his own designs.

I no longer work for Steve at Ripley Rifles but see and speak to Steve from month to month.

I did the finnishing /reg setup and light turning on the early rifles up till the end of the AR4's under Steves Watchfull eye (fantastic Boss to work for).

I still have the first Blue special edition Ar4 which i may be selling has a S/N of
001 and my name engraved as its builder under the anodise.

NICK JENKINSON IF YOUR READING THIS DROP ME A LINE AS I WOULD LIKE TO KNOW IF THE RED RIFLE IS STILL OK.

Russ.

Hi... this is a bump and a half...

I'm a friend of Nicks... yep he STILL has the red Predator!

I was only asking him about a possible get together between Air Arms and Ripley to produce a rifle in '92!

Looking into that lead me here. I'll get to see it soon possibly next week. Wow there's a BUMP!

Kind Regards

Ian.

[Jimsiss]

Pictures please, I've seen pictures of one in black but they didn't show very much as they were pretty poor.

I'd love to own a predator but the last one I saw for sale was way out of my budget and went before I'd even spotted the sales ad. I'd have to sell my early XL-1, stainless AR4 and aluminium AR4 just to get anywhere near owning one (not that I could ever let them go!).

[MartynB]

Pictures please

Likewise, would be interesting seeing this

[bighit]

A story about Joe here http://www.airgunbbs.com/showthread....-Ripley-rifles

[MartynB]

A story about Joe here http://www.airgunbbs.com/showthread....-Ripley-rifles

Thanks for that, interesting reading, would be interested to see pics of the rifle if anyone has any