John Bowkett parts company with BSA

[Gambo]

John is a true 'Airgun Genteleman'

I've had the privilege to meet John on several occasions and had numerous very interesting phone conversation with him. He's also worked on my guns and his work is first class.

I wish John all the very best wherever he goes and I look forward to seeing what he has up his sleeve.

Hear Hear!

I have a number of 'Bowketted' rifles and have spoken to John on many occasions, but sadly never had the pleasure of meeting him personally, but would love to fulfil that void in the future.

[jamie g]

only met him 3 times. once when i took a stalker rifle to him to fac. second time when i picked it up couldnt meet a nicer guy. very helpful and has some very good designs.

i also had one of his 1st over barrel carbon mods. he has made them even better now and the 3rd time i met him is when he took a 22lr semi auto in for a friend of mine to collect. he didn't charge him anything for doing it.

but my mate gave him some money for his trouble. couldnt ask for better service then that. not only that if john works on your rifle and something did go wrong. which isnt often i bet he will sort it free of charge even if its years and years later.

how many rfd's would do that for you

[secretagentmole]

only met him 3 times. once when i took a stalker rifle to him to fac. second time when i picked it up couldnt meet a nicer guy. very helpful and has some very good designs.

i also had one of his 1st over barrel carbon mods. he has made them even better now and the 3rd time i met him is when he took a 22lr semi auto in for a friend of mine to collect. he didn't charge him anything for doing it.

but my mate gave him some money for his trouble. couldnt ask for better service then that. not only that if john works on your rifle and something did go wrong. which isnt often i bet he will sort it free of charge even if its years and years later.

how many rfd's would do that for you

Only one, the Airgun Centre! But only if you buy new and keep it serviced there!

[Graham2]

John rang me an hour ago to fill me in on the latest developments and it's fair to say we'll be seeing plenty of stuff from him in the future.

[albrown]

John rang me an hour ago to fill me in on the latest developments and it's fair to say we'll be seeing plenty of stuff from him in the future.

Look forward to this...

If he is not tredding on BSA's toes then hopefully his next rifle is a multishot pump up... Like the FX Independence..I have one of his old versions where you get 6-8 shots before having to repump.


His CO2 stuff is good too... So I think we will seomthing along these lines...

Alex

[R. P. McMurphy]

A real boffin, and a gentleman. I've met John more than a few times after he has worked on verious rifles I've had and he's told me about different designs and great ideas he's got for rifles. I hope he gets to see some of these in production. Smashing fella.

[albrown]

Well, just spoke to JB and this is true... We've got lots of new developments to look forward to...

Alex

[Bulsaye]

I've corresponded and spoken with JB a few times over the years; starting when he was developing the project "Scorpion" gun.. later sold as the Techstar here in the US.. the progenetor of the Sportsman.. a few years before the Hornet was born. John wanted to call the gun (slated for export only) the Scorpion, but at the time BSA had just switched distributors in the US to Compasseco ( a distributor of the Tech-Force (TF) series of chinese springers). I guess the boffins in charge elected to let Compasseco choose the name for the gun and they picked "TechStar", which I thought was rather lame and not inducive to good sales. Plus- it connoted a rather odious chinese connection with the 'Tech" part of the name here in the US.
While not a sales leader, that gun paved the way for many now popular models.
JB always seems to have some new, wonderful "toys" in the works, so I wish him all the best with his future creations. I'm a big fan and will anxiously await his latest developments. RB

[R10_Mark]

I'm sure John will be successful in whatever venture he decides on.

My only question is; who owns the rights for the rifles John designed for BSA, would they be produced under license by John or do BSA own the rights. Would BSA still be able to produced his rifles when he leaves.