AirGun World memorabilia

[Phil Russell]

Moving things around the other day, I noticed a 'stick on label' 10cm x 6cm on a pistol box. Basically a Union Jack with an oval inside containing a large number '20' and the words AirGun World, (20) great years 1977 - 1997. Hey ho ... memories.
Plus ... anyone remember the AirGunner Club? I still have a red baseball cap from those days ... plus a camo one with AirGunner on it. I can't remember what became of the Club. I think in those days Airgun World and Air Gunner were run by different companies with one taking over the other at sometime. I think Airgun World was the first to appear. But i have memories of another magazine : Sporting Air Rifle? from that era. One of them used to contain lists of winners of FT competitions (boring reading to me then); winners usually adding a prestigious new rifle to their collections ... (Nick Jenkinson was a name I remember winning a lot). I also remember the fledgling HFT coming into being: the format being to use 'sporting rifles' in a hunting situation ... non of your fancy FT rigs that even then people thought were very much elitist and would give HFT shooters an unfair advantage.
How times change.
Cheers, Phil

[TonyL]

Hi Phil,
Yes, Airgun World came first. I think it was quite a time until Airgunner appeared.

The best, by far, was Sporting Air Rifle, by that very same Jim Tyler. Excellent it was. The only thing is, it was probably a little too intellectual for some and was short lived......I was really happy when Jim later re-appeared as a AGW contributor, especially now that we have the Technical Airgun section.

I came across a Sporting Air Rifle awe on patch the other day....Gave me a nice, warm, rosy glow it did.

[Mattatack]

airgunner was releashed iirc 1985 and had jd on the front cover with a webley vulcan again this sounds right to me. it was aimed at naive teenagers and well judging by its content it still is! sar had the best cover photos always plenty if detail for the enthusiast. i dont want to knock what agw does now as i know the contributors and editor mean well to keep everyone content but i cant help hankering after the old 1990 editions. jim and carl hunting article phil bulmer adam smith james marchington, jon paris test reports and collectable section. im hoping that the report on the ken turner semi recoiless break barrel makes it to print, looking forward to that one. must confess i like the john miloski articles re. collectable guns is always topnotch and interesting and also i did enjoy the recent walther lgv test report a very good read.

[Terry D]

i dont want to knock what agw does now as i know the contributors and editor mean well to keep everyone content but i cant help hankering after the old 1990 editions. jim and carl hunting article phil bulmer adam smith james marchington, jon paris test reports and collectable section.

Matt, do me a favour and study those 1990 issues side-by-side with the Airgun World of today. Compare the quality of the photos, the paper, the number and size of the editorial pages, and the variety of subject matter. You say you like detail? There's no feature in any shooting mag' that does into more detail than our Technical Airgun section.

Jim Tyler told me a while ago that Airgun World is everything he wanted Sporting Air Rifle to become, and from one editor to another, that's about as good as it gets. Please do that comparison and get back to me - and that goes for anyone else - I'd be interested in your thoughts.

All the best.

[Mattatack]

yeah ok terry i'll do a short comparision when i get a min. incidently sorry i forgot to mention your old ft comment and test articles in the 90's agw which i must have read over and over and again in recent times hiding in my garage avoiding any work that needs doing. one thing for a start is that the old mags despite being well cared for have started to fall apart so hopefully the latest ones will last a fair bit longer.

[I. J.]

I remember the issue of AGW which came with a free sample of Prometheus (sp) on the front! Ooops.

ATB
Ian

[tonyn]

Matt, do me a favour and study those 1990 issues side-by-side with the Airgun World of today. Compare the quality of the photos, the paper, the number and size of the editorial pages, and the variety of subject matter. You say you like detail? There's no feature in any shooting mag' that does into more detail than our Technical Airgun section.

Jim Tyler told me a while ago that Airgun World is everything he wanted Sporting Air Rifle to become, and from one editor to another, that's about as good as it gets. Please do that comparison and get back to me - and that goes for anyone else - I'd be interested in your thoughts.

All the best.

I have just done exactly this terry,
I have a 1987 issue of airgun world (it my fav cos theres a pic of me in it with a trophy at macclesfields first open ft shoot )
anyways What you have said about the early issues is spot on .quality of paper, print, content is much much inferior compared to what we are getting today ,also much fewer pages
bang for buck theres no comparison.

I do though miss Arthur Shepard explaining how a pellet sounds whilst hitting vermin , THWACK , BLAT , SMACK , CRUNCH , POW , BIFF


http://i575.photobucket.com/albums/s...cclesfield.jpg

[Terry D]

I do though miss Arthur Shepard explaining how a pellet sounds whilst hitting vermin , THWACK , BLAT , SMACK , CRUNCH , POW , BIFF

What, no 'THOCK!'?

[where's it gone]

.. do me a favour and study those 1990 issues s Please do that comparison and get back to me - and that goes for anyone else - I'd be interested in your thoughts. .

The font was bigger and darker, making it slightly easier on the eye.

[Mole trapper]

airgunner was releashed iirc 1985 and had jd on the front cover with a webley vulcan again this sounds right to me. it was aimed at naive teenagers and well judging by its content it still is! sar had the best cover photos always plenty if detail for the enthusiast. i dont want to knock what agw does now as i know the contributors and editor mean well to keep everyone content but i cant help hankering after the old 1990 editions. jim and carl hunting article phil bulmer adam smith james marchington, jon paris test reports and collectable section. im hoping that the report on the ken turner semi recoiless break barrel makes it to print, looking forward to that one. must confess i like the john miloski articles re. collectable guns is always topnotch and interesting and also i did enjoy the recent walther lgv test report a very good read.

You did not mention Arthur Shepherd , died way before his time, got a small book written by him.
I still love going back through my eighties copies every now and again, The stories seemed so much better than today's, they weren't of coarse it is just that they were read at a time in my life when (unfortunately )everything seemed so exciting . I still really enjoy getting all the airgun mags now. Hopefully this wonderful past time will be still available to the youngsters who will look back on today's mags with the same rose tinted glasses.

[johnbaz]

I had airgunner and airgun world from issue #1, when I went through them a few years ago loads were missing, When I read through them and didn't put them away, i'm sure the missus put them in the bin


Also, I had a load duplicated so I put loads on fleabay with a 99p start, it was amazing how much some of them went for!!, upto £25 a copy!!

Someone got in touch and offered me £80 for three of my copies that weren't duplicated!!

I ended up selling them as so many were missing ending up


I still have a few bits that came free with the mags somewhere, A yellow sew on badge, a thing made of rubber to put pellets in to and hang around the neck, an oil applicator, possibly a few other things, I just don't have a clue where they actually are!!!



John

[clarky]

Mole Trapper, i agree with you. You dont have to excuse your view, im sure this forum can take it/should take it.
It may well be that we were younger and the magazine the first of its kind but it was somehow simpler and without the gloss, if lower quality pictures.
I remember the 3rd issue (the first i ever saw) looking at the cover pic at age 13. The shooter was after pigeon with an unscoped Lincoln Jeffries.
Damned if i can remember the name of the shooter now as my copy long gone. Maybe Terry can remember it.
As John above my ex threw out my old copies....its why shes my ex along with a few other things.

[Terry D]

I remember the 3rd issue (the first i ever saw) looking at the cover pic at age 13. The shooter was after pigeon with an unscoped Lincoln Jeffries.
Damned if i can remember the name of the shooter now as my copy long gone. Maybe Terry can remember it.

Was it Guy N. Smith? He used to wear a deerstalker hat and smoke a pipe - a bit 'Sherlockian' if memory serves.

David Lane used an old LJ, too, I think.

Jumpers for goalposts ... and Wagon Wheels were bigger then.