British Tempest, a proper pistol!

[tinbum]

I bought this on her this week and it arrived yesterday.
My intention was to buy it, use it for a bit and then sell it on when I got bored. I'm beginning to think that might not happen.

On opening, I found it to be as described. The original box is in very good condition with all the paperwork present and in perfect condition. Even the Allen key is still attached to the poly inner with yellowing Sellotape! There's a flyer for the 1995 shooting expo, so that dates it quite nicely. The pistol itself is in very good condition with none of the usual wear to the white lettering and only light scuff marks from normal usage. So far, so good.

Picking the pistol up reminded me why I've wanted one of these since selling my last one many years ago. I spent hours as a child drooling at pics of this pistol in my mums Gratton catalogue (£79.99 in 1985 iirc) It feels very nice in the hand, slightly larger than my Premier, but quite a bit lighter. I took it out to the garden to check it was working. Cocking felt a bit gritty, it had probably been stood for a while I suppose, the trigger is very light and predictable compared again to the premier, but.... What a hell of a boing! It shook, shimmied and wobbled the pellet out of the barrel. I took it straight back in and cleared a space on the kitchen table. Twenty minutes, a cut thumb and a little moly later it was back out for round two! I fired a few shots to bed it in, but to be honest, it was much better straight away.

I then spied a lone flower pot skulking by the fence about 6 yards away, I was directly downwind of it, and it had been so wrapped up in its flowerpot-type plans of world domination that it hadn't spotted me. I lined up on it, excitement causing a bead of sweat to run down the side of my face, squeezed the trigger, and one of the cheapest pellets our local hardware shop stocked slammed into the exact centre of it. It didn't even twitch!
I fired a few more shots and was a bit disappointed that only one of them seemed to hit, but when I went over it turns out that three shots were all through one slightly enlarged hole with the fourth a few mm high and right. Dead chuffed!

I'd been considering buying a new Turkish Tempest for a while now, but I'm very glad I didn't.

[gingernut]

You seem to have done a massive amount of posts for someone who is clearly around 14 years old.

Which is the whole point of owning and shooting classic airguns.
Long may it continue.

I am not allowed to shoot flower pots so need to come to yours to play please.

[Rickenbacker]

This Tempest - Your review incredibly doesn't state calibre - .22 I take it??

I say that because if it were .177 I'd hope it was as uncontrolable as a teenager trying to control all his wee down the toilet, and none on the bathroom carpet... at least, that's what my .177 Hurricane was like.

BTW, I've come across records stating your .22 Premier was doing a healthy 3.6 FPE with Supperdomes after it's re-spring

[tinbum]

That was a feral flowerpot. We do have tame ones, but I'm not allowed to shoot them!

The Tempest is actually in the calibre that shall not be named. I didn't make mention of it as I have a reputation to keep up. The moly has helped calm it, I'm not in a position to chrono it as I've already killed one combro trying that, but it is quite pokey but not too jumpy! (Stop me if I get too technical)

I've got a trail-cam to fetch on one of my permissions this afternoon. I'm considering leaving my rifle and just taking the pistols and a couple of tins of pellets instead.

Set phasers to Grin!

[Rickenbacker]

I'm considering leaving my rifle and just taking the pistols and a couple of tins of pellets instead.

Boring after a short time, without somebody to defeat...

[tinbum]

Boring after a short time, without somebody to defeat...

Shows what you know! I managed to hit several hedges and a pond. I even stalked a tree, I got to within about 30 yards before it saw me and ran away!

I had a pocketful of "reactive" targets and spent a happy hour or so shooting them. Just as well cos all I got on the trail cam was cows, cows and more cows!

[Rickenbacker]

Shows what you know! I managed to hit several hedges and a pond. I even stalked a tree, I got to within about 30 yards before it saw me and ran away!

I had a pocketful of "reactive" targets and spent a happy hour or so shooting them. Just as well cos all I got on the trail cam was cows, cows and more cows!

Ah, well, pond shooting is a different matter, obviously. Any shooting involving water, richochets, or both = awesome.

[Rob M]

I've got three Tempests and love them. They definitely improve when lubricated with moly, I give mine the full GN Paste rub-in and a mixture of motorcycle chain wax and moly grease on the spring. They seem to shoot well like this, smoother to cock too. Tempests, to me, are much more enjoyable and satisfying to shoot than much more powerful, accurate and supposedly better pistols like the HW45. Tempests have a 'soul' and heritage that no other pistols can match, except Webley Seniors and Premiers. Nice post Tinbum!

[magicniner]

Tempests have a 'soul' and heritage that no other pistols can match

Like many other examples of old plumbing

- Nick

[Rob M]

I and many others like the look of the Tempest and its forebears. At least they're built to last, and not just a collection of bits of cheap plastic and cheap monkey-metal pretending to be a proper pistol, like the lookey-likey Co2 rubbish gobbed off about endlessly on here.

[gingernut]

My Tempest appeared to be made of cheap plastic and monkey metal.
As do most of my old American Co2 pistols.
Plus ca change as we say in Dorset.

[harvey_s]

Set phasers to Grin!

That made me laugh...

I with you totally on this one - Tempests rock!

[Big Steve2]

I am so fed up with my boring tempest I am thinking of converting it to CO2, or maybe a spud gun.

[harvey_s]

I am so fed up with my boring tempest I am thinking of converting it to CO2, or maybe a spud gun.

Burn him....!

[Minuteman]

At 14 and armed in succession with a Gat, Scorpion, Tempest then Hurricane, garden Gnomes were a favourite quarry.

That was until it was pointed out to me, that whilst they appeared at a distance unaffected by their vanquishing, their facial characteristics become not so subtly altered with repeated pellet strikes.

I ceased their hunting and moved back to the more obligatory plant pots, lest my long suffering (and in retrospective analysis) extremely even tempered neighbour, seek recompense for future replacement - as he indicated might be the case should his pot dwarves lurking in the very bottom of his garden suffer any further leaden surgery

Those were the days.