Popular models discontinued ?

[Joel_Barritt]

Why ? surley guns like the BSA Scorpion, FWB300 and 124 etc would still sell in good numbers if they were available today so why do they stop making them im sure theres a pretty obviouse answer to this but for the life of me i cant think of it

[Hsing-ee]

Why ? surley guns like the BSA Scorpion, FWB300 and 124 etc would still sell in good numbers if they were available today so why do they stop making them im sure theres a pretty obviouse answer to this but for the life of me i cant think of it

BSA Scorpion was a cut-down rifle, heavy, too close to the legal limit, fairly crude trigger. The BSA Magnum pistol, also discontinued, was a far better gun. HW45 fills the marketing position and has a better trigger than the Scorpion.

FWB moved into making PCP match air rifles which allowed them to refine the triggers and stocks further while keeping competitively priced. The Sport was dumped because the company wanted to concentrate on Match rifles and .22LR and kind of gave up developing it. The Sport would be a winner now with a reworked trigger but it would not be worth it for the company as quality break-barrels are not such a significant part of the market now. Closest thing to it now is probably one of the Webley offerings.

YOu are right about the 300 though, lovely gun but who would buy it? And these guns you mention would be in competition with their own products which might reduce profits.

The Chinese do make a supposedly good copy of the FWB65 pistol which is very like the original, mayhap they make a copy of the 300 too. Look at my old thread FWB Resurrection.

[Rob M]

Hsing-ee, You are being a bit over-critical of the Scorpion there, maybe the HW45 has a slightly better trigger (nothing to choose between the two IMO), but it is top heavy, way out or proportion, and looks butt-ugly compared to a Scorpion in my opinion, as for being "too close to the legal limit", I have seen a few scorpions, never seen one doing more than 4.5 foot-pounds (though there were a few in the very early days of production that were too powerful, they were recalled and detuned a bit!). The HW45 is supposed to be marginally more powerful than the Scorpion anyway. I Don't know about the BSA 240 Magnum being a 'better' gun either... The Scorpion is very well made, the action is entirely steel, whereas the 240 Magnum is mostly alloy. I have a 240 Magnum and like it a lot, but I don't know if it will last as long as my Scorpions, which are probably coming up to thirty years old soon... So what if it's a 'cut-down rifle', it's big and it's heavy, but I actually like that about it.

I own a HW45, two Scorpions and various Webley pistols, and the HW45 is one of the least-used pistols I own, I would rather shoot the Scorpion or the Webley Tempest any day.

I would definitely buy a Scorpion or BSA 240 Magnum new if they made them now... The HW45 was left to me in my uncle's will, I would never choose to buy one.

I wish that someone would make a modern version of the Abas Major, so compact, streamlined, a beautiful bit of design... I would get my name down for one of those like a shot!

[familytales]

I've always assumed that there must be good business reasons behind fine guns being dropped, such as excessive manufacturing costs or lack of consumer interest. In Beeman's Blue Book he says the FWB 124 and 127 became uneconomic in a competitive market because the engineers made them to the only spec they knew how, which was match quality. The FWB 300 was made up to 1998, I think, and this was presumably because they could charge enough to remain profitable until PCP and CO2 finally destroyed the target springer market. The Chinese certainly do make a FWB 300 copy, the TechForce BS4, along with the 65 copy. Reportedly it's pretty well made, though it's hard to believe it's even in the same ballpark as the originals.