air arms sideleavers

[FattMann]

Hi Fattman sorry for late reply ,I think the hammerli barrel was used in the early sussex armoury Parabellum ,I have one in .22 and it shoots very tight groups but then all the air air arms side levers I have shoot accurately.

yes I had a Parabelum for a few years myself. and agree they are good guns.

[scrapman]

I think this gun was designed for telescopic sights from the outset, at least in the early days when mine dates from. There is no provision on the barrel for a front sight, just the bit of plastic trim, and I've never seen one with open sights. Thr hole in front of the loading tap is for the grub screw that locks the barrel in place.

The short barrel makes it a noisy little bu**er, and mine has had a moderator on it for most of its life. Until I bought a much quieter BSA Lightning XL a few years ago the woodsman was my main rat gun, and did a sterling job. Actually, I think it is probably quite a bit more powerful than the Lightning, but as I'm shooting mainly at 20-30 feet thats not too important.

[Paddy_SP]

Further to the comments above - I have a brand new Woodsman, still in its packing in the original box; it has no open sights.

If there is interest, I will take some photos as I intend to sell it.

[Hsing-ee]

I have an Air Arms Woodsman in .22 and find it a powerfull accurate rifle in use, in the past have ownded the Jackal Parrabelum and the Hi- Power. Ok the early ones a re a bit rough here and there but a product of there time or a useable and effective rifle even today

The fact they never ever featured in the top ten of any early FT shoot ever shows how great they weren't.

An agricultural copy of the Hammerli sidelever they served the purpose of getting Sussex Armoury/NSP Engineering/Air Arms going so that Ken Turner could finesse the HW77 and give people the TX200, which is what they actually wanted.

Richard Welham has an interesting story about trying to get accuracy out of one of the older sidelevers, apparently alot of them have a gap between the front of the loading tap and the breech throat which the pellet has to jump, with a predictably catestrophic effect on accuracy. If the gap is closed up the accuracy goes from terrible to OK.

The rifles are interesting, but of historical interest only. The last Air Arms ones were OK like the SE90, but like all tap-loaders, not as good as break-barrel or direct-loading fixed barrel types.

Enjoy the history!

[douglas hatcher]

Sounds nice paddy it would be good if you could put the original open sights on it and reflect that in your price, what were you thinking on the money side, iv seen you pop up a few times in relation to the AA side levers I ask this as I was wondering if you have a S.A.L (short auto load) combat as its about the only AA side lever I don't have?
Cheers Doug

[FattMann]

The fact they never ever featured in the top ten of any early FT shoot ever shows how great they weren't.

An agricultural copy of the Hammerli sidelever they served the purpose of getting Sussex Armoury/NSP Engineering/Air Arms going so that Ken Turner could finesse the HW77 and give people the TX200, which is what they actually wanted.

Richard Welham has an interesting story about trying to get accuracy out of one of the older sidelevers, apparently alot of them have a gap between the front of the loading tap and the breech throat which the pellet has to jump, with a predictably catestrophic effect on accuracy. If the gap is closed up the accuracy goes from terrible to OK.

The rifles are interesting, but of historical interest only. The last Air Arms ones were OK like the SE90, but like all tap-loaders, not as good as break-barrel or direct-loading fixed barrel types.

Enjoy the history!

Yes the Hammerli inspired the Jackal/Air Arms and its probably more accurate( my model 2 is like a match rifle) but its fragile compareded to the Woodsman. I like the Woodsman a lot, never was in to F/T and not really in to it today to tell the trouth just like shooting my springers, odd maybe but dont really care, just love my old guns, enjoy.

[Paddy_SP]

Sounds nice paddy it would be good if you could put the original open sights on it and reflect that in your price, what were you thinking on the money side, iv seen you pop up a few times in relation to the AA side levers I ask this as I was wondering if you have a S.A.L (short auto load) combat as its about the only AA side lever I don't have?
Cheers Doug

I'll have to have a think about a price (just got in from foxing, and my brain is still on that!). As for a Combat - I'm afraid that all my military-style AA's went to Holland, so I only have some wood-stocked versions left.

[MattyBoy]

Sounds nice paddy it would be good if you could put the original open sights on it and reflect that in your price, what were you thinking on the money side, iv seen you pop up a few times in relation to the AA side levers I ask this as I was wondering if you have a S.A.L (short auto load) combat as its about the only AA side lever I don't have?
Cheers Doug

Would love to see photos of your collection Doug

I have:

Jackal Parabellum
Jackal Hi-Power
Jackal Woodsman
AA Hi-Power
AA Bora Hunter
AA Mistral
AA Khamsin

Matty

[FattMann]

Would love to see photos of your collection Doug

I have:

Jackal Parabellum
Jackal Hi-Power
Jackal Woodsman
AA Hi-Power
AA Bora Hunter
AA Mistral
AA Khamsin

Matty

quire a collection there

[douglas hatcher]

AA Combat as new
AA Rapide auto load as new (shoots like dream at full power and super accurate!)
AA Carmarge auto load as new
AA firepower x3
AA Hi power
AA Khamsin
Jackel Parrabellum
Not side levers but still rare
AA venom custom gold engraved SR 200 .177 mint in walnut
AA SR 200 beach .22 mint
AA pro elite .177
AA pro elite .22
AA pro elite again in .22 as you can never have enough pro elites
if you go on Jackals lair website you will see some of my collection under the name of Doug lee
so all I have missing is the woodsman, mistral, se 90, bora, EX 88, and the S.A.L combat
You could say I have an Air arms fetish and rightly so as these are superbly engineered guns and the pro elites are the best break barrel on the planet and unlikely to be surpassed!
Will try and do a pic upload of them all soon

[FattMann]

AA Combat as new
AA Rapide auto load as new (shoots like dream at full power and super accurate!)
AA Carmarge auto load as new
AA firepower x3
AA Hi power
AA Khamsin
Jackel Parrabellum
Not side levers but still rare
AA venom custom gold engraved SR 200 .177 mint in walnut
AA SR 200 beach .22 mint
AA pro elite .177
AA pro elite .22
AA pro elite again in .22 as you can never have enough pro elites
if you go on Jackals lair website you will see some of my collection under the name of Doug lee
so all I have missing is the woodsman, mistral, se 90, bora, EX 88, and the S.A.L combat
You could say I have an Air arms fetish and rightly so as these are superbly engineered guns and the pro elites are the best break barrel on the planet and unlikely to be surpassed!
Will try and do a pic upload of them all soon

now thats impresive

[Pad. E]

Really nice collection Matt and Doug.

I've put my collecting on hold for some years now. I did have a bit of 'spree'

Link >> HERE << is my collection.


If or when I start looking again my three main ones to track down will be:

Jackal AK
AA Hi-Power .20
LH Khamsin

Regards
Paddy

[douglas hatcher]

Really nice collection Matt and Doug.

I've put my collecting on hold for some years now. I did have a bit of 'spree'

Link >> HERE << is my collection.


If or when I start looking again my three main ones to track down will be:

Jackal AK
AA Hi-Power .20
LH Khamsin

Regards
Paddy

Thanks Paddy
It looks like you have a serious jackal fetish!

[Pad. E]

Thanks Paddy
It looks like you have a serious jackal fetish!

You're welcome.

Yeah that has been said about me for some time now, don't understand why though

[Mr. Gen]

I have an 'as new' Bora identical to Paddy's currently for sale...

interestingly mine has open sights.

Air Arms/Sussex Armoury made foresights to fit all barrel designs over the years, so I would be surprised if there are not versions of most sidelevers with open sights kicking around - a lot of dealers special ordered what they wanted and the Sussex armoury sidelevers were resurrected by others as well as air arms ......I will try and dig out some adverts I have somewhere.