A few years ago I acquired an old Walther LGV - a nice old rifle with a heavy barrel sleeve and for some reason it was locked up safely in a rifle safe and forgotten about - I think it was the heavy sleeve that initially put me off.

Anyway, I rediscovered it last week and gave it a quick wipe-over and unscrewed the cap at the end of the barrel so I could remove the foresight unit and then the heavy sleeve was able to slide off as well. I thought the barrel underneath would be rusted but it was nicely blued and it looked to be in good condition.

Once the foresight unit was replaced the rifle was transformed and felt much better balanced so I put the heavy sleeve and retainer cap back in the safe and put a few shots through the rifle and then used it to shoot my September cards with.

I noticed that the RWS Basic pellets were a much better fit in this rifle than they had been in my HW barrels so I used them for this series of cards but did no testing to see if they were the best grouping choice. The rifle shot very well considering it had just been woken-up and had plenty of power showing no signs of its age or the neglect it has suffered over the years.

If I had practiced a little and given the rifle more time to "settle in" after its long hibernation period I think the results could have been better, but given all the circumstances I was more than pleased with the rifle and the scores - the rifle being better than the shooter ( as is usually the case when I play with them).

The rifle shows no signs of ever being taken apart and this in turn means that at around 50 years of age ( thought to be made in 1964) it is about to get its first service since it was built. I am sure it will benefit from some cleaning and fresh modern lubrication and may shoot even better next time.

Shooting Classic airguns is good fun - and the MPL is a good excuse to take them out to play with now and again rather than just looking at them - or even worse keeping them locked away "out of sight and out of mind" (like I did with this one ).

Choosing to use a different type of Classic air rifle or pistol as often as possible is not going to do your scores any good but it is certainly a lot of good enjoyable fun.....and for me that is what the MPL is all about