BSA Mercury S

[Muskett]

They have tried with FT and HFT, but as you say the sport has gone far beyond walk and shoot. In truth so has hunting small game. PCP precision gives brain shots, and FAC rifles do this at range. Gone are the days of a solid hit with a .22 pellet that grounded the animal for the farm dog to pick. Its humane clean kill with perfect shot placement today. 8/10 on a dime isn't good enough. Suppose its for the better. I've always been a .177 shot placement perfect fan and shoot that calibre almost exclusively... before John Darling thought it was good! (He actually ended up shooting .22 with equal precision).

A few years back I bought all the airguns that I lusted after as a boy. Out of the box they really weren't that great. Scoping really did show up their limitations. Most very unforgiving and getting all position consistency was a trial. Why I still like them. Best way to shoot them is standing unsupported sporting style and keep to farmyard ranges. Do that and they do what they were intended for. Trouble is people try to shoot them modern style which as they aren't forgiving just doesn't work. Bench rest with all those vibrations, harmonics, and 3lbs triggers isn't ever going to work.


I sold most and kept just my favourites. Prefer tuned now. Interestingly the optics of yesteryear weren't that marvellous either and came with their own issues. The better were fixed with less to go amiss. Poor parallax set up being a big one, masking and narrow FOV two more. The 80's products weren't perfect. Some are best left mint in box. A few worth persevering with and will shoot well. Best out of the box is the heavy weight Park 91/93. Tuned HW77 or 80 do good too. Theoben gasram system does work and make good shooting rifles if you treat them like a tuned springer.
Its all change again now and even the tuning is simpler.

[look no hands]

what barrel & mod have you got on that Mercury Pete?

The barrel is a .177 BSA Lightning and the mod is a V-mach slimtech.

Pete