The Mercury most people will have met had a PAINT finish, a school-desk plain varnished beech stock, a plastic bendy one-stage trigger, and a rather boingy firing cycle.

It was also a sod to strip due to its assegai-like back block with its impossible curve, a heavy spring with a good bit of preload, and a piston head that would turn, not to cheese as some people would have it, but into an intransigent substance which scientists have named Spoilyrweekium.

Compared to that, the HW35 was like a nice bit of Lego. Any monkey with a screwdriver, a punch and a open-ended spanner could strip and tune it without getting a hernia or fifteen stitches or a new shed window.

The Mercury did handle really nicely though, like a shotgun. But then if you like shotguns, go buy one instead.