Just seen a Theoben sirroco prototype for sale for £500 on Gun Star at Crawfords shooting supplies they are saying they are sure it is Dave Theobalds own gun sure looks nice what do you think ??? sorry i am unable to put the link to it on but sure one of you bright sparks out there will be able to
"IF GUNS KILL PEOPLE, DO PENCILS MISSPELL WORDS ?"
He must have had loads of rifles. There always one of his "personal" rifles up for sale.
[/url]http://www.airgunbbs.com/showthread....ld-rifle-mmmhh
Check the date of the thread
Last edited by bighit; 19-09-2017 at 06:46 PM.
Clearly unverifiable provenance, questionable refinishing, and non-standard suppressor and butt pad.
But, it set me thinking. I almost never see those early 1982-4 Siroccos either up for sale or mentioned on places like this. Are they really quite rare, or all squirrelled away in collections, or a bit of both?
By comparison, I see more traffic on other classic rarities like the Sterlings, Parks, Mohawks, Dragons.
I don't see "prototype" - looks like a very production Scirocco in poverty spec Beech Countryman stock, damaged, and which some numpty has actually stained. I would not pay £120 for that. In fact I'd not pay anything for it, only use is as a field gun to leave knocking around.
It's true that early Sciroccos rarely come up for sale, but they are now very old, and many must have met their maker because unlike springers, which just keep going, an inevitable leak will make them completely non-functional till repaired so I guess they may tend to get abandoned when that happens, left to rust in peace, just simply forgotten about.
**WANTED**: WEBLEY PATRIOT MUZZLE END; Any Diana/Original mod.50 parts, especially OPEN SIGHTS
That makes sense. I'd really like an original first production, no sights, Sirocco. I spent weeks agonising in 1982 between buying one (that I couldn't really afford and they were an unknown quantity) or an FWB Sport. I went for, and don't regret, the FWB. From memory, the FWB and a Japanese ASI 4x40 cost the same or slightly less than the Theoben on its own. Also rather fancied the Anschutz-barrelled slightly later Sirocco.
I was lucky enough to meet both guys when they were starting out in the early days at my local Russell Walkyer in Saffron Walden
The prototype they showed me was stunning, not a bit of plastic in sight, beautiful deep blacking, no open sites and beech stock with the fixed 1" scope rings
I spent probably an hour listening to them describing how they worked, they even offered to let me take the .22 one home to test for a week or so but I was to scared of damaging it
Custom BSA S10 .22 PAX Phoenix Mk 2 .22 Custom Titan Manitou .22 (JB BP) HW77 .22 FWB Sport Mk1 .22 Sharp Ace .22 Crossman 600 .22 Berretta 92 .20 Desert Eagle .177
I had one in .22, a later version with the safety inside the trigger guard. Lovely rifle in terms of quality but just could not get used to the trigger (Omega). It was far better than the one in the photo.
I bought Ben Taylors prototype Sirocco about fifteen years ago from his unit in Cambridgeshire. I dropped in on the way back from a holiday in Norfolk. I was talking to him about John Wiscombes prototype which he had shown me, he said he was selling his prototype sirocco which someone was buying from him but had bailed. It was his first gas ram, he made the cylinder from alloy, the stock he hand made. It was .20 cal with a eighties style silencer, I offered to buy and he agreed though it took over two hours to convince him with customers coming and going, with him getting nostalgic about going shooting with it when his son was young which I can understand. The stand out feature was a schrader valve at the end of the compression tube to adjust the power. I no longer have any photos.
ATB
Jack
Living in Australia (despite the blooming gun laws)!
Regarding the first prototype, is this the .20 calibre with the metal sideplates? If so, then I am the current custodian of said beastie