Sadly I think it is more like the national obsession for television programmes about cooking.
People watch them while eating microwaved M&S readymeals or Lidl pizzas and never go near their hobs or ovens.
The springer is relatively cheap and people will buy one, fire off ten shots and then park it in the back of the cupboard in favour of their PCP which can be clamped to a tree, dug into the ground like an artillery piece or just gripped hard and still give good results.

There's the same small band of fanatical boinger enthusiasts at the bottom of the heap though, slowly ageing ...