How much would you pay for a top end off the shelf springer?

[fieldandtarget]

With the healthy interest in springers Do you think there is a market for high end custom springers/self contained off the shelf rifles and what would you be prepared to pay for one new these days if they were available?

I"m thinking along the lines of desirable rifles such as tx200 sr, venom hornet,park rifles,fenman profile,whiscombe etc type rifles.

Would be interesting what gun shop owners thoughts were.Whether expensive springers would just sit on the shelf for a year or they could shift them as fast as they get them in.

[JerryD]

.....given that top end PCPs go for >£2k and the amount that gets spent on tuning improvements then I don't think it's unrealistic for a top end springer to be around £1k. By the time a tune and stock are added, most top end boingers must be pushing that anyway.

If JW were to start up again tomorrow with a price tag £1750 - £2000 I'd be one of the first in probably a very long queue.....







.

[para]

There is a desire for high end rifles but in terms of commercial success it is quite a difficult market, look at impact airguns they tried but unfortunately it wasn't to be.
Off the shelf I think are/were fairly priced depending on where you buy from and £600 is what id be prepared to pay for a top end standard gun, If your talking venom type standard off the shelf i.e. nice stock/finish high spec tuning etc.. then £600-900 because as we know high end rifles from the likes of Venom, airmasters maintain and often gain in value so your not going to loose out of pocket and built to last.
The more desirable collectables I.e TX200SR, ProTarget and Theobens only attract higher prices now because they are no longer produced and bearing in mind getting parts etc is getting more difficult. I personally would only pay up to £350 now for a theoben because of maintaining and servicing issues. What I would say is that for Airarms not to continue making the SR, Pro Target etc if they were so popular doesn't make good business sense.

[robs5230]

There is a desire for high end rifles but in terms of commercial success it is quite a difficult market, look at impact airguns they tried but unfortunately it wasn't to be.
Off the shelf I think are/were fairly priced depending on where you buy from and £600 is what id be prepared to pay for a top end standard gun, If your talking venom type standard off the shelf i.e. nice stock/finish high spec tuning etc.. then £600-900 because as we know high end rifles from the likes of Venom, airmasters maintain and often gain in value so your not going to loose out of pocket and built to last.
The more desirable collectables I.e TX200SR, ProTarget and Theobens only attract higher prices now because they are no longer produced and bearing in mind getting parts etc is getting more difficult. I personally would only pay up to £350 now for a theoben because of maintaining and servicing issues. What I would say is that for Airarms not to continue making the SR, Pro Target etc if they were so popular doesn't make good business sense.

I'd certainly pay the current price for an rm100 if it was produced as a springer. I think impact would sell them. Shame they stopped production before exploring this. They have basically everything there to make an outstanding break barrel or even an underlever with the RM200.
The only reason I haven't bought the rm100 before now is the unreliability of the gas ram internals.

[WILBA]

There is a desire for high end rifles but in terms of commercial success it is quite a difficult market, look at impact airguns they tried but unfortunately it wasn't to be.
Off the shelf I think are/were fairly priced depending on where you buy from and £600 is what id be prepared to pay for a top end standard gun, If your talking venom type standard off the shelf i.e. nice stock/finish high spec tuning etc.. then £600-900 because as we know high end rifles from the likes of Venom, airmasters maintain and often gain in value so your not going to loose out of pocket and built to last.
The more desirable collectables I.e TX200SR, ProTarget and Theobens only attract higher prices now because they are no longer produced and bearing in mind getting parts etc is getting more difficult. I personally would only pay up to £350 now for a theoben because of maintaining and servicing issues. What I would say is that for Airarms not to continue making the SR, Pro Target etc if they were so popular doesn't make good business sense.

You tried cocking an tx200sr? Its a bugger to cock, But you do master it. My tx200sr action is in a b&m bullpup stock. Same length barrel and inderlever as normal set up. But is a swine to cock compared to my prosport which is silky smooth.

[Hsing-ee]

You tried cocking an tx200sr? Its a bugger to cock, But you do master it. My tx200sr action is in a b&m bullpup stock. Same length barrel and inderlever as normal set up. But is a swine to cock compared to my prosport which is silky smooth.

I had both. Off a bench I could put 25 shots inside a circle slightly smaller than a modern 10 pence piece at 50 yards in still air with either of them, a better shot could improve on that. The ProSport was lighter and less complicated. I wish I had kept it! The SR was long but had better blueing. A good ProSport is excellent, the compression chamber is buttoned so it is a bit smoother than the TX series, and if you fumble the loading the pellet drops through the rifle and you don't have to arse around fishing it out of the loading port.

[Rotherham Owl]

Anyone got a spare £2K for this bad boy?

https://www.freeads.co.uk/uk/buy-sel...w#.WjlUUN9l_IU

[prosport.177]

Anyone got a spare £2K for this bad boy?

https://www.freeads.co.uk/uk/buy-sel...w#.WjlUUN9l_IU

I guess the owner does not really want to part with it at that sort of money!

[les allam]

There will be a few people who are willing and able to spend a fair chunk of money on some thing special .
I have spent a few bob on some of my guns in resent years(after putting family first ,mortgage ect)and have what I consider my dream air rifles.
If a Venom Cobra came about at the right price and I had the money spare I would go for it.
Les..

[Mole trapper]

I would pay a grand, grand and a half,ish I suppose. It would only be used once a year probably to fire a few shots, fondle it a couple of times a year too.
But essentially it would be eye candy that was also hopefully an investment.

[lensman57]

With the healthy interest in springers Do you think there is a market for high end custom springers/self contained off the shelf rifles and what would you be prepared to pay for one new these days if they were available?

I"m thinking along the lines of desirable rifles such as tx200 sr, venom hornet,park rifles,fenman profile,whiscombe etc type rifles.

Would be interesting what gun shop owners thoughts were.Whether expensive springers would just sit on the shelf for a year or they could shift them as fast as they get them in.

The market for these sort of things is very small. That is why those guys you mentioned are no longer in the business. The over enthusiasm of a few fans for high end eye candy should not be mistaken with the realities of the present over flooded and highly competitive market. I know of atleast two RFDs in my area who would not even stock £1000+ pcps for the lack of sales and the customer has to place an order and a hefty deposit first.
I guess you could always buy a basic TX or Prosport and set about adding bling and tunning parts to it.

A.G

[para]

The younger shooters coming into the sport I think if faced with a shiny pcp which they know shoot well straight from the box or a springer at the same price which as we all know require more practice will probably take the pcp. For us who remember our younger days of the springer when pcps were in very early stages of development we have more nostalgic memories of Shooting and like to relive those days. I'd imagine lots of younger shooters have never heard of Venom, Theoben etc and only experience of spring guns are the lower end budget type springers.
Unfortunately for spring fans Competition shooting is now dominated by the pcp. That being said there are still very good high end springers being made and we still have talented tuners and stock makers out there so all is not lost.

[lensman57]

The younger shooters coming into the sport I think if faced with a shiny pcp which they know shoot well straight from the box or a springer at the same price which as we all know require more practice will probably take the pcp

. For us who remember our younger days of the springer when pcps were in very early stages of development we have more nostalgic memories of Shooting and like to relive those days. I'd imagine lots of younger shooters have never heard of Venom, Theoben etc and only experience of spring guns are the lower end budget type springers.
Unfortunately for spring fans Competition shooting is now dominated by the pcp. That being said there are still very good high end springers being made and we still have talented tuners and stock makers out there so all is not lost.

This is exactly part of the problem that I mentioned. A young boy or girl can spend £700.00 on a PCP and scope and within a week be hitting 50 yards spinners from a rested position. Who in their right mind would want to spend that kind of money on a heavy, recoiling difficult to master air rifle and probably give up shooting after a few weeks because they can't hit a barn door at 30 yards? Dare I say that we or certainly myself are of a generation who started with a spring powered air gun and it has some kind of nostalgic hold on us, plus the fact that it is hell of a lot of fun ' tunning ' it. I doubt if they hold the same appeal for the younger generation of shooters even at £200.00 for a decent spring powered air rifle let alone £1500.00~£2000.00. Even top end PCPs have a tough time justifying that kind of price tag but for either bling or competition shooting.

A.G

[fieldandtarget]

To be fair I don't think the market would be young people looking to get into shooting to start hitting those 50 yrd spinners straightaway.The PCP will still be there to start with but if they get interested in the hobby they will probably add a quality springer in the future as they look to explore other avenues of their chosen hobby.

I used to fish a lot and I was always amazed how much ordinary working class people spent on their pastimes.The cost of fishing poles/fly rods & reels/carp gear.it was often thousands.
Its the same with shotguns.ordinary folk treating themselves for example to a new £1300 o/u and
airgunners treating themselves to the latest PCP at £1200-£1600.
It happens everyday.

After getting interested in shooting again after a bit o a break there's nothing new(and a bit special) springerwise that interests me off the shelf to look to buy once Xmas is out the way so probably won't bother and just stick with what I've already got.

Just my thoughts,but I would've thought there is a market for both a lightweight custom break barrel and a heavyweight fixed barrel one.

Atb

[Rapidnick]

I think a £1000 price tag would not sell many new spring rifles. I would suspect that £5-600 would be the high water mark for the price. This equates roughly to the price of an existing top end springer plus the cost of a V Glide. Fancy expensive stocks should always be priced as extras but certainly a decent walnut stock should be standard. The 'enthusiast' market is not really a guide to whether a high end factory-standard springer would find favour with more shooters. I suspect it wouldn't.