Quote Originally Posted by Muskett View Post
Early couple of years Theoben was getting its system together. The gasram worked but they were buying Webley barrels. Think their triggers were Webley inspired too. All in they were expensive.
Once they got the barrel sorted from Germany and the rest put together then they were glorious
Good post. Only didn't quote the whole thing for brevity.

The Sirocco came out in 1982. The German barrels turned up in mid-84. Anschutz in .177" and .22". Diana (M&G) for the .20". For a while you could get special unchoked barrels to use with Prometheus pellets (if you had fallen for the hype - I did, briefly; the enthusiasm lasted for about 50 shots, happily I didn't buy a new rifle especially to shoot them through).

I would rather like a very early Sirocco, particularly the 1982 first model (failing that, the perfected late 1984 Anschutz-barrelled one). But I cannot recall seeing any of the former up for sale in the last ten years, and only one or two of the latter.

I suspect the early Sirocco sold quite slowly. As I said earlier, it was the most expensive factory sporter you could buy, and a lot of people weren't exactly lush with cash in the early Thatcher years.