Ge600/MEC/Unique/Esprit Carabine. Free floating barrel???

[RobinC]

For heavens sake Bob,

You are moving your older air rifles on to buy modern ones, and now when you consider small bore, but you like an old one!

Your interest in oldies? That one, BSA Martini's? I bet it would last seconds, until you saw a KK500 Anatomic!!!

And Walther don't make a carbon stock, but G&E do! So you could have an Anatomic Walther, and a Carbon G&E.

Nice example though Russ.

Have Fun
Robin

[zooma]

For heavens sake Bob,

You are moving your older air rifles on to buy modern ones, and now when you consider small bore, but you like an old one!

Your interest in oldies? That one, BSA Martini's? I bet it would last seconds, until you saw a KK500 Anatomic!!!

And Walther don't make a carbon stock, but G&E do! So you could have an Anatomic Walther, and a Carbon G&E.

Nice example though Russ.

Have Fun
Robin

You are right - a KK500 Anatomic would be a lovely thing to own - and you know I have a weakness for the Anatomic stock.

..but the classic lines of Russ's old Ruskie really appeal to me, and if I were to take up .22 rim fire rifle (it is a possibility) I would want to try a less expensive rifle to start with to make sure I could get up again after laying down - this could be a problem at my age!

In truth I have not researched .22 rim fire rifles enough to make an educated choice on what would be best for me to start with, but I do like Walther target air rifles and I think the Anatomic stock is an all time classic and so you are right - if I did go down that road, the Anatomic would be the one I would like to end up with.

[tim s]

If you are buying new the KK500 is a strong choice. The design is more advanced the the Anschutz 54.30 (really a t*rted up 1913),and looks less fiddly than the new FWB 2800. I think it was built to emulate the very rigid and short Bleiker and G&E actions, without the eye-watering price tag. That it seems to do very well.

There's nothing wrong with the Anschutz 54.30; if you already had an Anschutz, you could buy just the barrel-action. But comparing complete rifles, the Walther has a technical edge.

Other new factory options are the FWB 2700 (solid and reliable), and the Tesro SBR100. I've yet to see one of these in the flesh. Izhmash, Salva, Tanner, Turbo, and Vaskent don't have a UK importer, and consequently are unobtanium.

If you're buying used, you will see more Anschutz than any other brand. Walther and FWB didn't really become popular until the late '90s so are scarcer. There's nothing wrong with a Match 54; these are accurate, durable, and comfortable rifles. If you don't want something unusual, Match 54s work, as do BSAs. If you want to go off the beaten track, what about a Valmet, or a Hammerli. There's also Barnet, Borlov, Centre-10, Diana, Furter, Jurek, Remington, Schultz & Larsen, S&N, Suhl (DDR Haenel & Merkel),Toz, Unique, Vickers, Weihrauch, and Winchester.

China did make an Olympic-winning Smallbore, but I've never heard of one in the UK.

[RobinC]

to make sure I could get up again after laying down - this could be a problem at my age!

.

The wife has a mini Austrian Cowbell on her breech flag, so it wakes up the old members who may have nodded off!

Have Fun
Robin

[zooma]

The wife has a mini Austrian Cowbell on her breech flag, so it wakes up the old members who may have nodded off!

Have Fun
Robin

A bell could be helpful to keep me awake ?

Is prone rim fire shooting really that boring - enough to cause sleep?

A bell could be handy though - as long as I can reach it I may be able to call for help when I want to stand up !