Brainteaser

[Garvin]

A brainteaser for the collectables crowd:

Can you think of instances where a spring-powered production airgun crossed the invisible line that made it inelegant, expensive to manufacture, or even downright ugly, limiting its mass appeal and thus commercial viability?

The vintage airguns that had staying power tended to be those where the challenges of powering the gun didn’t come at the expense of streamlined looks.

I’m thinking of the compact Webley pistols and ingenious BSA rifles as success stories and, off the top of my head, the Certus/Parker Precisiion/Westley Richards ‘Highest Possible’ pistols and the Kynoch Swift rifles as among those that just couldn’t compete.

Strangely, one recent example that seems to have bucked the trend is the Weihrauch HW45, which has always looked painfully top-heavy to me.

[averageplinker]

Sterling underlever immediately springs to mind!

[frogboy]

The BSA Military Pattern, just too expensive for people to buy.

[cinedux]

Improved B. Didn't live up to it's name.

[Lakey]

Record Champion - similar problem to the HW45, only worse. Hugely top heavy, with the full depth of the cocking lever only adding to the problem.

The oval piston profile was a cool trick to limit the width of the gun, without which the pistol would have been as wide as it is high.



Lakey

[cringe]

maximum ugliness, I think Hammerli model 401, cringe.

[Benelli B76]

Record Champion - similar problem to the HW45, only worse. Hugely top heavy, with the full depth of the cocking lever only adding to the problem.

The oval piston profile was a cool trick to limit the width of the gun, without which the pistol would have been as wide as it is high.



Lakey

Do you know how to fix these ? Have one here now which we want to sell.

Baz