What is your biggest air gun related success?

[Abasmajor]

Following on from Lakey’s thread about your biggest air gun related disasters, I thought it would be interesting to hear about your greatest air gun related successes.
I started my vintage air gun collecting path with Webley air pistols as they were quite few different models to find at reasonable prices.
Once I had good examples of the Webley models, I started looking for some of other rarer British spring powered air pistols which proved much harder to acquire. Although finding nice examples of some of the rarer pistols such as the Abas Major, Warrior Titan etc wasn't easy, I did manage this with some regular visits to Arms Fairs and some internet trawling.
There remained a few much rarer air pistols that I thought I would be lucky to see never mind afford to purchase. One day however during a casual visit to my local dealer who rarely stocks collectable guns, I saw an Anson’s Star in his cabinet among a couple of Webley pistols. Anson’s Star was one of those ultra rare pistols I doubted I would ever see and this one was priced at around a quarter of the price I would have estimated for the pistol. Had this been a private sale, I would have felt morally bound to point this out and then negotiate a fair price. As this was from a dealer however, I reasoned that he must have paid some unsuspecting punter less than the advertised price so I had no qualms closing the deal.
This lucky encounter motivated me to continue chasing the other ultra rare air pistols on my wishlist especially as the bargain price I paid helped offset the more realistic prices for the other models.
Although there have been other occasions when fortune smiled on me, this was the one that still stands out for me.



Anson's Star


Brian

[Mark D]

Well done Brian

I have had a few, once at an auction house on the south coast with Lawrie. There were a lot of US CO2 pistols for sale. We agreed between us over a coffee who would bid on what. During the auction we were the only ones bidding on the CO2 pistols and we took home about 8 between us

My best though was buying a piece of furniture at a boot fair, it was a dressing table when people actually had them. A price was agreed and when my wife and I went to collect it and load it into the car we could hear something bumping about in it. When we got home and had lugged it up to the bedroom I pulled all the drawers out looking for what was making the noise.After I had removed the middle long draw I noticed a sliding catch, when I opened the 'secret' draw out came a Webley Mk11 Target in very good condition This was about 30 years ago, sadly the Webley has long gone and so thankfully has the dressing table.
It's all in the chase

[Josie & John]

Has to be a near mint boxed Webley Service with pellets and manual for £450 during the 1990s or a cased pine boxed BSA with BSA target sights and a sealed box of pellets for £325 around 10 years ago. That was near mint too.

John

[Lakey]

This is easy.

the first time I took my 10 year old son, and his best friend out for an informal plinking session in the woods. They both had a fantastic time, shooting at targets, balloons on sticks, and empty shotgun cartridges lined up on a couple of logs.

The two guns chosen for the day were a BSA Cadet, and a Webley (Jaguar I think) . Close range over open sights.

My son is in his mid 20's now, and doesn't go shooting much at all now, but I can still see the joy on their faces as they were knocking over the cartridges, and popping the balloons. Priceless !!


Lakey

[T 20]

I'm quite proud of my single stroke Mohawk, it came to me as a shed found bare action for £35, with the help of BBS members I managed to buy a brand new stock, trigger unit and front barrel retainer.

After machining most of the internals myself I ended up with a working gun for less than £100.




All the best Mick

[I. J.]

Forming my second airgun club (Rivington Riflemen ) 36+ years ago. The club went on to raise thousands of pounds for various charities, introduce thousands of members of the public to our sport through airgun fairs, provide hundreds of members with somewhere safe and legal to shoot and enjoy their airguns, hundreds of lasting friendships which include two marriages, for the club to win dozens of shooting related trophies in both team events and individuals and provide thousands of laughs at the clubs indoor range social area.

The club now continues under the capable hands of others while I sit back.

[AC all day]

For me, designing and building a prototype rifle and filing a Patent application on a round of ammunition and getting it granted. I have had a couple of good shed finds including one being given an air rifle by a policeman whilst I was still at school you couldn't get away with that again!!

[Garvin]

Probably my purchase of a nice Falke 90 for under £100. Happy days!

[45flint]

Probably my purchase of a nice Falke 90 for under £100. Happy days!

I guess! That’s a dream.

[45flint]

Probably my most appreciated air rifle is my BSA 1919 Light. Three things make it special. I know the entire history of the rifle for it was from the estate of a US champion small bore shooter in the 1920’s. He went on the be President of our National Rifle Assoc. It has the factory installed 22b aperture sight. But most of all the grip was customized for this championship shooter. Huge difference in feel and puts me in his shoes. A Yank kicking a BSA up a notch! Lol The rifle has just enough legitimate ware to make it a vintage treasure. Perfect backyard shooter, never misses.

[Josie & John]

Probably my most appreciated air rifle is my BSA 1919 Light. Three things make it special. I know the entire history of the rifle for it was from the estate of a US champion small bore shooter in the 1920’s. He went on the be President of our National Rifle Assoc. It has the factory installed 22b aperture sight. But most of all the grip was customized for this championship shooter. Huge difference in feel and puts me in his shoes. A Yank kicking a BSA up a notch! Lol The rifle has just enough legitimate ware to make it a vintage treasure. Perfect backyard shooter, never misses.

This would have been an ideal addition to the BSA book Steve but it came to light just as I had completed the manuscript and was formatting the content.

The provenance is impeccable.

Kind regards,

John

[cinedux]

I knew a beautiful Rhine Maiden whose daddy had been a General in ze var. As a pardy member ,he had a numbered illustrated stein for drinking der beer oud off. I really yearned for this tankard and eventually the beautiful girl,his daughter, gave it to me! Later in life a well known collector of war memorabilia traded me a glorious Falke Modell 90 rifle for my tankard. We were both more than satisfied with a trade.....Yah Boh! Such is life.......A gut deal!

[evert]

When I started up at a university "further north" here in Norway back in 2011 or something, I moved into a tiny apartment, and came in desperate need of a project... I found an abused mk3 meteor for sale on the net for 150Nkr (about 15GBP), and bought it. It came wrapped in a plastic bag, and had all sorts of problems. With a minimum amount of tools, a spare sear from a B3 cleaning/service kit, and a lot of creative hand filing I managed to replace the broken sear, fix the holes the previous owner had drilled in the barrel, and mount a spare mk5 rear sight where the previous owner had removed the mk3 sight mounting stud.

The gun shot really well for what it was, and I have never been able to have the same amount of entertainment and joy from that little money spent on airguns ever again!

[Binners]

I have been lucky on a few occasions
I was the only bidder on a Britannia at £40
Won a 3rd series Webley Service for £120
Was given an early Warrior pistol
The luckiest thing of all has been meeting and getting to know many of you on here.

[45flint]

Honorable mention! Almost impossible find of BSA Adder Pellets unopened. To think this cardboard box is well over a 100 years old crazy find here in the US what are the odds?