I have owned a Mk1 FAS 604 bought new when they first came out, I passed it on to a relative when I bought the Mk2 also new, which I still have, he still has the Mk1 to this day, and with close to 40 years of use, has performed faultlessly as has the Mk2 which I still have.

I have seen several 6004's when coaching, and have personally witnessed faults and poor build quality on several, in my view having owned the 604 and seen firts hand problems with the 6004, it is clear to me that they are not built to the same standards as the 604. In 40 years, and having seen many 604's I have never seen a broken frame, that of course does not mean that it has not happened in isolated incidents, and also that the failures of the 6004 may also be isolated.

I will point out that when I bought my original 604 Mk1 new, that it was manufactured by a company that produced top level .22rf firearms, was genuinely hand finished, it was state of the art when originally built, and that the price was similar with other top line pistols of its day. I changed from a FWB 65, I shot Internationally with my 65 and my FAS, and shot identical PB match scores of 384 ex 400 with both (yes it was 40 shot days then!). I know the Mk 2, later in 1989 cost £385 and that was a comparable cost to other top line pistols. FAS brought out their then new 606 around '89 which cost over £500 around that time.

The 6004 is now a 40 year old design, lets be realistic, it is not state of the art now even for a SSP, and it was considerably surpassed later by some superb SSP's, but it still costs under £500 now, some 30 years later, that's less than the top level classic SSPs of the 80's/90's are fetching now!

That makes it a good value budget match air pistol irrespective of its failings. State of the art Match air pistols now are £2000. See the 6004 for what it is, a good value budget match air pistol!

Zooma is spot on, what is not acceptable in this thread is the offensive language, and insulting attitudes, of some posters, that is a total disgrace, things, and language I have never seen on this forum before, I would say to those people, that others are entitled to their view, right or wrong, you may disagree, but you may not insult, so they need to apologise unreservedly, or never stain this site with their presence again.

Have Fun
Robin