Reply With QuoteNever had problems with my old guns, seals might go, things do wear & pack up but nothing lasts forever
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As mentioned on a previous thread, wanting to start shooting again after a long time away.
Looking about I see atlot of the models I know from the past still in circulation. Anything to be weary or conscious of when looking at secondhand guns that could be 20 years old now? Especially PCPs.
How has the Daystate electronic trigger unit held up over time?
How do plastic multi-shot mags hold up over time for the likes of the S410?
TIA
cz trigger breaker
Never had problems with my old guns, seals might go, things do wear & pack up but nothing lasts forever
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Don’t know much about electric airguns but I wouldn’t !Originally Posted by Smoggy
I’d probably favour older non reg no pressure gauge guns
Good to have a service to check inside / change seals from someone genuine
Looking for TO-6 Trigger unit unmessed with or T0-6 kit for 34
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Just check the availability of spares like seals, before you buy.
Even better looking than a HW35
I was at John Knibbs on Saturday and in the half hour I was in there two people brought in PCPs that wouldn't hold air (one was an S410 and the other a HW100) both guys said they hadn't used them much, £150 for a service and a 3 to 4 week wait, I have an old RWS Excalibre that wouldn't pump up but would hold air, I managed to get a seal kit for it.
Hope that gives you some idea, older springers on the other hand, a good service or tune and they will probably last forever.
Pete
Far too many rifles to list now, all mainly British but the odd pesky foreigner has snuck in
I'm happy with mine
my old springer serves me well
Registered User
The Airarms S-Series are probably your best bet, simple guns, easy to maintain, spares easily obtainable,
The oldest one I have is 2003 S410 .22 you couldn't tell it from new, all I did to it was swap out the 2 sear trigger for a 3 sear, simple enough job, I was going to service it, and sell it on, but after I serviced it, and used it, I decided to keep it, there are older ones than this out there, all working fine, and the mags work fine as well, brilliant rifles. Rog
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The 400 series is easy to reseal yourself. £150 is a lot of wedge for a reseal of them.
Mushroom Man
As noted above, servicing costs can be quite high ... this applies to both PCP and springers. A basic seal kit for a PCP may be around £10 ... ? not looked recently but the cost of having a reseal done by a shop or agent can be much more ... as stated. Seals are generally generic O rings and if you can find the spec, are readily available even when seal kits are no longer available. Other parts may not be available though ... valve heads can be impossible to find for old pcps. In this case you may have to rely on a skilled third party to make one. Luckily there are such people on the BBS. Even Daystate do not keep spares for all their old models, as I found out when I needed an exhaust valve head for a Huntsman MK2.
As for springers, a basic kit of mainspring, piston seal and breech seal could well cost in the region of £40. Fitting costs by a shop/RFD could easily lead to a bill of over £100. I have known some shops decline to repair a (cheaper) springer on the basis that it was not economic. Of course, doing it yourself is the most cost efficient if you have the basic tools and aptitude to do so. I am not talking about 'tuning' here.
Luckily most airguns are pretty robust and will function for a very long time quite happily.
Cheers, Phil
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And some people will take their car to a garage for a simple oil change.
DIY is an alien concept for many today.
Registered User
My 20 year old Webley Raider-2 is simple and reliable. Needed a re-seal recently but that's to be expected at some stage with any PCP.
Registered User
Are we worried about metal ageing of the air tube on PCPs?
Dive bottles need to be tested periodically for corrosion and cracks, what if an air tube let go whilst the gun was in your shoulder?
Some time ago I decided to avoid the bottle-as-a-butt pcp air rifles (Gunpower, NP02 etc), rightly or wrongly that just looks like you're asking for it.
A pre war springer can still shoot like the day it was made and can be serviced for buttons.
Depends what you want to do with it I guess.
Dunkingdonuts
Yep, for me i won't own a rifle that i can't fix myself.
I recently stripped a 25 year old Steyr cylinder as it was leaking and i had switched to a quickfill anyway. The cylinder was gleaming inside, bone dry, spotless....of course super fine fractures may have been present. i would expect to hear more about failures unless they are super, super rare.
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My oldest spring guns are pushing 80 years old and still work as they should with nothing more than the occasional home service and a piston seal, I doubt many more modern springers will still be around and working well after that length of time
pcp's are ok until you get a leak which seems a regular thing with some guns and if you cant sort it yourself then it can be an expensive game, having said that AA seem the most reliable in my experience, my old S400 now with a new owner is still going strong and has never been touched, never lost pressure even if stood for months either
Registered User
Speaking from my own experience, not from paranoid "I knew someone who knew someone...".
In 40+ years of shooting air guns (spring and pcp) I've never had a failure that I didn't cause myself. That one failure was taking a bite out of the o-rings when re-inserting the barrel on an S400 after I decided to do some preemptive maintenance - never again. And, as for them Daystates, my mk4is has never missed a beat or been serviced. Now where's a bloody great lump of wood for me to touch!
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