Sentimentality on not parting out airguns

[Shed tuner]

Am I getting all sentimental in my old age ?

I have a nice shooting, but cosmetically average HW35 here. I was thinking the 22" long .177 barrel and open sights would easily go for £100, the rekord trigger £50, the stock another £50, the synthetic piston and seal £35, the mainspring and guide £20, £40 for the action, and maybe £20 for other sundries, bolts, trigger guard etc. That's over £300 - a good deal more than I am likely to sell the gun for, and it's a nice shooter too !

But I really can't bring myself to part it out..

I know it's more hassle, and some parts might take longer to sell, but it's not just that - it just feels wrong !

[Mark D]

Scorned at by many - however it's your property to do with as you please and looking on many do.

I would caveat that with, if you had a rare and unusual model or in truly mint condition then you would be better off selling it complete.

[ggggr]

Am I getting all sentimental in my old age ?

I have a nice shooting, but cosmetically average HW35 here. I was thinking the 22" long .177 barrel and open sights would easily go for £100, the rekord trigger £50, the stock another £50, the synthetic piston and seal £35, the mainspring and guide £20, £40 for the action, and maybe £20 for other sundries, bolts, trigger guard etc. That's over £300 - a good deal more than I am likely to sell the gun for, and it's a nice shooter too !

But I really can't bring myself to part it out..

I know it's more hassle, and some parts might take longer to sell, but it's not just that - it just feels wrong !

Im with you on this. Ive a fair few Bitzas and stuff that wasnt working that I felt should be working again, even if it wasnt really worth it. To a lot of people they would just sell the parts off.

Im sometimes given guns to tinker with and I think part of the reason is that people know that it wont be broken up and on the Bay.
I often feel obliged to try to get them working.
I was very kindly given a Webley Mk3 project by Mr Gilkes about 16 months ago and it was just "too good" to strip for spares for myself----------but it will cost money and it will only be a rough gun. I still need a piston and then if the action works, I'll have to get a stock, which I dont want to fork out for yet in case it goes pear shaped.

Other people have different views.

[keith66]

I dont like doing it either. But sometimes... a few years back a mate asked me to fix An HW35, nice clean rifle except the inside of the cocking slot on the cylinder was badly worn on the inside to the point the cocking link jumped the piston. I fixed it by building up the link with weld but it was not going to last.
With its scrap cylinder that was a parts rifle for sure & it would not bother me if it was broken up.
Its not just airguns, A guy i know makes a tidy living out of model railway stuff, he buys Hornby Dublo Locos & breaks them for parts, they fetch many times more than if sold complete.
Metal working machinery is the same Lathes get parted out until the seller is left with the bed on its own a worthless lump of iron.

[Strimmer]

I often have to go on chambers or such, looking for odd parts until I find one probably on eb*y, so I'm glad that some do break some up.
But on another note, I'm the kind of person that spends 3x what the guns worth fixing it up, has a bit of joy out of it and then sells it on for a massive loss 🤣

Just need a brass ring for a senior now

[urx]

I just shelled out £50 on parts to resurrect a scorpion pistol that when its done will probably be worth about
…..£50
On the one hand i am glad of people selling spares but on the other hand it seems a shame to break up perfectly good working guns just because the sum of the parts is more valuable than the whole.

[Shed tuner]

yeah, I'm definitely guilty of spending more on fixing things for the challenge than they are probably worth...

If this one was a bit more ropey it'd be an easier decision, but then again, it's hardly a minter, and certainly not rare - I mean, how many HW35s have they produced over the years ? must be half a million !

[look no hands]

I'd happily break up any HW35 that came my way

[barrel]

Am I getting all sentimental in my old age ?

I have a nice shooting, but cosmetically average HW35 here. I was thinking the 22" long .177 barrel and open sights would easily go for £100, the rekord trigger £50, the stock another £50, the synthetic piston and seal £35, the mainspring and guide £20, £40 for the action, and maybe £20 for other sundries, bolts, trigger guard etc. That's over £300 - a good deal more than I am likely to sell the gun for, and it's a nice shooter too !

But I really can't bring myself to part it out..

I know it's more hassle, and some parts might take longer to sell, but it's not just that - it just feels wrong !

If you took into account what you would have to pay to post all the individual parts and the hassle would you be any better off?.

Kindest regards

Barrel

[wickerman]

22" barrel must be a hw35e

[--ped--]

If you took into account what you would have to pay to post all the individual parts and the hassle would you be any better off?.

Kindest regards

Barrel

you get the buyer to pay for postage if they can't collect
in the past i have bought many a rough crosman for spares intending to keep the good bits and sell off the bits i didn't want,but i ended up with loads of bits as i never sold much
to this day i still find boxes with parts in i had forgot i had

[barrel]

you get the buyer to pay for postage if they can't collect
in the past i have bought many a rough crosman for spares intending to keep the good bits and sell off the bits i didn't want,but i ended up with loads of bits as i never sold much
to this day i still find boxes with parts in i had forgot i had

I am sure you could 'get the buyer to pay for postage ' but then the prices would need to be reduced accordingly if they realistically wanted to be sold, additionanaly you would still have the hassle of packaging multiple items, that's my point.

Kindest regards

Bsrrel

[Muskett]

A lot of HW35s out there. A good few guns were sold in high numbers so there will be a good few to salvage.

Parts can go for a good sum, but generally 60% sell reasonably fast, 20% eventually, a 20% never.

A gun that is perfectly good then to me it seems hard to justify breaking it. A gun that is rough doesn't have many parts anyone would want, well pay much for. To take two guns to make one good can be sensible but then how much the two or three to get one good one?
Much really depends on the base cost of the second hand guns. They really have to be low to justify the exercise. The other biggy is that often it is the same part that always fails. Those are the parts that demands the money, the rest can be pretty worthless.

Then again there is a hobby in bringing guns back to life/use. The big expenses are new springs or woodwork. You need to enjoy it and have time to find the parts at the right price. A lot of old guns even if working will never be worth more than £200, and for £200 you can get a lot of gun that doesn't need anything done.

I'm pleased people do have fun saving some of the older guns, but I wouldn't encourage breaking good guns just because in theory there is a few bob to make more. Often, for a lot of effort, there isn't anything to make bar a pile of bits that never finds a home once the choice items have gone.