Airgun Obsessions of The 70s

[Hsing-ee]

Things that used to concern airgunners in the U.K. in the late 70s early 80s included Â…

1. Buying British. While it was obvious that the German rifles (Weihrauch, Feinwerkbau, Original Diana, BSF) were of much better design and better quality, people would encourage eachother to 'Buy British' and get the inferior although admittedly cheaper BSA, Webley and Milbro guns. As there wasn’t any competitive shooting outside of 6 yard & 10 meter match at the time and airguns were used for plinking and hunting pests this was actually fair enough. With a British gun you just had to stand or stalk closer to the target or quarry.

2. Headshots or heart/lung shots? Enough said. With most spring guns grouping about 1-2” at 20 yards with the pellets of the time, you can see how this was a thing.

3. Open sights or a scope? Many thought a scope would mean trigger snatching as the crosshairs danced over the mark, or that hunters would try to shoot quarry at unrealistic distances. Fogging & fragility were also seen as minus points.

4. Dieselling. Everyone was scared of it ruining accuracy and internals like the spring and piston, while the Cardews built an entire theory of airgun power development around it. No one talks about dieselling any more.

5. Twelve Foot Pounds. 12 fpe is just another power level to todays shooters, albeit the threshold for an FAC so quite important. Back in the 70s rifles that could actually get close to this number were held in awe. No one had a chronograph so no one really knew how powerful their guns were. Webley and BSA rifles in the usual maintenance condition of the time would probably be doing 9 fpe, so something like a Feinwerkbau Sport was a real cannon.

6. .177 or .22? The larger caliber was seen as more powerful than the smaller one BECAUSE IT WAS. Only the FWB Sport and BSF break barrels had .177s that went over 11 fpe. A .22 Airsporter of the time would do 10.5 and a .177 about 9. .177 pellets were available as flat-head match pellets which were much more consistent and accurate than .22s so Eddie Barber in Airgun World started to push .177 as a hunting caliber even though it was less powerfulin most rifles. 'A hit in the brain of a pigeon with a .177 beats chipping its beak with a .22 any day' was the philosophy. When FT came along the superiority of the .177 at variable ranges pushed its popularity and displaced .22 for many hunters.

7. Scope creep. Mounts were cheap and often scope ramps were shallow so there were lots of articles about arresting scope creep. From Araldite to arrestor blocks to one-piece mounts and the dreadful BSA scope stop, everything was thrown at this problem. Even so, your scope moving under recoil was the main reason you could use for missing.

8. Pointed pellets. Some people conflated 'penetration' with 'killing power' so they were keen on these things, but there was debate about them being just gimmicks. Power testing was done by shooting through old catalogs or telephone books, and pointed pellets did this with style. All the ones I tried were bloody awful, though I never tried the Silver Jet ones from Japan which were very well made and appeared to give good groups in the magazine tests.

9. Paramilitary looking rifles. In the days before airsoft, while it was still legal to buy a semi-automatic full bore military rifle, if you wanted an Army-look gun off-ticket you could only get a Sussex Armoury Jackal or Hammerli 420 or ASI Paratrooper. Some people frowned on these as bad PR for shooting, others smiled with joy at the fun they brought to the game. No one cares about this any more, some guns don’t even look like guns anymore, more like weird TV cameras or a goofy Hollywood prop from a sci-fi film.

ADDITIONAL POINTS!

10. Leaving your rifle cocked while waiting for a bunny or pigeon to appear when hunting from a hide? Experts said it would weaken the spring, some people cried nonsense, but it was an anxiety known to many airgunners. Without a chronograph no-one had a clue if it made any difference or not. If you left it uncocked then you might miss your chance at a critical moment, or the beastie may be startled by the sound of the cocking action. This was a major selling point of the restricted power pump-ups like the Sheridan, Benjamin and Crosman when they were imported.

11. The Weihrauch 'click'. HW35s and probably the lesser spotted HW50 had articulated cocking levers which, after the barrel latch was popped, made a loud 'click' as the knuckle of the cocking lever impacted the stock. Apparently it was so loud that game in the next county would cock their ears and head for the Arctic. There were several solutions, most involving rubber material of some kind.

12. 'Swedish steel'. If it was made of this then you would have the strength and power of the Norse god Thor. We made sure our replacement springs were specified with this miracle metal.