Originally posted by Sid
I went to the pub tonight ( yippeee ) and during the evening I collared a bloke in there who I don't know very well but has a reputation as a good welder - more codes than James Bond etc etc.

Anyway once I told him I wanted some welding doing on a rifle, we got talking about guns in general and he told me about a bloke he knew called Joe Wilkins who invented a 'pump up gun'

Apparently Mr Wilkins senior wasn't just an excellent engineer, but he was also a bit good at fieldcraft and had a party trick of circling around a rabbit, closing in slowly and then grabbing it with his bare hands. Sounds a bit far fetched, but nice if it's true.


Hi Sid I’ve just read this post and found it amusing and had to find out if it was true so I asked Steve.
It is indeed true!, he recalled one occasion being out with his dad, it was brass monkeys, well below the line and snow on the ground. They were following bunny tracks in the snow and Joe spotted one single set leading to some long grass in the distance. Upon getting closer Joe told Steve “there’s no tracks leading out lad, he’s still in there” and after a bit more creeping “ look lad, can you see his breath, its coming up like the steam off a kettle”. Joe got right up on him then pounced like a lion latching onto a gazelle, and grabbed the unfortunate Coney without actually having seen it, just using its rising breath as an indicator to its hideaway. In the ensuing struggle the rabbit kicking for all it’s worth and Joe utterly determined not to let go of his prize, he stumbled on something hidden in the snow (which turned out to be cold hard steel in the form of a railway line) and cracked his head. He picked himself up beaming from ear to ear, blood streaming down his face and proclaimed “That’s ow ya catch em lad”


Steve said the bit about his dad carving stocks with broken glass is staight up as well.
He used to get English walnut from a coffin maker to make pistol grips and the stock for his first Predator, he did the roughing with a spoke shave and finished off with a piece of broken glass. The ‘snooking rabbits’ probably came from local Derbyshire pit slang ‘we snook up on it’.