AirGun World memorabilia

[Phil Russell]

Moving things around the other day, I noticed a 'stick on label' 10cm x 6cm on a pistol box. Basically a Union Jack with an oval inside containing a large number '20' and the words AirGun World, (20) great years 1977 - 1997. Hey ho ... memories.
Plus ... anyone remember the AirGunner Club? I still have a red baseball cap from those days ... plus a camo one with AirGunner on it. I can't remember what became of the Club. I think in those days Airgun World and Air Gunner were run by different companies with one taking over the other at sometime. I think Airgun World was the first to appear. But i have memories of another magazine : Sporting Air Rifle? from that era. One of them used to contain lists of winners of FT competitions (boring reading to me then); winners usually adding a prestigious new rifle to their collections ... (Nick Jenkinson was a name I remember winning a lot). I also remember the fledgling HFT coming into being: the format being to use 'sporting rifles' in a hunting situation ... non of your fancy FT rigs that even then people thought were very much elitist and would give HFT shooters an unfair advantage.
How times change.
Cheers, Phil

[TonyL]

Hi Phil,
Yes, Airgun World came first. I think it was quite a time until Airgunner appeared.

The best, by far, was Sporting Air Rifle, by that very same Jim Tyler. Excellent it was. The only thing is, it was probably a little too intellectual for some and was short lived......I was really happy when Jim later re-appeared as a AGW contributor, especially now that we have the Technical Airgun section.

I came across a Sporting Air Rifle awe on patch the other day....Gave me a nice, warm, rosy glow it did.

[Mattatack]

airgunner was releashed iirc 1985 and had jd on the front cover with a webley vulcan again this sounds right to me. it was aimed at naive teenagers and well judging by its content it still is! sar had the best cover photos always plenty if detail for the enthusiast. i dont want to knock what agw does now as i know the contributors and editor mean well to keep everyone content but i cant help hankering after the old 1990 editions. jim and carl hunting article phil bulmer adam smith james marchington, jon paris test reports and collectable section. im hoping that the report on the ken turner semi recoiless break barrel makes it to print, looking forward to that one. must confess i like the john miloski articles re. collectable guns is always topnotch and interesting and also i did enjoy the recent walther lgv test report a very good read.

[Terry D]

i dont want to knock what agw does now as i know the contributors and editor mean well to keep everyone content but i cant help hankering after the old 1990 editions. jim and carl hunting article phil bulmer adam smith james marchington, jon paris test reports and collectable section.

Matt, do me a favour and study those 1990 issues side-by-side with the Airgun World of today. Compare the quality of the photos, the paper, the number and size of the editorial pages, and the variety of subject matter. You say you like detail? There's no feature in any shooting mag' that does into more detail than our Technical Airgun section.

Jim Tyler told me a while ago that Airgun World is everything he wanted Sporting Air Rifle to become, and from one editor to another, that's about as good as it gets. Please do that comparison and get back to me - and that goes for anyone else - I'd be interested in your thoughts.

All the best.

[Mattatack]

yeah ok terry i'll do a short comparision when i get a min. incidently sorry i forgot to mention your old ft comment and test articles in the 90's agw which i must have read over and over and again in recent times hiding in my garage avoiding any work that needs doing. one thing for a start is that the old mags despite being well cared for have started to fall apart so hopefully the latest ones will last a fair bit longer.

[I. J.]

I remember the issue of AGW which came with a free sample of Prometheus (sp) on the front! Ooops.

ATB
Ian

[tonyn]

Matt, do me a favour and study those 1990 issues side-by-side with the Airgun World of today. Compare the quality of the photos, the paper, the number and size of the editorial pages, and the variety of subject matter. You say you like detail? There's no feature in any shooting mag' that does into more detail than our Technical Airgun section.

Jim Tyler told me a while ago that Airgun World is everything he wanted Sporting Air Rifle to become, and from one editor to another, that's about as good as it gets. Please do that comparison and get back to me - and that goes for anyone else - I'd be interested in your thoughts.

All the best.

I have just done exactly this terry,
I have a 1987 issue of airgun world (it my fav cos theres a pic of me in it with a trophy at macclesfields first open ft shoot )
anyways What you have said about the early issues is spot on .quality of paper, print, content is much much inferior compared to what we are getting today ,also much fewer pages
bang for buck theres no comparison.

I do though miss Arthur Shepard explaining how a pellet sounds whilst hitting vermin , THWACK , BLAT , SMACK , CRUNCH , POW , BIFF


http://i575.photobucket.com/albums/s...cclesfield.jpg

[Terry D]

I do though miss Arthur Shepard explaining how a pellet sounds whilst hitting vermin , THWACK , BLAT , SMACK , CRUNCH , POW , BIFF

What, no 'THOCK!'?

[tonyn]

oops i forgot the thock , which if i remember correctly was the sound of a .22 wasp striking big ears

[p.m.h]

This was my first ever Airgun World, from 1978:-



I still have it to this day and like looking through it.

Things did seem much less complicated back then.

I know we all have an occasional moan, expressing our opinions of how it could be better, but there is something magical about AW, and an awful lot of work does go into each issue.

I was honoured, and still am, to have had an article published.

So, if you feel it could be improved upon, get your keyboards out and give it a go.

Kind regards,



Phil

[London177]

Hello everyone,
I've quite a few airgun magazines dating back to the early 1980's. Although the quality of printing was inferior to today's mag's the content was much much better. I can read good airgun reviews and quite often a review told you the truth about an airgun: It was not very good!
Where can you read a bad review of an airgun today? Hardly ever. My local gunshop is stuffed full of poor quality airguns. Publishers make money on advertising and not circulation. I bought a copy of the 2013 Airgun World 2013 Buyers Guide last week. A waste of time. It just re-prints the advertising blurb from the maker/distributor. No real info' at all. It because of this approach that I rarely buy airgun related mag's. The same goes for motorcycling. Journo's are more akin to salesmen than bringers of useful reviews and news.
Just my tuppence worth......
Alan

[DaveC]

I still got my first issue of Air Gun World, in fact it's right in front of me, I love looking back through the old ones.

I have the first 5 years of AGW, starting at the first ever issue, Issue 1 - Volume 1 - August 1977 - 35p

Its falling apart mind you, been read so many times now.

I even have some of the Air Gun World Annual from 1983


Oh, the memories.....

[BSFNUT]

I remember the issue of AGW which came with a free sample of Prometheus (sp) on the front! Ooops.

ATB
Ian

I still have mine with the said pellet sample 'virgo intacto' ( I have 13 issues for that year - May 1989 ) how much is that worth ? - they were swiftly withdrawn - the editor should have got the boot earlier than he did

[clarky]

I also much prefered the old Airgun Worlds but would go even further back than the 90s. The qaint hunting articles with simpler guns was a real joy and very little PC around to blight things. Heck, how i hate PC.
I agree with Terry that the modern version is very high quality, with much better photography. I also noticed recently that the mass of advertising that blighted the late 90s magazines has been reduced back to virtually nothing. That has to be creditted.
I just opened an early 2000 edition here, with no less than 18 pages of adverts in it. It was the the point where i stopped my purchase, prefering to hand select an article in Smiths.
The magazine does look to be in a lot better shape now and i made purchases of both the Dec and Jan editions for reading over the xmas period.
I think there is possibly room for 2 very different mags really.
The magazine from around 2000 has had a greater emphassis on high end tackle and field target stuff. The equipment is super good for this type of shooting but if your not into being strapped into a gizmo with a 2ft scope on board (complete with shooting cushion) it might not be your bag. Thus a magazine with this emphassis for those who enjoy that but one for classic Springers and pistols, with simple hunting articles.

Its interesting that we have lost sight of the old classic, sleek sporters with a simple 4x32 or 40 scope which everyone loved but all fell into the trend for gigantic stocked strap ons with wind detectors and anodized blue paint jobs. What real field shooting is all about is classic simple lines and ease of carry just like sleek full bore firearms. or fine shotguns which never followed the gawky trend of the Airgun industry just to put the cheeks closer to the scope. It looks like im right too, with the latest Daystate sporter leading the field, everybody picking the thing up in Sportings guns yesterday, loving the simple sleek lines.
You can raise your head a little on the cheek piece and have a gun with beautiful lines, just like what full bore shooters have done for 100 years!
Just a thought for the manufacturers there.

[Terry D]

What real field shooting is all about is classic simple lines and ease of carry just like sleek full bore firearms. or fine shotguns which never followed the gawky trend of the Airgun industry just to put the cheeks closer to the scope.

Fullbore rifles and shotguns don't follow air rifle trends because they are completely different devices, with equally different ways of going about their business.

Hunting with an air rifle is primarily about placing the pellet with target standard accuracy, and all other considerations should be prioritised below this, in my opinion at least. If it takes features that owe a debt to target rifles, then so be it. If the degree of control required for precision shooting can be incorporated while retaining traditional sporting lines, then that's fine too.

The same goes for scopes. I did OK with my 4 x 40 many years ago, but I know a higher spec scope helps me to be a better shooter, so that's what I use.

Make no mistake, though, a hunting air rifle is more about what it does in the field than how it looks or how convenient it is to carry.