Bsa magnum 240

[clarky]

People are not comparing like for like at all though. Price has to have a bearing in a discussion like this. Would you compare a Gat pistol costing £10 new with an HW45 costing sixteen or eighteen times as much? Of course not. I dispute your power figures too, I have had three HW45s over the years, all in .177, and none of them were doing more than 4.5 ft/lbs, even though they were well lubricated. The power issue is a red herring anyway, I've had a BSA Scorpion that was more powerful than your HW45 figures, and Hy-Score pistols, BSA 240 Magums, numerous Webleys including Tempests a Premier, a Senior, a Mk1 and a nemesis or two, a Gamo pistol, a Record Champion and a Record Jumbo (just over 2 ft/lbs!) all doing less than those figures you quote, yet they were all more fun, more enjoyable and more satisfying to shoot than the HW45. It's enough for me that I find shooting my two BSA 240 magnums a lot more enjoyable and satisfing than shooting the one HW45 that I own. I've had no reliability problems from them at all and even with their shortcomings prefer them to the HW45. It's all down to personal preference.

Time to bow out on this one though, it's becoming a circular argument.

Yes they are. The analogy of a Gat is miles from the back field in this argument as you are talking about a plunger powered kids starter gun costing 10 quid when I first had mine.
Of course we are comparing like for like, with virtually identical operating (rearward piston) systems, similar compactness and both well over £100 cost at the time.
This is just the same as the vast amount of direct comparisons (like for like) that have occurred between whole rafts of rifles on this board. These including Supersports versus HW50S/99S etc but these carried out without cost ever being mentioned. Thus I do not accept your point here at all. Especially as you have not even considered inflation costs to the BSA price should have it been around now.
Again, I must add that your 45 must be run dry to realise good performance, thus your "well lubed" 45 was set up wrong. We have had literally dozens of them through the club in both calibers down the years....all hitting the figures I quoted and these confirmed in various publications of Airgunner/world etc....peer reviewed literal works behind my argument... and quite recently too since being added into the new frame finish and chrome detail.

The Scorpion I would agree on, in fact it could stray the legal limit, with many returning 6.3ftlbs with BSA pellets in .22 cal. However, its behaviour was challenging to say the least, not least with some 16 inches of gun out in front of you.
Literally 1000s of pistol shooters would disagree with you regarding the guns you mention being more enjoyable but you are entitled to your opinion but the reliability and potential performance of the 45 can not be in question here....unfair.