Cindy's Shooting Shop

[DoctorBoudreau]

Good morning!

My name is Casey Robertson and I'm an airgunner in San Diego, CA - USA. I have recently acquired a very early HW77 .22 that is marked with "Vixen - Cindy's Shooting Shop". I was using Google to find information about this and ran across this post.
Does anybody have any documents or information about this shop? I have heard that Cindy moved to the USA and would love to track her down to find out more about this Vixen line of rifles. If you have any information or history about the shop, the Vixen line, Cindy etc I would truly appreciate it. Thank you!

[18 Wheeler]

Here's an old C'sSS advert I scanned from a 1985 magazine.

Many of the better gunshops in the mid-80s also offered their own "specials", which ranged from adding a Custom Stocks of Sheffield stock to a standard action to full custom versions (Airmasters Mastersports/Chameleon, various Venom variants, Normay Vixen etc). Quite where your Cindy's Vixen fits into that spectrum I don't know, taking it apart may offer most of the answers?

IIRC Cindy's closed down in 94/5? Good luck with your search and please do keep us updated.

ATVB, Nick.

[Mach 1.5]

Venom and Ken Turner did work for Cindy. Also had her own range of Vixen scopes. Venom did the piranha 38 based on the Diana 38. Venom tuned, 5 inch trimmed from the barrel and silencer fitted and dropped into a very nice stock. Mr Turner helped with the Sporter / Thumbhole Vixen 52's...again rare rifles. Hope thats some help? Mach 1.5

[DoctorBoudreau]

Venom and Ken Turner did work for Cindy. Also had her own range of Vixen scopes. Venom did the piranha 38 based on the Diana 38. Venom tuned, 5 inch trimmed from the barrel and silencer fitted and dropped into a very nice stock. Mr Turner helped with the Sporter / Thumbhole Vixen 52's...again rare rifles. Hope thats some help? Mach 1.5

Helps a lot - PM replied too. Thank again for the data!

[DoctorBoudreau]

Gun was bought in person from Cindy's husband in Michigan at an airgun show in 1999. Husband (Joe) stated it was worked on/tuned by Ken Turner. I made contact with an old FT club called Codnor in the UK. They mention on their website that they started out of Cindy's Shooting Shop in the 1980's. Their webmaster replied and said he'd speak with the club's founder who has information and photos from those days (he doesn't do the internet) and that he'd try to borrow and scan info for me. Also was contacted by a gentleman on airgunbbs.com that said he had some Vixen documents/information he would scan and mail to me from the UK. The owner previous to Matt also has an old Airgun Letter dated from 6/1999 where Tom Gaylord mentions Cindy and Joe having a number of nicely tuned rifles for sale. Hoping to get a copy of that too. Once I get data/scans I will post here for those interested. Hoping to get an email/postal or phone number for Cindy and Joe to reach out to them for more info about the shop and the work done with Ken Turner on the Vixen line. In the next month I hope to break down the rifle too to take a look at the innards and measure the spring, transfer port, stroke length, seal arrangement, any buttoning or piston work etc.

-Casey

[DoctorBoudreau]

Got a scan of the Airgun Letter from 1999 that referenced Cindy and Joe White selling these guns. This was June 1999 - rifle was acquired via mail from Joe and Cindy later in 1999. Now I'm trying to find out its history from when it was built in 1983 to 1999 when it was brought to the USA. Going to try that phone number and see if Joe or Cindy still answers - some Googling around suggests that they might.

http://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/4.../ALexcerpt.jpg

[DoctorBoudreau]

An update on my HW77 .22 Vixen. I acquired this rifle some weeks ago and have been investigating
its origins.

Through some leads and internet sleuthing I was able to locate Joe and Cindy White who ran
Cindy's Shooting Shop in the UK many years ago. I penned a letter to them and sent a small
package including pictures of the rifle and some photocopies of old ads from their shop.

Well they called me! This past Friday I saw an unfamiliar area code on my cell phone, picked it up
and was then chatting with Joe and Cindy via speakerphone. Among other things I found out that the rifle
was indeed an early UK import which was indicated by the low serial number. It was Joe's personal rifle
at one point. He said it was originally tuned by Venom but when it came back they weren't overly happy
with the work so they had their friend Ken Turner work on it. They told me all the brass bits (trigger,
guard, screws, safety etc) were done by Ken. So this was somewhat of a custom or a one-off. They did
collaborate with Ken on a line of semi-custom Vixen rifles which were primarily custom Diana 52's that
were short-stroked among other things. The stock on the rifle was done by a supplier in Sheffield but
they could not recall the name.

It was a pleasure talking to them and they said they have some other interesting rifles that they will
take some photos of to send to me. Among them are matched pairs of custom stainless rifles built from
scratch by Ken Turner. Two are underlevers and two are break barrels with under barrel latches. All stainless
and all built like tanks. They also have one of the first 10 TX200 SR's made which apparently had some
beefier internals/recoil mechanism. Since moving to the USA they said they shoot mostly PB's since there
isn't nearly the interest in airguns although they did mention shooting at the Western Wayne Club back in the day....
perhaps somebody from there remembers them.

Anyway, it was neat to hear more about the origins of my gun and now I plan to get it cleaned up and shooting like
new. They were tickled to see pictures of the rifle and were glad that it had been well cared for during the past
few decades.

-Casey