Yes, so often received wisdom is shown to be suspect or untrue in the vintage airgun collecting world, it seems. It's the same with the plastic FWB65 grips - I was pretty convinced this was an economising move by Feinwerkbau late in production, perhaps to differentiate the 'budget' 65 from the more sophisticated models 80 and 90. But then I started to see early models with plastic grips and finally was given a first-hand account by someone (Robin on here) who actually bought a 65 with plastic grips in 1972. So I had to abandon the theory, sharpish.