Quote Originally Posted by Hsing-ee View Post
Is the piston rod just held in the piston by those splines? It CAN'T just be a friction fit, that would be insane. Certainly any other maker would thread the rod and screw it in tight with locking agent like you say.

The German thing is right, I have had poor finishing on Weihrauchs of all generations, not all of them but certainly one in four or so on average, or 100% in the case of the HW30. One HW30 had a cocking slot that was cut out of parallel with the cylinder! Air Arms does not seem to have this QC problem, although they always need relubing.

The only springers which really do (or did) not need attention and which were perfect out of the box were the old 10 meter match rifles. Models like the Feinwerkbau 150/300 series, the Anschutz 380 and the Original 75 were built up to a standard and not down to a price. Also, they were sold to shooters who could really shoot and knew their onions, and who would spot imperfections on the first few shots. They could not get away with 'extended breaking in periods' while the grinding surfaces smoothed out - there is a blog somewhere with an American HW99S owner using both hands on the barrel to cock the rifle while the galling sorted itself out!

BSAs for the most part seem to be well made, but the designs are less than they should be, always working on the 'good enough' rather than 'best' principle and that business of the Maxigrip and the 13.8mm scope rail! oh my lord. I will try to get hold of a SuperStar at some point for my collection and maybe a Cadet... it is a shame as some BSAs are inspired, like the Buccaneer and the RB2 but they never executed the designs quite right. If you want a good example of how they could have been done, compare a Mk 2 Airsporter with a German Falke 80, which is a copy of it. The Falke has the precise trigger the Airsporter lacks and it exudes top-level quality. BSA could have been Air Arms, but lacked the confidence or the clarity needed. They did make some awful rifles as well, like the BSA Merlin, now that is a POS, and I had a go with a gasram break barrel (a Super Shit?)a couple of years ago that was worse than any SMK I have tried, awful trigger and grouped like a cylinder-bore shottie.
Like you say, I remember when I did a bit of 10m shooting in the mid 80's and the Walther sidelevers we used back then where pretty damn bombproof and oozed quality even though they had seen some action and abuse.

BSA also lacked the funding from Gamo, they always seemed to drop the good rifles for the crappier ones and then build them down, they've gone for the Poundland approach, they've not made anything decent since the Superstars and RB2's etc I'm afraid to say.

Pete