Gerzer, a lot of what you say is true. I'm a little protective of marmite Thatcher, and it was testing times for many with the amount of changes going on. However, she can't be blamed for the decline of Webley and BSA. That they did themselves, well the British Gun Trade as a whole.
The Webley Vulcan MKI was a great boys rifle and taught me how to deal with triggers that need to be stamped on! It was half the price of a FWB Sport. And yes, Theobens were eye wateringly expensive. (I have never bought a new one, nor most of my air rifles.)
Beretta is the gun goliath that it is because the US Army bought its 92F 9mm handgun. Just takes one good contract, but you need the right product first.
It would seem that on the whole, people who have them like them and those who don't have one don't ?
Many parallels with those who prefer springers to pre charge maybe ?
Horses for courses eh.
Rust never sleeps !
I'm still planning on some HFT once I find the right HW90 to use. Not to replace my tx200, just to compare. Looking forward to trying it though
i've never had to change a spring in any of my gasrams. Nor forked out hundreds to make then a better mousetrap. In fact I never had to do anything with them other than just shoot; always been trouble free.
I had the thumbhole Olympus.
Blueing was superb. Woodwork was really nice. Engineering impressed.
Trigger wasn't great. Shot cycle harsh.
I was living with all that.
I mainly shoot in Winters. On cold days the MV was dying shot per shot and so was the POI. Couldn't live with that so I sold it. Wish I'd kept it and used it in warm weather. It went to Holland I think.
I have had several Theobens including an FAC Sirocco Classic and an Eliminator which I ran at 24 ft lbs. Superb air weapons in terms of build quality and finish with the exception of the triggers which let the guns down. I really don't get what people are saying about them being difficult to shoot compared to springers, I found the opposite. The short and quick lock time in my opinion made them easier to shoot extremely accurately when you found the right pellet. And whoever mentioned their experience with their receptionist that was my experience too LOL!!!
Trig
What goes around comes around. So it's in all our interests to be nice!!!
Anyone tried a Sig ASP 20 ? I think there was one at the Birmingham Shooting Show but the queue looked quite large so I kept walking
On a similar note, has anyone tried a Diana 340 or 350 N-Tec?
Reviews I've seen from people I mostly trust suggest:
- barrel droop;
- potential scope creep;
- snappy;
- very light trigger;
- best groups of around 10-15mm at 25/30 yards/metres. Even at 18 ft-lbs in .177".
Which, trigger and droop aside, is very Theoben-y. And interesting. If I was in the market for a new break-barrel, I'd definitely check it out. Even though the stocks look silly (but hey, maybe they handle well?).
I’ve owned an AR8 Blaser .22 (350 Ntec) for a year. This is the Pro version. Short barrel and heavy muzzle weight. Suits me fine as I normally shoot a 48 Black Pro. Weight balance is similar, although totally different stock styles.
My answers to your statement.
- barrel droop; No.
- potential scope creep; Four stud one piece mount used with a Hawke Panorama sitting in it. No creep.
- snappy; Yes/No. Stand a pellet on the scope turret and it’s still there after firing. So can’t be that bad.
- very light trigger; Yes.
- best groups of around 10-15mm at 25/30 yards/metres. Even at 18 ft-lbs in .177". Will stack .22’s at this distance at 12fpe.
I typed shot cycle harsh above. It's fast and snappy ... but I was okay with that. I run my springers like that with Venom/V-Mach kits in. I prefer that to the slow n soft cycle. Accuracy was good when you learned to handle the fast and snappy shot cycle and the not so great trigger. The only thing that drove me bonkers ( hence it went ) was the affect the cold had on the muzzle velocity in winters.
I could take it out of the car and group 5p sizes at say 40 yards. Then keep shooting and watch each pellet start landing lower and lower and lower. This was in close to zero temps. I tried leaving it out for 20 mins but it just kept dropping. I proved it on the Chrony ... sat outside in the cold and put pellets over the chrono and the MV just kept going down and down and down. So, as a winter shooter, useless to me.
To be fair ... I've had similar happen with the HW77s at those temps ... but the opposite direction ... colder = higher MV.