Quote Originally Posted by FPoole View Post
I always felt the 80 flexing as I popped the barrel back into the detent. Felt sort of springy, for lack of a better description. and those tiny little shims and the scoring on the breech block. The factory guide was a joke at best. The cocking link always jingled about from new and the piston stem is thinner than the AA guns. That lump of metal that screws into the receiver is the heaviest part of an HW and serves no strength purpose, but it does help the guns not feel as front heavy. The AA receiver is plenty strong enough to handle any amount of mount tightening and it's always in line from end to end unlike the HW unit which always goes a little past after the first time you open it up, easy to fix, but it still does it.. I had my 80 for 20 years or so and I liked it just fine, but the PE is a step up the quality ladder. My 80 and a $100 bill helped me get a fabulous deal on a Mark1 TX200. Now that is a gun built to last. The PE also had the same trigger unit as the TX's and it is better than the Rekord, this is fact not just my opinion and anyone who says different is simply wrong. They also don't know how to, easily and simply, adjust the CD. One thing the PE needed was the 80's open sights.

I actually once owned a PE with factory open sights! Never seen another.