Originally Posted by
slug-gun
Wonder no longer! Nothing to do with lack of demand, which was always very healthy indeed. In fact one shooter from Australia bought 120 boxes for his BSA Mk.2 Airsporter! So he obviously liked them. The shipping cost was huge!
The Defiant pellets were made in the basement under the still existing Pax Guns shop, in the Archway Road, Highgate, London. The machines were tended by a wonderful old school engineer, one Cyril Burrows, who continued to work in the basement until he retired aged 90, having been down there since the early 1980's! Unfortunately he died not long after in a care home.
More or less at this point, H&N, one of the most successful pellet manufacturers in the world, discovered that Pax Guns/Prometheus pellets were more accurate than their own, so to cut a long story short, H&N bought the pellet making machines and rights from Pax!
They sent over a low loader, and four engineers, who then proceeded to part dismantle four large machines, that were then carefully extricated from the basement over the course of four days, onto the truck, and shipped back to H&N in Germany.
Pax pellets, though not the whole range, are now still made on the 'old' machines, but in Germany, by H&N staff of course, and packed in H&N branded tins. For example the old 7.5 grain Defiant, is now badged as the H&N 'Sniper'.
H&N were very straight and professional to deal with and deserve success with their venture. However to get back to the point of this thread, they do not currently make the Defiant Vintage, though they could quite easily as they have the dies.
If they perceived a demand however they might be persuaded......?
Hope this now clears up the situation with the 'demise' of the Defiant Vintage and the rest of the Defiant and Prometheus pellets. They are currently wholesaled by John Rothery so a few telephone calls to them may elicit results?