Further to my original ramblings on this thread, the "conclusion" reached by a fair few and from subsequent conversations with fellow Venom / V-mach fans:

Older rifle-slower and smoother
Newer rifle-faster and "snappier"

The rifle that Bigtoe describes as beautifully engineered but horrible to cock-well, guess what, I got my hands on it yesterday. Springer tuner extrodinaire Dave Gee has worked his magic on it. New breach seal, Venom Piston head, full re-lube and a macarri spring= airgun joy. Yes it is harder to cock than my early Lazaglided 77, not really much harder than my Lazaglided 97k though. The firing cycle is somewhere between the two, although the lock-time is warp speed
Could the answer be: take the best bits from old/new and combine them?

Or should we all be buying short-stroked TX's?