Worst Modification Best Rifle or Pistol

[Hsing-ee]

When I was about 16 I cut down the barrel of my beloved Crosman 766 ... This pretty much ruined the rifle.

I think I'd just seen The Sweeney 2, where bank robbers cut down the barrels on a gold-plated Purdey 12 bore. So I was just copying their sacrilege, I suppose. I was young and foolish....

To be fair to your younger self, I am sure that it was pretty cool!

The 766 always found an early grave. Back in the day it was the aspirational gun of teenagers who wanted a Remington Nylon 66 like their American counterparts, but could not have one. A couple of AGW's more fantastical writers sold it as a recoil-less miracle, capable of stunning accuracy and power. One of them shot ducks with it (DUCKS, FFS!). Others, like 'Harvey' (I think that was his name) and Mr Cardew were less enthusiastic, knowing it was not at all an improvement on the scacely more expensive BSA Mercury, or the unpatriotic HW35.

What you actually got was a plastic and monkey-metal pumper that was less powerful and accurate than a standard BSA Meteor and which required a massive amount of clack-clack-clacking to get it up to steam, and then you had the fiddly loading and the oh so heavy and creepy trigger pull to deal with ... the power generally dropped off fairly quickly as the valves got scorched from over-pumping and then the accuracy went to pot when the tiny grub-screw which held the straw barrel in place got loose. It was never designed to last more than a few thousand shots and is one of the few rifles which has a far stronger and durable stock than the barrel and action.

If you chopped it fore and aft, then I am not surprised, the thing bloody well deserved it. I'm sure it looked like a Remington pump-action shotgun like villains down the Mile End Road would love to get their 'germans' on. Leave it aaaaaaaaaht!

The Remington Nylon 66 ... get one and enjoy the real thing!

https://imgur.com/gallery/u8z0B

[Garvin]

To be fair to your younger self, I am sure that it was pretty cool!

Wow, Alistair, I had no idea the Crosman was such a close copy of the Remington! If I'd known back then I might not have cut it down.

Your description of the 766 is so right, although I didn't know the details then, just noticed the effects of all that furious pumping. Probably did me no end of good, the exercise, and 'clack' is just the right word to describe the sound.

Despite the awful trigger, I did find it quite accurate with a crappy x20 scope on it.

Out of nostalgia I bought a 766 from Phil Russell's daughter here some years ago. It was disappointingly flimsy, with a painted barrel shroud (my old one was thinly blued) and the plastic front bracket holding the barrel to cylinder was terminally loose.

You're spot on that the Crosman 766 was basically a 'disposable' air rifle. No wonder I fell head over heels with a Feinwerkbau Sport 127 a couple of years later (I still have it - Phil Bulmer resealed it for AGW in 2007).

But I also had a Crosman 1300 pistol and it most certainly wasn't disposable. I still have that too, expertly resealed by Lawrie.

[the green man]

i turn a mk 2 airsporter in to lamp when i was a kid drilled the barrel out to put the wires down through the tap and stock and in to a base and put a glass globe to it and it look good to

[Garvin]

i turn a mk 2 airsporter in to lamp when i was a kid drilled the barrel out to put the wires down through the tap and stock and in to a base and put a glass globe to it and it look good to

You're not the only one to have had this idea (nothing to do with me, despite DCL_Dave's attemot to smear me with it.

[eyebull]

i turn a mk 2 airsporter in to lamp when i was a kid drilled the barrel out to put the wires down through the tap and stock and in to a base and put a glass globe to it and it look good to

That's not a terrible idea for a scrapper gun (though I'm not sure about the execution in Danny's link!).

[Geezer]

Worst I have seen recently, from a police amnesty hand-in, was a Mk5 Airsporter that had the barrel sawn off at the end of the receiver tube. As is the way of these things, it was slated to be cut up and melted down at taxpayers' cost, rather than sold to the boller-suited Ant and Dec at Protek (you guys are great, sorry) to be broken up for spares.

The scariest (including in user terms) illegal conversion that I have seen in a while is an airsoft blowback pistol very very badly converted to fire live rounds. Or a live round. Maybe. It appeared that the conversion involved tools from Poundland, wielded by an idiot. Zamak meets 9mmP 2Z, becomes hand grenade.

[Hsing-ee]

The scariest (including in user terms) illegal conversion that I have seen in a while is an airsoft blowback pistol very very badly converted to fire live rounds. Or a live round. Maybe. It appeared that the conversion involved tools from Poundland, wielded by an idiot. Zamak meets 9mmP 2Z, becomes hand grenade.

Its an odd choice for a conversion. A functioning 'zip-gun' can made up from tube etc, rather than as you say making a non-functioning self-bursting thing. Perhaps its all about the looks.

An 'official' zip-gun is the USA's FP-45 Liberator pistol, but I guess it doesn't look as scarey as an airsoft....

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FP-45_Liberator

[Geezer]

Its an odd choice for a conversion. A functioning 'zip-gun' can made up from tube etc, rather than as you say making a non-functioning self-bursting thing. Perhaps its all about the looks.

An 'official' zip-gun is the USA's FP-45 Liberator pistol, but I guess it doesn't look as scarey as an airsoft....

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FP-45_Liberator

Given forum rules and general sense, I will not explain how it was "converted", beyond saying that my reaction on examining it was along the lines of "Holy crap, that's awful".

[the green man]

i once fitted a ox spring to a gamo statical that's up there with a gas stud crap