So gents,

After deciding to send the Airwolf back to Daystate with them promising to "take my comments into account", the rifle is now on it's way back to me, with £230.23 of my hard-earned having made it's way to Daystate's coffers.

The fault has been diagnosed as a corroded valve spring, from moisture in the buddy bottle. A buddy bottle which has only ever been charged with dehydrated air from divers bottles. What a truly resilient and fabulously well designed component.

Quite why this component is made from material which is susceptible to rust, god only knows. Daystate are investigating with their supplier, i doubt i'll ever hear back about that.

Quite why this spring shouldn't be the subject of a product recall is a question for Tony Belas. I wasn't the moron who didn't spec a stainless spring.

Quite why my rifle hasn't worked correctly for years, why Daystate's bumbling and half hearted attempts to resolve the problem have failed and why the issue was only resolved once the time and effort had to be paid for out of my pocket, well i'll let you guys draw your own conclusions on these points.

To say that i'm angry to pay hundreds of pounds for the pleasure of fixing a fault that should have been rectified years ago for free is an understatement.

To say that i wouldn't trust Tony Belas, his colleagues or his company as far as i could throw them is to put my feelings mildly.

To say they followed the letter of their warranty promise is true, to say they complied with any spirit of doing the right thing by a prolific customer (having bungled numerous repairs in the past) is a stretch.

For those of you who are thinking of buying an Airwolf or any other Daystate rifle, think very carefully. If this rifle of yours develops a fault within it's warranty period, don't be surprised if the problem remains until the rifle is outside of it's warranty period, at which point Daystate will gleefully lighten your pockets to the tune of £230.23 or thereabouts.

Bravo Daystate. Screw you all.