Back after 25 years

[burpthedog]

Hi,

After an absence of about 25 years I'm returning to airgunning and have dusted off my trusty old .177 BSA Mercury and equipped it with new seals and a new scope - good as new! I live in Scarborough and am currently looking for somewhere fairly local to shoot and am very interested in field target shooting (I'm afraid my hunting days are long gone for live quarry!)
rather than indoor range. My wife, having regularly shot .303 at Strensall Army Camp as a girl scout (many many years ago!) is also is very interested in the sport. I'm looking to join the Darlington field target club to use the range at the Sun Inn as this is about 40 minutes or so from home which is quite appealing especially as I guess you can also get a pie and a pint after you've finished shooting....

Very interesting to read the ongoing debate over .177 or .22 - the argument is still raging even 25 years later!

[The Robin]

hi and welcome

[Mr Magoo]

Hello and Welcome to the BBS.

[burpthedog]

mmm - been looking at second hand stuff but it seems to me that sometimes its nearly the same price as new - unless that's just in the shops - maybe classified ads are cheaper?

Still - I'll be using my trusty BSA Mercury MK3 for a while - its immaculate and still as good as most modern guns (well - it would be if it had a 2 stage trigger and safety catch!). I like the feel of the spring guns as well - that bit of recoil makes it feel less 'sterile' and you have to practice more to get really tight groups. The only thing is the really dark stained stock - might get that stripped and re-laquered by the joiner's shop at the construction company I work with....

[18 Wheeler]

Welcome back to shooting and the BBS.

The answer is .177

There are clearly some chancers when it comes to secondhand prices. Generally speaking 2/3rds of the best "new" price should be about right.

[burpthedog]

mmm - I expect that's a fair assessment. Just bought a Wiehrauch HW40 pistol for some garden plinking yesterdayfrom Pickering Airguns - its a great little gun actually although I'm probably guilty of doing what most people do - getting your T-shirt caught in the mechanism whilst cocking the pistol....apart from that I'm getting much tighter groups than the missus which is annoying her!