brushing off the cobwebs

[mark22c]

gotten the bug again and just want to say hi, have been off the shooting scene for a few years now and the last airgun i owned was a pc webly anxor (not sure now how its spelt or prenounced now) mainly for plinking, keeping the mag pie's and rats under control at a paint ball sight i used to run.
to cut a long story short we recently moved to a new house with a large walled garden and my wife has a few chickens which seem to have attracted a few rats so looking for something cheap that would do the job bought a gamo shadow 1000 .22 air rifle with a cheap 4x32 scope and a few tins of bisley practice flat heads.
first problem though is the awfully long trigger pull on the gamo takes an age. the gun is accurate enough to get sub 1 inch groups at 25 yards though with the scope from a rested bench shooting position when you can control the pulling of the trigger but free standing i cant hit a barn door with the thing

the main thing though is this... just how much i missed shooting air rifles, hours plinking in the garden and evenings spent hunting, trouble is now i want to spend more and get something better than the gamo shadow and need a little help being behind the times

cheers all mark

[timmaaah]

Hi Mark - welcome along

[The Robin]

hi and welcome

[jonnyhal]

Hello!

[mark22c]

cheers, apart from the HW90k i bought about 5 years ago for a little father son bonding havnt owned an air rifle for almost 10 years but before then have owned dozens from the age of 14 - 30 years, im 40 now and have forgotten so much about the sport, talking mid to late 90's out of date and a lot of catching up on whats good and whats not, changes in law ect
my first rifle was a beet up old diana bought without parents permission from a lad at school with saved dinner money. i had to hide it in a tree at the old cemetery on my paper round and would get up early so i had time for a plinking session after finishing my round and before school used old marksmen pellets that came in a card box. a lot of fond memories though eventually some kids found my gun and nicked it... i was devastated!

first gun bought with my fathers permission and i remember going to get it with him from trago mills near liskeard was a relum super tornado under lever and tap loaded with a 4x20 scope and several tins of milbro pellets, i was 15 and it was my birthday! the gun cost if i remember right about £47

next on my wish list was an HW35 about £75 new in 1986 and bigger scope
tried saving all year to buy one but always ended up spending it... still 16th birthday and look what my dads got me!

all of my shooting at this stage was in the garden plinking but first job working at a nursery got me permission to shoot a few fields and a small wooded patch this is when i upgraded to a HW80 followed a little later with an HW77 under lever from then on i was hooked