What is your biggest airgun related disaster ?

[Lakey]

Well thats the question. What is your biggest airgun related disaster ?

Now I know some won't necessarily want to answer this, as maybe the memories are still too painful to summon to mind , but everyone makes mistakes, and it would be interesting to see what kind of disasters and mishaps others have experienced in their airgun shooting/collecting careers.

I have two that still make me wince a bit when I remember back to them.

1) Me and two mates decided to go night rabbit shooting with my pride and joy, a Webley Mk3, in .22 cal. It was an early gun with the finely fluted stock. One of my friends was a biker, and we had hatched a plan to shoot some rabbits on a farm where we had permission. It was a large farm, so my biker mate suggested that I rode on the back of his 250 trials bike, and took the rabbits when they became illuminated by the headlight. Well this proved a deadly method and we soon had a few rabbits.
My second mate had been itching to have a go, and after a while, I reluctantly handed over my pride and joy to him and watched the pair as they rode off to around a small field in search of the next rabbit. I stood at the edge of the field to watch proceedings.
After a short while, the bike stopped and I could see the rabbit frozen in the headlight. This was followed by a quick shot, followed by my friend jumping off the bike and running up to the still struggling bunny. Now the next bit is the real painful bit........ The rabbit was wounded, and required a quick dispatch. Now most of us might have given it the chop behind the ears, or shot again. BUT NOT MY "MATE" ., who raised the rifle over his head like an axe, and tried to club the rabbit. Of course he missed the rabbit ( not that it would have made any difference to the outcome), and smashed the stock in two pieces. well the pair slowly came back pushing the bike, and unaware that I had seen the whole thing, my mate had made up this story about tripping up in a rabbit hole, and accidently falling onto the stock as he ran forward to dispatch the rabbit ..... blah blah blah. He eventually found and bought another stock for the gun, but it was off a later Mk3, and didnt have the flutes in the stock. The gun was never the same again in my eyes and was quickly sold on.

2) My second bad memory centers on an early Holts sale in London, which I attended, and viewed the guns on the morning of the sale.
Amongst all the guns there were some good to average BSA underlevers. I was a successful sales rep back then, earning good commission, so had a good "bank" of money to spend that day. I looked around the guns, and there were a few oddities there that I didnt recognise. Well the auction started and I bid on several of the BSA's, being successful with four of them I think. I noted down the hammer prices in my catalogue, and then collected the guns at the end of the auction, carrying them back on the tube, in simple gun slips ( Thats how long ago it was ) .
Didnt think anything more of it, till a mate of mine read the auction catalogue a few months later.

The oddities that I failed to bid on ( that didn't make much money as I had noted down ) were a) A perfect Falke90 with all three sights b) A provenanced Gold Plated HW80, as given to the directors of the Hull Cartridge company, in good original order . A factory fresh Quackenbush No5, together with a Havilland and Gun combination rifle - I guess my excuse is that I knew nothing of these rare guns at the time, but I wish I had bid on them maybe instead of the BSA's . You live and learn. Sadly I have never seen any of those rifles again come up in auction in such good condition.

[Garvin]

Well thats the question. What is your biggest airgun related disaster ?

Andy I promise not to remind you about another disaster you had with an etched BSA that went rusty after being stored in the unheated boot of your car when you lived in barracks... (sorry, I've never forgotten it.)

Unfortunately the list of missed purchases over 40 years (25 of them active) of collecting is too long to recite (and painful!). One mistake I made was to leave a really pristine BSA Airsporter Mk1 with a mate to sell for for me when I was working abroad. I had told him what it was worth but he sold it for a pittance and it was too late to stop him when I got back.

[eyebull]

A friend dropped my beautiful new LP53 (I may even have bought it from you Danny?) and broke the rear sight within a day or two of me owning it. Otherwise in mint condition with box, cocking aid etc.
Still bitter.

[steptoe1966]

My best memory was a disaster for friend in a way .

We lived in a small vbillage and back in the late 70's early 80's we use to get up to such stuff as war games with air rifles lol well let's say e use to go over the woods and there where trenchs and alsorts , this time we had all had enough and called it in shouting and then all sat round at the top of a big bomb crater and we worked out someone was missing when a pellet fizzed past us then another we all took cover and started shouting for our mate to come in but nothing well i worked out he had to be high up as the pellets came in tothe trench we hid in so i looked round the trees and thought hmmm the only tree with enough cover to hid him was a holly right t the other end so i lined up with my scope scanning the tree and wizz pellet came past again so i took a rough figure onthe part he could be in and fired next thing out fell our friend lol omg i know bad but he fell out and we all rushed over he was screaming like a stuck pig , we all said shut up you poof lol wa not until we saw why he was screaming the hand he had been holdingthe tree truck with i hit his thumb nail it was bleeding a bit but was black as the ace of spades oh we laughed . i know bad story really but bad then health and safety meant nothing to us .

Please kids never point a gun at each other i know but a a say was the late 70's early 80's different times

[Ian Cartmell]

Bought a PCP… the shame was unbearable

[Muskett]

Buying all the dream rifles of my youth and finding out just how poor most were. Most so bad I had to sell on again. Fun though.

Can't tell you how many guns I kick myself for not buying, missed the chance, or just left it too late.
Sold a few I wish I hadn't.

Bust stock of a Webley MK3 in the post. Years keeping it perfect, and then snap

Every Single Point sight I sold for under £50.

Tried to repair a scratch on some bluing, and just made it worse; Annie 335.

[engin]

Lining up on a squirrel from an upstairs bedroom window, squeezing green trigger, then remembering that there’s a difference between what you see through the scope and where the barrel is pointing. Yep, did theclassic and shot the window frame. She was not a happy bunny when she got home.

Disaster 2 was selling a custom made .20 cal Air Arms S410 built by Ken Turner when I was having difficulties at home.

[distantcamera]

My mate and I bunked off school to do some shooting on his farm. Normally I wore some kind of green overalls for shooting but this day I was of course wearing my school trousers.

Through lamping I had developed the habit of clocking my Chinesium break barrel air rifle one handed by bracing the gun against my leg. This allowed me to keep the lamp in the other hand instead of having to put it down in cow shit. This worked well in my shooting overalls, which were made of a thick, rough fabric. Not so much in my school trousers which were pretty slippery. The butt of the gun slipped just as the catch was about to engage, and the power of the spring immediately closed the gun, slamming the end of the stock square into my bollocks. My mate still enjoys reminding me of that day.

[keith66]

About 25 years ago i was skint & a mate persuaded me to part with a Mk3 webley .22, this was a fairly late one but it was virtually mint. I sold it to him with the express proviso that if he ever wanted to part with it i have first pop to buy it back.
Of course ten years ago I was flush & asked him if he would flog it back to me. "Oh sorry i traded it in at Terry Robbs, He said it was obsolete & worthless as nobody wanted them". Terry gave him £20 of an SMK break barrel in a trade in. Grrrrrr!

The second disaster also concerned a Webley Mk 3 early one with fluted stock, out shooting with my mate Kirk, walking along the tip road there is a huge coiled up dog turd. "watch this" sez i, throws the webley to my shoulder & lets drive. BLAPP as the pellet hits the road just at the front edge & ricochets through it blasting it everywhere. We walk on & a few minutes later i say "Cor that dont half stink" Kirk looked at me said "I cant smell anything?" then started to laugh. Within seconds he was rolling on the floor absolutely helpless with mirth unable to breath. That was when i realised that a pellet sized piece of the dog turd was stuck on my moustache just under my left nostril!
Took me a while to live that one down!

[Lakey]

[QUOTE=Garvin;8111145]Andy I promise not to remind you about another disaster you had with an etched BSA that went rusty after being stored in the unheated boot of your car when you lived in barracks... (sorry, I've never forgotten it.)



Danny, You didnt have to remind me........

TBH, That incident was in my mind the whole time I was typing out this post.
I still have the gun, a BSA No.4 Club Standard, and it is one of the most accurate BSA's I have, but sadly now all that remains of the once pristine etching is a rather painful memory.

You live and learn.

[Lakey]

Bought a PCP… the shame was unbearable

I feel your pain brother, but the first part of redemption is to face up to your mistake, and share it with the world. I am proud of you.....

[Mark D]

Over 35 years ago I was given a Crosman 101 pump rifle. One day it decided to stop working, so I decided that it would be a good idea to oil the pump seal(not that I knew what one was back then) So some 3in1 oil was put into the compression tube, after a few hours it pumped again

So more must be better right! - More oil was introduced, eventually as you can guess it went into hydraulic lock. So the answer must be to put more effort into closing the pump arm!! Using all the muscle I could muster I forced the arm, when there was a loud crack and the pump arm bent

On dismantling the rifle the exhaust valve stem was snapped by the brass top hat and the pump arm was bent badly.

The rifle was bagged up and disappeared into the loft.

Many years later I meet an old fella who happened to be a bit of a dab hand at fixing pump & CO2 guns and it was bought back to life

Sold to a guy at Bisley in about 2010

[Mark D]

Bought a PCP… the shame was unbearable

My first was a Daystate Competa pistol Nr 26. I bought it from John Galloway (remember him?) when he used to drop by my house on his way home and temp me with all sorts of wondrous airguns. It had no fill kit and so after I had fixed the trigger to grip fit, I shot it on a few occasions till it ran out of air! Not seen one for sale for years.

Now of course there are numerous early pcp rifles and pistols that fall into the 'collectable' category. Some of them are high quality items that can still hold there own when it comes to accuracy and build quality with todays modern offerings.

[Josie & John]

The one that stands out for me is buying a BSA Improved Model D in .25 from auction via a friend sight unseen.

I paid around £300-£350 for it but when I saw it, it had been refinished in a gloss black rather than blue and just looked awful. The markings were all clear, suggesting there was no pitting present before a previous owner decided to refinish it. You could also see your reflection in the stock - it must have been varnished.

I replaced this rifle years later with another .25 IMD that had been verbally described as 'mint' by the owner prior to finalising the deal at a fair. When that rifle came out of its bag, it had a shiny gloss grey finish that was no way original but I bought it anyway as I didn't have a .25 at the time. It shot better than my previous .25 but again, I could not live with it and sold it on.

Luckily I now have a much better example!

John

[Nikkormat]

When I was 14, I tried to respring my Gamo Falcon with a spring from a Meteor. It ended up in the bin.

That is, as far as I remember, the only disaster in 30 years of airguns.