We where spoilt in the 80's for Custom Rifles.

[look no hands]

The one I always wanted was the Imperial Double Express.

Pete

[TonyL]

We certainly were spoiled for choice back then. And I think much was due to the launch of a certain new airgun-specific magazine in 1977, bringing with it the new Age of Enlightenment and respect for air-powered guns, leading onto the birth of FT, further driving development.

[Black Beard]

I think that the development of cheap Chinese tooling has done for the commercial airgun tuner. Anyone can do it themselves and airgun owners like to tinker. 3D printers will make this worse (or better, depending on your point of view). PCPs don't help as the gains from tuning are less than on a Springer.

On stocks, the skills just disappeared as people got old and retired.

[Craig-P]

I think what made Venom Arms stand out from the rest was their range of abilities extended to the world of powder burners, too. Even back in those days of the full on custom houses, there wasn't many who worked their magic on all platforms.

[Craig-P]

The one I always wanted was the Imperial Double Express.

Pete

I really wanted one of those, too - but at £550 they were out of my reach at the time. There was one for sale on GunTrader not so long back, I think it was around the three grand mark.

[look no hands]

I really wanted one of those, too - but at £550 they were out of my reach at the time. There was one for sale on GunTrader not so long back, I think it was around the three grand mark.

I think it's still for sale but it's just under 2.5k now

Pete

[les allam]

I think it's still for sale but it's just under 2.5k now

Pete

Go on Pete, it’s only money.
You can’t take it with you ldgrin.
Les..

[T 20]

The one I always wanted was the Imperial Double Express.

Pete

Possibly, the only gun left that would interest me is a Worcestershire Black Powder HW80 Magnum.



All the best Mick

[BTDT]

Possibly, the only gun left that would interest me is a Worcestershire Black Powder HW80 Magnum.



All the best Mick

Was it called the 'Maraudermax', Mick?

[BSFNUT]

Was it called the 'Maraudermax', Mick?

Yes Jim, HW80 with Anschutz barrel and lock grafted on .

[Phil Russell]

Yes ... and those were the days when I would drool (and dream) over the adverts in the magazines ....
I may have one or two mags around to still drool over.
Cheers, Phil

[foby75]

Love this thread. It's a bit sad but looking back over the adverts for these custom 80s rifles is far more evocative for me in remembering my teenage years than listening to the music of the time! I spent so much time wanting one!

[Leyland77]

My brother's and i used to club together to get a copy of Airgun world and a sea fishing magazine bag in the day.
Then after school we'd all pile into our local tackle shop which also sold airguns.I can remember them having the vintage Webley and Weihrauch rifles,
and saw a few Venoms there but we could only dream of all those guns as we never had the money then,i do remember buying pellets though for about £1.20 a tin.
jim

[harvey_s]

While I might agree there is less choice of manufactured 'custom' rifles... I see more actual 'custom' rifles in shooters hands than ever before.
The difference is now they are true custom specials built to an individual's requirements rather than a formulaic build.
I'm also seeming far more tuned actions than I ever did in the 80's.

[gsxrman]

During the eighties I would imagine that springers out sold PCP by a lot.
Most springers were still relatively basic and crude, and so could really do with improving.
The custom houses capitalised on this especially when the HW80 and 77 came along and they could develop them into very consistent and accurate rifles.
Now we have an off the shelf TX that shoots as good as most tricked up 77s. To improve the TX will cost a lot fortune for very little gain.
Couple that with now very affordable PCPs which are easier to shoot than the best tricked 80/77 or even TX.
There is no real need for the Venom Lazaglided re stocked springer probably costing £2k or more. Yes they will be the odd person who would pay for this but so few that the business model would not get off the ground.
You could argue that we are spoilt now. We can mostly afford the "dreamt" or rifles of yester year if we can find them for nostalgic reasons and have the best the manufacturers have to offer to shoot efficiently when we want. There is still a lot of old or new crap out there to buy, strip and experiment on too, so the fun tinkering is still there. Best of both worlds, maybe?

Different world too, think we wanted 77/80 on steroids and tried to make it ourselves as we couldn't afford one.
Think like this, HW100 + scope+ silencer+bag+7L Bottle etc. Then think the kids of today spend £1-1.5k on iPhone.