My Sirocco 2000 .22 is down to about 8 ft lbs. Its about four years old, and has never been serviced, but, quite honestly I've hardly ever used it. Couple or three tins of pellets at most.

My Fenman .177 is down to 9 ft lbs. It's about 18 months old and has also seen very little use.

They are quality items and a joy to shoot when up to speed, but , if this is going to be a recurring problem, I'll get rid and buy a HW98.

I'd appreciate some advice on this. Should I buy a pump and bring them up to power, or would that be a waste of cash? In other words, do they need pumping or fixing? A pump and hose costs about 68 quid, but paying for Theoben to sort them, and the associated postage costs would probably work out at more than that.

However, if that's what they need, I'll have to do it. Or maybe it would be better to send them to Ben Taylor, since he's the expert.

I've read posts on here from blokes who've run Theoben break barrels for years with no power loss.

I'd appreciate your comments.