Scorpions, I've had a few. Love them truth be told but what a stupid piece of design.

I bought a Scorpion a few years back and when it arrived it wouldn't cock, turned out the washer had turned to cheese.

I was a bit cheesed off with the seller as they claimed to have test fired it before sale, and given my experience of them, and my experience of the pig of a job it was getting the piston head out of it, I figured that to be that welded in there it can't have been shot for ages. I remember the miffed email I sent the seller.

Skip forward to yesterday when I thought - I'll dig my old scorpion out, my only one now, I can't remember the last time I shot it and I fancy a bash with it.

Fine to begin with; bang, bang, bang, then *clunk*.

Bugger, I thought, I know what's happened there! The bloody piston heads come off.

Yep sure had.

But the reason wasn't the naff fixing but the buffer washer cheesing. Not just cheese either, but a special cheese weld combo just like that other one.

Could I get the sodding thing out?

Nope. Took a complete disassemble and over night in oil (which I am convinced did bugger all) then a rod through the transfer port to knock it back up the chamber.

Mentally I've been apologising to that poor sod who sold me one years ago all day

Anyway - I've seen the alloy one with adjustable fixing nut and different washers.

Part of me says "It looks like a gimmick don't trust it", but that's only a little bit of me, the majority part says "Got to be better than the original botch"

So which is it? Stick with tried and true, or go with new and improved?