I agree with you Alistair. My first air rifle was the Hawk in 1971/2, just after if came out. Because it held the Webley name, gunsmiths were happy to sell it at a time when there was little penetration of foreign competition into the UK. The cost, if I recall, was around £13-14. It had a changeable barrel (like the Mk2) for a little extra. Today, the multiple is about 20 to reach today's prices, which would probably take it to £260-£280. It was poor quality. The power was weak and the spring shed power. A friend at school had a Webley Mk3 and so I traded mine in and bought a Mk3 a year later for, I think, around £29, with something knocked off for the Hawk. The Mk3 was far better but could not take a scope on the hopeless scope rail, which encouraged recoil creep. That did not worry me and I mastered the iron sights quickly. I was not yet in my teens but in those days, with parental oversight, we could buy air rifles.

I was astonished, later, to discover the Hawk had not been discontinued. With encroaching competition from the German players, the Webley management - one can only assume - was dead beat and asleep on the job. When it did act, it was reactive rather than pro-active. Eventually it got it right and then went under, but the Germans had more or less taken over the UK market by the 1980s, with limited competition from BSA and Webley. However, the Mk3 (in production for some 30 years), the Omega and the Longbow were good rifles and I am a happy owner of each of these.

What a great brand name to own and the new owners bought Webley for a song, it seems, and have continued to turn out cheap muck, missing an opportunity to nurture the name and restore production to the UK. Quite tragic.