) - at having such limited funds and having to save for ages to buy my next gun, at having so few places to look for it, and at having so little access to reliable information. I had Dennis's first two books, on air rifles and pistols, and must have read each one several times over. I devoured the collectors' pages of AGW too, but it was never enough.
Reply With Quote
Well said, I think today the collectors are just that - they collect the things they want! Pre-internet the enthusiasts were more like hunters on some kind of quest or detectives. The international reach of the internet means things which I imagined were completely unobtainable can be googled, offered on and PayPal'd in an afternoon. I remember seeing the Falke 80 in a copy of Wesleys 'Airguns and Airpistols' in the early 80s (or even late 70s) and I never thought I would ever see one - and I ended up owning two of them (thanks Danny)!
There must still be alot of stuff lurking in attics and garages (I know of a Sheridan Blue Streak bought before the 12 ft/lbs law hanging by a hook in an attic even now), but with the advent of this website and others, when the clearout comes there is an easy place for the inheritor or treasure hunter to take the old airgun to market.
I agree with Garvin, the collectors have it way too easy now - and airgunners in general. The modern pellets give such fantastic accuracy even from older rifles, and almost anything can be machined up, whatever your maddest fantasy is, it can be produced for less than a week's wages.
Just imagine, at one point the Normay Vixen, a tarted-up HW35 Export with a Tasco 4x40 scope and H&N Match pellets were the ne plus ultra of sporting combos! No better kit existed for the sportsman. Not that it isn't a lovely rifle but there is so much more choice now and performance is taken for granted. A half-inch group at 25 yards was super accurate not long ago. Pellet-on-pellet seems dull and clinical by comparison.
The only thing is that the modern PCP is not really collectable, unless it is really unusual and then they tend to be the 'junk' guns which never worked properly in the first place. You know what I am talking about. Maybe an early Galway Fieldmaster or AA Shamal could be considered collectable, but they just don't have any real sould so they are not really interesting. Rifles made on CNC machines are just less interesting and if it is a PCP then who cares, they are all pretty much the same ... Springers rule in terms of collecting, even a small collection of them is interesting, try a BSA Cadet, a Whiscombe, a Weihrauch HW85, a Feinwerkbau 150 and a BSF 70 and you can really see so much of the gunmaker's art. Five PCPs would just show five tubes with valves attached.
Blah blah balh!
Originally Posted by nogsk
