Sliding breeches can crush digits, but break-barrels can smash teeth and noses. You pay your money and take your chances...
THE BOINGER BASH AT QUIGLEY HOLLOW. MAKING GREAT MEMORIES SINCE 15th JUNE, 2013.
NEXT EVENT :- May 2025.........BOING!!
Far too many rifles to list now, all mainly British but the odd pesky foreigner has snuck in
Short and stumpy, preferrably a gas-sham. The lack of mechanical advantage means the extra effort allows one to be hit in the face, break the stock AND possibly get your fingers/web of the hand pinched or crushed in the breech when it 'kangaroos' the unfortunate shooter. The scope should be destroyed when the brute hits the ground scope-down in accordance with Murphy's Law.
A HW35 Export with its nice long lever is perfectly controllable.
Obviously, the sliding compression tube is best. Decades of match wins by the FWB 65, 80, 300 and HW77 and AA TX show that.
I do like the BSA RB design. I don't think they executed it well. I'd prefer a catch that was less likely to foul a long scope, and auto-opening.
And there's a lot to be said for the taploader.
Yes, there's an unswept volume issue. They will never top the efficiency chart.
Yes, many of us have experienced alignment and other QC issues on things like 1970s Airsporters.
But a good tap-loader, like a BSA LJ pattern, Mk1-2 Airsporter, Webley MkIII, pre-late 60s Diana 50, properly lapped and aligned by hand at the factory, is still a great thing, easy to use (esp with auto-opening), pretty accurate, and very, very, safe.
Sure, no tap-loader will win the FT World Champs, but for general use, a good (good) tap-loader remains a perfectly decent rifle.
The same might apply to pop-ups. But I have never owned one (unless the Gamo Spring pistol rotary breech/tap counts), and just don't like them, for entirely irrational reasons.
PS - I note with amusement and approval that no-one has suggested that the Sterling/Park bolt action is a great u/l design.
Because it isn't. Though the Park version has some attractions and merit. The Sterling is like an airgun SA80. Interesting idea, badly executed.