Thank you.Originally Posted by Rickenbacker
To be fair, I think Geezer is right about a well fitted and fettled loading tap being a wonderful thing... however, I've used a lot more bad ones than wonderfully good ones. And with modern production methods being what they are (more automation - less skilled human involvement), I wonder if a new tap-loader would be viable... is it possible with modern machinery/materials? Or is it just too tricky to get the thing perfectly sealed and aligned every time...?
Your Mod. 50 sounds like an interesting project, Ali.
Indeed, there is no way it would be economic to make a well-made taploader now to pre-WWII standards if it involved any hand-fitting. It would cost more than, say, a sliding breech, and not perform as well.
Maybe there is some theoretical way of making one using ultra-precise computerised machinery from the space industry, without the hand-fitting. Or 3D printing, or nanotechnology or some other thing I don't understand. But still not economically. And the sliding breech would still be more efficient.
The last vaguely good taploaders were, IMHO, the 1980s Air Arms Camargue/Khamsin. And they weren't cheap, selling for more than an FWB Sport or HW77 (and the Sport or 77 were the 1980s FT champs, not the AAs).
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