Quote Originally Posted by Hsing-ee View Post
I think the Airsporter S was a bit of a crush, and the Whaley/Marshal Crosman. I didn’t like Weihrauchs in those days, or the Feinwerkbau Sport. The Sharp Victory looked amazing and in the world before PCPs, an ideal airgun.

There was a bloke at the airgun club who brought in a .22 Venom HW77 that he’d bought in a police auction. It had been confiscated from some spoiled 13 year old whose rich dad had got it for him. The child used it to blow chunks off the neighbours chimney pots and for other vandalism.

I had a few shots with it and it was amazing. It had such a low cocking effort it felt like the spring was broken and it hardly moved at all when fired. And I hit the spinner every time. I looked up the list price for one of these things when I got home and it was so far out of reach for a teenage kid like me that I forgot about it. But in terms of being glamourised by an air-rifle that was the mostest.

Of course one found the Airsporter S to be mediocre and the Victory was an old design which was withdrawn from the U.K. because they were OTT. The Whaley Crosman was one of the biggest disappointments ever when I met one in the flesh, just a pot-metal plinker with a longer pump tube attached.
I have to admit I had an old HW77k .22 off of a mate many years ago and that was just well run in, I can't remember if it twanged or not but there was hardly any recoil, which surprised me.