In view of the earlier posts in this thread this may sound a little obscure but by the age of 16 I had moved on to owning a ribbed stocked Webley mk3 from a Diana mod2 Gat at 12 to a Diana mod16 at about 13 to a BSA Cadet Major at 15 and then the mk3.

A school friend who needed cash towards a new bike offered me a pre-war BSA underlever (not sure which model) which was originally his Dad's for 30/- (£1.50) but compared to my mk3 it looked absolute rubbish although it seemed it had been well looked after. I declined to buy it!

It was only after the '97 handgun ban when I started collecting that I realised the sort of money these old BSA's were fetching and often difficult to acquire one in good condition. I still have that mk3 - and many others now - but have always looked after my guns so that BSA would still be looking good if I had bought it and I really regret not doing so sixty five years ago. Hind-sight is a marvellous thing!

Aubrey