RICHARD’S RIFLES

Let me tell you about my guns. Normally I spend a couple of weeks contacting airgun manufacturers, scope-makers and all manner of accessory companies for products to include in our group test.

But amid the lockdown, and with many of those companies temporarily closed, all that has ground to a halt. What to do? Well, this time I thought I’d tell you a little bit more about my own modest collection.

It’s not that my air rifles are any more interesting, exotic or eclectic than the next person’s. But when you meet someone for the first time, get chatting and discover a fellow airgun enthusiast, it doesn’t take long before the conversation turns to ‘what guns have you got?’. So I thought I’d extend the principle here.

It seems only right to start at the beginning. Back in the 1980s my first rifle was an ASI Paratrooper borrowed from Uncle Trev. When I’d saved enough, I traded up to a BSA Airsporter S which I sold soon after to buy an HW80 from a friend’s brother.

Back then it had a Tasco 4x40 scope, and together we shot a seemingly endless amount of rabbits, pigeons and squirrels. However, when girls, cars and beer came along in roughly that order, my HW80 became neglected, ultimately suffering the indignity of being thrown into various wardrobes and poked under various beds.