Recent content by Jim-in-UK

Nothing new here. Back in the 1980s I edited a UK airgun magazine called 'Sporting Air Rifle', and ran a poll that included reader's age group. The largest group by far comprised empty nesters, mainly retired men who had the income to finance their hobby, and the time to spend.

I met John Whiscombe at an early FT shoot I organised in the early 1980s, when he had just his prototype which comprised two BSA Mercury cylinders welded end on end; a very approachable chap. Later, a close friend (the late Emeritus Professor Mike Wright) became close friends with John and in...

Here's the recoil of one of my TX200s against an HW97 (both without scopes), Dan. Pellet exit is between 10ms and 11ms.

My two .177" Mk.3 TX200s have extended piston rods that give 85mm of stroke, and that's the best first step toward a 12 ft.lb. rifle, Dan. Free recoil with 500g scopes is circa 4.5mm, and the UK spring gives gentle acceleration into recoil, the 41mm of preload softens piston bounce/forward...

There is greater efficiency of expansion of air into the .22" barrel, turning more of the air's internal energy (U) into flow energy.

The guides/sleeves are not factory, but aftermarket. The TX should run fine with correctly fitting conventional front/rear guides (that fit inside the spring)

Not that I'm aware of and, even if your rifle was originally 25mm, there's always a chance someone swapped the original cylinder and piston for 26mm versions - it's not unknown here in the UK for an unscrupulous tuner to offer to fit the 26mm innards from his own 'specially tuned' rifle to an...

The 4.5x size marked on the JSB/AA tin label is nominal, and has no bearing on the diameter of the pellet head nor skirt. The important information is the die number, and date of manufacture. If your rifles shoots best with a particular die and date, buy as many as you can.

Apart from the change in piston/cylinder diameter, the thing that marks the later rifles is piston weight, at 270g against the 210g of the early rifle, so, for any given piston velocity, the 26mm piston has far greater momentum, and is better able to compress the air to a higher...

The scope killer is the abrupt reversal of rearward recoil to forward surge that results from the piston bouncing at the end of the compression stroke. My TX200s producing circa 11.4 ft. lb. produce peak G of ~90. Magnum springers can easily double that, and go north of 200G. If you multiply...

Best air rifle I have ever owned, and I have owned a few.

A UK HW99 (same model) should be in the region of 11 ft. lb., a German market will be under 6 ft. lb., so 8.5 ft. lb. is not by design, and probably due to a nicked piston seal, as has been suggested. Incidentally, JSB pellet start pressure is roughly half that of H&N (harder lead alloy), so...

Custom Stocks of Sheffield supply the CS stocks. https://www.customstock.co.uk/

I have choked barrel muzzles by freezing a plastic tub of water to get an ice block, heating the last half inch of muzzle to a dull red (not cherry red) and rolling it on the ice block. Let it cool, rod a pellet through and, if necessary, repeat until you can feel a choke.

In the mid-1980s I was the editor of a UK magazine, Sporting Air Rifle, which allowed me to play with and modify airguns to my heart's content, and get paid for the articles I wrote about it. At the time, Webley had launched their Vulcan with a PTFE piston seal, and I made and retro fitted PTFE...