It spends 97% of it's life just sitting upright in some room or by the door or by the back door and every time I shoot it it is right on target--a reason to keep on shooting it and using up pellets in it with firing time! But no! The rifle is not made for anyone to shoot many shots at one time--it will wear out the user in "no time."
I never had a reason to sell it as the "years" went by into a decade and beyond. The gas ram was losing faithful followers for various reasons including hard cocking force and the requirement to "ease" into the rifle over 200 shots or more to really assess it.
Now the rifle is an antique but it is still working with original parts and gas ram pressure. It has lost nothing except the loudness it once had. And the part where the machinery had more to get used to over time to smooth out elegantly without changing the point of impact on the original scope.
So mainly the rifles that I use to fill in the 97% of the time are springers.
Back to the Theoben Eliminator .25:
This "forgotten gun" leaning inside a closet or someplace I've been just stashing and shooting occasionally I've been shooting daily. One shot at 35 yards to hit steel there inside 1 1/2"s.
It never misses.
But here is the part most don't know and that is the rifle is actually very LIGHT compared to anything of power reaching it. I've got the rifle figured out 20 years later after shooting dozens of springers to learn HOW TO SHOOT a springer.
So the springer is definitely here to stay and the point is there are antique rifles out there "not made anymore" and "discontinued" but if the originals were taken care of they'd be working to this day in competition with any hunting long range air rifle.
The PCP is better of course! Mostly because of the "recoilless" design. But the Theoben fires so fast once the trigger is released everything is over before anything is realized.
That is the "trick" in this .25 Eliminator for me. It never misses since getting it around twenty years ago. Same scope too.
In the mean, I learned a LOT more about real springers.
Would I buy an antique like this thing today?
I would really have to look at it first I suppose......
I never had a reason to sell it as the "years" went by into a decade and beyond. The gas ram was losing faithful followers for various reasons including hard cocking force and the requirement to "ease" into the rifle over 200 shots or more to really assess it.
Now the rifle is an antique but it is still working with original parts and gas ram pressure. It has lost nothing except the loudness it once had. And the part where the machinery had more to get used to over time to smooth out elegantly without changing the point of impact on the original scope.
So mainly the rifles that I use to fill in the 97% of the time are springers.
Back to the Theoben Eliminator .25:
This "forgotten gun" leaning inside a closet or someplace I've been just stashing and shooting occasionally I've been shooting daily. One shot at 35 yards to hit steel there inside 1 1/2"s.
It never misses.
But here is the part most don't know and that is the rifle is actually very LIGHT compared to anything of power reaching it. I've got the rifle figured out 20 years later after shooting dozens of springers to learn HOW TO SHOOT a springer.
So the springer is definitely here to stay and the point is there are antique rifles out there "not made anymore" and "discontinued" but if the originals were taken care of they'd be working to this day in competition with any hunting long range air rifle.
The PCP is better of course! Mostly because of the "recoilless" design. But the Theoben fires so fast once the trigger is released everything is over before anything is realized.
That is the "trick" in this .25 Eliminator for me. It never misses since getting it around twenty years ago. Same scope too.
In the mean, I learned a LOT more about real springers.
Would I buy an antique like this thing today?
I would really have to look at it first I suppose......
