I have a habit of visiting pawn shops and thrift shops when working at a distant place. I have always been struck with a strange phenomenon, sometimes things that are expensive in Arizona, are surprisingly cheap in other places. I slipped into a pawn shop and asked them if they had any non-Walmart air rifles on hand. They said no, but their sister store had some unidentified high end air rifle; I was intrigued. I called the other store, and they said they had a F(mumble) brand rifle, I asked them if it was a Feinwerkbau, they enthusiastically stated "yeah, so *that* is how you say it". They stated some non-existent model number; A trip to observe it was in order. As is the usual case, they made it sound like the other shop was 5 minutes away; one hour later I arrive at their sister location (after a bit of epic navigation, due to a out-of-date GPS map).
Looking around the store there were only two air rifles on the wall, one was clearly an Umarex plastic stocked rifle, the other beech-wood stocked rifle seemed to have uncommon touches to it, but it was clearly recognizable. It was a Feinwerkbau 124 (FWB124). It was very confusing at first glance, as it was in pristine condition, which would normally lead me to believe it was of recent manufacture. The metal hand a nice deep blue black, with not sign of wear on the finish, and the wood stock showed none of the usual signs of being bumped and dinged, which is common with a springer air rifle which is just a few years old. But then, it had the narrow European 3/4 inch strap for carrying it, it had a palm-swell on the right hand side of the pistol grip, it was obviously hand-checkered and not stamped, It also had the Beeman stamp from some of the earlier years of their San Rafael location. Other oddities was the age of the scope, which was an ancient 6X Burris mini. The stock showed all of the "extras" associated with the "Mark II" or Deluxe version, with white spacers and black on the bottom of the pistol grip and the butt of the rifle. The only atypical thing noted was the "finger shoe" added to the trigger.
The Ugly.....
I cocked the FWB to examine the bore, and it was blocked. There appeared to be tiny bits of yellow/white plastic-like substance at the breech. I followed the nice lady at the shop out the back door, as she discharged it towards the ground. The spring did cycle, but no impact occurred with the dirt. At this moment, the cocking linkage (between the front pivot and the action) came loose, and dangled down (bye bye cocking shoe). Needless to say, I was mighty disappointed. It almost goes without saying, the bore remained blocked.
A quick bit of mental gymnastics was performed.... lets see... breech seal, probably worn spring too, cocking shoe, moly lubricant.. hmmmm probably about 200 bucks from Macari (with shipping). Add to that it would need a Case to travel via airlines, and an additional 40 dollar baggage fee.... add another 100 bucks.... So about $300 more to get it home and repair it. They had it originally priced at about $400, which was at the extreme high end of a "fair price", if it was in excellent working condition, but then, it wasn't. Negotiations began in earnest. Final price ended up being $50, with tax included.
Knowing the expenses, why did I go with it? The rifle itself looks nearly pristine, a cleaner sample of an air rifle from 1981 (determined by model variances, features, stamps on action, and where the serial number fell in the date sequence), is very very hard to find. This thing clearly spent most of it's life in a gun safe, or a case. Quite frankly, my two-year old Benjamin Regal II looks rougher.
Sorry for the poor quality of the pictures, I opted to not take my better camera on this trip, so the images are courtesy of my ancient smart phone.
Looking around the store there were only two air rifles on the wall, one was clearly an Umarex plastic stocked rifle, the other beech-wood stocked rifle seemed to have uncommon touches to it, but it was clearly recognizable. It was a Feinwerkbau 124 (FWB124). It was very confusing at first glance, as it was in pristine condition, which would normally lead me to believe it was of recent manufacture. The metal hand a nice deep blue black, with not sign of wear on the finish, and the wood stock showed none of the usual signs of being bumped and dinged, which is common with a springer air rifle which is just a few years old. But then, it had the narrow European 3/4 inch strap for carrying it, it had a palm-swell on the right hand side of the pistol grip, it was obviously hand-checkered and not stamped, It also had the Beeman stamp from some of the earlier years of their San Rafael location. Other oddities was the age of the scope, which was an ancient 6X Burris mini. The stock showed all of the "extras" associated with the "Mark II" or Deluxe version, with white spacers and black on the bottom of the pistol grip and the butt of the rifle. The only atypical thing noted was the "finger shoe" added to the trigger.
The Ugly.....
I cocked the FWB to examine the bore, and it was blocked. There appeared to be tiny bits of yellow/white plastic-like substance at the breech. I followed the nice lady at the shop out the back door, as she discharged it towards the ground. The spring did cycle, but no impact occurred with the dirt. At this moment, the cocking linkage (between the front pivot and the action) came loose, and dangled down (bye bye cocking shoe). Needless to say, I was mighty disappointed. It almost goes without saying, the bore remained blocked.
A quick bit of mental gymnastics was performed.... lets see... breech seal, probably worn spring too, cocking shoe, moly lubricant.. hmmmm probably about 200 bucks from Macari (with shipping). Add to that it would need a Case to travel via airlines, and an additional 40 dollar baggage fee.... add another 100 bucks.... So about $300 more to get it home and repair it. They had it originally priced at about $400, which was at the extreme high end of a "fair price", if it was in excellent working condition, but then, it wasn't. Negotiations began in earnest. Final price ended up being $50, with tax included.
Knowing the expenses, why did I go with it? The rifle itself looks nearly pristine, a cleaner sample of an air rifle from 1981 (determined by model variances, features, stamps on action, and where the serial number fell in the date sequence), is very very hard to find. This thing clearly spent most of it's life in a gun safe, or a case. Quite frankly, my two-year old Benjamin Regal II looks rougher.
Sorry for the poor quality of the pictures, I opted to not take my better camera on this trip, so the images are courtesy of my ancient smart phone.
