Since things are a little slow here now...

hope it's okay to bump this post up from way back. I've been enjoying reading all the posts, almost all 29 pages of them LOL. This thread got me reminiscin' and this post was actually even longer, but I don't want to bore you with the details ; )

My first "airgun" was a Marksman BB pistol, the one that looks like a big .45 ACP and cocks by pulling on the "slide."

From there I went to a Marksman break barrel BB rifle and some others, and eventually traded my bike for a Daisy 880--the first BB gun in my neighborhood AFAIK and my first shooting experience. Wasn't a huge deal to loose the bike as I was already good at putting these things together from junk parts.

Then things got interesting, I found an ad by ARH in a gun mag and wrote in for a catalog. There was such a thing as a "precision airgun." Was I thrilled with all the guns and information in these catalogs, didn't miss a single issue for years (now wish I didn't throw them out): this was back in the mid 70's. I could only enjoy the guns vicariously though, just didn't have the cash for one. But man how I enjoyed looking at them and reading about them :D Then I found Beeman and started getting their catalogs too. It was a lot of fun looking at these guns even if I couldn't buy one.

Year and a half ago I got interested again, and now have a bolt action AA410. And keeping an eye out for R7 or HW30S. Budget is still tight, but I can actually occasionally buy a decent gun now. I'll probably go to the CT show on June 6 and see what's there. I really appreciate Paul's work and hope to get a PW tuned gun some day. I really appreciate Jim's contribution to the sport/hobby too. What we gonna do when JM stops making springs LOL? I did buy a R9 Tyro stock from Jim the other day, but I do wish I didn't miss the period of time when he still offered a lot bigger range of things.