I shot my first gun in the summer after 1st grade. It was my father's 16 gauge with buck shot that he warned me for weeks was too big. I slid backwards a while on the gravel road wearing only my swim trunks just to stand up with a grin. I then "needed" a gun that went "BOOM" just like my dad's. For Christmas that year I got handed a Marlin 15y .22lr and a weekly allowance of 550 rounds.
In middle school we moved to an area where the .22 was too powerful and loud to whip out on a daily basis so I bought a Gamo 440 from Cabelas. Soon after that I was dissatisfied with its quality when I went to the Little Rock Airgun show which was right outside my hometown. I came home with an R9 wearing a Simmons Pro-Air 6-18x40 in BKL mounts and was hooked on airguns.
After shooting many airguns I think my heart lies with HW break barrels and I am still fond of the Air Arms Pro-Sport. I have always liked custom guns and so now I am building a small collection of customized guns.
My first complete gun is a Santa Rosa R7 (.177), with a high end walnut stock from Steve Corcoran, custom brass screw cups, custom brass trigger guard, custom brass trigger blade and safety from Paul. The gun itself has got a tune, the compression tube hones, the breech milled and inserts installed to reduce rubbing, and the barrel cut/crowned/choked. Then to dress it up a bit more it has a full length fluted shroud from Tim Wilson and wears a Leupold 3-9x33 EFR with Alumina flip back covers mounted in a BKL cantilever mount.
My next gun is an R9 (.177) with a custom ported aluminum brake with a Simmons Pro-Air 6-18x40 in B-Square mounts. It currently wears a custom stock from Dave Golfarb also with brass screw cups. However, the Dave G stock will be sold once I find a blank that I really like and I will get Steve Corcoran to make me another stock for the R9 and get some custom fitted brass screw cups and brass guard for it as well. I will be sending it off to Paul for a tune, trigger, safety, milled compression tube, and breech inserts as well sometime.
On my list of guns to get is an HW35E with a really nice factory stock. I have a dealer sorting them out as they come in and when there is one that looks really nice it will be added to my collection and probably also sent out for tune work. Then it would be nice to have an R1 in .22 that is customized and maybe an HW50 plus an old match springer.
