Happy New Year’s Gents and a sincere Thank You to Dave for giving us this wholesome place to hang out at.
It’s been slim pickings over here on lately on Straight Talk so I thought I’d start a series of posts on some of my favorite guns ever. I’m happy to report that I’m back from the really dark but wonderful side of playing with old Colt pistols. After a year of big bore pistol shooting, I come to the realization that I am and always be an airgunner and this is where I belong.
My first ever airgun was a 1971 smoothbore 760 pump. I counted the days to that particular birthday for a whole year. To this day, getting that gun was the most exciting thing that ever happened to me outside of meeting my wife and the birth of my children. I slept with that gun and learned how to push it to its limits. This is back in the days of black & white TV’s, no cable or computers. Back when music was great and where songs didn’t need “explicit” warning signs. Back when true happiness was having 50 cents to buy a little red pop top tin of Crosman super pells. When coffee cans were imaginary tanks and little green plastic soldiers were the bad guys. I must admit, several of my sisters Barbie’s took some fatal shots. They were tough ladies though. I also learned about physiology with those dolls but that’s another story…
Back in those days, the 760 doubled as a Parker shotgun with multiple bb’s in the chamber, yet could also magically turn into a Winchester .458 that could surgically take out a sparrow or blackbird at 50 feet with irons and a handpicked pellet. I still remember putting on my first little ¾” scope and discovering the wonders of optics. This is back in the time when the most power airguns were the venerable HW35 and the FWB 124. Why, it was common knowledge that those guns could stop a charging elephant and that barracuda had a special chamber for nitro glycerin or something that would give that gun mystical powers.
Anyway, I still have that 760. It still holds a unique place in my heart. I’ll be eternally grateful to it and the Crosman Company for teaching me how to shoot, the importance of having respect for other people’s property and most important, safe gun handling. As the years passed and the guns got better, no other gun will ever give me the pleasure of this one. I’ve finally realized that and come to terms with it. Although I have the parts and know how to fix that old thing and get it back into shooting order, I prefer to leave it as is.
Excuse the ramblings of a middle-aged airgun nut but I get nostalgic from time to time.
I’ll post a picture of old Betsy next week-end. She’d like to meet you guys.
