ironhorse

Yes your right door banging is the way to go I just put up the post on the off chance someone may respond, highly unlikely I know but then stranger things have happened

Looking for some rough shooting in the West Sussex/ Hampshire aria, 50 years experience with shotgun and high power air rifle, fully insured good reputation, reliable and trust worthy friendly attitude. Experience removing rats with air rifle both around farm buildings and equestrian also feral pigeons from cattle sheds. Paul

Went out yesterday Petersfield aria we only saw around 15 sitting up opposite some rape, we cover a large estate in Hampshire, nothing in the woods and nothing on the stubble fields completely dead and it’s been this way for some time.

We thought perhaps this would be the case, send it in, alright thanks guys for your help on this.

Question on a shotgun licence obviously you list guns you own on the pages provided with the licence, Now my mate has bought and sold a few guns since he last renewed his licence, and has now used up all the room on guns owned pages, so should he now want to buy another gun he has no page to put down the particulars, My question is what should he do in regards to keeping up his records on his licence, he tried to get hold of our local fire arms officer but unfortunately he’s on holiday for 3 weeks, can anyone put us right on this.

I bought what is called the hay house pop up hide about 10 years ago; it’s an American hide being sold here at the time for around £100. Then a new idea as far as I was concerned, Hide is big enough for two, plenty of room for all you gear as well, comes with a floor as part of the hide and is easy to set up in around 10 minutes, packing away about the same all packed into a surprisingly small back pack. I have always used the usual four poles and a blind as a hide or indeed just the vegetation about me, and still do if needs be. But the pop up hide I have to give full marks it works well and blends in very well also, in winter well it comes into it’s own, pop it up, all your gear in, zip up the door none of those nasty bitter winter winds blowing up your kilt freezing the jewels, Oh and the hide is covered in small loops so you can use vegetation to help blend in if you need it. There are quite a few pop up hides out there now, how good or bad they might be I can’t say, but my Hay house still going 10 years on. You can set up just about anywhere, just open it up get inside tread down the floor, put the poles in and there you are, I have set up in brambles, on a bank, alsorts of places.

I have seen the decline of pigeon numbers across West Sussex and Hampshire over the past 25 years, there is absolutely no discussion to be had on that it is fact, save for the odd pocket here and there, that is my experience shooting across two counties. Also speaking to other shooters across the southern region they are asking where have all the pigeons gone, now it maybe the type of crop being grown in the southern counties and also the fact that today’s machines are so much more efficient and nothing is left for pigeons to eat, so they have simply move off elsewhere I am a where that further up country they have more pigeons than they can cope with at times, which brings me back to the type of crop being grown.

Can’t take constructive criticism, if there decoys shine in sun light they simply are not worth the money they are claiming, I had heard about these decoys through the grapevine, some good some bad, I looked into them but for me the money they are asking is nothing short of a con. Save your money and paint your own, these must have cons pop up from time to time don’t be sucked in by these overpriced but cheap products, we all know that pigeons in the south and across the country are on the decline, and shooters are constantly ready to try anything that might give them the edge, and so are these con merchants ready to take your money with one bull**** product after another, it stands to reason that if ten people buy, one must have some sort of result, but that result can also be applied to a piece of wood painted in the same colours, so think really carefully before you part with your hard earned cash on something you probably already have, all bar the paint.

Ok yes that is what i meant, thanks for your help

I bought a PCP rifle after years of using Springer’s and capsule air rifles, I also bought new air tank/bottle and took it to my local diving shop to have it filled, this was done I picked it up and took it away, but a few days later I did look at it, at the regulator and noticed the regulator is in the red , am I wrong shouldn't the regulator show a reading of what psi is in the tank, because as I say the needle shows nothing.

good idea using hand warmer nice one

Been there! Found it to be very accurate once I had it to bits and took the burs off it and oiled it, but the piston and lever are not set right, after a few pulls the piston begins to grind on the inner sleeve, nothing you can do with it, took it back and we pulled another from a new box, and it too had the same floor, so although price is good and gun can be very accurate, poorly made. Oh and where are you

SMK Xs78 co2 rifle I have been shooting for many years my first air rifle was a BSA mk1 meteor, after using it for a few months I decided to strip it down and see if I could improve its workings, and I did my mk1 was brilliant, it had plenty of power and accuracy weather it would have passed power restriction is unknown. Anyway as I grew up my interest in air guns dropped although I always seemed to have one put to one side, and interest would reoccur from time to time I have had quite a selection over the years, and for me the best air rifle I owned has to be Weihrauch HW77, however I parted with it some years ago regrettably, and since that time had the HW80 which I was not impressed by and bought the BSA Lighting which was ok, I was surfing the net recently and came across the SMK XS501, never had any dealings with SMK airguns springers’ or otherwise, but sort of liked the look of the xs501 and at the price worth a punt, not having a spring as such and fired with co2 I figured little loss of power, if it turns out to be a lemon not allot of money lost, so bought one and took it out to set it up, but after only 8 shots the bolt seized, I decided not to dismantle the gun myself as guarantee void, returned to the shop and handed it to the seller who scratched his head, he then contacted the distributer who also could not decide what the problem could be, anyway the shop wanted me to wait two weeks while they found the problem, I totally declined but a deal was struck on a second-hand XS78, ok a bit older but appeared to be well looked after, took the XS78 out with a scope and zeroed it in, I have to say I was very impressed with this gun, grouping was very good, power appeared to be more than enough, all-round very good impressed, I looked the gun up on the net and most posts echoed my thoughts on the gun, over a week no co2 leakage seals held ok, so I decide to strip the gun and do a complete tune, bought all relevant parts, again impressed on how easy and generally simple the gun came apart, I polished and cleaned just about everything related to the gun, installed all new parts and reassembled it, well what a difference, gone from being good to being great, put the gun on my chronograph and it returned a very impressive 11.7lb. My conclusion on this SMK XS78 the gun is light, the trigger has 3 way setup allowing for a good pull selection, maintenance of the gun is easy, and replacing of parts is easy and cheap, if you buy this gun off the self it is not only a good starter for anyone, and after a tune up it is capable of dealing with any quarry vermin wise at a price that pretty much anyone can afford. I have heard people put SMK down but think again.

Thanks for your help appreciate it, thought that might be the answer, got there web site up now thanks again.

I know very little about co2 air rifles or indeed pistols, been a confirmed Springer all my life, however got hold of a rifle that uses the co2 cartridges, I’ve found lots of info on the net about some of these guns, but no reviews on the co2 cartridges, I.E. which one is more reliable than that one, which ones to avoid, I would appreciate your help gents.

Got to the field around 4pm, was just a quick drop in really just to see if all was still quiet, parked up by the barn as usual and began scanning the fields, suddenly I noticed pigeons rise from the far corner of the pea field, and as I watched more and more were dropping in, I continued to watch for about half an hour, sussed out the main flight line which crossed the adjacent field and finished in the nearest corner to me they then disappeared over the trees, I drove down the track which brought me almost to the very spot the flight line crossed, jumped out the vehicle grabbed my gun and loaded up, dropped my first two pigeons almost as fast as I had loaded, I just stood by my vehicle for around two hours and picked off pigeons, ended with a bag of 27

Had two very productive evenings over peas, nothing cut yet but ready to go, Pigeons loving it never the less, these two days are about the best shooting I’ve had for sometime here in Sussex.

Yes thought I had struck gold with Tinbum prices, but ended up costing me allot more. The plastic used was very brittle, high quality polypropylene doesn’t shatter, it will bend, and dent, and scrape, I’ve used polypropylene myself for moulding and it has been damaged at times, but never broken up. Glad you had better results.

Probably not the old story I suppose you get what you pay for, I did find after the fact a chap in South Wales who makes the correct fittings, I read good reviews on the first supplier on ebay but hay you live and learn all the time.

the maiin body or piston sleeve. piston goes into this. piston this secures the spring and guide

Yes I know I can lose the gouges and they shouldn’t affect the usage being at the back end. The gun was assembled spring was in place but once the gun was fired and the pressure was off the guide, the piston had that movement, the guide remained jammed in the screw threads, and cocking the gun then forced everything back into place or not as the case appears to be.

He made a new spring guide and reduced the 3mm top by 2mm leaving 1mm to sit on the skirt of the piston, this new guide and the first guide supplied both made to sit on the skit of the piston are wrong, the guide should pass into the piston not sit on the top, by sitting on the skirt I believe the new guide caught on the screw thread that holds the block that holds everything in, when the gun was fired and then when I cocked the gun again the piston now loose in the carrier dug in and damaged the gun. I will be talking to a professional gunsmith this week and I will be putting this question to him, I’m sure I know what he will say but I will let you know.

If you look at your original spring metal guide, if it is like mine the metal guide will drop inside your piston, the replacement plastic guide is not the same, it is made to sit on top of the skirt of the piston, by sitting on top of the piston skirt you now have 3mm extra height and that extra for me would not now allow my piston to reach the trigger lock.

No the piston is bog standard, picture one is the piston and picture two is is the gun sleeve which the piston goes into, then the spring ect ect

Yeah he said he’s sold over 300 kits for HW80 without any problems coming back, but that still doesn’t pigeon hole every HW80, there are variations obviously , and for me that also doesn’t excuse the man trying to justify his product damaging my gun, by making the accusation that I don’t know what I am doing.