Cannon

Can't speak for that particular model, but I had to return a number of Hawke scopes shortly after purchase because of issues straight out of the box. Poor build quality and obviously no proper quality control at their Chinese factory. Yes their warranty seems decent, but as a consumer you don't want to have to keep using it.

Some cars now come without sump bungs so you've no choice other than to suck the oil out from either the dipstick hole or a dedicated extraction point. If you change your oil frequently enough you shouldn't have to worry about build up of contaminants that would necessitate draining from the sump. The important thing to remember is to get the oil up to temperature before draining or sucking it out. Providing the oil is changed before or on schedule (either on time or mileage), and is not heavily contaminated with fuel, the warm oil should keep the majority of the contaminants in suspension. So sucking the oil out should be sufficient without having to worry about leaving unwanted contaminants behind. That being said, I always drain from the sump on cars that I've never worked on before, but if I know a vehicles history and have previously serviced it, I will sometimes choose to suck the oil out depending on where the filter is. If the filter requires access from underneath, I will drain from the sump bung. If the filter can be accessed from the top, I will suck the oil out every odd numbered service and drain from the sump bung on the even numbered services. Regardless of what the science says, I still believe it's a good idea to drain from the sump now and again to make sure there are no chunks of swarf, belt, timing chain tensioner etc hiding in it. Out of curiosity I had two oil samples from my own car tested after it was serviced twice using the sump bung method and twice using the suction method. Both results were virtually identical with no discernible difference in the condition of the oil. I would recommend a magnetic sump plug if you're worried about contaminants. Been using them for years and they can give you a pretty good idea of an engines health at a glance.

Anyone else noticed a marked drop in quality with Hawke Optics? I've just had to send my 4th scope back to them, with all four suffering from issues straight from the factory. Bought a Frontier which is supposed to be their flagship model. When it arrived there was a terrible amount of glare on the left side of the illuminated crosshair. Very off-putting when looking down the scope. Figured I'd get it zeroed anyway to see what it's like. At one point during zeroing I heard a springing noise inside the scope during windage adjustment. One click had moved the crosshairs six inches at 50 meters. It took over 20 clicks to bring it back. At this stage I had lost confidence in the scope so it went back to Hawke. They confirmed the scope was losing zero on recoil, and that the parallax had shifted. The replacement arrived just over a week later. Same situation with the glare. Hawke stated that it's impossible to eliminate this, yet other brands such as Athlon, Arken and Sightron for example seem to be able to do so at cheaper price points. Anyway I mounted the scope and went to zero it. The windage and elevation turrets were so mushy it was difficult to tell when you'd made an adjustment. The scope also didn't track properly, with the MIL adjustments seemingly not following a calibrated MIL target sheet. Back to Hawke again but this time Hawke could find no issue with the scope, so they refused to replace it and offered to send it back or refund the purchase price. I opted for the refund as I had been without a scoped rifle for 3 weeks at this stage. Time to buy another brand. Around the same time I had purchased another Hawke scope from another online retailer. This time it was a Vantage FFP model. It ticked all the boxes until it was mounted. After mounting I realised that the parallax adjustment was extremely tight. It needed to be gripped like a fist to adjust it. These adjustments tend to loosen up over time, but I'd have wrecked my fingers waiting for that to happen. On top of this it suffered with pincushion distortion at close ranges. Anyone who has ever looked through an optic with pincushion distortion knows how annoying and sickly it can be. Back to the retailer it went, with a note asking for the replacement to be tested prior to sending it out. The replacement arrived with the same issues, and the side parallax made a point of seizing at the 50 meter point on the side wheel. I own several scopes from Nikko Stirling, Bushnell, Tasco and Athlon and none exhibit any issues such as those experienced with the Hawke scopes. My Athlon tracks perfectly with positive windage and elevation clicks, and has clearer glass than the Hawke even though it was over £300 cheaper. I've just purchased another Athlon which I should have done in the first place. This will be my last involvement with anything Hawke branded or related. Their warranty is great compared to some, but you don't want to have to keep using it. It's a shame really. If their products matched the sales jargon that accompanied them they would be great choices for loads of shooters, but the quality just isn't there. Maybe they've done away with their quality control department in China. I'm sure others have had Hawke scopes with no issues, but having 4 faulty scopes in a row was enough for me to stop considering them as a viable option for optics.

The majority in the North of Ireland voted to remain, and only a complete idiot would not want access to the EU single market. The cost of living is bad enough as it is. Outside of the single market we'd be a lot worse off. This romantic notion of sovereignty will leave you with less money in your pocket at the end of every week. Any threat to personal finances would see the resolve of even the most hardened unionists being tested.

Having worked on every conceivable vehicle out there, I think I'm well qualified to comment on this. Components can and do fail, and when they do it's not always a walk in the park to replace them. Glow plugs are a prime example. They can snap like a piece of dry spaghetti with no warning. You can soak them in penetrating fluid overnight, and when you try to remove them they give just a bit. Enough to make you think you've overcame the worst of the resistance, then bang they snap. This can happen even with the engine up to operating temperature. Trying to work them back and forward is risky, as it can actually cause them to snap. Customers with zero mechanical knowledge only see what they want to see. The car was ok when I left it, so it's the garages fault for breaking the component. Well this isn't the case. I would go as far as to say the garage should actually charge the customer the incurred fee to remove the broken glow plug. Or if they removed the broken plug themselves, the additional time needed to remove the snapped plug should be added onto the customers bill. As mentioned above, garages are not charities. They have overheads to cover, and time is money to them. For some reason the public are very quick to run down mechanics, but if it was a plumber or an electrician that encountered such a problem, people would be a lot more accepting of it and more willing to pay. Don't get me wrong, I've seen my fair share of mechanics that should never be allowed near vehicles, but the majority are there wanting to do a good job and earn a good reputation. Especially independent garages who can't hide behind the name of a big firm. Their very survival depends on their reputation, but they cannot afford to work for free. If the garage notified every customer about the potential pitfalls of every job they take on, they would never get any work done. Things go wrong and the responsibility doesn't always lie with the garage. Vehicles and their components are becoming more about the numbers these days. Parts made to a price, and it's often the quality and longevity of these parts that suffers. Most mechanics are doing the best they can, often working with what I could only describe as complete tat that in some cases has literally just rolled off the production line. If you don't trust the garage find another one, but just remember that a garage also needs to be able to trust its customers. Jumping to conclusions just adds to the frustration of all parties involved.

Famars Poseidon

Heard that the driver was on anti-depressants at the time. Not particularly reassuring when it comes to being in control of a heavy vehicle.

Seems the performance figures are no longer available to view. I think we need an independent investigation into this farce. What checks are done on an applicant and by whom? The police aren't the only organisation to look into your background when you apply here, so who else is looking and what for? Why are there so few senior firearms branch personnel and why does it take so long for them to make a decision? As I understand it one of them is out on the sick and another one is just into the job. Rumours from more than one RFD here indicates that there may be an external organisation processing applications, and that the 100% figures are as a result of the FEB prioritising new applications from June onwards. 'Historical' applications from before June are apparently on the back burner, which allows the FEB to present figures to senior police showing an improvement in the service. They can then say that all new applications are being dealt with within X amount of days, making the service look more efficient than it actually is. Whether there's any truth to this I don't know. You could argue that it's in the FEB's interest to look more inefficient to perhaps secure more funding. Who knows, but something has to change and it needs to change soon. I know of a few lads that have missed one Duck seaaon completely and the start of this years as well. If it keeps going the way it's going it'll be two that they miss.

Know a couple of people waiting over a year for a variation and an initial grant. I strongly suspect the 100% completion figures are incorrect. Looks good on paper but people are still experiencing the same levels of poor service, with waiting times at their worst for years.

So did they charge you postage? Was about to spend £1000+ with them and they wanted to charge postage so I went to Blackwood Outdoors. Got the item cheaper with free postage

You're obviously not in the automotive trade. My car parts are at least 1/2 of what I would pay locally, and a lot of the time 1/3 of the price. I love how you ignored the rest of my post. Keep burying your head in the sand and ignoring the obvious. It's almost as if you enjoy getting burned by continually putting your hand in the fire and expecting a different result.

The majority of people in the North of Ireland voted to remain in the EU, so how exactly were they betrayed? Do you not think the people here know best for themselves? Or are you happy for westminster to keep ******* on us and telling us it's raining? Why would you want to stay loyal to a country that treats you like second class citizens and betrays you at every opportunity? It's like the Smithers and Mr. Burns relationship in the Simpsons. No matter how badly Smithers (representing the unionist community in the North of Ireland) gets treated by Mr. Burns (representing westminster), Smithers sticks around because he doesn't respect himself enough to walk away from the abusive relationship. The easiest solution to all of this is to end the partition of Ireland. To the English we're all 'Paddys' here anyway, and we are seen as a drain on resources to them. A United Ireland is a matter of when and not if.

Tell me where I said that car parts were cheaper in the North of Ireland vs anywhere else? I didn't. I buy my car parts from Europe, which comes with a lot of benefits being in the single market for goods. Back to the real world? Still cutting and pasting from Google? Not surprised Mr. Black.

From a personal perspective, the protocol is the reason why my car parts bill is still reasonable. Without it I would be paying 2 to 3 times the price. Some people would cut their nose off to spite their face for the sake of political ideology. If the DUP gets their way, the cost of living will soar for people living here. The protocol works, so it should be left well alone. I certainly didn't vote for the DUP to hold the people here to ransom until they get what they want, and I'm pretty sure that those who did vote for the DUP didn't vote them in so that they could cause another stalemate situation. People voted for them so that they would get back to work and sort the bigger problems out. People are struggling to eat and heat their homes, and some are actually dying whilst waiting for hospital beds, but the DUP is more worried about identity than anything else. It's a disgrace. They should take their position in local government and sort the real issues. So much for representing the people. I don't even think the people realise just how much the removal of the protocol would affect them.

A few RFDs have already confirmed that they will be accepting the vouchers.

My 97KT came in at just under 18ft/lbs from the factory. After having It tuned by Sandwell Fieldsports, it came back at just over 15ft/lbs. There was a noticeable increase in smoothness, but the accuracy basically stayed the same. Both the original and tuned versions were able to group at less than 1/2" at 25 meters, but the tuned version was better to shoot and felt more refined overall.

Let's not forget the terrorism perpetrated by the state against innocent civilians. The same state actively colluded with the police and security forces, who committed acts of terrorism and crime against one side of the community whilst hiding behind the veil of a 'legitimate' organisation. If you think for one second that the british forces deployed to the streets of the North of Ireland only demonstrated exemplary behaviour, you are sadly mistaken. The notion that british soldiers were nothing other than upstanding well bahaved ambassadors is folly. The media across the water portrayed them as such, but the reality on the ground was very different. Shame on those who are happy to turn a blind eye because the crimes were committed by the state. A crime is a crime no matter who commits it.

Uncooked prawn crackers are probably tough enough and bio degradeable (just a thought and not a serious suggestion)

As a shooter I consider the clean and humane dispatch of all pest species to be my top priority. Lead has proven to be exceptional when it comes to stopping power, so if it isn't broke why try to change it? The notion that it kills thousands of birds annually due to ingestion is absolutely ludicrous. If there was proper evidence to support these claims I would happily consider my position when it comes to using lead, but the fact remains that there isn't any hard evidence. It's all emotionally driven drivel based on worst case scenarios and assumptions. I also have no part to play in providing game to the 'market'. Everything I shoot is done out of necessity to protect crops, lambs and cattle, so why should I have to discontinue the use of lead because of what are clearly commercial reasons? I can fully get behind the issue of dealing with plastic wads and cartridge cases. This is because we know for a fact that plastic can and does harm the environment. I only use fibre wads on farmland for obvious reasons, and never leave empty cartridge cases behind. They always come away with me. The problem we have Conor is that plastic and lead seem to be getting paired together as if they are equal in terms of their detrimental affect on the environment. This quite simply isn't the case. You can link as many biased reports on the negative effects of lead as you want, but we simply aren't buying the rhetoric propagated by those whose hidden agendas contradict their mission statements. These new members who for some reason seem to think that the BASC's (and other organisations) actions will secure shooting for the future clearly haven't looked into the subject in very much detail. It's textbook capitulation by the shooting orgs. What percentage of members left after the announcement Conor? I'm going to hazard a guess and say that a lot of these former members were also quite intelligent individuals capable of reasoned thought, but it's obvious their objections were never going to be given any consideration. The agenda clearly matters more than the members, and that's why it doesn't wash with us.

Bit rich coming from the king of cut and paste

Attitudes are changing because of lies and fear of going against the flow when it comes to anything relating to the environment. These surveys that supposedly highligh the issues caused by lead shot seem to be based on speculation and emotional responses rather than hard evidence. I'd be interested to know Conor just how many members the BASC has lost over the last couple of years? The shooting organisations have previously fought legislative change and anti propaganda, but they have opened a new battlefront with their own members recently. I don't profess to know a lot about the ins and outs of politics surrounding shooting in this part of the world, but I do know the type of response I would like to see from our shooting organisations when ANY aspect of shooting sports gets threatened. Think Americans defending their second amendment rights kind of response. Burying heads in the sand and waiting to see how things pan out is no use to anyone.

It wouldn't have taken much foresight to see that there would be issues in the North of Ireland as a result of brexit. The unionist politicians have a third option ordnance. Do what's right for the people they supposedly represent instead of cutting their nose off to spite their face. We had the opportunity to significantly increase foreign investment, jobs, economic growth and prosperity etc., but it was all squandered because of the outdated morals of the dup. Unionists are running out of feet to shoot themselves in.

I've had two of these in excellent condition and the most expensive of the two was £120. At £565 I must be missing something.

So the BASC are supporting the licencing of inert pieces of metal?

I can't say any different to what's already been discussed on social media. There's a lot of confusion over what is and what isn't allowed. My understanding is that vermin control is permitted as it's classed as essential, but the likes of wildfowling and rough shooting is not permitted because it's not essential. The representation and communication from the organisations is terrible to say the least, but it may be as a result of the lack of decision making ability from the folks on the hill. I'll be out on the rabbits tonight regardless.