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Showing results for tags 'Well I never!'.
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Bought one of these cheapies a few weeks back from a local dealer - at £100 brand new with a scope, mounts etc I was struggling to find a reason not to buy it. Not really expecting great things from her to be honest - Chinese built guns have never been very high up my wish list and I am fortunate enough to be able to afford, pretty much, any gun that I choose so I am lucky not to have to go over board where value is concerned. First impressions were quite pleasing - comes well packaged and reminds me somewhat of the FWB 124/7's of yesteryear so not a bad looker. Due to the suspect quality of the supplied items an old one piece mount that I had laying around was brought back into service to hold a Simmons 1.5 - 5 x 32 scope ( that I simply cannot recall where it came from) and testing, in earnest, began. Unless Arnie is your neighbour, and is up for pulling the trigger for you, the first hurdle is the trigger. I can understand the thinking behind a trigger pull that errs on the side of safe but the express unit is ridiculous. Five minutes with a Philips screwdriver had the action out of the stock ( it's actually very well made when you see it "naked") and removing 2 washers from the sear adjusting screw resulted in a rather pleasant trigger pull - happy days. Shooting the beast is a bit of a shock if you are used to high end PCP's - the usual quiet puff of my favourite gun is dull in comparison to the express's impression of fireworks night - various twangs, pops and clunks are accompanied by an entertaining cloud of smoke that chokes all around you for a few minutes - if you can imagine BBQ' ing 3 in 1 oil then you are pretty much there. After 20 or so shots the landscape around you begins to reappear and your vision becomes clear enough to see that, yes, the trigger really is that far forward and your hand has not, actually, shrunk. The stock/pistol grip on this gun was , most likely, designed with the expectation that Arnie really is your neighbour. But the little blighter has actually grown on me, with the better scope/mount fitted, and using my usual AA fields (.22) she will produce a ragged 5 shot one hole group at just over 25 yards which cannot be bad for something that costs around the same as my PCP does to service - power, according to my chrono , is 11.1 ft/lb and is more than adequate for vermin. This morning found my slumber rather rudely interrupted by a love sick pigeon coo coo'ing its head off whilst perched in the Hawthorn at the end of my garden - at 6:30 my forgiveness gland is not 100% so the express had a noisy word with said bird - at just over 40 yards the bird experienced an unfortunate meeting with 16 grains of AA's finest lead and I,m afraid that Romeo tooketh a rather nasty tumble earthwards from which moment peace was restored. So now the express and I are on good terms and I am actually considering using her for hunting and also reconsidering my opinions on cheap Chinese guns - time will tell but , at the moment, I would be more than happy to recommend this one.