Whenever I talk with shooting friends about how we were introduced to the wonderful world of fieldsports, it never takes long for the conversation to turn to fondly recalled memories of our first airguns. Affordability, simplicity and comparatively low power output make the air rifle the ideal tool for new recruits, and I have no doubt that most Shooting Times readers will have started out with one.
In the late 1980s, just before I hit my teens, many of my friends had cheap airguns. Things were different back then — they certainly were where I grew up in rural Somerset — and we whiled away long summer evenings roaming the fields unsupervised while attempting to bag rabbits for the pot.
I was fortunate to have an uncle who took the time to nurture my growing passion for shooting
