During the winter, I make it a habit to rotate though our nice collection of airguns and make sure none of them sit long enough to collect dust. Because airguns use seals and springs, it's actually good maintenance to use them on a regular basis. Great excuse, anyway, to keep shooting.
Today, it was one of my most prized spring piston rifle's turn, a beautiful blast from the past in my mint condition RWS 45 in 177.
It wears an equally vintage and equally excellent RWS 4x scope, made in Japan, with finger adjustable turrets. May have actually come with the gun as a package deal when it was imported by RWS for sale on this side of the pond, but can't say for sure.
One of the nice things about these old RWS/Dianas (RWS was the importer) is that the date of manufacture is stamped on the left side of the receiver. This gun, then, was made in July of 1983.
After checking the stock screws for tightness (a must before any shooting session with a spring piston gun), I double-checked the zero on the scopes and made a few adjustments. Next group of ten shots would have been worth framing, but I blew one shot and I knew it before the pellet hit the target. No, it was not the last shot, by the way. It was actually the first shot. Maybe that was the wake-up callI needed to focus, better, in order to shoot the rest. I'll be kicking myself for this one for awhile. Oh, well.
This fine old vintage RWS, though, still has what it takes to impress. Will return, another time, and try to match the perfect score this rifle is capable of shooting. Close, but no cigar, this time.
