Hi Boatshed,

Sorry you can't make the 1940's day this year due to hospital appointments and health problems etc , but as you mention, this getting OLD lark can restrict our ability to do some of the things that we would like to do.

We had a series of hospital appointments over the previous couple of years that prevented us from doing quite a lot of the things that we wanted to do, so I really understand your situation - only too well!

When you do find you way up to Lancashire next, you would be welcome to come to our small 10 meter shooting club range, but please give me some notice as I may be in Ainsdale - hopefully enjoying some good weather and some time on the Southport Club lake.🤞

You have an interesting collection of sporting air rifles - especially the one that you won in a gun mag competition - well done!

I have always enjoyed shooting my spring powered air rifles whenever I can - and strangely enough - I also have some shoulder problems at the moment - what a coincidence !

Your shoulder problems are a lot more serious than mine as I have been diagnosed as having "frozen shoulders"....so hopefully they will thaw-out sometime soon 🤣.

Bob.

Hi Zooma,
Sadly I doubt I will be able to attend this years 1040's day, I was looking forward to it but I have too many hospital appointments.
Health problems and opp recovery times put paid to travelling.

My Air Rifles are
BSA .22 Scorpion Walnut Stock.
BSA .177 Defiant Walnut Stock. I won this in a gun mag competition.
Logun Eagle .22 Walnut Stock.
Diana .177 Beach Stock. 1960's, had this for over 55 years. and a
.22 Rifle. Break barrel.
I don't know what it is, it was gifted to me by my wifes Uncle a couple or some years back.

I have a 30 yard back garden so I can shoot out there.
All fully enclossed, high walls.
I also have the crossbow with a 40lb prod fitted.

But I have both rota cuffs on my shoulders torn so that's all I could pull.
I am currantly awaiting opps on both shoulders one for a new shoulder joint.
Plus another Carpul tunnel opp, only just had one done, 4 weeks ago, wife still wont let me drive yet. But I must say it is well tender at the pressent.

I hate this getting OLD, the brain doesn't seem to think that way though and my kid's are constantly saying " you shouldn't be do this or that".

Not that they are kids any more, 42, 51 and 53 next month, he will be coming down from Heywood for his Birthday. Can't waitto see him and my daughter in law.

Hi Boatshed,

I also gave up my firearms certificate some years ago, but prior to that I shot rim fire at the Exmouth Smallbore Club and I shot centre fire pistol at the Exmouth Pistol Club that shot on the Royal Marines range at Straight Point.

Like yourself, I only shoot air weapons these days, but the PCP match rifles and pistols now have an accuracy that no centre fire or rim fire can match - albeit only over a much shorter distance.

The local 1940’s weekends are definitely worth supporting 👍

Let me know when you are in Rossendale next if you fancy a Tuesday evening shooting on our 10 meters ISU air weapons range, you would be welcome to come as my guest.

Bob.

Funny you mentioning guns. I haven't been to the range in a long time. The range is too busy, everyone is shooting! Probably one of the reasons RC model boats are suffering a downturn in people interested in that.
Lew
The free state of Florida (U.S.A.)

Hi Zooma,
Way back in the late 70' through to the mid 90's I used to shoot shoot a Vostok .22 Martini action rimfire target rifle in club in North Kent. I used to own 2 of those.
A bit antiqaited but very acurate.
I hadf a few hand guns and that was going to be my bigest problem with thw changes in the law.
We used the Stone Lodge Rifle Ranges in Dartford Kent, Long gone now.

We watched the Dartford Bridge being buit whilst we were down there.

(I gave up my Firearms Certificate and Shotgun Licence a short while after the Dunblane Incident.
Sadly 30th year anniversary this Friday the 13th March. (1996-2066)😔😔).

I stil have Air Rifles and a Crossbow. How long till they licence that or both of them ??
Back them I even had a Converted AK47 to .22 rimfire Leagally on my cerrtificate.
This was done by a registered firearms company and purchased after being done.

I see you live up in Rossendale I sold all my Firearms to the Pennine Firearmes shop in Rochdale.
I lived up there for 2 years and worked in Chadderton in the dry cleaners.
I think that has now closed down.
I was living in Heywood at the time. My son still lives up there.
I love going up there sometimes and especially on the 1940's weekend.

Hi Roy,

I also shoot target rifle, but these days from the standing position! This is significantly more difficult to shoot precisely than from the prone position, but really satisfying when I get it right!

Like yourself I started my rifle shooting with a .22 rim fire, but I shot that from the prone position (with an old BSA Martini) but these days, if I was to lay down to shoot, I may not be able to get up again very elegantly!

Again the problem with having to wear glasses affects the way I look through the rear diopter as I wear vari-focal lenses in my regular glasses frames

Any very slight failure to reposition the head precisely aligned to the rear diopter sight will cause quite a disparity with the position of the shot that is magnified by the type of lens.

One answer is to set the sights up to shoot without wearing any glasses, but this can cause some fumbling when re-loading or making any small sight adjustments.

The other solution is the same one that I end up with in my workshop(shed) when I am working on my boats, and that is to switch to wearing a different pair of glasses that have standing fixed focal length type of lenses.

Shown here is my favourite Walther LG300 Anatomic match rifle.

Bob.

I was much younger than 50 when I realised I needed glasses - road signs were getting less sharp but worse than that snooker balls were blurred when far apart! 😁 I was never as good when I started wearing glasses.

I still had many years of working on the drawing board ahead of me but fortunately I'm short sighted so didn't need glasses which was good news for other close work as well and more recently model building, though I have noticed recently that my near sight isn't as good now but my longer sight is improving again. I did try vari-focals, mainly for computer work, but couldn't get on with them, so had the lenses replaced with single focus ones again.

Hi Bob I was lucky as I did not need glasses until I was 50 and I used to shoot rifle (.22) in competition, my eyesight went downhill when we had screens and keyboards on our work desks.
But 2 years ago I had 2 cataract operations and now am back to some week reading glasses so straight lines and stanchions are all easy for me in the workshop. Trouble is no one can put my age back 20 years to have the energy I used to have.

I am off to visit family soon, our son, in Australia and usually come back much fitter as he takes no prisoners when out for the day!

Just waiting for a warm up in the weather to return to finishing my Wild Duck model yacht. I have made arrangements with a Higher Being, that I will live long enough to complete all the kits and a few part built models before I pop my clogs.
Roy

Hi Roy,

Varifocal lens can be a real problem in the workshop .

I thought all of my wood had warped…..until I realised that I was still wearing my varifocal lens.

It is not possible to look along a straight edge to check anything when wearing varifocal lens, so I always keep a pair of glasses with “ordinary” lenses in the workshop.

I also forgot I was wearing them when I was on the club range target shooting with a pistol and wonder why I was getting such a variation with my grouping - same problem - distortion from the varifocal lens!

Bob.

I have made my own stanchions before but used brass tubing. This combined with close fitting brass rod. When drilling the tube I put the brass rod inside to support the tube walls when drilling. When the drilling is done I use a small length of the rod soldered into the lower part to use as a locating pin for the deck.

I made some a while back where the stanchions had to be removed as part of the removeable upper deck and I found that the brass ferules located into the deck and included in servo packs were an excellent fit and and protected the wood deck.

If you are making stanchions in a small scale on a jig do not wear varifocal lense type glasses as the trapezium distortion of the glasses will taper the uprightness away at the edges. It happened to me some years ago and now I use a metal jig with 90 degree corner to ensure they are upright. With the small ones superglue for railings is less obtrusive than solder.

With brass wire which sometimes comes wrapped in a rough coil, I cut off twice as much as I need clamp one end in a bench vise and with a pair of pliers grip the other. A small jerk will straighten the wire and harden it at the same time. It will lengthen maybe half an inch but stay straight and hard.

It is nice diy some of the items more associated with buying ready to use.

All the best
Roy