History of AA guns

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Blackbaronfish
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Re: History of AA guns

Fri Mar 04, 2016 7:56 am

A small nugget of the lead up to Air Arms being born.

The Sussex Armoury

The Sussex Armoury was founded in 1968, primarily as a dealer of antique arms, over time the company began selling reproduction Japanese replica guns. The first move into airguns continued the replica theme with western six-guns being amongst the first sold.

The company initially bought a large shipment of Baikal air rifles and then did a deal with Crosman to be their UK agency as well as deals to import Italian pistols.

The drive behind the team was to produce a low price, accurate, high power .22 rifle to fill a gap that they perceived in the market. As they couldn’t buy in what they wanted, they decided to design and build it themselves.

Throughout the history of the company the majority of engineered parts were produced in the UK by NSP Engineering.

Sussex Armoury went from strength to strength, opening retail shops in London and Manchester but with the wonder of hindsight, it looks like the additional financial strain of running what would have been two expensive locations was too much of a stretch for the finances.

On the 2nd February 1982 Sussex Armoury went into receivership and the operation was closed down. There was a liquidation sale of stock and plant held in April 1982.


NSP Engineering went on to re-engineer some elements of the original rifles and sell them in their own right. In due course, NSP Engineering went on to become Air Arms, the giant of the airgun industry today.

The Managing Director of the Sussex Armoury was Richard Marriot-Smith, who after the demise of the Sussex Armoury bought a large quantity of the stock during the liquidation sale and went on to create The Pheonix Arms Company.
Richard Marriot-Smith was also the father of modern Field Target competitions, having organised the first ever National Field Shooting Championship event with the help of Airgun World in 1981, the final of the first event was held at Bisley on 30th August 1981 after heats in Edinburgh, Leeds, Birmingham and Bisley.

The year before, in 1980, Sussex Armoury held what is likely to be the first ever Field Target competition which was held at the Red Lion pub at Magham Down in Sussex (not far from the Sussex Armoury factory). The winner of this 1980 event was Mr Rex Hunt, who was awarded a specially engraved Sussex Armoury Woodsman fitted in a custom stock.
Did I mention that I'm the only one to have attended EVERY meet since we started

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Blackbaronfish
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Joined: Sun Feb 15, 2015 6:20 pm
Location: Nuneaton

Re: History of AA guns

Fri Mar 04, 2016 8:05 am

Did I mention that I'm the only one to have attended EVERY meet since we started

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zippy
Posts: 355
Joined: Sun Feb 15, 2015 7:23 pm

Re: History of AA guns

Fri Mar 04, 2016 12:55 pm

Blackbaronfish wrote:A small nugget of the lead up to Air Arms being born.

The Sussex Armoury

The Sussex Armoury was founded in 1968, primarily as a dealer of antique arms, over time the company began selling reproduction Japanese replica guns. The first move into airguns continued the replica theme with western six-guns being amongst the first sold.

The company initially bought a large shipment of Baikal air rifles and then did a deal with Crosman to be their UK agency as well as deals to import Italian pistols.

The drive behind the team was to produce a low price, accurate, high power .22 rifle to fill a gap that they perceived in the market. As they couldn’t buy in what they wanted, they decided to design and build it themselves.

Throughout the history of the company the majority of engineered parts were produced in the UK by NSP Engineering.

Sussex Armoury went from strength to strength, opening retail shops in London and Manchester but with the wonder of hindsight, it looks like the additional financial strain of running what would have been two expensive locations was too much of a stretch for the finances.

On the 2nd February 1982 Sussex Armoury went into receivership and the operation was closed down. There was a liquidation sale of stock and plant held in April 1982.


NSP Engineering went on to re-engineer some elements of the original rifles and sell them in their own right. In due course, NSP Engineering went on to become Air Arms, the giant of the airgun industry today.

The Managing Director of the Sussex Armoury was Richard Marriot-Smith, who after the demise of the Sussex Armoury bought a large quantity of the stock during the liquidation sale and went on to create The Pheonix Arms Company.
Richard Marriot-Smith was also the father of modern Field Target competitions, having organised the first ever National Field Shooting Championship event with the help of Airgun World in 1981, the final of the first event was held at Bisley on 30th August 1981 after heats in Edinburgh, Leeds, Birmingham and Bisley.

The year before, in 1980, Sussex Armoury held what is likely to be the first ever Field Target competition which was held at the Red Lion pub at Magham Down in Sussex (not far from the Sussex Armoury factory). The winner of this 1980 event was Mr Rex Hunt, who was awarded a specially engraved Sussex Armoury Woodsman fitted in a custom stock.


Thank you so much mate. For taking the time to gather and type this information, very interesting read... :D
Air Arms tx200hc, mtc taipan, 4-16X50
Air Arms tx200hc, falcon menace, 4-14x44 FFP
Air Arms Pro-sport, mtc mamber
Air Arms TDR, falcon menace 10x44
HW 100t falcon menace 4-14X44 FFP
HW 100t richer optics
HW 97KT
HW 45 Geordie custom grips
Alecto

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zippy
Posts: 355
Joined: Sun Feb 15, 2015 7:23 pm

Re: History of AA guns

Fri Mar 04, 2016 12:57 pm

Blackbaronfish wrote:http://www.theairguncentre.com/airarmshistory/

BBF



Again, great information.

Thank you, regards Mick... :D
Air Arms tx200hc, mtc taipan, 4-16X50
Air Arms tx200hc, falcon menace, 4-14x44 FFP
Air Arms Pro-sport, mtc mamber
Air Arms TDR, falcon menace 10x44
HW 100t falcon menace 4-14X44 FFP
HW 100t richer optics
HW 97KT
HW 45 Geordie custom grips
Alecto

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Axelrod
Posts: 109
Joined: Sun Feb 15, 2015 3:44 pm
Location: Almeria Spain.

Re: History of AA guns

Fri Mar 04, 2016 1:17 pm

I have two Shamals, both appear to be from a time when quality control meant something. accuracy wise they are as good as todays products, dave

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gary martin
Posts: 815
Joined: Thu Feb 19, 2015 8:21 pm

Re: History of AA guns

Fri Mar 04, 2016 4:56 pm

Blackbaronfish wrote:These are off the top of my head.

Springers
The Firepower
The Highpower
The Combat
Minstrel AL
Minstrel
Bora
Camargue
Kamsin
TX 200
Pro Sport



PCP
Shamal
S300
S310
S400
S410
MPR
EV
S500
S510


pro target was before the EV2.

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FPoole
Posts: 339
Joined: Mon Feb 16, 2015 2:37 am

Re: History of AA guns

Sat Mar 05, 2016 12:55 am

Don't forget the NJR pcp. Only seen a couple, but they were beautiful and as good as anything out there today. I think my two sidelevers are Mistrals, but they are very plain in the stock. Looks kind of like the guns the apes used in the planet of the apes show. One is .22 and a carbine with the other being .177 and full length. They use an o-ring piston seal.

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Blackbaronfish
Posts: 3690
Joined: Sun Feb 15, 2015 6:20 pm
Location: Nuneaton

Re: History of AA guns

Sat Mar 05, 2016 2:40 pm

Cut and paste as you add more info. We could then take a copy and put it in Technical.

BBF
Did I mention that I'm the only one to have attended EVERY meet since we started

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Lofty
Posts: 5
Joined: Fri Feb 20, 2015 7:16 pm

Re: History of AA guns

Sun Mar 06, 2016 10:43 pm

IIRC there is also the Pro-Elite a FAC springer.
Plus the forerunner to the Pro-Target was the RN-10 (RN for Rob Nicholls and 10 as the gun was originally a 10M rifle made by RWS ? and the original designation was CA100). I think aslo that Rob Nicholls even had RN 10 as the number plate on his car, seem to remember seeing a pic of that years back.
The Shamal was indeed before the 100 series (SM,TM and the NJR or Nick Jenkinson Replica which was the full blown FT version with adjustable stock, swan neck bolt and the 'Olympic' trigger as standard).

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Dr B
Posts: 41
Joined: Wed Jan 20, 2016 6:28 pm

Re: History of AA guns

Sun Mar 13, 2016 11:55 am

Thanks to all for the input - fasinating read. I must confess my AA knowledge does not go much before the S310 / Pro Elite. So nice to hear about all these other models. Makes me wonder if, accuracy wise, PCPs have peaked and all the modern twists are small potatoes really.
AA S410 .22, Classic Walnut Thumbhole stock, Hawke 4-12 x 50 Panorama IR/AO/EV
AA S410 .22 Carbine (Cloverleaf Tuned) Walnut stock, Hawke Airmax 30, 4-16 x 50mm IR
AA TX200Hc .22, Walnut stock, Simmons 3-9 x 50mm.

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