A COLLECTION OF OLD ‘MASTERS

Reader, Stuart Cross, is the proud owner of an incredible collection of Airmasters rifles

It all began in the mid-1980s, when I owned my ultimate springer rifle, a Venom Lazaglide-tuned action mounted in an Airmasters FTS stock, which was designed primarily for FT and had an adjustable cheek piece to allow better eye-to-scope alignment. In the ‘80s, Venom and Airmasters were responsible for most of the custom-built and tuned rifles that most of us longed to own, but they were also mostly priced prohibitive.

Eventually, I sold my rifle to fund other toys and hobbies, but years passed by and my interest in rifles was reignited. I bought a few, and the memory of the 77K Venom/Airmasters was still there, so the longing to own one again was constantly in the back of my mind. The search began for an FTS stock, and thanks to friends and contacts, one came into my possession; an example of the later FTS stock with a deeper fore end and front stock screw, brass bushes and unusually, a brass cheek piece adjuster knob. The stock had been found, and a search for a Venom 77K action began. After a few false trails, I quite quickly found an early ‘77 action which had the barrel shortened to 77K length, and the biggest bonus of all – it was fitted with the very early Mach 1 trigger assembly that involved machining the trigger block to allow fitment, an expensive sought-after option offered by Venom

FAMILIAR RIFLE

I thought that the itch was well and truly scratched now because I had an example of my original gun, but a few months later I noticed an advert on one of the on-line air rifle sites. From the pictures, the rifle looked very familiar and yes, it was another Airmasters FTS 77K, so I contacted the seller, viewed the rifle and a deal was agreed.