Blast From The Past THE AIR ARMS FTP900 PART 3

Gary Chillingworth continues his look back in history as he revisits this iconic rifle from Air Arms

- Gary Chillingworth

As we arrive at Part 3 of ‘Blast from the Past, it’s time to look at Air Arms and the FTP900. This gun was a game changer; a rifle that was perfect for HFT and FT alike, and in its first two years on the circuit won national events and world titles with shooters like Vince Holland and Charles Peal to name but a couple.

The FTP900 is a mighty beast of a gun weighing in at 11lbs, but it’s extremely well balanced and even shooters like Rhyley Minney have used it to great effect. The rifle has adjustable butt pads, cheek risers and hamsters, and can be made to fit almost any shooter. If you like a rifle that is light at the front, you can remove the ‘8’ clamp at the front of the gun and have a free-floating barrel and some shooters remove the muzzle brake to lighten up the front of the gun even more. There are many top shooters who like the FTP900 in its regular set-up, though, and that’s the beauty of this rifle – you can customise it or shoot it as standard and because of its build quality, it will serve you well.

Speaking of build quality, the FTP900’s breech block is milled from a single piece of high-grade aluminium. Air Arms could cast this piece and it would be much quicker and cheaper, but milling from a single billet of aluminium gives the production team a much higher precision product. Each billet starts off weighing just over 3kg, but three hours later when the milling is complete, it weighs in at just over 500 grammes and has uniformity that can be measured in microns.