ALL HANDS TO THE PUMP-UP!

Russ Douglas rekindles a teenage love for the venerable Crosman 1322

- Russ Douglas

Hmm … what would really help pass the time right now? A garden with sufficient space for a plinking range, that’s what! As a keen shooter, I can’t help feeling jealous of those with a decent-sized back garden; I’d be out there every day alleviating the monotony of isolation with some plinking good fun. Unless such an area exceeded 25-30m in length, I wouldn’t bother with a PCP because once my main air bottle’s low on pressure, that would be it until the pandemic’s over. What’s required here is a good old-fashioned plinker, nothing high power – in fact, variable power would be ideal.

OPPORTUNITY KNOCKS

When Scottish airgun licensing was looming over us all here ‘oop north’, I discussed the situation with a few colleagues. The next day, one of them very kindly handed me a discreet package, sensibly double-bagged away from both public exposure and prying eyes. He said it had lain unused in his loft for years, he had no plans to use it and certainly wasn’t going to bother getting a licence just to keep it for old time’s sake. When I got home I was well chuffed to find that the bag contained a Crosman 1322 Medallist, the exact model I’d had as a teenager.

PICTURE OF THE PAST