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The FWB 124 – 30 years later

Introduction by B.B. Pelletier

Guest blogger
Greg Anderson fell in love with the FWB 124 years ago. After all these years, it’s still his favorite, and in today’s blog, he tells you why.

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The FWB 124 – 30 years later

by Greg Anderson

Everyone has a story about a gun he owns. After reading B.B.’s report on the FWB 124 – a classic pellet rifle some time back, I thought I would add my experience with the 124.

In the beginning….
I first read of the FWB 124 in a boilerplate magazine article about the best firearm of each general class of firearms. It was the usual article. The best shotgun was the Remington 870, best pistol was the M1911 and best revolver was some S&W kit gun. It was the kind of article we’ve all seen a hundred times. But what was different in this article was that it included an airgun.

07-04-08-01

The FWB 124…still a great gun 30 years later.

The airgun they puffed about was something called a Feinwerkbau Model 124. Well, I’d never heard of Feinwerkbau or their rifle, but when I read that it didn’t require CO2 or pumping and that it needed just a single cocking stroke to propel a .177 pellet at 800 fps, I was intrigued. Eight hundred feet per second was getting close to rimfire velocity, making this more than a teenager’s toy.

My first adult airgun
I ordered a copy of the Beeman Precision Airgun Guide, and it had detailed information on the FWB 124. The catalog was also a wealth of information on what Beeman called “adult” airguns. Anyway, I was sold. I wasn’t so much sold on airguns as I was on this particular airgun. It appeared to be powerful, accurate and a masterpiece of practical engineering.

07-04-08-06

My FWB 124 loves these pellets. Wish they were still made today.

I bought a new FWB 124D from Beeman around 1978 or 1979. Along with the rifle, I bought 10 boxes of Beeman Silver Jet pellets, which they recommended for the 124. At the time, Beeman was also pushing their overpriced scope, insisting that other scopes would be beaten to death by the recoil, but I passed on it. As I recall, the scope with mounts was around $100. That was a lot of money back then.

I called several scope manufacturers to see what was available for airguns. The folks at Weaver told me their Marksman K4 scope (4×32, steel body) would handle the recoil, and they’d adjust it for 50-yard parallax. In addition, they recommended mounts for the gun that would stay put under the sharp recoil of the piston slamming home. The mounts looked like the ordinary 3/8″ dovetail units found on most .22 rimfires, except for a row of hardened steel teeth on the clamps. I installed this scope on the rifle with these mounts, zeroed it and started shooting. At that point I had about $400 in the gun, scope and ammo. (A year or two after I bought the 124, I ordered the new aluminum trigger to replace the plastic unit. It’s still in the original bag. The plastic trigger just keeps getting the job done.)

07-04-08-02

Who says plastic triggers don’t last? Here’s the replacement aluminum trigger I bought for the 124, because I figured I’d need it down the road. I never installed it, and almost 30 years later the plastic unit still works like a champ!

Figuring things out for myself
I’d never used a spring airgun before and there was little adult airgun information available at the time. Generally, what little information there was came from Beeman. I found that shooting technique was critical. You could not zero the gun off a sandbag and then expect accuracy when shooting off-hand. You couldn’t zero shooting off-hand with a sling and then expect accuracy from an off-hand snap-shot. I didn’t find that the loose hold advocated now was superior to any other hold. The one critical item for accuracy was that, regardless of how you held the rifle, you had to hold it exactly the same way for every shot. Once I got that figured out, the 124 became old reliable.

Over the years, I’ve used that little rifle to shoot just about anything you’d normally shoot with a .22 rimfire. While it’s certainly no .22 rimfire in the power department, it’s adequate for everything squirrel size and smaller out to about 20 yards. In fact, its lower power is an asset when shooting red squirrels or starlings off the side of my house because the pellet rarely penetrates the creature with enough velocity to damage my siding.

30 years old, but it’s just like new!
I’ve used this rifle for nearly 30 years now. In spite of all the dire warnings of it being hard on scopes, I’ve never even had to adjust the zero. I’ve always used the Beeman Silver Jet pellets (8.39 grains, out of production for some years), so there was never a need to re-zero for another pellet. I have about 700 pellets left of the original 5,000, so that’s at least 4,000 shots through the rifle. I recently removed the Weaver scope because my eyes are getting bad and I needed a scope with more focus adjustment in the eyepiece. When I pulled the mounts off the receiver the “teeth” on each mount had impressed a neat row of notches in the dovetail cut on the receiver. There was no evidence the mount had ever shifted in 30 years.

07-04-08-03

This Weaver scope really came through. My FWB 124 never shook it loose or shifted aimpoints.

As long as I was going to invest in a new Leapers 4×32 scope, I thought I should replace the piston seal and mainspring. I decided I would chronograph the thing before I tore it apart so I could have a benchmark for the seal and spring change. The chronograph showed the gun still drove Silver Jets at 780 fps and it made 830 fps with Beeman Lasers, so I just changed the breech seal and put on the new scope.

07-04-08-04

Old gun, new Leapers scope.

It’s still my favorite air rifle
I have around a dozen modern airguns. I have three other rifles, all of them more powerful and newer than the 124, including a Beeman R1, an RWS 350 and an RWS 54. Yet, the 124 is still my favorite. It’s the gun I always reach for if I just need to shoot something quick. It’s light, effortless to cock, quick to mount, powerful enough, quiet and more accurate than I am. Yeah, maybe its trigger isn’t perfect, but it’s such an elegant little rifle in every other way that I can overlook the trigger. If I have one regret about the 124, it’s that I didn’t order it with a Beeman custom walnut stock. If I remember correctly it added around $165 to the 124D’s price, which, at the time, was a lot of money. Still, in retrospect, I wish I’d scraped up the cash to get it.

07-04-08-05

The 124 in the Beeman catalog…it started a 30-year relationship that’s still going strong.

To answer the old gun magazine question, “If you could own just one airgun, what would it be?” Well, even after 30 years, if I could only own one airgun, it would still be the Feinwerkbau 124. In my opinion, it’s still the standard against which all other air rifles are measured.

56 thoughts on “The FWB 124 – 30 years later”

  1. I hear you on the stock. I could of bought a tyrolean (sp?) stock for my Beeman but thought it was too much too. I could kick my own teeth out for throwing away a BUNCH of old Beeman catalogs. I won’t ever throw anything away again without first making sure there’s no value to someone else.

  2. Hi,
    I’ve been reading your blog since early this year only.
    Thank you so much…….you’re providing so much joy to so many in places you may not even have heard of !
    I happen to live very very far away, where even a cheap plastic toy gun is against the law !!!…….but from young, I simply love guns & weapons (particularly crossbows.

    I’m now in my fifties and do have a daughter married to an American & working in the States……told her I’d love to stay a couple of months a year with her, provided she allowed me to buy all kinds of air guns, etc (which she totally hates !; son-in-law digs only golf & nothing else). The more I read your blog, the more my passion stirs……urgh!!!!!!……if only……….

    Anyway, I have this question bugging me for some time now:
    A paint ball gun can shoot a 3gm (say 45 gr) paintball at between 300 to 400 fps.
    An air gun pellet (or BB for that matter) is between 0.5gm to 1+gm (0.177).
    Can a paintball gun be EASILY modified to fire such pellets instead ?

    Theoretically, without tuning down the power level, such a pellet should go “ballistic” (or supersonic) ; and with semi-auto, full auto capability……..not to mention the tremendous savings in gas / compressed air if the new Tippmann C-3 PEP technology is adopted…….I can only say……WOW!!!……..(not that I can ever buy a paintball gun in my country…but dreaming is still free though).

    Has anybody done this? Why not? I truly wonder….(yes, I’ve read about the RAP4, etc.:toned down to airsoft level)…….but I’m thinking more about real air gun power and a true “revolution” in this field; and who better to comment on this than the “True Expert” in this field ?
    Thank you once again, and I truly look forward to shaking your hand in person one day soon.

    “Happy Independence Day” & have a most joyful weekend,
    Allen

  3. Allen,

    For someone who has made crossbows, converting a paintball gun to fire pellets should not be too hard. But feeding pellets semiautomatically is hard. That is always what stops guns from being semiautomatic.

    I don’t know that the pellets would go supersonic, though. I think it’s pretty hard for CO2 to drive anything supersonic. If you powered them by air, then yes, they might go supersonic.

    Dennis Quackenbush did something similar years ago. He turned Crosman 150 pistols into tranquilizer dart guns. And those darts weight many times moire than a paintball.

    I hope you are using the Search function to read the old blogs, because there are two more years of articles for you to read. I have always wondered what I would do if airguns were outlawed in this country, so maybe we will learn how to make out own airguns in the future – on this blog!

    B.B.

  4. Greg,

    You have a great writing style. The 124 still sets the gold standard for many of us. It was my first spring piston rifle, too and I recently restocked it in that walnut.

    Excellent job.

    Derrick

  5. Goodmorning Greg: Great blog. We’ve all got a “124”. Mine is a Diana Model 35 that’s been around since 1984. I’m down to my last box of the Beeman Silver Jets. Thanks for the reminder and a pleasent walk down memory lane. Happy Birthday to our beloved USA!

  6. Tim,

    To post a comment or question, you type the words into the Leave your comment window at the bottom of each blog (you have to click on the Comments word at the bottom of each blog to get to the comments section).

    The click on the Anonymous radio button and type in the letters the blog asks for. Click Publish your comment and it will publish to the blog.

    B.B.

  7. Dear BB (and friends),

    Welp, last week I finally got around to teaching an airsoft program to my wife’s unconditional love class. Strange combination, eh? But the participants had a great time.

    I taught airsoft for 2 hours while my co-instructor taught archery. When we first asked who would be interested, almost every hand went up for the archery but only a few for the airsoft pistol shooting. Most had been poisoned against guns by the Press. By the time the class rolled around however, I had the same number of students (14) as did the archery class.

    My shooting area was the parking area outside our garage. I hung a sheet backed up by an old blanket from a 12 foot 2×8, set on two folding ladders. From this I hung 5 sticky targets. I set up two shooting lines, the first at 10 feet and the second at twenty feet, with a folding table for the pistols and for reloading.

    I had eight shooters in the first group and six in the second. Each group shot for an hour and then switched with the archers. I communicated with the archery teacher by cell phone, as they were some distance away, in a lower meadow. This way we knew how each group was going and when to switch groups.

    My first group was eight people. If I’d had it to do over, I’d have supplied the same airsoft make and model to everyone, as watching the line for safety, showing each person how a different pistol worked and how to reload it, was hard work. To my embarrassment, several of my spring guns malfunctioned from lack of lubrication and from sitting around unused for months (even though I tried out each gun before the class). A new springer revolver broke, refusing to hold full-cock position, and had to be retired prematurely.

    I began with a basic safety talk, condensing 10 rules of safe gun handling down into two: never point the muzzle at anything but a safe target, and that the only reliable ‘safety’ was between their ears. Everyone wore eye protection, and because this was airsoft and because the area was fronted by trees, nearby neighbors were totally ignorant that a gun handling class was happening within 100 feet of them. Also, because this was airsoft and because I was busy on so many fronts, I let some safety violations go that I couldn’t have if we’d been shooting BB/pellet guns or firearms. So a few people on the line swept their muzzles past other shooters when reloading, and few people remembered to keep their fingers off the trigger until they were on target. Fortunately each group included at least one other person with military and/or NRA instructor experience, helping me out.

    Oh but you should have seen their faces! Pure joy once they started shooting. From the beginning I’d strived to keep talk to a minimum and to get them shooting as quickly as possible. This worked out great. The women, especially the middle aged ones really got into the shooting. Not only did they surprise me by how accurately they shot, but some also said things like, “Make my day, Perp!”, and “You talkin’ to ME?” Their self-confidence was building by leaps and bounds.

    The most fun was had with a see-through battery-operated machine gun, and an AEG Thompson smg. I placed several soft drink cans on the ground in front of the backdrop, and the shooters were absolutely delighted rolling the cans around (the Thompson with its higher mv tore holes through the soft cans).

    The woman teaching archery limited her shooters to three at a time, so she could keep a more careful eye on them. I would have similarly cut my shooters down to 1 or 2, had I been instructing with real firearms or anything similarly lethal. But I also could not have taught shooting in my densely-packed neighborhood using loud firearms!

    So the people who were initially frightened of guns, now were talking about buying their own airsoft guns, BB/pellet guns and/or even real firearms. They were pro-gun and quite excited about shooting. And except for one accidental let-off, which thankfully went harmlessly into the trees at the side of the range, no one got shot with a plastic BB or shot themselves in the eye. It was a positive experience for all 14 shooters, although…

    Due to the nature of the sensitivity required by an unconditional loving class, three women burst into tears during the discussion group following and summing up the archery/airsoft program. Each remembered a time when they felt like they had totally failed to please their fathers when being shown how to shoot. The fathers had lacked confidence in themselves, and had blown it by attempting to use a gun with too much recoil, or had lost their tempers at their daughters’ nervousness. It took several hours of holding and re-assurance to get them calm and happy again. This is not something you’d normally associate with a shooting session, and so readers are cautioned not to try this at home unless they’ve had sensitivity training!

    But as it turned out, an idea that I’d been toying with for months worked beautifully when put into action.

    –Joe B. on Maui

  8. Joe B,

    Great story, had my nephew shooting my old Slavia 618, the look on his face was priceless. It’s great to introduce people to shooting who would not normally like guns but once they pull that trigger, a conversion takes place!

    Good job Joe and happy Independence Day.

  9. Joe B. in Maui That was a great story.Happy Independence Day to all.Especially our Veterans and Service men and women.My unconditional love is my BSF model 70,sometimes it needs me to just hold it!!!!!Frankb

  10. B.B. Thanks for all your great work here for all of us. I had a small incident today and I need your advice. I was cocking my R9 when my hand slipped off the barrel. It was close to the end of it’s stroke. Of course the Barrel slammed shut. I inspected the rifle and found no signs of damage. However the POI has changed (upward) about 4″ at 50′. I “corrected” this by changing the elevation on the scope. The rifle seems to shoot fine. Did I bend the Barrel? Knock the scope out of alignment? Ruin my Rifle? The Barrel looks straight! What should I do?

    Rick

  11. Greg,

    great blog. I always thought of the 124 as “the” rifle – even when Beeman started touting the R1. Couldn’t agree more on the scope and stock options – I had an opportunity to pick up a HW 77 with the walnut Tyrolean stock years ago, and it has bugged me ever since… maybe if I had a better job at the time… but it was .177 and I was set on .22. I remember when my father ordered a case of those Silver Jets for his HW 77 – we shot them all in record time.. Great fun. Your rifle still looks excellent.

    BB & all,

    what gun do we reach for first when you go to the trouble of building a quality collection? It’s a tough call. I have a need to shoot all my guns per session so they get used – but that takes some time to do. Bunny in the garden, I reach for my reliable Webley Eclipse in .22, but for everything else it’s a tough call. I have got to say, the IZH 512m in .22 is becoming a fast favorite for general use. It ran a little over $40, looks really cheap – but performs extremely well, especially with the “scout” set-up. With a decent sling, it could become my snowshoeing companion rifle.

    Western PA

  12. “Your story sounds like a guest blog to me. Got any pictures?”

    Yes, some pretty good ones too. Movies as well. How do I go about this? For instance, I tried the one for bold in a recent post but evidently I didn’t know how to close it. Just repeating the tag at the end didn’t do it. I have Photoshop CS2 or iPhoto for resizing the pics.

    –Joe B.

  13. Thank you, Vulcanator. The same wish to you as well.

    I raised 17 special needs kids for 22 years. Each one had their own archery bow and airgun, although I kept these in my office until the kid was old enough to handle them properly on their own. Mostly the airguns were Crosman 760s because of the lower cost. Our favorite targets were soft drink cans, rolled along the lawn. As they were blown farther away, the shooting got harder. Strangely, I had kids who were raised on modern shoot-em-ups, and these were the ones who wanted to sling as much lead down range as quickly as possible. I had been raised on westerns and SAA revolvers, so I taught the kids to value accuracy above spray-and-pray. We had 100 acres to do this on, and it was a lot of fun that the kids always enjoyed.

    -Joe B.

  14. BB,

    I was going to buy the HFC M190 airsoft pistol with the HFC M190 Airsoft CO2 Magazine. But tonight I find the CO2 mag is discontinued. Thought you should know.

    –Joe B.

  15. CritterController,

    You can use light pellets in spring guns as long as they provide sufficient resistance for the piston. You can tell when shooting them whether the shooting performance has changed, and you can stop shooting if it has.

    B.B.

  16. Rick,

    Your barrel is bent. It happens every time a breakbarrel slams shut. You are lucky the stock didn’t crack, too, as that often happens.

    You have to straighten the barrel again. A friend of mine does it all the time and he says the barrel will straighten easily, but will resist going past straight.

    You should be able to see the bend, which is located at the front of the base block, by looking through the barrel.

    B.B.

  17. Joe B.,

    The loss of the CO2 mag is no big deal. It cycles the slide too violently and it hangs down past the bottom of the grip.

    I never use it. The operation with green gas is so much better than I only use that.

    B.B.

  18. Rick,

    Straighten the barrel by bending it in the opposite direction. It’s best to take the action out of the stock for this, and support the action on a solid table.

    Before you embark on this project, let me see if I can get my friend to help me with a blog on barrel straightening.

    B.B.

  19. B.B., Trying my best not to be a pest and failing. I guess I just can’t help it. It goes along with my original “stupident”.

    Is re-bending the barrel accomplished by simply using muscle force working against the compression limits of the action? If not, what tools are needed.

    I was going to send it out for repair but now I’m intrigued. It’s a .177 and I was thinking of re-barreling to .20 anyway.

    Rick

  20. Rick,

    Muscle power, alone, is all you need to straighten an airgun barrel. My friend says as you bend it bak you can feel the steel giving. It sort of shudders as it goes top straight. Once straight, though, it does not want to bend farther, so the resistance increases.

    B.B.

  21. B.B.
    Think I found some good rest material. It’s the waffle looking rubber shelf liner stuff .
    Feels just like your hand when you press down on the roll. Got it from Wally world….Duck brand 10′ roll. Can be cut in half to make 2 rests.

    Shot the Talon off the roll this morning. 3 shots at 25 yds and 1 shot at 41 yds to verify zero only. Looked like 2 overlapping holes. May just like this stuff.

    twotalon

  22. Anonymous, Derrick, Bruce, BG_Farmer, Western PA: Thanks for the kind words.

    Anonymous: I, too, failed to save the first few issues I had of the Beeman Catalog. Started saving at the 9th Edition (1981). I did, however save the first edition of Bob Beeman’s “The Airgun Digest” (DBI Books, 1977).

    Derrick: I’m envious that you’ve dressed up your “old girl”. It’s also on my very long list of things to do. So many guns, so little time!

    Bruce: Ration those Silver Jets! And I concur, “God bless the U.S.A.”

    BG_Farmer: Beemans really was expensive! But in retrospect, the 124 was worth every penny. I wonder if they would still honor my $1.00 lifetime guarantee?

    Western PA: The Silver Jets really are (were) an excellent pellet. They provide more velocity per grain than any pellet I have ever used, and that includes the over-hyped Raptor. I wish I could buy more. I do remember them as being quite expensive (from Beemans at least). At the time the .177 Silver Jets were more expensive than .22 LR ammo.

    Greg Anderson

  23. B.B.
    There are several brands and mesh patterns.Some is sold as tool box liner, some as router working pads. Squeeze the roll to see how it feels.
    twotalon

  24. B.B., It worked! I wouldn’t have believed it really. I didn’t think I could bend a steel rifle barrel without a press and since I don’t have Superman on speed dial I was skeptical. So I tried it. I will now add “Bends steel rifle barrels with bare hands” to my resume. Best of all my R9 is back to normal. Thanks for the advice.

    Rick

  25. Thanks BB, I agree. I’ve always thought that HI-CAP mags that hang down below the gun looked wrong somehow, and should only be used if you’re embroiled in a prolonged gunfight.

    –Joe B.

  26. Rick,

    Not so fast! Now that you have done this, how about a short story for the rest of the readers?

    If you agree, I would even feed you what I’d like to see – a story on how the R9 barrel got away from you in the first place, our conversation and then finally what you did. I’d like to hear your impressions of how easy or hard it was, and what observations, if any, you had.

    I can supply a photo of a rifle with a bent barrel, if you like, and I’ll even add a piece to the guest blog. Bent barrels on springers are a real problem, and it would be nice to read about how someone solved the problem himself. I’d also like to hear how the rifle shoots after you finished the bending.

    If this is something you think you would like to do, please contact me at

    blogger@pyramydair.com

    B.B.

  27. Nice Posting. I have a FWB 124 that was my Dad’s. It will still shoot at 750 fps. with the old Silver Jet pellets. I have about 1500 of them so I’m good for a while. Neat gun, it’s hard on squirrels!

    Regards;

    Mike

  28. BB,
    Thanks for the advice on the scope for my 34 panther pro.

    I have been reading your blogs about Field Target, thinking that FT had not made it to Puerto Rico.

    So today I did some research in the AAFT website for rules and to my surprise FT did make it to the island, there Is the Puerto Rico Field Target Association and there is club not 30 minutes drive from my house. Sadly I found out to late, they had a match today and could not attend.

    I also read that from now on all FT international matches will be limited to 12 fpe,

    So my question is would a FWB 601, I own one, be a good rifle to start in FT?

    I made the calculations and depending on pellet weight it should be between 3.7 fpe and 6.09 fpe. Calculations were more guesses than scientific since I don’t own a crony but are based on 75 to 100% of the advertise fps.

    I think the rifles accuracy will counter its lack of power, if you can’t hit it you can’t knock it down.

    If the 601 is viable where can I find a scope base for it, I searched different websites including FWB and could not find scope bases for it. after todays research, I was thinking of Leapers 8-32×56 for a scope.

    Any help on this matter will be greatly appreciated.

    Best Regards, from the Caribbean

    Mario J. Garcia Incera

  29. Mario,

    Your 601 will be great out to 25-30 yards. Beyond that distance, though, you will be at a disadvantage because of the pellet drop.

    Your calculations of the potential muzzle energy of the 601 sound right on the money to me. Ten meter rifles do not produce more than 6 foot-pounds, as a rule.

    Finding a scope base will be difficult because Feinwerkbau never intended that rifle to be used with a scope. And even in the running target version, the scopes they use are far shorter than a field target scope.

    What I’m saying is you can do this, but it won’t be very practical. Your RWS Diana 34 Panther is a better field target rifle than your 601. Use it. It will be a long time before you are ready to compete at the world level and by then you will own a proper FT rifle.

    For field target you need accuracy over a long range. A 10-meter gun has the accuracy, but too short a range to be used. FT shooters do use 10-meter PCP rifles, but only after their power has been boosted. Your single-stroke pneumatic cannot be modified that way.

    B.B.

  30. Enjoyed the story on the 124 very much. It was “the” airgun when I first started the pastime, but I opted for the new R-1 when I finally had the funds for a purchase.
    Anyway, the technical stories are good, but someone’s history with the hobby is a nice change of pace.
    Not all of us are shade tree mechanics.

  31. I have an old FWB 124D as all have said still a greta gun…however loaned it to a family member and he dropped it cracking the stock! Does anyone know where one can get a STOCK!!??

  32. 94Zebra,

    There are a couple things you can do. One is contact airgun repair stations to see if they have a stock. Many times they will have upgraded a customer’s rifle with a new stock and may have the original laying around.

    Another thing might be to contact a stock maker. Not to have a custom stock made, though that would also work, but because they have replaced many stocks over the years and sometimes the owner didn’t want the old stock back.

    Here is a start for you:

    http://www.airguninfo.com/

    B.B.

  33. A friend recently asked me to have a look at his Feinwerkbau 124; its not releasing enough air to discharge a pellet. It appears part of a seal is lodged at the breech end port of the spring cylinder; before I took it apart, I thought I’d better find out what I could about the 124. Thanks to your blog on the 124, I have a new and healthy respect for it. I may very well recommend that he send it out for repair; however, the “fix it myself” in me would like to see some diagrams, or disassembly / assembly instructions so I could at least be clearer with a repair request and explanation to my buddy. Any ideas as to where I might find such diagrams or instructions, and I welcome any thoughts on the feasibility on a home repair? Thanks again to you and your fellow bloggers; you’re postings have provide the best and most comprehensive information, I’ve seen.

  34. blueskies7,

    I’m going to give you a link to a 13 part series that B.B. did on tuning a spring air gun like the fwb 124. Before I do, I’m going to second what B.B. has said above. The fwb 124 isn’t the gun to learn about working on springers.

    Although the gun used in this 13 parts series that details tuning a springer was an R1, the similarities are greater than the differances between an R1 and a FWB 124. Here’s the link that you need to copy and paste:

    /blog/2006/08/spring-gun-tune-part-13-range-testing-the-r1-we-tuned/

    I would strongly encourage you to send this classic gun to an experienced tuner.

    kevin

  35. I bought a 124D in 1984. It was $265 and the best money I've ever spent. The gun was far too accurate for free hand shooting so I bought a scope. The first one (Bushnell) broke, the glue holding a lens inside broke free. Later I put a heavy duty scope mount on a nice 4-12 Nikon. At the std 10M the pellets keep going into the same hole over and over. I set aspirin tablets on the fence across the yard and never miss or hit the fence, they just explode into dust. Starlings, rabbits, rats etc etc are all goners, it’s like I can’t miss with this gun, it’s amazing! Looks great and shoots like a dream. The craftsmanship puts most my real firearms to shame. People always comment on its looks and are very surprised to hear it’s an air gun. Years and thousands of pellets later I decided to put a new piston seal in it and tried a different spring offered to boost the power a bit. It was a top quality spring but I forget the mfg. It increased the cocking effort only slightly, but brought the speed from 800 to over 900 per my Crony. It's amazing how easy this gun is to cock, all the others I've owned were far more difficult for the power returned, and much louder. I have a Beeman RX-1 that takes 46lbs and is very loud. Beautiful and high quality gun, but it’s basically useless to shoot in my back yard at that noise level, and too heavy to hike with. Power is nice, but the drawbacks are just too great. Same with my RWS 52, but the RWS is a joke in the quality and accuracy department. I really regret buying that one. 99% of the time I shoot it’s with the 124. If I could only have one air gun there is no question which one it would be.

  36. Are there any real good after market triggers for the FWB 124D ? I had my1979 FWB re-built by Steve at Pomona Air Guns ( no , it is not even close to Pomona , but out in the high desert near Hesperia) and I think that a better trigger could be an asset on an otherwise great rifle. Back when I bought the gun , I did not know that better triggers were on the horizon.

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