Your first airgun

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   I remember we had a Jacana break barrel in .177 when I was very young, must be 35 years ago…
I can’t remember what happened to it, I think my dad gave it to my uncle and it ended up going to my two cousins. Who knows where it is today.

Many years later I bought my self MY first Airgun, which was at the time a very expensive Diana model 48 side lever in .177.
A beautiful rifle that was heavy but lovely to shoot.

Many years after that I became a game ranger and my every day constant companion working rifle was a CZ .458Lott which I had custom fitted to my very long arms and big hands. As a charge stopping rifle it had no fancy optics, just simple, reliable, easy and quick to find open sights and was intended to stop a charging Buffalo, lion or elephant at 10m. To be able to shoot quickly (very quickly) and accurately with open sights takes a lot of practice and building muscle memory, but at $15 a round practicing with .458Lott ammo gets expensive quickly!
So I took my old Diana to the same gunsmith who had restocked my Lott and asked him to replicate my Lotts dimensions, I wanted them identical in every way, including the sights and sight picture.

The end result was that I could pick up and shoulder either rifle with my eyes closed, and when I opened my eyes I would be looking stright down the barrel with the sight picture perfectly lined up on what I was pointing at.
I lost count of how many tins of pellets I put through that Diana, one pellet at a time. 
Shoulder, aim, shoot, quick as you can. Shoulder, aim, shoot. Shoulder, aim, shoot.
At 12m freehand it was pellet on pellet one hole groups all day long.
I loved that rifle, both of them.