That old Gunsmith on Melton Hill Woodbridge

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11/01/2012, 10:50 AM

Terry Basson is not online. Last active: 03/03/2012 21:56:35 Terry Basson

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Joined on 25/03/2011
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That old Gunsmith on Melton Hill Woodbridge

Many Woodbridge children owned an air rifle. Mine was a Webley. It fired 0.22 lead slugs. Many of us were good shots. We hunted rabbits and shot at any birds that perched within range. I guess this helped me to become a true marksman when I went into the army.

As kids we took our air rifles for repair to a gunsmith who walked using one leg and a crutch. He lived on Melton Hill. We were rarely asked inside the house. The gunsmith took instructions about the gun at the door, propping himself up against the doorpost, as he examined my rifle.
“Come back in a week’s time, ” he would say. Then he, with some difficulty, reversed down the hall, as he closed the door, leaving me with just a bit of oily stained paper, with a job number written upon it. Gosh, that week without a gun seemed like months. However he never let us down. The repair always came back on time.

When we returned at the end of the week to the Gunsmith holding the repair ticket up high, out came the rifle in tiptop condition. I always tested the gun on the way home by just charging the spring and firing it into the air without any ammo. Bang! Out flew nothing other than gun oil. The sight and smell of that old oily gunsmith with his crutch, shuffling along the passage, holding my Webely rifle still walk and talk to me today. As I write these childhood memories, it astounds me that 9 year olds back in 1944 were permitted to walk about with Air Rifles, Catapults, Acorn Guns, Pea Shooters and not to mention the Lemonade bombs.

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