BSA Gunlaying Teacher.......

[DCL_dave]

Anymore for anymore.......valuations that is!

I guessed there wouldn't be many members who could offer a valuation based on....the last one they saw for sale/sold....

Give you a score for it, maybe more if you have any rough old Gems to chuck in with it, any good to ya?

Rare it might be but without a 25 pounder to bolt it to it is as much use as a chocolate tea pot, so unless you are a rich BSA collector it is worthless.

Thanks, got to admit that I was wondering how it was used until I read this...I assume it was bolted to a tank or field gun and calibrated to shoot scaled-down targets at closer ranges then?...like shooting a 1' wide target at 25 yards gives the a same trajectory to shooting a 10' wide target at 250 yards sort of thing, yeah?

[keith66]

Yes the gunlayer was bolted to the breech of the field gun & allowed the gun crew to practice indoors at minature targets with dummy rounds. THough the range was probably meant to scale to thousands of yards.

[DCL_dave]

Thanks, makes sense now...

[hwvixen]

Thanks for the potted history guys...here are a few more facts.

They were devised between 1911/13 based on the BSA Standard air rifle of that time & put into "service" in 1915/16 with both the Navy & Army getting a slightly different version.I believe the Navy version was discharged by means of a solonoid & the Army's version by a lanyard...to simulate actual usage when fully trained & let loose on the real thing!

They were mounted either on or inside a real field piece & used in a scaled down enviroment firing .177 pellets....saving on the cost of live shell's.Only 212 were believed made & of those very few remain...apparently!For comparison there were 400 or so Military Pattern rifles manufactured...This particular one is stamped NZA (& other markings) & the New Zealand Army did apparently use them until the early 50's mounted on a Valentine tank...hence it's green paint in places.

This one is devoid of any of the means to operate it..but it does cock & fire...so I guess that makes me a wealthy BSA collector then..?Anyone got a Valentine Tank for sale.....there should be plenty of those around...this time of year.