BSA light no. L19561 date?

[wsmk2]

Hi I have just received a nice birthday present of a BSA light and am guessing the date is around 1922 ish?

It has two holes in the trigger block as opposed to the three on the 1927 standard model I own. I have looked at picture of a 1924 and this has the three holes so my light must be earlier?

It has the push button on the cocking lever.

In great condition has the ghost of Birmingham small arms etched into the chamber (but very very feint now).

Would be great to have the date confirmed

Thanks

[torrens]

Hi wsmk2, Dennis Hiller's book lists 18000 serial as 1923 and 22000 for 1924 so yours should be within that range.
atb Torrens

[wsmk2]

Thats great - much as I thought . Its knocking out just under 6 foot pound and 550 plus fps and is lovely to shoot.
It must be 1924 that they changed to the three holes in the trigger block?

Really pleased with it!

[david9d]

Hmmm. I think it may be a little lder than that.
John Knibbs in his book "BSA and Lincoln Jeffries Air Rifles" page 148 gives:-

19230 - 19729 manufactured between Nov 07 and Mar 08, despatched Dec 07 to Apr 09.

David

[dogsbody]

Hmmm. I think it may be a little lder than that.
John Knibbs in his book "BSA and Lincoln Jeffries Air Rifles" page 148 gives:-

19230 - 19729 manufactured between Nov 07 and Mar 08, despatched Dec 07 to Apr 09.

That book covers the period 1904 - 1918.
The light model with the L prefix ran from 1919 - 1936.

atb
dogsbody

[david9d]

Ooops.
Wrong Book.

His other book "The Golden Century" confirms L prefix is 1919-1936.

David
(crawls back into library chair)

[wsmk2]

It seems its never straight forward dating an old BSA air rifle

It would be nice to think its over 100 years old!

Pics to help clarify here

Hope this will help to finally pin the date down.

Thanks for everyones help so far.

[Mike95]

1923-1924 per this serial number. Taken from 1978 articles in Guns Review.

Mike95

[edbear2]

[COLOR="black"]It seems its never straight forward dating an old BSA air rifle

It is straightforward once you have either read hillers etc. or seen a few, the complication from working from serial numbers is that they started again with a new set post WW1, and some numbers alone can indeed possibly mean two different guns.

Another two complications are the using up of old parts, so features (but only small details) merge, and the fact that most parts interchange, so the part with the number, ie. the trigger block, can find it's way onto another gun for several reasons.

Generally, anything with with a Webley mark 3 style push in button under lever, and a stock with an oval inspection plug will be post WW1......

(although the stock did come out pre WW1, but on the very first Standard models...Oh sod it!, see what I mean)

.