Early BSA air rifle / army shooting real photo postcard

[edbear2]

I bought this recently of 'that' website, listed as a WW1 rifle range postcard in the listing, but in the description it mentioned "BSA tent". Anyway, nothing in the photo was obviously air related, and no obvious sign of any BSA tent, but something about the distance and style of the targets got my interest so I placed a bid and forgot about it. When I checked back there had been only one other lowish bid, so was quite pleased to say the least, but wondering if I had wasted my time (again).

Arrived today, and under inspection with a loupe it's a result!...at least 3 BSA prewars in there, plus tantalising glimpses in the background of rifles where people have moved and the image is blurred, the BSA tent is indeed there in the background, and it looks like an early Army attended / BSA sponsored air rifle event.

The guns clearly visible are spade end under-levers, but there could possibly be a push button on a seat in the background, so am in the process as I write this of maxing out the poor old Epson V300 with the biggest resolution scan it will do (230 mins left).

Will get it on asap, with the missus hopefully doing her photoshop thingy to get some close ups so maybe can get some opinions of venue / date picture was taken as nothing on the card unfortunately

[Nikkormat]

Sounds interesting! I'm looking forward to seeing that.

Matt

[Prewar]

Something I saw on 'the bay' last month was this great family group with a Webley Mk2 Service rifle

http://i1136.photobucket.com/albums/...re-war/web.jpg

[edbear2]

Something I saw on 'the bay' last month was this great family group with a Webley Mk2 Service rifle

http://i1136.photobucket.com/albums/...re-war/web.jpg

I saw this too and thought how much a Webley owner would like it!.......Have scanned and uploaded photo, the guns in this are far less distinct than the Webley, but it is an interesting scene, I will link to a large file Flikr view, scroll around and see what you can spot;

14012x8791 pixels

2048x1285 pixels

1600x1000 pixels to show scene complete....looks a bit like the BFTO vintage meet!, wonder if a distant relative of Andy has done the targets...would love to know when and where this was!

[silva]

Great find, haven't seen a pic like that before. I wonder if it is one of the venues named on the Bsa Prize Rifles. Overbury Court perhaps ?
What part of the country was the vender from ?

[edbear2]

Great find, haven't seen a pic like that before. I wonder if it is one of the venues named on the Bsa Prize Rifles. Overbury Court perhaps ?
What part of the country was the vender from ?

He was a postcard dealer from Yorkshire, who sells a lot of stuff, so his location probably is unconnected, really annoying that there is zero information on the un-posted card itself on the reverse it just has; "Post-Card" and "communication" on one side, and "the address only to be written here" opposite, no makers name etc. Maybe it was a private commission by the photographer or organiser as a souvenir as seems a specialist hard to sell subject otherwise.

On closer examination the gun on the seat looks to be a spade grip, can anyone shed any light on the era (I would imagine the uniform to be a clue)...and how many and what type of guns have anyone spotted yet! (not all are obvious at first).

I had a mare of a time uploading it, had to re-size and convert to rgb format, but in original download size it is around 40meg I believe, so may be worth downloading and printing onto photo paper, have not tried this myself yet, and may be able to improve on the scanning as I am a bit of an amateur (used reflective setting, 16 bit greyscale and 3200 d.p.i. resolution (the max the memory would allow), I am sure it will come up better when I can get the missus to have a gander.

[walnutfarmmick]

Something I saw on 'the bay' last month was this great family group with a Webley Mk2 Service rifle

http://i1136.photobucket.com/albums/...re-war/web.jpg

They say every picture tells a story, don't they?

I'd love to know what this one's is

Or post it for a caption competiton and we'll make one up.

ATVB, Mick