Hi Edd, I love reading about the BSA Challenger. One Christmas day, 29 years ago to be exact my farther gave me a .177 BSA Meteor, couple of month after that my parents purchased a .22 Mercury from a car boot sale, held in a village a couple of miles up the road from where I now live. My farther passed away a few years afterwards. I'm not sure why but my mother took me in to "town" and as a surprise purchased me a new rifle for my fourteenth birthday. It was from a shop called Arther Bale and sons, which has since move to new premises outside of Cardiff city centre.
The rifle was a brand new .22 BSA Challenger and came with a tin of .22 Pylarms. Growing up we didn't have much money, so the rifle was to stay with me for many years. I can still remember that I didn't have to aim with the rifle, just point and shoot, I must have shot many many many 1000's of pellets through the rifle over the years and it felt like an extension of my own arm. It must have been my second year of university when I finally decided to sell the rifle and save for a new BSA Super star with the rotating breech, the rifle never fitted me and shortly after that I purchased my first shotgun and then firearm, the Super star being sold to a young chap in Andover through an advert placed in Air Gunner if I recall correctly. To this day, I regret selling my Challenger. I have never shot more accurately than I did with that rifle.
John
It's not about hunting foxes, it's about the foxes RIGHT to be hunted