Prewar BSA shooting on the BBC recently...Nice liitle clip

[edbear2]

Be quick, 4 days to run on Iplayer, I watched this and forgot all about it until an earlier post I replied to jogged my grey matter

The program was all about the WW1 Poet Ivor Gurney and the scene was describing how as a lad he used to shoot his air rifle along the banks of the Severn with his friend, with May Hill in the distance (a local landmark to me which is always visible when driving around the area just south of Malvern).

Ironically I have ridden / walked all the area shown in this film, so may even have trodden over old Witton or Adder pellets long ago shot off by Ivor as a young boy....Funny old world ain't it!

Anyway, link here;

http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode...r_Ivor_Gurney/

Go to 17.00 in to see the short part of this film about his childhood, and please no moaning about 1920's guns in the close up, (or loading procedure) as although this is a technical / historical slight hiccup, the other rifle looks right, and it is better than anything I have seen for ages on the haunted fishtank in regard to close ups of a vintage air rifle...

ATB, Ed

[Garvin]

Be quick, 4 days to run on Iplayer, I watched this and forgot all about it until an earlier post I replied to jogged my grey matter

The program was all about the WW1 Poet Ivor Gurney and the scene was describing how as a lad he used to shoot his air rifle along the banks of the Severn with his friend, with May Hill in the distance (a local landmark to me which is always visible when driving around the area just south of Malvern).

Ironically I have ridden / walked all the area shown in this film, so may even have trodden over old Witton or Adder pellets long ago shot off by Ivor as a young boy....Funny old world ain't it!

Anyway, link here;

http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode...r_Ivor_Gurney/

Go to 17.00 in to see the short part of this film about his childhood, and please no moaning about 1920's guns in the close up, (or loading procedure) as although this is a technical / historical slight hiccup, the other rifle looks right, and it is better than anything I have seen for ages on the haunted fishtank in regard to close ups of a vintage air rifle...

ATB, Ed

Thanks for that heads up, Ed. Very interesting. I've posted a short clip on the vintage forum.

Shame Gurney went gaga in the end, although after spending 18 months on the front line, who can blame him?

A lot of lads must have made the same journey, from plinking with their air rifles to shooting men in the trenches of WW1. Interesting that shooting air rifles made him a crack shot though.

[battyone]

Nice clip, thanks Ed

Wasn't the promotion of airgun shooting a deliberate attempt to improve marksmanship after the Boers kicked our arse???

Although a bit of a difference, firing a BSA underlever compared to a 303 enfield. Possibly just knowing that you can hit what you aim at translates regardless.

I'm definitely a better shot with an air rifle than I ever was with an SLR and as for SMGs, I had a couple that shot round corners