The earlier Lightnings and S/sports can retro fit the Super/Goldstar two stage trigger unit which improves the rifle ten fold, this is the thing which annoys the hell out of me about BSA, they can easily fit the Goldstar two stage unit and even put a breach bolt on the newer rifles as they've done it before with the Supersport SS model, for the cost of the parts needed, I don't think it would cost much more and it's not as if they have to spend loads on R&D as the parts have already been designed and used successfully in the past, I did hear that production of the Supersport is now being done in the UK again, which I suppose is good as the build quality should improve but what about the quality of the components themself, I read a thread the other day from Venoman (
http://www.airgunbbs.com/showthread....hlight=Venoman) saying how shocked he was about the internal finishing on a Lightning, the new gas ram models have proved to be shite as well, it seems all BSA want to do is put a different stock on it every few years (a bit like what Theoben did towards the end) and hope it rekindles new interest, the thing is the Supersport is nearly a thirty year old design now (and that was a redesign of the meteor) and is getting a bit long in the tooth, what it needs is either a complete new designed rifle or put the improvements I've already said (trigger and breach bolt as well as others) and make the internal parts better fitting (spring and guide come to mind and a top hat that would cost pence to make, wouldn't go a miss) with tighter tolerances to compete with the other makers out there, if AA can do it then so can anyone else, Quality over quantity!
Like already said by other members like TonyL, if BSA cleaned their act up and produced a superb built rifle then a lot of people would buy it, even if it was for nostalgia reasons, people's respect for BSA is quickly waning (seasoned shooters know about the problems and new to the sport shooters, find out to their cost after buying) but if they produced something to compete with the other makers then it could just help them out the mire, by all means keep the cheaper end of the market going as someone has to start somewhere but there are better made rifles out there for half the money BSA charge.
Pete