Anyone any thoughts on this?

[ccdjg]

Reading one of the recent threads about pellets made me wonder why it was always traditional for cycle shops to stock airgun pellets. I can't see any real reason for this, other than a vague sporting connection, and yet it always seems to have been that way. Does anyone have any bright ideas as to why this odd relationship developed, and is it peculiar to the UK?

[MattyBoy]

This was the style of "drive-by shootings" back in the good old days... a youth with a BSA Scorpion cycling past on his Raleigh Chopper at speed letting loose with a .22 Bulldog or Milbro Caledonian slug...

Oh I'm getting all misty eyed just thinking about those lovely, former, safer times...

Matty

[Unframed Dave]

Not all things in retail make particular sense:

"Anything for the weekend Sir?"

Dave

[Rob M]

I'd like to know that as well. Could it be that some bike shops started out as hardware shops that sold pellets, and kept on selling pellets as the rest of the business changed? Or maybe, it's simply that bicycle shops were popular with boys and the shopkeepers knew their customers' interests.

[I. J.]

I'd like to know that as well. Could it be that some bike shops started out as hardware shops that sold pellets, and kept on selling pellets as the rest of the business changed? Or maybe, it's simply that bicycle shops were popular with boys and the shopkeepers knew their customers' interests.

Or perhaps its just that theres a good mark up on pellets and they dont eat owt and never go cheaper.

In my youth several local pet shops sold airgun pellets and air guns. M

[piggy589]

Didn't BSA produce bicycles at one time?.

[Paradox]

Motorcycles not push bikes as far as I am aware

[shauny]

Not all things in retail make particular sense:

"Anything for the weekend Sir?"

Dave

ha ha !

[roll27]

heres one, when I was a kid, my local barbers shop not only sold fishing tackle bits and bobs but also air gun pellets, I think they also sold the gat airpistol. This was the old school barbers, black and white pics of styles available adorned the walls, 3 chairs but only one ever used as it was only a one man concern, he'd even warn the lino tiles away around the one chair. Fond memory's of having a brand new tin of cheap pellets.

[ccdjg]

I wonder how many men, having left the barbers after asking for something for the weekend, found themselves outside the shop scratching their heads at a packet of 500 Marksman pellets and wondering what they would tell the wife?

[Rickenbacker]

Ahh, days gone by, slinging an un-cased .303 Enfield No. 4 across your back and pedaling off down to the rifle range after school?

No, I don't remember that. Our school didn't have a rifle range.

[AC99]

Our local bike shop also repaired radios and re-charged accumulators for them. In addition he also sold a selection of pellets - Beatall, Lanes cat slugs and others. I think he also must have been an agent for Webley because my mate's older brother ordered a mk3 through him which eventually arrived a week or so later.

[ccdjg]

Our local bike shop also repaired radios and re-charged accumulators for them.

My God! Accumulators - I had forgotten about them. How old do you have to be to even know what they are? Thanks for depressing me!

[mel h]

My God! Accumulators - I had forgotten about them. How old do you have to be to even know what they are? Thanks for depressing me!

I've got a couple in my shed.
Mel.

[Josie & John]

My God! Accumulators - I had forgotten about them. How old do you have to be to even know what they are? Thanks for depressing me!

Speaking of which, I could do with one for a 1927 BSA radio set I have but have never used due to the voltage required. I also have a boxed set of BSA branded headphones for the radio and would like to see it working one day.

On to the topic in hand, as Lakey has alluded in an earlier post, many Ironmongers and bicycle shops held an account with BSA, hence were a national source of guns, ammunition and spares. It's one of the reasons Lincoln Jeffries sold a lot less of his rifles than BSA did, although he also supplied dealers nationwide on a smaller scale. These outlets specialised in the great variety of goods they supplied and airgun pellets were just one such product.

I bought my first Harrington darts and Beatall pellets in an Electrical shop in Cricklewood and also recall buying pellets from a Funeral Director's premises in Horden County Durham, Josie's neck of the woods. I think the latter were boxes of Milbro Caledonian.

John