Cadet major

[stevegv8]

Calling cadet major experts!
My one has a CB5xxxx serial but in John Knibbs list it shows CA as 1949-55 and CC as 1955-62 but CB is skipped.
An oversight in the info or some other explanation? Hiller book says the same.
I've added the question that they are only .177?

Also I turned down a scruffy old heavily rust pitted one for £30 the other day but maybe the stock, internals, trigger block and sights would have been worth that much in fact also passed on equally rusted late (serial not at trigger guard position) airsporter and HW35 for similar money but there you go.

TIA

Steve

[thisisdonald]

I parted out an unrecoverable badly rusted smoothbore cadet late last year.. its internals were perfect! Testament to how well made they are! For 30 quid id expect it to be in readonable firing condition but parted out you would make your money back at least...

[Benelli B76]

I am working on 3 of these at the moment, and yesterday bought a rusty one with nice stock at Wimborne market for £20. The parts on these are so well made and chunky they are always usable and blue up nicely.

Baz

[Abasmajor]

Hello Steve,

"The Golden Century" publication (John Knibbs), states that no Cadet Majors carried the 'CB' prefix. Apparently the very first models carried an 'M' prefix and were dispatched in 1946. The 'C' prefix was then introduced in September 1947, followed by 'CA' in April 1949 up to June 1955 and the final "CC" prefix October 1955 to end of production April 1959.

If the prefix stamping clearly indicates 'CB', I have no idea how it appeared on your rifle other than by some mistake at the factory.

All Cadet and Cadet Majors were produced in .177 calibre only.

Regards

Brian

[Benelli B76]

Hello Steve,

"The Golden Century" publication (John Knibbs), states that no Cadet Majors carried the 'CB' prefix. Apparently the very first models carried an 'M' prefix and were dispatched in 1946. The 'C' prefix was then introduced in September 1947, followed by 'CA' in April 1949 up to June 1955 and the final "CC" prefix October 1955 to end of production April 1959.

If the prefix stamping clearly indicates 'CB', I have no idea how it appeared on your rifle other than by some mistake at the factory.

All Cadet and Cadet Majors were produced in .177 calibre only.

Regards

Brian

The one I bought yesterday for 20 quid is "B" according to Knibbs made the year I was born, 1946.

Baz

[stevegv8]

Lists clearly show C, CA, CC, & Y.
But mine is CB! ?
B's &W for regular cadet.
And CB doesn't even show up as a code for another model either.
Wish I'd looked closer at the rusty one I rejected last week now.
Will photo later.

[shabee]

Could the "B" have mistakenly been used as a number "8"? without referring to a book im not sure ..
eric

Ps there was at least one Cadet Major barrel produced in .22 cal, and i think John Knibbs has it for sale........

[stevegv8]

I have three pics now.
I got this gun because it was far better than my other one and had the logo in the stock which is a nice little detail imo.

Eric, I had already seen the Knibbs barrel although wasn't aware it was a proto, £1,000 though !!

[thisisdonald]

The scrapper i parted out was stamped SB ... i presumed for smoothbore...

[Abasmajor]

I have three pics now.
I got this gun because it was far better than my other one and had the logo in the stock which is a nice little detail imo.

Eric, I had already seen the Knibbs barrel although wasn't aware it was a proto, £1,000 though !!

Hi Steve,

The 'CB' prefix stamping certainly looks clear enough and unfortunately the following sequence of digits won't help in determining the likely manufacturing period for the rifle.

Maybe somebody can come up with a further example of this anomaly or it may just be a mistake during the production process.

The rifle looks to be in excellent condition by the way and is certainly an early example of this elegant air rifle.

Regards

Brian

[Abasmajor]

The scrapper i parted out was stamped SB ... i presumed for smoothbore...

Hi Donald,

You have rightly deduced that the 'SB' stamping after the Ser No denotes 'Smooth Bore' and apparently very few of these rifles were sold without a rifled barrel.

Regards

Brian

[slow_runner]

A very attractive example you have there Steve.
I have had a look at my Major and the serial number/letter stamps are matching in height and are finer detail.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v3...ps6q2kgu52.jpg

Could yours have been re-stamped?

[stevegv8]

Thanks for replies so far.
I sold my old less tidy one (CC serial) having been offered £80 for it just as this one had turned up for £65.
Pity the smooth bore was parted if they were made in far less quantity.
More info welcome.