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Thread: Did BSA use walnut stocks on the S models?

  1. #16
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    Did BSA use walnut stocks on the S models?

    Quote Originally Posted by charlie350 View Post
    Pete i was looking at your photobucket and on your challanger lighting is very close to my mercury challanger. you just have a bit more figger on the right side of the butt. did you say that was beech or walnut?? i will have to look for a lighting barrel for mine!! do the breech blocks exchange? is the lighting just a pin like my supersport? or have the breech bolt like the mercury challanger? also i have found a cobra strike 635. whats your thoughts on it? i know it was made by BSA and is the same gun as the BSA 635 and would think its a bit rarer?
    Your cobra strike 635 may be a bitsa as the 635 has no markings on the cylinder & the cobra strike has a black stock with slightly longer barrel than the 635 with countersink in the end of bore like most bsa's. The 635 barrel does not have this & comes with a dummy plastic silencer(cocking aid like the bsa scorpion pistol) Oh & if i were you I'd very carefully test the accuracy of ANY lightning barrel before swapping & keep your barrel as every lightning i've shot didn't come anywhere near the challengers barell on mine. hope this helps.

  2. #17
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    My Challenger has a beech stock, The Airsporter S is walnut allbeit very bland and plain walnut

    Challenger is the centre gun, Airsporter is first on left..


    John
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  3. #18
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    Quote Originally Posted by charlie350 View Post
    Pete i was looking at your photobucket and on your challanger lighting is very close to my mercury challanger. you just have a bit more figger on the right side of the butt. did you say that was beech or walnut?? i will have to look for a lighting barrel for mine!! do the breech blocks exchange? is the lighting just a pin like my supersport? or have the breech bolt like the mercury challanger? also i have found a cobra strike 635. whats your thoughts on it? i know it was made by BSA and is the same gun as the BSA 635 and would think its a bit rarer?
    The Challenger stocks were Beech, mine is but luckily highly figured, I have another challenger stock that is bland as hell, the Lightning barrel and breech block will just swap straight over, the only problem you may encounter is the slot in the bottom of the breech block where the cocking lever pins into can be a different size sometime and may either need a small washer in there to pack it out or may need the links closing up, the barrel pivot pins are the same size whether it is the bolt or pin, the Lightning is basically just a a Supersport with a shorter barrel and silencer and a Maxigrip scope rail.

    I've never handled a Cobra strike or any older .25 barreled BSA's, I've only ever had .177/.22 Mercs or Challengers, the older .25's have really tight barrels as they are .243.

    Pete
    Far too many rifles to list now, all mainly British but the odd pesky foreigner has snuck in

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  5. #20
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    Thumbs up

    Hi Muskett

    Webley had their moments with the Mk3, The early ones i've seen have been rather bland but the later ones were usually much nicer


    Mk3's

    And again..

    One more!




    John
    for my gunz guitarz and bonzai, see here
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  6. #21
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    Does anybody know who made the stocks for the Challenger?
    Did BSA make their own Mercury 'S' stocks?

  7. #22
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    I suspect they did, no reason not to.

    Different countries have different sources to get their wood. Often reflected in the stocks of their guns. There are levels of quality that any rifle can reach to hit the target market. So it all depends on the cost of the wood and where it comes from; some luck involved.

    Air Arms has always acquired some good wood.

    Exceptional wood is luck, or specifically sourced. If you like it buy it, you might not find a better one.

  8. #23
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    Quote Originally Posted by kennp View Post
    Does anybody know who made the stocks for the Challenger?
    Did BSA make their own Mercury 'S' stocks?
    I may be wrong, but think that BSA sourced their stocks in the 70s and 80s an Italian manufacturer, the one whose firearm and shot gun stocks were sold in the US under the Sile brand name.

  9. #24
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    Quote Originally Posted by Geezer View Post
    I may be wrong, but think that BSA sourced their stocks in the 70s and 80s an Italian manufacturer, the one whose firearm and shot gun stocks were sold in the US under the Sile brand name.
    That's interesting; done a search for Sile but cant get much more info, does Sile still trade?

  10. #25
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    Quote Originally Posted by Geezer View Post
    I may be wrong, but think that BSA sourced their stocks in the 70s and 80s an Italian manufacturer, the one whose firearm and shot gun stocks were sold in the US under the Sile brand name.
    There was a visit to the BSA factory in AGW in the late 70s or early 80s. One of the photos showed a stock being made/sanded in the brum factory. I'll dig it out and check the date.

    Mike

  11. #26
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    Quote Originally Posted by Geezer View Post
    I may be wrong, but think that BSA sourced their stocks in the 70s and 80s an Italian manufacturer, the one whose firearm and shot gun stocks were sold in the US under the Sile brand name.
    I've also been told that the Deluxe Beech stocks as fitted to the Challenger, Superstar, Goldstar, Supersport Custom were made by an Italian company and the same company also made the stocks for the earlier Weihrauchs (HW77, 85, 80).

    Pete
    Far too many rifles to list now, all mainly British but the odd pesky foreigner has snuck in

  12. #27
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    Quote Originally Posted by look no hands View Post
    I've also been told that the Deluxe Beech stocks as fitted to the Challenger, Superstar, Goldstar, Supersport Custom were made by an Italian company and the same company also made the stocks for the earlier Weihrauchs (HW77, 85, 80).

    Pete
    That's what I meant to say earlier. Dunno where the regular stocks came from, but the 1980s "S" models were, IIRC, from an Italian manufacturer.

    There is definitely a big contrast between the slabby plank of beech on my standard Mk5 and the nicely-shaped (but often lower quality) walnut I have seen on the Mk6S.

  13. #28
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    very nice very nice!

    you guys have some amazing works of art!!! you good ole boys in the UK have taken airguns to an art form. yes some of them may be made in germany .but it is you like no other airgunners in the world who take a raw factory air guns into the dark depths of your sheds and strange labs and what emerges sets the standard the world over. inside and out they shine bright enough to iluminate the rest of us common folk.
    Aint no fun when the rabbits got the gun

  14. #29
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    Quote Originally Posted by charlie350 View Post
    you guys have some amazing works of art!!! you good ole boys in the UK have taken airguns to an art form. yes some of them may be made in germany .but it is you like no other airgunners in the world who take a raw factory air guns into the dark depths of your sheds and strange labs and what emerges sets the standard the world over. inside and out they shine bright enough to iluminate the rest of us common folk.
    How can you come onto a BSA thread and mention German rifles

    I've spent the last two weeks rubbing down my Airsporter S walnut stock as I felt I didn't finish it properly the first time (which I didn't), it is now as smooth as a babies arse and it's just had two coats of thinned down boiled linseed oil to help it soak in, it will then have a coat of 100% boiled linseed oil massaged in by hand over the next few weeks.

    Pete
    Far too many rifles to list now, all mainly British but the odd pesky foreigner has snuck in

  15. #30
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    BSA factory visit

    Quote Originally Posted by benchstop View Post
    There was a visit to the BSA factory in AGW in the late 70s or early 80s. One of the photos showed a stock being made/sanded in the brum factory. I'll dig it out and check the date.

    Mike
    The BSA article is in the July 1979 (45p) issue, page 32/33, titled Birmingham Bound!
    Eddie Barber and Fred Grimwade (are they still around?) made the visit. The BSA managing director at the time was Alfred Scott. Chief designer was Roger Wackrow, who had been with the company since 1933!

    The following is taken from the article..... "The wood store was fascinating. Tons of selected beech and maple are kept here and we followed the journey a piece of timber makes from this yard to the stock making department. There it is cut to length, marked out on a template and then roughed out. The stocks are then transferred to another machine to be smoothed to the right shape before being hand finished and fitted with recoil pads. The pads are then masked and the stock goes to be sprayed with a hard wearing lacquer."

    No mention of walnut in the wood store. Possibly because the 'S' models were not being produced yet.

    Mike.

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