Bsa vs2000

[Hsing-ee]

Has anyone handled or fired one of these?

Why did they never make it into production? I know the Goldstar was the rifle that was launched in its stead, did that include any of the work that had gone into the VS2000?

Was it the side-lever, never a BSA tradition, ungainly handling or naming it after an obsolete video format that killed it?

[I. J.]

I did manage to see one in the flesh although I didn't shoot it. The blue was deep enough to dive in - mind you this was a pre production model so it should have been. One 'lucky' reader of Airgun World won one (though I think he never received it) and a local airgun shop owner was offered one but he said I will wait until they come out on retail. I seem to remember the magazine had to be rotated manually.

ATB
Ian

[DM80]

john knibbs have one £4,000

dave.

[coburn]

I've got a BSA advertising leaflet which shows it in some detail.

[derekj]

I wonder what the trigger felt like? A pal had the Goldstar for a while but said the trigger was so poor it made the rifle inaccurate.

[micky2]

lf l remember right there was a artical in one of the airgun mags on it at the time, but it was slated because of the manual indexing of the magazine. hence the Goldstar that followed later.

[Blackrider]

Didn't J Knibbs have one for sale a while back at £4000 ?

[Hsing-ee]

If knibbs still has it, then it must have beein in the rack for years and years.

So it never really saw the light of day, not even an AGW article?

The Goldstar was quite a good rifle, although the magazine was a bit of a waste of time as well as the system being a bit fragile, and the SuperStar was the better of the two.

I wonder if it was simply pride that stopped BSA doing the obvious thing and making a sliding breech rifle?

[Muskett]

J. Knibbs I believe has most of the ones made (6 or 10???). They had one at £3k 15 years ago so its now £4k! Don't think they really want to sell it. The rifles is a prototype that never went into production, though heavily marketed for launch. Never happened so most collectors do not consider it a "real" factory BSA.
Though given a raving review in AGW?? it was rumoured to be pretty rubbish.

[cinedux]

Has anyone handled or fired one of these?

Why did they never make it into production? I know the Goldstar was the rifle that was launched in its stead, did that include any of the work that had gone into the VS2000?

Was it the side-lever, never a BSA tradition, ungainly handling or naming it after an obsolete video format that killed it?

http://s864.photobucket.com/user/cin...filp.jpeg.html

[greenwayjames]

Has anyone handled or fired one of these?

Why did they never make it into production? I know the Goldstar was the rifle that was launched in its stead, did that include any of the work that had gone into the VS2000?

Was it the side-lever, never a BSA tradition, ungainly handling or naming it after an obsolete video format that killed it?

Timing probably had a lot to do with it not going into production. Gamo had not long taken over BSA and the story I was told by someone who knows was that the Gamo boss couldnt agree terms with the owner of the VS2000 design.

[Vic Thompson]

I've seen and handled a few at a friend's house and have the opportunity to do so regularly. However, having seen his collection so many times when I visit him I don't look at his existing collection any more but ogle new acquisitions hoping with a bit of persuasion that they might come my way.

I can't remember his current tally of them, but I'll ask next time I see him and try and get a few piccies.

As a complete aside, for 20 years from the mid 1970's onwards I worked as a Design Engineer for Philips Electronics and I remember the V2000 system fondly, excellent performance for it's day in my opinion (and like any other Philips product, available at no cost to my grade of staff as one of the perks of the job). Philips was an employee based organisation, the likes of which don't exist any more (apologies for the change of subject away from airguns).

Vic Thompson.

[ccdjg]

We shouldn't forget the prototype pistol based on the same design, with side-lever and a nine shot rotary magazine. This was pictured and discussed by John Atkins in the March Airgunner, 1995, and there was also an article by J.Fletcher in the April Airgun World 1985, featuring an interview with Roy Hutchinson and a picture of the pistol being fired.

I wonder where the pistol is now ? Anybody know?

[Vic Thompson]

I don't remember anything about the Pistol but I've just got off the phone from speaking to the previous owner of it and he brought it in 1986 off Roy Hutchinson who made it in 1985 (according to his memories of it). As far as we can remember his period of ownership coincides with many of my regular visits to him, but whilst I remember his various BSA VS2000s from around 30 years or so ago onwards, memory of the pistol eludes me. He no longer owns it but remembers well the person to whom he sold it (where to the best of our knowledge it still resides).

Vic Thompson.

[Geezer]

Airgunner reviewed the prototype rifle.