You might have seen my thread about the stuck mag, but as well as that my problem-child Goldstar sounded like Zebedee, rattled your fillings and produced a whopping 8 1/2 ft/lb!!

I've never bothered making bits for the BSA's before. The rear spring retaining pin means any attempt at making an improved rear guide would result in it snapping, the springs are often varying in size but always a rubbish fit to the steel guide and it just seemed a pointless task. But I wanted this Goldstar to be a good gun, so I had to do something.

After stripping it down, clearing out the grease accumulated over many years and throwing away the bent spring, I went through all the springs I had to see if any would work. Lo and behold! The HW97 export spring is a snug fit on the guide and around 30mm longer than the knackered one I'd removed. Thats good, so was the fact the HW97 top hat and slip washer fit the piston well too! So it went back together with just a dab of hi moly paste for testing. Recoil is down, twang has gone, cocking effort is even reduced and the power is just on 11.6 ft/lb with superdomes.

Now I know they're so easy to do I might start looking at other BSA's