BSA Standard .22 valuation

[Huttles94]

Hi all,


I recently acquired this gun (today in fact) which I bought at auction (J&S fine art). I only bought it for the rare rear sight it had on it (I have already made a post about this rifle earlier). So i took the stock and sight I wanted and I was then gonna keep it for spares but, since I already have a spare stock laying about, I decided to clean it up and give it a good old service. Turns out it aint that bad condition wise! A bit of elbow grease together with some wire wool and oil get rid of all the rust on the gun. The piston seal looked like it was replaced in the past 12 months and was good so I left it alone and simply greased the piston up and put it back. Threw on my old spare stock (off a later T model .22 which I bought off flea bay to use as spares) and she is a good 'un!

Now it is missing its rear sight and the keeper screw for the cocking arm pivot (I might replace these since they are not hard to get and I already have a rear sight base spare (turns out that flea bay purchase was a good thing!). Which would help with the value.

The worst thing about it is that someone in the past has ground off the serial number Which obviously shouts out that it was probably stolen in the past. Though I cant say when this occurred (could of been last week or 50 years ago!) though i am sure the auctioneers would not have been allowed to sell it if this was the case(?)....I hope. Well hopefully I wont get the police raiding my home soon, fingers crossed!

Apart from that she is ok. Not gonna win any beauty contests but would make a great plinker.

Now I am normally confidant in how to price these guns (I own quite a few in fact) but due to the issue with the serial number, I dont know how much this affects the value. So if anyone could help it would be much appreciated. Ill provide a link to some images, since uploading them all on here would take too long


Here is the link:

https://imgur.com/a/D7dhv


Also here is a picture of the whole rifle:

[Garvin]

Jake I'm usually the last person to recommend breaking a rifle, but if the serial no. was ground off in the past it was probably stolen - I can't think of any other reason someone would do that? Maybe 'releasing' its component parts to those who need them is the best end for this particular rifle, and you should get your money back easily?

[cringe]

Hi, Huttles, re : serial number, I personally would not be worried about the police knocking on your door. That grinding looks very old, I guess the gun was held up against a 'off hand' grinder [old school] not done with a modern angle grinder or dremel, see how the abrasion has over lapped on to the wood. this gun has probably changed hands several times since and been though auction, I doubt that the police would be the slightest bit interested. If it were mine I would try & blend in the flat area using files & emery cloth & re-stamp the number with letter/number punch's then blend in the shiny area to the old patina? not sure how but there will be somebody on here who knows? best regards Al.

[torrens]

Hi Huttles,
I'm not sure on pricing but if I were after a .22 Standard to use I would accept loss of the serial number as an unfortunate part of its history. I'm currently fitting a later BSA barrel to a rough 1907 BSA air rifle someone "carbined" and polished most of the cylinder stampings off to make it nice n' shiny....and the rifling was severely pitted ( but piston etc. very clean ). It will be visibly non- standard but it will shoot well and I intend to keep it.

If someone might have fun with this as a modestly priced BSA bitsa, I suggest try selling it complete before breaking. A tatty Cadet Major sight will work, same as on my project rifle.

Cheers
torrens