Valuation please, BSA Mercury Mk3 .22 Calibre

[ken69]

Valuation please gents on a .22 calibre BSA Mercury Mk3 (ZC prefix) in order that I can put it up for sale. A couple of very light marks on the underneath of the stock (can hardly be seen). Blueing is very good, paintwork is unmarked, BSA Mercury gold lettering is very good with about 50% wear on the letter 'B', the rest if fine. Open sights are present, foresight hood is missing. There is some paint loss along the fore sight in the hood area which has been scrubbed off by the hood. Shooting at about 10.2ftlbs with Defiant Vintage, didn't have anything else with me when I chronographed it this morning. Overall a very nice example
Thanks in advance,
Ken

[MartynB]

Valuation please gents on a .22 calibre BSA Mercury Mk3 (ZC prefix) in order that I can put it up for sale. A couple of very light marks on the underneath of the stock (can hardly be seen). Blueing is very good, paintwork is unmarked, BSA Mercury gold lettering is very good with about 50% wear on the letter 'B', the rest if fine. Open sights are present, foresight hood is missing. There is some paint loss along the fore sight in the hood area which has been scrubbed off by the hood. Shooting at about 10.2ftlbs with Defiant Vintage, didn't have anything else with me when I chronographed it this morning. Overall a very nice example
Thanks in advance,
Ken

Barrel hinge bolt or pin ?

[ken69]

Pretty sure it’s a pin

[steptoe1966]

Hi sorry was the mk3 not a bolt , i thought they had changed to the bolt on the mk3 ?

[ken69]

Hi sorry was the mk3 not a bolt , i thought they had changed to the bolt on the mk3 ?

Just checked, definitely a pin, prefix is ZC which according to the Knibbs dating guide is a Mercury MkIII 1978-1985. My Mercury S has a bolt, prefix ZH

[steptoe1966]

Wow that is starnge if you check the spares sight it is clearly a bolt in the Mk3 and also if you check pictures on the web it is clearly a bolt , all i can guess then is your must be a very very early mk3 but i have never seen a mk3 with a pin

I would also like to know chambers and knibbs bpoth say a Mk4 but i can only find m1 mk2 mk3 then mercury s then the challenger list as the mercury rifles no mk4

here is the link to the chambers diagram they show a bolt and nut as the barrel axis , they list a pin but not for the mk3

https://www.gunspares.co.uk/shopdisp...=24695&Search=

this might also help off a web search for the bsa mercury

Differences between versions
Changes between Mks are far from straightforward as BSA would use up parts on newer rifles, they all had beech stock and the internals are similar.

Mk1 - Steel, single-stage trigger, single-piece cocking arm and a blued finish - serial number prefix WA 0.177/ZA 0.22 [1]
Mk2 - Plastic, single-stage trigger,single-piece cocking arm black painted finish - serial number prefix WB 0.177/ZB 0.22
Mk3 - Two-stage trigger, 2-piece articulated cocking arm and a blued finish - serial number prefix WC 0.177/ZC 0.22

no listing of there ever being a Mk4