bsa mercury

[wickerman]

having never seen a bsa mercury I bought one off here a mk2 in .22 .....was impressed full size rifle but not heavy.....I fitted a bsa 3-9 x 40 sight and zeroed it shoots nice using gamo pellets 3/4" group at 30 yards not bad for and old Springer.....it is a keeper

[benchstop]

I bought a new one in 1978 from Don Gray in Chatham.
Lovely pointable medium weight air rifle. If only it were Weihrauch or Air Arms quality.....

[look no hands]

Yes they are lovely rifles.

[where's it gone]

I bought a new one in 1978 from Don Gray in Chatham.
Lovely pointable medium weight air rifle. If only it were Weihrauch or Air Arms quality.....

Out of curiosity, what do you think Weihrauch would of done if they had built the 'HW Mercury ' ?

[Hsing-ee]

Out of curiosity, what do you think Weihrauch would have done if they had built the 'HW Mercury ' ?

Weihrauch would find it impossible to build a Mercury. While I like their engineering, they’ve never made a graceful rifle, with the possible exception of the late model HW30S.

Graceful, swoops lines, massive mainspring preload, heavy piston with ‘O’ ring, hazardous and tricky disassembly, chunky but sweet barrel-latch, basic but serviceable trigger.. it’s about as far away from a Weihrauch as a Relum Tornado.

[TonyL]

Weihrauch would find it impossible to build a Mercury. While I like their engineering, they’ve never made a graceful rifle, with the possible exception of the late model HW30S.

Graceful, swoops lines, massive mainspring preload, heavy piston with ‘O’ ring, hazardous and tricky disassembly, chunky but sweet barrel-latch, basic but serviceable trigger.. it’s about as far away from a Weihrauch as a Relum Tornado.

Yep.

[look no hands]

Out of curiosity, what do you think Weihrauch would of done if they had built the 'HW Mercury ' ?

If they had mated the Mercury and 85k, they would have come up with a Challenger

[benchstop]

Out of curiosity, what do you think Weihrauch would of done if they had built the 'HW Mercury ' ?

Where to begin.... A barrel that went through the breech block, rather than stuck on top.
Decent metal open sights.
A sturdy pivot bolt, rather than the cheaper pin.
Shims on breech block to prevent marking.
Dovetails cut to a decent length and depth, rather than just scratched into the cylinder.
A fully adjustable two stage trigger, with a blade that doesn't flex.
Better quality piston.
Deep blued finish, rather than paint.

Have I missed anything?

I'd love to see the meteor, mercury and airsporter relaunched, and built to the same standard of HW or Air Arms offerings.

[TonyL]

Where to begin.... A barrel that went through the breech block, rather than stuck on top.
Decent metal open sights.
A sturdy pivot bolt, rather than the cheaper pin.
Shims on breech block to prevent marking.
Dovetails cut to a decent length and depth, rather than just scratched into the cylinder.
A fully adjustable two stage trigger, with a blade that doesn't flex.
Better quality piston.
Deep blued finish, rather than paint.
.

And yes again.

Shame. As, has been mentioned, the Mercury was a very graceful rifle with fine handling. A rifle that just felt natural being dragged around the fields for hours without causing fatigue. Maybe a little "rangey" feeling, though, so maybe a carbine version will have handled even better? Capable of decent accuracy and the trigger can be set up for relatively nice, clean let-offs although, obviously, it'll never be a Rekord.

[look no hands]

Where to begin.... A barrel that went through the breech block, rather than stuck on top.
Decent metal open sights.
A sturdy pivot bolt, rather than the cheaper pin.
Shims on breech block to prevent marking.
Dovetails cut to a decent length and depth, rather than just scratched into the cylinder.
A fully adjustable two stage trigger, with a blade that doesn't flex.
Better quality piston.
Deep blued finish, rather than paint.

Have I missed anything?

I'd love to see the meteor, mercury and airsporter relaunched, and built to the same standard of HW or Air Arms offerings.

You've obviously never seen a later Mercury or S version, they have bluing and breech bolts, the S has metal open sights and metal fake two stage trigger blade, the pistons are pretty well made, just let down by the buffer washer set up, I can't say I've ever had a problem with the scope grooves once you have proper fitting mounts, so most of your list was improved upon, still not to HW/AA quality but much better than the earlier versions.

[TonyL]

The metal finish was, most definitely, far better on those later ones, Pete.

BSA's attempt at the breech bolt wasn't the best example of how it should be done, however. The latch itself, as mentioned above, and on another recent thread, is very good.

Like yourself, never had issues with the scope grooves if using quality mounts.

Never been impressed with the quality of the pistons on the examples I've owned, though.

[MartynB]

You've obviously never seen a later Mercury or S version, they have bluing and breech bolts, the S has metal open sights and metal fake two stage trigger blade, the pistons are pretty well made, just let down by the buffer washer set up, I can't say I've ever had a problem with the scope grooves once you have proper fitting mounts, so most of your list was improved upon, still not to HW/AA quality but much better than the earlier versions.

I think I had a Mercury Challenger ? Or was it just Challenger, if I recall very nicely made rifle, mine was very accurate

[benchstop]

You've obviously never seen a later Mercury or S version, they have bluing and breech bolts, the S has metal open sights and metal fake two stage trigger blade, the pistons are pretty well made, just let down by the buffer washer set up, I can't say I've ever had a problem with the scope grooves once you have proper fitting mounts, so most of your list was improved upon, still not to HW/AA quality but much better than the earlier versions.

I was referring to the 1978 mercury......
Not handled an 'S' or Challenger, but would like to shoot and possibly own the former. Not keen on the challenger due to the 'maxicrap' scope rail.

[junglie]

having never seen a bsa mercury I bought one off here a mk2 in .22 .....was impressed full size rifle but not heavy.....I fitted a bsa 3-9 x 40 sight and zeroed it shoots nice using gamo pellets 3/4" group at 30 yards not bad for and old Springer.....it is a keeper

It will shoot a lot better with H&N FTT's in the large head size 5.53 if you can find them . RWS hobbys & superdomes go well in them too.

[TonyL]

It will shoot a lot better with H&N FTT's in the large head size 5.53 if you can find them . RWS hobbys & superdomes go well in them too.

I've heard that before a fair few times re those 5.53s

When I had my last one (an S that Pete has now), it certainly liked the 'Domes and the aforementioned budget-line H&N Excite Hammer. Can't remember if I tried the Hobby.