If only they could talk ....

[1963cockney]

Just been out in the back garden with a BSA Cadet, some cheap pellets and some tin cans (simple pleasures) when an aeroplane engine caught my attention.

Looked up and flying East to West out across the Forest was a Spitfire (assume one of the Battle of Britain Memorial Flight ?)

Bearing in mind this particular Cadet is a "B" prefix (1946-1949) got me wondering if anyone who purchased this after the War was in their garden and also experienced a Spitfire flying overhead.

I do love trying to imagine the (unknown) history around the older rifles - does make you wonder what they have seen / experienced in their lifetime.

I must be getting old ....

[Trumpetier]

I can relate were your coming from bud and yes I think it is a sign of getting old

[Gwylan]

Which Mark Spitfire was it?

Gus

[edbear2]

Weird, and I know exactly what you mean. My main interest is pre 1939 stuff, and I have one old BSA trainer stamped up with a regiment and a date of 1913;

https://www.flickr.com/photos/312284...7627403551588/

I have often wondered how many lads shot that as recruits and how they used that skill, and what happened to them in the hell to follow

My other old BSA guns were the main type used from 1905-14 especially in the 1,000's of bell target clubs then so popular due to the explosion of air rifle shooting at the time, and about 4 years ago in the garden plinking, as I sat with a cuppa looking at an old Lincoln Jeffries, I had the notion out of nowhere to write it's possible imaginary history

Now I am 58, and my childhood was full of Airfix kits, Commando shilling books and Sunday war films, so be warned.... you can see where my ideas came from, plus I was limited by available space in a post so I chopped it pretty short, but it could have happened....who knows?

This is why older guns are so fascinating, as you are just part of their story, and Lord knows what else they have seen as you say.

My humble effort here;

http://www.airgunbbs.com/showthread....Lincoln-s-tale

ATB, and keep them shooting!

Ed

[Peter Dunkley]

I was one of those lads with an airgun when Spitfires were common place overhead. My dad brought home a BSA light pattern for me from the local working mens club. It had been used for bell target at the club but had not been used during the war. So at the tender age of ten in 1946 I wandered the streets taking starlings off house roofs. No one seemed to bother then. We would wander along the canal towpath shooting at anything that floated. No beer cans in those days but a few bottles. Took many hits to break one of those.
And yes Spitfires and perhaps bombers overhead. We were pleased not to be diving into the shelters when the siren went and of course having to take a gas mask to school. I never did know what happened to that BSA. It was if I remember a battered bit of kit but it shot well, no tuning or even oiling in those days, we just shot them. Pellets bought from the local bike shop.

[I. J.]

If only they could talk ....


....... I wouldn't be able to understand what they were saying as they are mainly German.

I do have a 1914s BSA which someone has scratched their initials in the stock some time in the past. A club member offered to refurbish the stock and remove these. I declined his kind offer due to the fact that it adds some history to the gun. If only that could talk .......

ATB
Ian

[BRET22]

A Brilliant thread well done!

[Mzee]

I was so relieved to read this post today (been away, so not seen it before) as I've been getting quite concerned about myself recently. When I'm shooting my old guns I too start to wonder about their previous owners & their history. Sometimes it gets so bad then I just hold them, daydreaming, & forget to actually fire them. It would now appear that this is perhaps a natural progression of this collecting bug I seem to have picked up?
I'm a believer in leaving the dings & other old marks in the wooden bits as well, not wanting to erase a part of the history of the gun. It would be like giving a septuagenarian a face lift.
Glyn