BSA experts

[Garvin]

Micky the tap looks different to the ones I am used to, with the unusual stop. Are these common ?

Baz

Baz that design was common to the first three (or four?) batches of BSA Air Rifle. See here for others.

[micky2]

Baz that design was common to the first three (or four?) batches of BSA Air Rifle. See here for others.

Hi Danny many thanks for ansering the question that Baz asked.

[Lakey]

Hi Baz,

Lovely condition gun from the very first batch of guns made by BSA, for sale under their own label. The cylinder should be marked The BSA Air Rifle (Lincoln Jeffries Patent).

It has the uncommon long tang trigger guard, which were cast, and fairly brittle. The tang for the your stock , is straight, however the tang for the Pistol grip (known as the Pistolhand stock) was curved, and very time consuming to fit. Many breakages occured at the factory, so the long tang trigger guards were quickly phased out.
John Knibbs gives the dates of manufacture between Sept and Dec 1905, and it would have sold straight away , such was the demand for these revolutionary guns.
The rifle has a later rear sight fitted from a 1920's gun - that stands out a bit for the purist collector.

Early guns like this had a narrow parallel hole in the deep loading tap, so will need a pellet pusher to properly seat the pellets in the breach. Value wise, I would say around £220- £275 somewhere around there, but that is only my opinion.

Nice rifle that doesnt look like its had a lot of use.

Lakey

[Garvin]

Fantastic post, Andy!

[Benelli B76]

Andy, the tap has a taper of about 4 thou, most pellets fall halfway down, the Air Arms I happen to have fall almost to the bottom. All finished now and re-assembled the power has dropped slightly after refinishing the one spring, but still doing around 655 fps with 7.7 grn.

Baz

[Benelli B76]

Andy you can come and see it, and bring one of those Scottish smoked trout for me to buy. They are amazing.

Baz