BSA Shadow 'Trooper' for sale- a very rare item!!

[johnbaz]

Hi all

A good mate from t'uther side o' the Pennines has a BSA Shadow Trooper (.177 ultra carbine!!) that he wants to sell

I'm sure that most people know that these are extremely rare guns (would have bought it myself but for the Missus getting a bit fed up with all my guns )

I have pics that he's sent me and his contact number, viewing/buying will be from his place in Bolton..

The little gun looks superb on it's black stock (BSA Scorpion based).

Pics

Pic 1

Pic 2

Pic 3

Pic 4

Pic 5

Pic 6

Bob's asjking £195 for this very rare little gun that comes with the cocking aid and the li'l scope that's fixed to it

PM me for his contact details and i'll pass his phone number on

Bob's a real nice bloke, salt of the earth and really easy to deal with, i've traded a few guns with him and have always been over the moon with my end of the trade

EDIT- the owner says it's a shadow and not a Trooper, I thought that .177 cals were all Troopers and .22 Shadows so I may have got it wrong!!

Am looking in to it



Cheers, John

[frakor]

This is the family picture.




And the Shadow is rare ,but the Trooper even more so as it was only sold in Germany.


----------------------------------
Frank

[johnbaz]

This is the family picture.




And the Shadow is rare ,but the Trooper even more so as it was only sold in Germany.


----------------------------------
Frank

Hi Frank

The gun is .177cal..

We're having a problem sorting out what it is exactly as it says Scorpion between the rails and has a PA prefix the same as your Scorpion but I've looked at Knibbs site and they don't actually list a PA prefix at all (None of the Shadows or Troopers are mentioned at all ) but it says that RA is for a Scorpion that was recalled (Made 1972)...

I can't even find a prefix for a .177 Scorpion

It's giving me a headache Does anyone have Sherlock Holmes phone number??

I don't have a clue as to what it is but it looks in smashing nick


John

[I. J.]

Hi Frank

We're having a problem sorting out what it is exactly as it says Scorpion between the rails and has a PA prefix the same as your Scorpion but I've looked at Knibbs site and they don't actually list a PA prefix at all (None of the Shadows or Troopers are mentioned at all ) but it says that RA is for a Scorpion that was recalled (Made 1972)...

It's giving me a headache Does anyone have Sherlock Holmes phone number??

I don't have a clue as to what it is but it looks in smashing nick


John

I haven't got his phone number but I know he lives at a house with a bright yellow door.

A 'lemon entry' my dear Watson.

Good luck with the quest for BSA info.

ATB
Ian

[johnbaz]

I haven't got his phone number but I know he lives at a house with a bright yellow door.

A 'lemon entry' my dear Watson.

Good luck with the quest for BSA info.

ATB
Ian

Ha ha ha!!

Ian yer daft burger!!- I thought you meant my mate Bob had the yellow door!! I nearly fell off my chair with the 'Lemon entry' jibe



John

[frakor]

There are a lot of BSA "scorpion based" guns around.
This means BSA used whatever they had in stock to assemble a sellable item in 1985 .......

So if they had a Shadow stock and a Scorpion action and barrel, they would sell it!
Or a Shadow action and a Buccaneer stock and barrel, they would sell it!

BUT, a Shadow marked action and a serial number starting with a "R" on the barrel and the short stock,
thats what it SHOULD be ....... a rare one.

Please don't forget it is easy to shorten a Buccaneer stock and ad a Scorpion action and barrel and make it into a "rare collectable" .......
The only strange thing on THIS gun is: why does the action and barrel are from the wrong time period?
These both are from the MK1 series as the Shadow was made in 1985????


----------------------------------------
Frank

[Troubledshooter]

'PA','RA' & 'RB' should be Scorpions.
'A','D' & 'R' appear to be either long or short barrelled Shadows.
As all action parts are interchangeable, it is quite possible that some have been altered over the years.
Buccaneers appear to be either 'AA' or 'DA'

[Hsing-ee]

Is it a TROOPER because it has a green (i.e. military) stock rather than the more common black one on the Shadow?

These pistolrifles were very popular in Germany where the power limit is lower or so I have been led to believe by the internet.

[Troubledshooter]

it says Scorpion between the rails and has a PA prefix

It's not a 'Shadow', it's a 'Scorpion' fitted with the optional shoulder stock that was supplied in some 'Scorpion' kits.

Probably nearly as scarce as the 'Shadow' variants.


JOHN, PLEASE CLEAR YOUR PM's.

[johnbaz]

It's not a 'Shadow', it's a 'Scorpion' fitted with the optional shoulder stock that was supplied in some 'Scorpion' kits.

Probably nearly as scarce as the 'Shadow' variants.


JOHN, PLEASE CLEAR YOUR PM's.

Done


John

[gedfinn 2]

Hi Frank

The gun is .177cal..

We're having a problem sorting out what it is exactly as it says Scorpion between the rails and has a PA prefix the same as your Scorpion but I've looked at Knibbs site and they don't actually list a PA prefix at all (None of the Shadows or Troopers are mentioned at all ) but it says that RA is for a Scorpion that was recalled (Made 1972)...

I can't even find a prefix for a .177 Scorpion

It's giving me a headache Does anyone have Sherlock Holmes phone number??

I don't have a clue as to what it is but it looks in smashing nick


John

Whilst not going into the number,s above, I have had a few similiar guns, ( Some pics posted in reply to a .177 Scorpion barrel Wanted )

As a point of intrest , The Buccaneer barrel will fit only IT , & Its stablings, The Scorpion , Shadow, trooper Etc

The action on the Buccaneer & The Meteor is obviously different , & The Meteor barrels fit ! But they have to be removed from the Meteor housing & fitted in a Scorpion breech, ( I have altered a few Meteors to Buccaneer barrels ) Not an easy task, Different spacings Etc.

As a mute point, I often see on the Forum about the interchageability of Bsa barrels, IE, Meteor, Mercury, Scorpion Etc, They sometimes do & Then they , !!!
The cocking groove in the barrel, ( Different sizes ) Different cocking links, Scorpion or Buccaneer barrels " Different "
Ged.

[fat man]

intersting post, so a rare gun or something assembled from bits i have the shadow myself in .22. like it a lot.

[johnbaz]

Hi Dave

My mate spoke to the bloke he bought it from and he was told that the chap had bought it new as is so my theory that it was a Scorpion action placed into a shadow stock at some stage was wrong!!

Someone said that BSA had a habit of using parts up by mixing and matching to lessen waste, it could be what happened in this case..

Apparently Beesa had a load of .243 barrels spare and used them up in various .25 applications but the shortfall of .007" made the pellets a terribly tight fit, another friends Superstar suffered this problem, it was rectified at SFS by taper reaming the breech end of the barrel making loading and shooting a much easier experience

Cheers John

[fat man]

Hi Dave

My mate spoke to the bloke he bought it from and he was told that the chap had bought it new as is so my theory that it was a Scorpion action placed into a shadow stock at some stage was wrong!!

Someone said that BSA had a habit of using parts up by mixing and matching to lessen waste, it could be what happened in this case..

Apparently Beesa had a load of .243 barrels spare and used them up in various .25 applications but the shortfall of .007" made the pellets a terribly tight fit, another friends Superstar suffered this problem, it was rectified at SFS by taper reaming the breech end of the barrel making loading and shooting a much easier experience

Cheers John

Hi John, yes that is a possibility. I have a .25 mercurey and couldnt hit a thing with it until Uk Neal made me a sizer for the slugs and Will(welsh willi) made a tuneing kit for her and got her to work properly. Now , its a very accurate and poweful rat gun. atb Dave.

[Troubledshooter]

Whilst not going into the number,s above, I have had a few similiar guns, ( Some pics posted in reply to a .177 Scorpion barrel Wanted )

As a point of intrest , The Buccaneer barrel will fit only IT , & Its stablings, The Scorpion barrel will fit IT only, IE They are different, The action on the Buccaneer & The Scorpion pistols is obviously different , & The Meteor barrels fit ! ( I have altered a few Meteor to Buccaneer barrels ) Not an easy task, Different spacings Etc.

As a mute point, I often see on the Forum about the interchageability of Bsa barrels, IE, Meteor, Mercury, Scorpion Etc, They sometimes do & Then they , !!!
The cocking groove in the barrel, ( Different sizes ) Different cocking links, Scorpion or Buccaneer barrels " Different "
Ged.

Not having actually tried any of the above barrel/action swaps on the Scorpion/Buccaneer/Shadow range, only having swapped Scorpion barrels, I didn't want to disagree with the above, but having now tried a Long barreled Shadow action to Scorpion barrel, and vice versa, I can now say it does work, as I suspected.
The cocking links are slightly different, in that the Scorpion barrel has a third section in the middle of the cocking link grooves, meaning just the cocking link arms are fitted in the two outer grooves, whereas the Shadow does not, but has a spacer in between the two cocking link arms to make up for the lack of the third section on the barrel, but this is easily overcome by just removing the loose spacer as fitted to the Shadow action links, and if the swap is the other way round, just finding a suitable washer/spacer.
The rear plastic plug fitted to the Shadow action has to be removed, as the Scorpion butt has this incorporated.
There appears to be absolutely no difference between the two actions, apart from the short cocking links as previously mentioned.
The old myth about the Scorpion being a cut down Meteor was disproved years ago, although there may be a similarity of some parts, which is not uncommon from both BSA and Webley in many of their models.