A Bsa Cadet/ Major/Meteor one???

[ggggr]

I was just reading in the general airgun bit about converting Bsa Meteor barrel pivots to a bolt. I know Bowkett used to do a conversion for the Meteors. I'm wondering how many he did?

Anyhow, the main bit of this is----has anyone ever had a problem with the breech jaws of a Cadet or Major going slack? Whatever the answer, what do you think the reason is?

[Dornfelderliebe]

The one I bought two years ago still seems OK to me. The 1st thought I have is that users use too much lateral force when cocking but that's just speculation.

[AC99]

I have a Cadet and a couple of Cadet Majors but they get very little use. However, the Cadet Major I owned as a youngster never showed excessive wear around the breech jaws and locked up perfectly despite thousands of pellets being fired during summer holidays and weekends and when I sold it after a couple of years to buy a Webley mk3 it was in perfect working condition having shot tens of thousands of pellets I guess.
I always kept the hinge bolt and catch well oiled which must have helped and minimised the inevitable wear and tear on that joint.

[keith66]

I have two Cadets, one of which was a very battered specimen. Both had no issues with breech jaw wear despite having fired countless rounds.
But they are well made of good steel. Contrast this to the Meteor, Im not sure about the early ones but the later ones had their breech jaws made from a pressed steel insert into the tube, crap steel at that, effectively the jaws are actually hollow. No surprise that as they got older the jaws got wider. My first Meteor had its jaws squashed in a vice once a week!

[Tinram]

I’ve got quite a few BSA’s in my collection and have worked on a number of cadets & cadet majors over the years. I have only experienced “wobble” at the breech once with a cadet major but quite a few times with later models eg later Mk Meteors

[isobar]

my cadets are ok,one has a little play but not a problem.they seem very robustly made hence the high survival rate,mostly battered to be fair.i really like cadets even the battered ones.i have a very scruffy one that shoots really well due to comparatively good trigger.