Gerald Cardue report - BSA 240 Magnum

[Brad3]

Horses for courses I spose, but always found it a bit of a contrivance.
Couldn't quite put my finger on it, but maybe a collection of novel arrangements coming together and not quite working for me. It looked like the pre production prototype knocked up for approval of the MD but turned out to be the fully finished item.
The angled breech a flawed design aspect bringing problems which required modification for the seal, the barrel probably too short for them wanting the plenum chamber which turned out to have very limited effect, indeed seems to have introduced its own issue mentioned above. The shocking piece of plastic plug come guide complete with moulding flash.
The wood (despite looking like the first stage of carving before the style profiling got its chance) does at least contrast nicely with the Alloy blacking and suppose you could hand finish. I've seen a few look even more crap with that done though and it would probably spoil the original spec for the collector.
Seemed to jump high and right to me but only had a few brief few shots.

It's true there was certainly a lot of excitement from people like Cardew when it first arrived, perhaps because we were starved of new pistols at that time but think I'd prefer a wood grip Tempest any day.