BSA Airsporter Mk1 All Produced With Walnut Stocks or Not All Please ???

[DEAN C.]

Thank you all for an interesting & informative response, my Mk1 is in need of full restoration so it’s on its way to be reblued and full serviced, the stock was shown to one of the high street dealers, he wouldn’t confirm walnut or not, but he said it looks like it could be beech with someone quite skilfully taking a blow torch to it with good results, not knowing quite what to do with it I showed it to a friend, with nothing to lose he lightly cleaned & French Polished it which has very surprisingly produced remarkable results, so I’m very pleased to say that Mk1 serial number G12098 will shortly be back to full glory and shooting as well as it ever did, maybe even better, thanks guys for a great response, brilliant stuff 🙂

You realise that unless it is very rough and pitted, a reblue will render it less desireable, your choice of course.

[Dutch]

I have got all variants: various-wood-3piece, one-piece-beech, three-piece-beech and several all-walnut. None of them as stunning as some I've seen in this thread! great rifles non the less!

[johnbaz]

This is a mk1 Airsporter in .177" cal, I recall reading that the Club was .177" cal and was a bit shorter than the Airsporter on the cylinder and overall but this one is the same length as my other mk1 Airsporters so I'm not really sure what it is!

Someone offered an explanation as to what it was but my galloping senility is taking over so I forgotten!






John

[The Bailiff]

The nicest Walnut stock I ever had was on an old Webley mk 3 .

[Josie & John]

This is a mk1 Airsporter in .177" cal, I recall reading that the Club was .177" cal and was a bit shorter than the Airsporter on the cylinder and overall but this one is the same length as my other mk1 Airsporters so I'm not really sure what it is!

Someone offered an explanation as to what it was but my galloping senility is taking over so I forgotten!






John

Hi John,

Only the very early Clubs, with serial numbers that were prefixed with E had shorter stocks and cylinders. Numbers prefixed with EA onwards from December 1950 were of the same length as the .22 Airsporter.

Kind regards,

John

[Mikeymoo]

I have a one-piece Sile stock made from walnut

[greenwayjames]

This is a mk1 Airsporter in .177" cal, I recall reading that the Club was .177" cal and was a bit shorter than the Airsporter on the cylinder and overall but this one is the same length as my other mk1 Airsporters so I'm not really sure what it is!

Someone offered an explanation as to what it was but my galloping senility is taking over so I forgotten!






John

If I remember and may be wrong but the Club I had many years ago had a shorter than normal stroke. This was acheived by the factory drilling a tiny hole some 1/2"forward of the cocking slot hole. I was told it was to avoid disputes among the bell target shooters.

[T 20]

If I remember and may be wrong but the Club I had many years ago had a shorter than normal stroke. This was acheived by the factory drilling a tiny hole some 1/2"forward of the cocking slot hole. I was told it was to avoid disputes among the bell target shooters.

I think you'll find that all MK1 and MK2 Airsporters had that little hole in order for the piston to draw air in.

As these guns had automatically opening taps the transfer port was closed off before the gun was fully cocked so without the little hole the piston created a vacuum.

[DEAN C.]

This is a mk1 Airsporter in .177" cal, I recall reading that the Club was .177" cal and was a bit shorter than the Airsporter on the cylinder and overall but this one is the same length as my other mk1 Airsporters so I'm not really sure what it is!

Someone offered an explanation as to what it was but my galloping senility is taking over so I forgotten!






John

Hi John,

I have a .177 the same as yours which is the same as a standard Mk1 Airsporter, but the Club etching is still just visible. As the other John has said only the early ones were shorter.
I got mine from my good friend Duomatic on here who I have known for many years, and he let me know when he was ready to let it go as I had mentioned I was looking for a Club a few years ago.
Definitely a real keeper for me. I could do with thinning my BSA's down but some things are like hens teeth, these are few and far between in my eyes.

[Brad3]

For clarity the Club arrived first in a shorter cylinder form with 16 inch barrel. Then came another version with the extra long cylinder (which we know as the usual cylinder length for all Airsporters which followed)
Just to confuse things, a 16" barrel version went through a transition to the extra long cylinder but very rare.
It's a desirable version as it looks good for the barrel being 2" shorter but full length in cylinder and making the full power of the Airsporter. Short cylinder Clubs were miserable as the gun was produced in .177 which is already less efficient in Airsporter designs. I think they ran about 7.7 ..Cadet Major territory.
For completeness, the extra long cylinder Club in .177 ran an extra 1.5ftlbs as did Airsporters and then adding another 1ftlb for .22
The final S variant you could add another 1ftlb ....roughly.

[stevegv8]

I was just going to give details of my Mk 2 with a Sile stock and suddenly it's caused me some confusion, it's a one piece in walnut and I'd always seen it as a Mk 2 as it has the leaf sight and 2 groove scope rail but on checking the serial it says EF which should be Mk 3. A bitzer or transition? or do I know less than I thought I did?

[ogilkes]

Afraid I have always found BSA Walnut stocks to be largely bland (probably just unlucky) and not a patch on the Mk3. But, the BSA rifle is a real piece of innovation (spliced stocks show that) and so a more 'industrial' stock would fit the marque. Pretty sure John Knibbs said that some Mk1s were mixed walnut and beech spliced together (Golden Century) but this thread shows the amazing variety of woods and flow of grain used.

[johnbaz]

A couple more pics of my Tiger striped Mk1, I noticed B'rider asked for more pics back in Covid days!!







The metalwork..




John..

[Josie & John]

I was just going to give details of my Mk 2 with a Sile stock and suddenly it's caused me some confusion, it's a one piece in walnut and I'd always seen it as a Mk 2 as it has the leaf sight and 2 groove scope rail but on checking the serial it says EF which should be Mk 3. A bitzer or transition? or do I know less than I thought I did?

Hi Steve,

The EF prefixed Airsporter is indeed a Mk2 (made between Jan 1966 and Jan 1968).

It differed slightly to the previous EE model in that scope dovetails were narrower at 11.5mm and longer. The 11.5mm dovetails were introduced on the Meteor first, then the Airsporter according to BSA circular from late 1965.

Kind regards,

John

[robsmyth]

A couple more pics of my Tiger striped Mk1, I noticed B'rider asked for more pics back in Covid days!!







The metalwork..




John..

What a beauty, you lucky fellow !!