A few nice prewar BSA

[KWK]

Top 3 are .22 Long Toms. 45 inch. Top 2 are S prefix 1919-20. 3rd is a rare CS prefix c1924. 4th one is a rare 1934 CS prefix 43 inch .177 .Nicely reblued. Bottom 2 are Light patterns. .177. The very bottom one is the first BSA underlever I ever saw. I bought it 30 years ago. 

BSA collectors like to see the light etching on top of the cylinder. The brighter the better. Light etching on the cylinder first appeared around 1916

These are Improved Model D. Top two are 45 inch Sporting pattern .22. 1912. Bottom is a rare 1919 Light pattern .177 assembled from mostly prewar (WW1) Improved Model D parts. Straight hand stocks were optional on prewar rifles . This is the only postwar model that had it. 

The BSA collector holy grail. 1913 Military Pattern . Pictured beside a 45 inch Long Tom to illustrate it's length. 49". Also shown is the very rare Juvenile pattern 35 1/2"

I hope you enjoy seeing them

 

[stoti]

Totally cool! That’s a great collection. I love seeing air guns like these.

Thanks, Stoti

 

[GoldenStateAIRGUNer]

Nice Karl ! And I'll bet you've made plenty of parts for them ?

 

[KWK]

Fortunately when I get them in this condition I don't have to do anything more than make screws and seals. The Model D with the slight plum brown color was missing several parts when I got it. It took about 2 years to find everything and put it together. It has an Airsporter spring in it and shoots very nicely. That's the first time I made a leather seal. I also had to repair the folding leaf sight. Very, very hard to find those. Trigger and guard were missing as well as the piston.. A friend in England helped me find a trigger guard. Now I'm looking for one for an earlier gun I got. I'll have to show some of my earlier models. I don't always feel like doing pictures. The Light pattern Model D was missing it's cocking link. I had to modify a newer link and cold blue it. Don't tell anybody. That's a very nice rare one I found on eBag several years ago. I cut a real nice deal with the seller before anybody else bid on it. People weren't going nuts over them then like they are now. He was happy to sell to me because he knew I would put it together. The original spring is very good. Shoots nice. Cool little gun

 

[djna]

Wow -That’s nice collection- Thanks for sharing.

 

[MDriskill]

WOW - those are absolutely stunning! What a great collection of what was, in my opinion, easily the most influential spring-piston airgun design in history. We all owe a lot to BSA!

I'd really enjoy seeing a longer post (or two or three or...) focusing on details of individual guns and the work you did...just sayin'! 

 

[springer]

Beautiful collection. Commencement of etched cylinders in 1916, in the middle of WW1 is interesting. I wonder if BSA went to this method because they could not find someone to sharpen the dies or simply as cost cutting. 

Also interesting is inclusion of all patent dates in the etching. My 1912 Model D improved has patent dates stamped into the cocking lever and lever lock button, but not into the cylinder ID. I wonder if someone was making knock-offs, or if BSA was simply paranoid.

 

[pdxFrank]

Let's see a video of you shooting the sextuplets!

 

[KWK]

Springer

I missed. Light etching began in 1914 but that doesn't mean all guns after 1914 had it. 

Those were originally Lincoln Jeffries patents. That's what earlier guns say on the cocking parts

By the time etching started BSA owned all the patents. They acquired them in 1912 when George Lincoln Jeffries retired. Lincoln Air rifles were no longer manufactured afterwards. Realize that BSA made their version of the Lincoln air rifle from 1905 on. Called the "BSA Air Rifle". BSA did not invent these rifles. They had a business agreement to manufacture parts for Lincoln that Lincoln finish assembled themselves. And they manufactured their own BSA brand alternately. The first batch of 1000 Lincoln rifles (requiring only minor fitting performed by Lincoln) were delivered serial # 130-1129. The next batch of 1000 were BSA's. Serial # 1130-2129. That's why we refer to early production models as first batch, second batch, third batch Lincoln or BSA. Up to the sixth batch. Around # 17,000 when the Improved Model B was roll stamped on the cylinders. 1907.{By 1908 the Improved Model D was released so they're aren't many Model B's. About 1500 } By then the Lincolns weren't selling as well as the BSA due to the superior marketing skills and advertising funds. A few years later, early 1912, George Lincoln Jeffries released his patents to BSA. when he sold out to retire.



MDriskill

We really owe it to George Lincoln Jeffries. 

This is a link to a lot of work I did on an old beater just to make it shoot again so I don't play with my nicer ones too much. And I don't care who wants to shoot it. Anybody can shoot it all they want. No worries. Mostly me playing in my shop. It's pretty long. 2 pages. There is other work I did 

https://airgunwarriors.com/community/metal-shop/1912-bsa-truck-gun/

Here's another post about repairing a BSA folding leaf sight

https://airgunwarriors.com/community/metal-shop/bsa-22-folding-leaf-peep-sight-repair/

 

[KWK]

This one is pictured above but you'll get a better idea of what a beautiful little 1920 light pattern it is. I saw it at a gun show over 30 years ago. A dealer had it displayed but was not for sale. I ended up paying more than I wanted to to change his mind. Man, I wanted that gun. I never regretted it. Nobody I knew ever saw anything like it at the time.(Like most of the other airguns I had back then. Beeman, Weihrauch, Theoben) I think the only information I had about it was in my "Airgun Digest".volumes and Hiller's excellent books.

 

[Pneumatic-Addict]

That's a lotta BSA's! Thanks for the photos, Karl. They will be a great resource for early BSA enthusiasts.

 

[crowski]

KWK this stock, the way it fits the crotch of your thumb, it reminds me of a hockey stick I own, of one of the great legends, Stan Mikita (65 era). 

The reason I say this is because he rasped his stick to fit the crotch of his thumb. I have several twigs, nothing resembles, my old idles stick. Off side, but had to tell you. Thanks for the fantastic shots of your collection. Crow 

 

[KWK]

Making a front sight for a prewar BSA. Not my best gun by far but one I rescued. It's a good gun to share with inexperienced shooters. Or anybody that wants to wap a tin can with an over 100 year old air rifle. Thank you for looking.

Now it gets the dovetail cut in the metal shaper. Afterwards it gets parted off. and has the brass bead soldered on. Some finish work and cold blued.

 

[Flintsack]

The entire thing from top to bottom wow! I love the old BSA rifles. I only have two...

 

[KWK]

Make a missing sight adjustment screw. Start by turning straight knurls. Then thread and part off. Then finish the other end before cold blue

Before and after pictures of one of my South Bend lathes(not including the drill chucks). It had been purchased from South Bend as a special order build for a certain operation but it went unused 50 years. It was apparently never used. Custom matched original color. Took me a while to gather all the missing parts. Now it's used to rebuild old BSA. Among other things

 

[KWK]

Several screws had to be made. Trigger adjustment screw. Trigger guard screws. The trigger screw is new. And the square head carriage lock screw you see on the lathe saddle. It was missing too! Case hardened with Casenit.

 

[MDriskill]

It's hard to summon up enough "WOWS" here! 

Thanks for much for these additional posts and pics. I've spend a couple happy hours perusing them! I can only imagine having that sort of skill in metalworking...great work on some great airguns.

 

[crowski]

Nice work. Great pics,Yesterday’s C&C

 

[Mikemills666]

Would anyone like to buy my bsa juvenile? 

 

[KWK]

You can't ship it to the US. UK won't let you. At least not easily. It might be used to commit a crime!