BSA Gold Star "Union Jack" in .177, ongoing review

Who's that funky guy on the far left in the photo  Must be the "old man". 

Man those other photo's bring back some good memories!

Click to expand...

Ha ha, yep, that's the old man.

I 100% agree, those pics represent some good memories.



So, how'd the Gold Star do in competition?

Here's Mark's scoreboard from the match:



I'm not sure what I was thinking when I filled out the equipment section at sign-up. I shot the GOLD STAR that I've been reviewing for 5 weeks, and used 8.44gr pellets. Dunno how I came up with "Ultra SE," but it probably had something to do with lack of sleep. 

So, I shot a 33/40. For a course with the hardest shot being a Troyer 50 and the easiest being a 30, on a windy day, using light pellets.....82.5% knockdown percentage. Looking at that equipment list, the little Union Jack BSA held it's own against some very nice, very high-end PCPs.

As far as the seven misses, I took pretty extensive notes during the match, knowing full-well that I was going to do a write-up on the gun's performance. Being in a shooters squad of 3 gave me enough time to take notes. 

The notes are summarized in the following table. Using the 20x SWFA, I knew I was handicapping myself, and that sort of played into the game plan of using the lighter/flatter shooting 8.44 pellets. This scope ranges quite well out to about 30 yards but doesn't do so well further out. With how I set this rig up, the critical distances are the close ones. If you go back and look at my trajectory map, there are only 5 clicks on the scope between 30 and 55 yards. That allows much less accurate ranging on the further shots.



X's are hits, O's are misses.

There are columns for scope-ranged target distances AND lasered distances. Before I get called out as a cheater, the laser rangefinder was in my vehicle until AFTER I took my last shot. I okay'ed it with the match director, and he said since I had already finished the course, it would be fine to laser them to see if misses were due to errors in scope-ranging. Only one of the misses was due to a ranging error, the first far shot on lane 8. I ranged it a little further than actual so my pellet struck high. I got a little lucky on the misranged far target on lane 9-I was off by 7 yards. Click values for 38 yards = 0 and click value for 45 yards = 2 clicks. This is where that flat shooting light 8.44 bought me some wiggle room with ranging errors. The kill zone on the far target on 9 was big enough to account for a 2/10mil vertical variance.

3 of the misses (lanes 5, 7 and 10) were due to misreading the wind. The misses on lanes 5 and 7 were because I didn't hold off far enough. These were the lanes in the middle of the berms. The wind was much stronger in the middle than near the berms on the sides. It was crazy to see how much the wind was grabbing those pellets. There were shots on the middle lanes that I needed to hold completely off the faceplate of the target, roughly 5-6 inches worth of windage. Watching those pellets curve into the kill zone (when I read it right) was really cool. The miss on lane 10 was also due to misreading the wind, I held off about 1/2 inch upwind of the edge of the killzone, and proceeded to watch the pellet make a nice clean lead splatter right where my crosshairs were-wind died right then and that shot didn't need any hold-off.

The last three misses were operator error. On 3 and 8 I pulled the shots high. I knew what I had done on both of those shots right as the trigger broke, before the pellets even struck. The miss on 9 was during a momentary lull in the wind. I got excited that the wind had died for me and I tried to get the shot off too quick, effectively yanking down and to the left (pellet strike at 7 o clock on the table). The frustrating thing about these three misses is that they were on the second shot of each of their targets. That means I had already ranged correctly and knocked down each of the three targets once. This is simply human error, nothing to blame but myself, and the most frustrating of field target mistakes. 

Before I share my opinions on how the Gold Star did, here are a couple more photos. There were "Hunter" and "Open" class shooters at this match. Here is how Hunter is shot (bipod and elevated seat of some sort-usually a bucket):



This is an example of "Open" class. Bum bag and shooting harness, typically with a knee riser:



This is me (holding the Union Jack), from the back, on the sight-in range, just prior to the match:





This was one of the two close targets of the day, 1/2 inch kill zone at 13 yards. I always get a laugh from the "don't shoot" mouse with his hands in the air. Mark was zoomed in pretty good when he took this pic. That kill zone still looks pretty small though (it's where the marker crosshairs were drawn in, about the chest of the mouse).



This armadillo was the 11 yard, also half inch kill zone. I think I took this pic, no zooming, can just barely see the kill zone with the bare eye.



Impressions:

With one field target match under it's belt, the Gold Star shoots much better than it's price point. The gun is as accurate as my USFT (that is high praise) at about half the price. I was impressed from day 1 with the gun, and I hoped what I was seeing in my back yard would extrapolate to good results in competition (it did). A good target gun is a combination of a bunch of details that were done correctly in the designing and manufacturing of the gun. The BSA has those. An excellent barrel, firmly affixed to the rest of the gun, coupled with a consistent air delivery system, a good trigger, and a stock that can be made to fit comfortably, results in a combination that can win competitions. Granted we only had a small turnout at the match, the BSA shot better than 7 of the other 8 guns at the match. We all shot in the same conditions, on the same course. That's a pretty fair comparison, and the BSA did it's job. There are a bunch of fine shooters in our club, and any one of those shooters are capable of beating me and the BSA the next time out. Open class just went in my favor at this competition and that's just how competitions go. The important thing for a competitor is to be able to count on the gun to do it's job, and the BSA did exactly that for me. The misses were my fault and I can live with that, happily. I was quite impressed to find that the gun didn't have any ill effects from the oring replacement the night before the match. I expected my point of impact to be screwy after that little adventure, but, nope, solid as a rock. Due to the nature of PCP's, I don't feel like an oring needing replaced is any kind of fault of the gun, although it happened at a pretty inopportune time. That just happens with PCP's. 

As far as "taking less wind"........after the deflection tests, and also just shooting it at a match with tricky wind.......the gun does require wind hold off. I do find it to be predictable, which is nice. As long as the wind doesn't die or pick up right as the trigger breaks, it's not too hard to predict the hold-off required, based on direction and severity of the wind at that particular moment. It's not magic, but I'll go as far as to say that it does better in the wind than some guns that I own or have shot. My taipan veteran for example-absolute tack driver, but horribly susceptible to wind deflection. Also, the older generation Brocock gun with the LW traditional barrel (the gun used in the deflection testing) is much harder to predict wind deflection than the the BSA.

One of the competitors works part-time at AOA. We were talking about the Gold Star after the match and he commented that he has yet to see a BSA come off the shelf (for the standard pre-shipment testing that they do) that did not shoot exceptionally well. "They just all shoot good," he said.

The BSA Gold Star is a gun that a guy or gal (on that note, due to it's weight and smaller profile, it would make an EXCELLENT ladies or youth rifle-say older than ten years old for so for the youth) can take to a field target match and not only participate, but actually compete with. It'll give guns costing much more a sure run for their money. 

What's left?

• I'd still like to see if the stripper does anything to accuracy (not at my house-too loud). 
• I need to test the single shot adapter against the magazine, without strong winds muddying the waters. 
• I'll still do a short write up on barrel cleaning and what I've found with lubed pellets in the gun.
• Also, a short one on the fill port/gauges and I'll likely point out the oring in this write-up (from the schematics) that needed replaced the night before the match. 
• I'm considering putting a better scope on it, and remapping the trajectory with 10.34gr JSBs and shooting it at one more competition before turning it back over to AOA. This will depend on what happens to the next match or two (Corona-wise). 
• I want to do a final shot string over the chronograph, to see what the reg is doing after that many shots.
• Final opinion and thoughts. 

Good shooting Franklink! Especially considering the UG's lightweight and the 20x scope.

The old man is hard to beat isn't he, especially with $7000 worth of equipment/Thomas with Kahles 10-50 - we see in the photo! I shot with him last month using his rifle and it's pretty awesome, which definitely helped me to get the high score. 

Enjoying your write up, it's super detailed! It's almost like you went to college or something!

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Thanks Steve.

Yes, the old man has quite a rig, and also knows how to shoot it. I felt pretty good about where I finished, considering the gun and scope put the rig I used at around $1500. The only other gun/scope in that price range (at this match) would probably be Mark's TX200/Bushnell. There were a couple in the next tier up around the $2000-2500 range, another couple in the $2500-5000 range, and then there's the high water mark like old man's Thomas/Kahles. 

Windy time of year

My airgun mentality is firmly entrenched in the Townsend Whelen cliche about what makes them interesting. With that in mind, we're about two weeks into one of Northern Arizona's windy seasons. The current one runs from mid March into late July. The other one is from early August and ends around mid December (nope, no typos in that description). Wind and .177 pellets make the accuracy part of Colonel Whelen's famous saying a little difficult to assess. On a brighter note, the only way to get good at shooting in the wind, is to shoot in the wind. 

Here's our forecast: 



Tues night looks promising, with gusts of 23mph. 

Seriously though, I need a few more windless sessions to do some of the last couple accuracy testing sessions with the Gold Star. 

All my bemoaning about the wind is meant as an intro for................

Plinking!

Paper is for accuracy testing, metal is for plinking! I honestly never much enjoyed shooting paper until I got into field target. The time spent shooting paper is just necessary for the level of precision that FT requires. But, I have always enjoying blasting the crap out of stuff. As a kid, walnuts, horse apples, sticks floating down the creek, just about anything made for good plinking practice with a .22 rimfire. For backyard fun, metal targets like spinners and field targets, as well as some of the less traditional stuff like ABC's bell target, equate to some serious plinking fun. They can also be really good practice for FT. 

I purchased one of the "small" ABC bell targets 8 or 10 months ago. It has four KZs: 3/8″, 1/2″, 3/4″, and 1″. With how they are mounted, one of the KZs is not shootable. I mounted mine with the 3/8 against the board. They make a nice TING when kz is shot, vs a SMACK when the pellet misses the hole. 

The challenge

54 yards at the bell targets 1" and 1/2 inch KZs with the BSA Gold Star from a bumbag (Open class FT position) IN. THE. WIND.

Troyer factor = (target distance/kz size) x ( 1 + difficulty factors) 

1 inch at 54 yards in the wind = 74.25T !!!

1/2 inch at 54 yards in the wind = 148.5T!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

For perspective, a 50T and above is ILLEGAL to have in a FT match, at least a Grand Prix (that's not to stop a deviant match director from having fun at a monthly match though)

A Troyer above 40 in a match makes the piston shooters whine (I'm one of them occasionally, both a whiner and a piston shooter, sometimes at the same time), and the WFTF shooters cry like babies(can't blame em-wind deflection is a B at 12fpe)



Round 1

10 shots at the 1 inch KZ with JSB 10.34 (54 yards, in case that wasn't evident above)

Video is at double the regular speed-was hoping it would make it less tedious to watch. You can see my heart rate in the reticle though, and it looks like my wife should have called the ambulance. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EqqSAABuD9E

The first 4 or 5 looked pretty decent. I think I split the KZ at 9 and 12 on shot 5 and 6 or so. I think 7 and 8 were the two that the wind carried out of the KZ. 9 was blurry, and I think 10 went where it was supposed to. 

This is the still close up of the results. The sun was setting and I had to kinda turn it to keep it from being a giant glare. 



Round 2

10 shots at the 1/2 inch KZ with JSB 8.44 (yep, still at 54 yards)

This one's at regular speed. HEART. RATE. You can see the wind flag shadow blowing around a little. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NqHHGiVZ05o

Pic of the carnage-not much to be proud of here, although I think a couple did go in, just cant tell from the angle. Typical light pellet in wind situation, hold for the wind and have it not do anything to the pellet vs not holding enough.



Round 3

5 shots at the 1/2inch KZ with JSB 10.34 (still at 54)

With how I zoomed, I think my heart rate is the most apparent on this one.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hGh0LsGjq8M

I think I managed to thread 2 of the 5 in the KZ. 



Bonus round

I've got a bird feeder right next to my shooting lane, just in front of the firewood stack, that puts it at 50 yards from where I shoot. I used to be able to put some seed in there once a week or so, then the dang Euro doves found it. One of those fat pigs will clean it out in one sitting. With all the Corona scare stuff going on, I was joking with my wife that we've got a ready source of protein, actually coming to us (she didn't find it funny). 

Anyway, I was dead set on a head shot and it didn't happen. Luckiest dang dove. The old phone isn't good enough to show but I could see where my pellets drilled into the piece of firewood right behind him. He actually ducked the second shot. Bird lovers be free to watch, no dead-bird here. He flew away to return another day, perhaps one when we're out of meat, deep into the end-of-the-world-Coronapocalypse.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QYS-Z_XUekY



Conclusion:

After all the testing and comparing and measuring and documenting, it was loads of fun to do the shooting described above. The Gold Star is a pretty sweet "target" rifle and an even sweeter plinker, cuz hey, ACCURATE plinking is fun plinking. It's got all the requirements of an enjoyable shooting experience, competitive shooting or not, it's a blast to shoot. 

Single shot tray (sst) vs magazine

It's pretty common to hear or see discussion about the magazine vs sst argument, usually leaning towards better accuracy from an sst (or single-fed when gun design allows). Well, I like to test theories and ideas vs just accepting the status quo. So, I finally had some semi-favorable wind conditions, which is about the best I can get this time of year.

Even if you're not interested in the sst vs mag question, in this report there are some pics of quite a few more groups shot from the Union Jack (in case you'd just like to know how good/bad it shoots).

Circumstances

I just finished working 7 overnight shifts. My normal schedule is days, but the overnight people like to use their PTO too, so somebody has to cover for them. Usually I'll stay awake for at least 24hrs on my last night before going back to days. Being incredibly tired is the only way that I've been able to con my circadian rhythm into going to sleep that first night after I've been sleeping during the day for a week. Jacking with your bodies normal cortisol high's and lows so aggressively can really make you feel rough. Personally, in the last 12-14 hrs of being awake when I pull this fun shift (dropping the F on shift is also a good descriptor for this situation), I'm shivering and shaking most of the day. It almost feels like a massive adrenaline dump that doesn't end. The first couple times it happened I thought I was dying, now I know it's just how my body responds when I'm trying to force it back into a normal sleep at night, be awake during the day cycle. In short, this is not my best shooting, for various reasons:

• cortisol tremor
• been over a week since I'd had any trigger time
• I'm shooting into the early morning sun (the particular scope on the Gold Star has really bad glare in this situation)

So, now that I've got my excuses out of the way....

Conditions

This report covers shooting done between 730 and 940ish, AM. Upon arriving home from my last night shift, I realized the wind was sorta decent for pellet shooting, so that's when this comparison was shot.

Weather summary:



Basically the wind started out pretty calm, but kicked up shortly after I started shooting and got worse throughout the shooting session. Remember my home range shoots due east, so wind was mostly from right to left on targets.

30 second clip of the wind taken at 830, after the wind had come up. There's no shooting, so it'll be a boring video for many of you, especially if you don't ever spend time watching the wind (via wind flags or otherwise) in attempts to outsmart it with your relatively low BC pellets. If you would like to see what kind of wind these groups were shot in, the near wind flag is at 35 yards, the far one is at 51 yards, both along the left side of the frame. No fancy wind flags here either, just something that helps me to have an idea of what it's doing. 



https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2244zpCNP7Q



The comparison design

10 shot groups from 53 yards, off bags from a table ("bench-rested"), rotating between magazine and sst for each group, shot in sequence like reading a page (top left group=mag, top right group=sst, second to top left group=mag, second to top right group=sst, and so forth). 

All shots taken with cross-hairs dead on center of target, or at least as close as I could muster (no hold-off for wind, gusts or otherwise). There was also no effort to break the shots at low-wind moments.

This resulted in all the groups from the mags in the left column, and all the groups from the sst on the right column.

We all know that it's easier to shoot more shots in a given amount of time, or to shoot the same amount of shots quicker, when a mag is being used. For this reason, I consciously waited the couple extra seconds after cycling the bolt (on the mag groups), that loading the sst takes. 

I also cleaned the barrel right before testing, with a few "fouling" shots taken prior to these groups. I'll get into more on that in a different report. 

JSB 8.44

I shot the lighter pellets first, expecting the wind to pick up. So this page was all shot from 730-830.



(I penciled in "8.64 JSB" but they're just regular 8.44, must have been my night-shift brain on the typo).

The wind was very calm for the top two groups and the pellets were hitting just a hair to the left of bullseye, so I did give it two clicks to the right after shooting those top two 10 shot groups. The scope was not touched for the rest of this page. 

The numbers down the far left and far right are the size of that group, measured center to center of the two farthest apart pellet holes. The average group size is circled at the bottom of each column. The difference in group size is in the middle/bottom and the calipers are representing that difference in average group size. It happens to be 0.0364, which, in my opinion, is minimal and likely not statistically significant enough to conclusively say the gun does better with the mag or the sst, at least not with these pellet and in these condition.

The overall group size for all 10 (mag and sst), 10 shot groups is circled, about dead-center in the page. The average 10 shot group size for all 10 group with the 8.44gr JSB was 1.2806 inches.

A surprising trend was that 2-3 shots out of the last four 10 shot mag group were border-line "flyers" to the low and right of where I was aiming. Although these seeming "flyers" didn't worsen the overall group size to the point of making them bigger than the sst.

JSB 10.34

All ten groups here were taken from 830-940. Go back and check out the wind towards the end of these targets.



The results are all reported on this page in the same manner as they were for the 8.44. The size of the 10 shot groups from the mag was 0.132 inches better than the sst. That's a big enough difference to start to make a difference. 

The overall group size for all 10 (mag and sst), 10 shot groups is circled, about dead-center in the page. The average 10 shot group size for all 10 group with the 10.34gr JSB was 0.9804 inches.

Conclusions

The Gold Star printed smaller groups with the magazine than it did with the sst I fashioned, with both weights of pellets that were tested. This goes against the generally accepted, single-fed is better concept. The possible limitations here are that I fashioned the single shot tray myself, it is not a BSA/OEM item. So there's a possibility that there's a minor misalignment there. I've got to admit that I "felt" like the sst was shooting better, even during the shooting of these groups. The difference for the 8.44 is inconsequential, but a little more than a tenth of an inch difference with the 10.34gr starts to equate to a few splits (missed points) in an FT match, or a head-shot but not a brain shot on a pest bird. 

So, the mag shot a smaller average group than my sst. Feel free to make your own conclusions based on the info that I've given. After this test, I for one, don't think that using a magazine with the Gold Star equates to less accurate shooting.

Did you notice the average group size for the 10.34gr vs the 8.44 pellets? Here:



I worded it poorly in my handwriting on this page, but these are the 10 shot average group sized for ALL ten of the 8.44gr (mag and sst) and all ten of the 10.34gr (mag and sst) shots. First off, in regards to the 10.34gr pellets, for a gun to be able to shoot 100 shots, in 15-20mph winds, without any windage given and have the average 10 shot group size be under an inch.........well, I'm just further impressed with it. I've said it a couple times already, but the gun SERIOUSLY shoots at a level much higher than it's price point. 

The elephant in the room here is that the 10.34gr pellets shot quite a bit better than the 8.44gr. I had previously decided that the 8.44s were better. This could have been the wind that I was dealing with, or maybe the barrel is more broken-in now than it was when I did the comparisons before, or maybe I was biased into the 8.44's because I was excited about the prospect of that flat trajectory. Regardless of the why, I'm going to start shooting the 10.34s out of the gun, with the hopes of being able to map out the trajectory with that pellet for an FT match in the next month or two (COVID is making that seem unlikely though). 

Ramblings

In all my testing and comparing of the performance of the Gold Star, I've tried to eliminate or at least minimize the "wild cards." Wild cards being the aspects of the situation that have nothing to do with a gun's performance, namely the nut behind the trigger and the wind. Basically, I've really wanted to report on the gun and it's performance on the concept of it's intrinsic accuracy, just by virtue of it's manufacture/quality/barrel/etc. I had some deep ponderings and realizations while I was shooting the above groups. It just kind of dawned on me that a gun can't shoot itself, and unless you're shooting indoors, there will always be some air currents shifting around or screaming through the target area. So, although I have tried to focus on "giving the gun a fair shake," by eliminating the non-gun factors, truth be told, those factors are just as much an active and influential part of shooting and equipment performance. 

What's left?

• I'd still like to see if the stripper does anything to accuracy (not at my house-too loud). 
• I need to test the single shot adapter against the magazine, without strong winds muddying the waters. (I'll probably let the "strong winds" part of this one rest and call the mag vs sst COMPLETED.)
• I'll still do a short write up on barrel cleaning and what I've found with lubed pellets in the gun.
• Also, a short one on the fill port/gauges and I'll likely point out the oring in this write-up (from the schematics) that needed replaced the night before the match. 
• I'm considering putting a better scope on it, and remapping the trajectory with 10.34gr JSBs and shooting it at one more competition before turning it back over to AOA. This will depend on what happens to the next match or two (Corona-wise). 
• I want to do a final shot string over the chronograph, to see what the reg is doing after that many shots.
• Final opinion and thoughts. 

Thanks Franklink. I really enjoy the info and your style of writing. Looks like it's going to be a really good rifle.... in your hands for sure. 

Bob

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Thanks for the kind words. 

Stripper testing 

(while it was enjoyable, man that title sure makes it sound like more fun than I actually had)

Just a sneak peak for now, but......

moderator accuracy @ 60 yards....

vs this...



vs this....





Write-up in the next couple days. 

Stripper Testing

One of my first thoughts upon taking this gun out of the box was that I needed to investigate accuracy with that stripper. And I did, but first a quick description. So, it's what comes on the gun, standard 1/2-20 female threads on the stripper, male on the barrel. That allows an easy swap from the OEM stripper to a moderator, which is mostly how I have shot the gun. I sure thought that it was machined steel but no magnetism so I'm guessing anodized aluminum, even though the finish really looks like blued steel. In case it wasn't apparent in the teaser pics on the last post, the cone has an adjustable depth/spacing from the end of the barrel. There is a flat on the cone to which a little allen set screw grabs. Although it would appear that there would be more adjustment, there is realistically only about 5/8 of an inch of cone travel. It'll adjust down so close that the stripper can't thread onto the barrel, and it'll adjust out only so far before you run out of the flat. So, 5/8in is the "doable" adjustment range.

My preconceived notions expected to either see no difference in accuracy, or the best accuracy with it pretty close to the end of the barrel. 

The stripper is really a smartly little machined unit, neat to inspect and see all the steps that seem like they would have needed to have gone into making it, even if it was done with a CNC machine.

Here's some visual's for the above description. Set screw marks on the cone (and pics on the previous teaser post) show the two depths I tested at, basically max and min of available cone travel.



My couple of sets of gunsmithing bits were in my tool room on the opposite end of the house, it was sure nice to have the BSA-supplied allen keys right there by my gun cabinet. They're really a cheap thing for a gun manufacturer to throw in the box, but it's a very nice gesture that suggests the company is thinking of the end-user. Super convenient for a gun to come with all the sizes necessary to make any adjustments. Not a make or break deal on a gun, but a nice touch on the part of BSA in this case.



Scenario

I just decided to go for it at my house, despite previously finding out that it is LOUD with the stripper. I did, however, decide to back my truck out of the garage rather than shoot from right in front of it like normal. I kinda talked myself into the theory that maybe the bigger volume of the front end of the garage could act like a really large first baffle on a moderator and keep the neighbors from freaking out. Here's how that looks...

 

It equated to a lasered 60 yards. 

Shooting from my bum bag and a home-made bag. It was actually pretty stable with the tube resting on the shooting bag, and the knee rest sitting on the bum bag, sort of a stepped shooting bag. 

And oh yes I used ear plugs! (Man o man it was loud in my garage like this). 

Conditions and Design



Wind right to left

10 shot groups (mostly-I got into a little bit of a plinking mode with the moderator back on at the end of the testing) from 60 yards, using only the JSB 10.34 lubed (but not sorted or weighed). Shot control groups with the moderator (left side of each paper) and then shot groups with a shallow cone depth and then repeated all of that with the cone spaced out as far as possible from the barrel. 

I expected varying points of impact so had another pellet trap right next to the one holding these targets, so that I could verify poi before shooting groups. Both bucket pellet traps can just barely be seen in the above pic out the back door of the garage. 

All shots taken with crosshairs on center of bullseye (once poi was verified and clicked into scope using the other pellet trap). 

Factory Cone Depth

Note-the way it came to me really had the cone set about as close as possible to the barrel, again see the pics on the previous post of the review. 

Left of the marker line = moderator groups

Right of the marker line = stripper groups with factory (close) cone depth



This cone depth on the stripper was complete and utter junk. There were flyers galore, you can see question marks that I penciled in, those were the flyers. There also seemed to be some sort of back-pressure effect happening as the pellet went through the stripper. Whatever this phenomenon actually was, it was causing less than smooth shooting, almost like it was inducing recoil. The pellets were also going much slower, I could follow them with my eyes, and they were not flying straight (curveballs, spirals, all manner of airgun evil). I really thought all the pellets were clipping, to the point that I inspected the stripper after these groups. I found some lube on the tip of the cone, but otherwise it didn't seem to be clipping like I had presumed. 



This stripper setting required 8 mils more elevation than with the moderator (the "control"). 

Conclusion from this cone setting and the stripper. BIG. FAT. NOPE. 

Deepest Possible Cone Depth



Same thing here, ten shot groups with the stripper on the right of the marker line, and mostly ten shot groups with the moderator on the left of the marker line. They blurred a little bit on the third row down. 

WOW. Those first three groups with the stripper were just dropping into nearly the same hole. At 18ish FPE, at 60 yards!!! Here's a close up of the top stripper group.



9 under a dime. EASILY under a dime. Really wild thing is that I pulled the one shot that's not in the group. The next two groups with this cone setting were not too bad either.

The next four stripper groups were not quite as impressive (hey I'm human). 

Nearly the same POI as the moderator.

No flyers with this cone depth setting.

Conclusion (and impressions)

Cone near the muzzle = pure crap (didn't take many groups for me to decide to stay far away from this configuration)

Cone far from muzzle = surprised the heck out of me (so much that I shot more groups here cuz it was unexpected, shoulda stopped with those first couple though)

Here's the poi verification page. There's other stuff going on, but here are some just informal shots taken from the close cone vs further cone settings. Close cone in the top circle and further cone in the bottom circle. It was at this point (four or five into the same hole) that I was raising an eyebrow in disbelief at the further cone, and being pretty disgusted with close cone results. 



I have shot lots and lots and lots of 10 shot groups from this gun, in various conditions, most around 50-55 yards. I have kept all those pages of groups. I was really curious about the frequency of that size of groups (the one I zoomed in on with the dime) so I laid all the pages out. There were only a couple of groups that were about as good as this best group from the stripper with the cone all the way out. There's a concept of probability there:lots of groups with the moderator and only a few similar sized groups vs not many groups with the stripper and a couple of really good groups (with one exceptional group, and at another 5 yards than the good ones from the moderator). I think that there is really something to this stripper with the cone spaced out this way. For anybody that owns, or is going to own this gun, it is worth testing (if the loudness factor isn't a deal-breaker). 

I was discussing this with an airgun friend that does a lot of pest bird shooting at dairies. A. LOT. And he actually is a believer in high power .177, so does quite a bit of shooting in that realm of fpe. He is the only airgunner I've ever heard of who shot enough pellets through one gun that he wore down some part of the bolt on some such gun. I believe he told me over 100,000 pellets through that gun to make it wear that way. No, I don't remember the make and model. But, he told me he has seen the same thing with improved accuracy with a stripper vs a moderator to the point that he takes off his moderator when at the dairy and taking 60 plus yard shots on pest birds. He was specific in saying that he's only see this with .177 pellets though and hasn't confirmed it with larger calibers. 

So, the stripper effect on accuracy really seems to be something worth investigating, if the shooter lives in a situation where noise isn't a concern. (Personally, I'll take the slightly reduced accuracy with a moderator as a trade-off for the nice, quiet shooting experience. I took the ear plugs out for ONE shot during the above stripper testing, and they went STRAIGHT back in cuz it was painfully loud). 

The gun is so nice and compact without 7 inches of moderator hanging off the front. Very nice to handle. 

It was a welceom return to quiet and no ear plugs to put the moderator back on at the end though. 

Barrel Cleaning

My rough estimate of shots through the BSA is around 2500. I cleaned it three times. Really, three times. And my "cleaning" was simply spraying some cut off qtip ends with Slick 50 for moisture and pushing them through the barrel (for .177 it really works quite well). No brushes, or solvents, or JB bore paste, or recrowns, or any of those typical hoops that we jump through for good accuracy. The accuracy never dropped off from a dirty barrel, it is very tolerant of being dirty or clean. 

This was after most of two tins...



The barrel would come clean very quickly, suggestive of a polished finish. If a BSA Gold Star barrel blank ever comes up for sale in your airgunning hobby activities, buy it-you won't be disappointed.

It was very nice to not need to deal with a shroud or baffles when cleaning. No straw, no vacuum, no baffles to fight or end of barrel vs end of shroud gap to fight. I would simply take the moderator off and have unrestricted access straight to the barrel. Convenient. 

Pellet Lube

Other than the initial pellet testing, all the pellets put through the gun and groups shown in this review went through the same process. Washed and lubed. No weighing, no sorting. Lube used was the Slick 50 aerosol sprayed onto pellet tin foam prior to adding pellets and then rolling them around for a consistent coating. I usually lube my pellets heavier than I've seen many guys doing, and I like the results, as far as cleaning and bore deposits. Even for the FT competition I shot the BSA in, same pellet prep (no stinkin weighing and sorting). While I believe the BSA barrel is quite forgiving, this lube process just plain worked, and is simple and easy, so I didn't need to go to any drastic measures to keep the little gun shooting accurately.

Fill Situation

The BSA fills via a probe. I tend to simply leave the probes in guns that require them, as I've found the constant replacing leads to cut orings. But, it does have a neat little dust cover for the hole if that's an individual's preferred process. 



The gauge on the gun matched all three of my fill stations, and the gauge on my Hill pump (the one time I filled it with the pump). It would scream when filled. I always envisioned a dog's chew toy sound when filling the gun. And it didn't seem to matter if it was fast or slow, ssssssssscccccccccccrreeaaaaaaaaaaaaammmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm. Every time it was filled. Minor annoyance. 

The best I can tell, the leak I had the night before the FT match was oring #34 in this diagram. It was replaced with a 016 Buna 90 durometer, if I remember correctly. It has held air just fine since that evening, no leak, slow or otherwise. (For reference, I think part #31 is the manometer, with 32 being the small but fat cross-sectioned oring that seals the manometer and 33 being a non-sealing oring, just the one that the dust cover rides on). 

Final Chronograph Results

Really early in the review I noted that I wanted to do final chronograph results. Here they are. These are taken from the regulator pretty broken in, about 2500 pellets through the gun now.

Remember that I've got the graduations on the vertical axis split into 5fps segments. That results in a jagged line that seems to be less consistent than it really it.

Since the JSB 10.34 turned out to be a really good pellet in the gun, I decided to run a string with them. I don't have an initial full chrono string with these pellets. 



Since I was shooting the pellets anyway, I thought it would be a fun experiment to hold on the same POI at 53 yards for the whole string. As normal, I had some wind, but this is the above string, plus the extra shots that were taken when the gun was off the reg.

 

I also did a full string with the JSB 8.44, and I've got new gun vs broken in gun chrono strings. This first one is from when the gun was new, it's also back in the beginning of the review but it's easier to compare when they're both on the same page.

New gun:



Now (2500 pellets through it): 



There were 4 error-reading shots here, sprinkled throughout the string,

I also shot the whole string of this final chrono at the same aim point at 53 yards. Here is what that looks like. 



Thoughts:

The SD and ES are really about the same. If I was to get crazy with the stats and figure out P values and use the common alpha of 0.05, it would calculate out to be NOT statistically significant. In other words, the difference's seen in the SD and ES are more than likely due to factors other than the regulator (a couple low or high weight pellets in the group is just as likely to have bumped the SD slightly higher this time around).

So, the reg is pretty much performing like it did when new. 

There is lot of discussion online about the BSA guns and the collective opinion about the NECESSITY of replacing the OEM reg with an aftermarket one. I disagree. For FT competition, the OEM reg is plenty consistent to win matches. That's good enough for me. If I owned this gun I would not replace the reg and I would not feel like I was at a disadvantage of any sort for leaving the OEM reg in there. The numbers don't lie, the OEM regulator produces sufficiently consistent fps when the gun is refilled right before dropping off the regulator (just a hair under 100 bar with this particular specimen.

The gun is generating a little less energy now than when it did when it was new. Possibly the hammer spring has gotten weaker, or the reg just settled into this fps output. Who knows, but interesting to see that that happened. 

The little exercise of putting all the shots into one group was kinda cool. I think it is a great representation of what the gun can do, over an entire shot string. For the 10.34, throwing out the last couple off-the-reg shots, there are only 2 shots that the wind got a hold of enough to make the group not just a big 1.25ish inch group. Note the severity of the wind. Not bad at all. For the 8.44, the wind obviously took more of them for a ride than it did the 10.34. Really, this is an awesome visual of why you see more shooters using 10.34gr pellets for FT competition than the 8.44 (less wind drift), at least in the 20fpe classes.

End of the line

Well, my time with the Gold Star has come to an end. Boxing it up to send back was quite bitter-sweet. I grew to really like the little gun. Passing on long-term ownership of a gun this accurate really gave me cause to question whether or not I could scrape up the funds to buy it. I ultimately decided to send it back to AOA though, as I already have some nice one's in this power level. I'm kind thinking that I'll eventually regret it though (I already do, a little).



So, I went into this review with the idea of taking a less-known, back-burner sort of airgun, shooting it essentially as-is, and seeing how it would perform, both in my yard and at a monthly field target match. I was more than impressed with the gun, in all aspects. I just skimmed through the (rather lengthy) review, hoping to kinda gather my thoughts and refresh my memory on the whole process. My conclusion: there really isn't much about the gun that I didn't like. 

After 10 or so years chasing accuracy with pellets, I've realized that most airgun purchases that I've made can be classified into one of two types: a tinkering platform, or an ole reliable.

The tinkerers are the guns that have easily swappable barrels, or interchangeable parts, or adjustable regulators, or large ranges of power output, or etc, etc, etc. The tinkerers are great for the wonderer within us all, "I wonder what would happen if x pellet was going x fast," or "if I drop the reg pressure 20 psi, will I still have the same fps, but greater efficiency," or "man I'd really like to see what all the fuss is about a poly barrel, or a different liner, or chokeless," or any number of other questions we all ask. The tinkering platform is a fun gun, a gun that can fill many niches, but it seems the tinkerer is constantly being tinkered with. And it also seems that the tinkerer has a harder time holding a consistent poi (likely cuz we're always jacking with the settings). The tinkerer is the platform for the bleeding edge of innovation, for pushing the limits, and possibly making big advancements, or maybe chasing our tails.

The ole reliables are those guns that just perform, without needing to fuss and fiddle with them. The ole reliable is the gun that you haven't shot for a few weeks, but can take it out and count on it to still have the same poi at all known distances. The ole reliable has fewer adjustments, and that's a good thing. The ole reliable is the gun that you shoot at a monthly FT match where you just worked a bunch of shifts and didn't have time to practice in the days leading up to the match, but you're okay with that, cuz the dang thing shoots the same today as it did three weeks ago. The ole reliable is simply trustworthy. The ole reliable makes a better competition gun. 

The BSA Gold Star is the ole reliable. 

Some might consider the Gold Star, "old news," but that isn't necessarily a bad thing.

As for where it fits in the market, or what it's competition is....I'd place it right in there with the Daystate Regal, the HW100/110/etc, the Brocock Bantam's or the Concept, the Air Arms s500/510. Basically a (mostly) classic styled sporter-type PCP without a lot of bells and whistles, but one that can be trusted as a steady performer and solid get-your-money's-worth airgun.

The basic action of the Gold Star can be purchased for less, in different trims. But seriously, if you are considering buying this gun, pony up for a configuration with the same stock as the one I've been reviewing. I believe it's $3-400 or so more than the other trims, but man o man, is this stock worth it (whether walnut, black pepper lam, or this Union Jack lam). This adjustable stock can be made to fit sooo nicely! My time with this stock and how much more easily it is to shoot well with a nice-fitting stock, had me inspecting my personal airguns. I realized that I've got a really accurate springer with a stock that doesn't fit me very well and I can't shoot it as good because of that, as I think I'll be able to with a better stock. So, the Gold Star stock influenced me so much that I'm actually trying to make a better fitting stock for that springer. And yes, I took some measurements off the Gold Star stock to go into the design of the springer stock. 

I mentioned that I would have really liked to have shot the Gold Star in one more monthly match, but I've really shot it a bunch already, and was also looking forward to the next review rifle.

In summary, the Gold Star is a rock-solidly built airgun with a quality, heavy diameter airgun BARREL, firmly affixed to a solid breech, coupled with a sweet trigger, and a reliable and consistent means of getting the air pulse behind the pellet. All of that equals accuracy. Consistent accuracy.



(If you enjoyed following along in my process of getting to know this rifle, and also working it up for a FT match, keep your eyes open on the forums. I already have the next gun and will soon be starting an ongoing thread on it, much the same as this one has been. Teaser: it's a .22 Red Wolf Standard with the second gen electronics, in a walnut stock. Most definitely not the type of airgun I saw myself reviewing when I envisioned this a few months ago, but the owner of AOA wanted this to be the next one to go through the process. I've been shooting it for a couple days and it's a sweet ride. A friend lent me a programmer so that I can make it's low power my happy place of sub 20fpe with the light .22 pellets. And, yeah, I'll shoot it at an FT match at some point this summer, .22 handicap and all). 

For anybody that followed this review and became interested in the gun.....AOA just got them on their website. $999 and theyre throwing in some extras like a field target, single shot tray, and scope mounts. Very good price on such an accurate gun. 

One of the members of our field target club bought this gun used from Airguns of Arizona. And when I say "this gun" I mean the exact same serial number gun that I reviewed. He's been having all kinds of fun with it and is as impressed as I was with how accurate it is.

He asked me to add a final post on this review. He is offering for anyone that is interested in trying out field target, to use this gun at any of our matches. We're part of the Airgunners of Arizona club. We typically have a match on the third Saturday of every month (when it's not the coronapocalype), year round. There is discussion of going to the 4th Saturday though, so check out the website to verify. Or even PM me on here. We have some awesome shooting venues. So, if you live in the area or just happen to be swinging through the PHX metro area on a weekend towards the end of the month, reach out and we'll set you up with a very accurate gun/scope/trajectory data for the match.

He mounted a Hawke HD, I believe he said, one of the $900 range scopes. He tells me he has it worked up for a Hunter class rig at 16x and also for an Open class rig. He has printed and laminated pages for both hold-overs (Hunter) and clicking (Open). 

A really great opportunity to see what FT is all about with a rig already set up and ready to go. Or a chance to try out a new gun if you are already familiar with FT and in town gun-less.

First match is free, after that $10/match for members and $15 for non-members.

https://www.airgunnersofarizona.org/

cavedweller said:

@Franklink any chance if you know of a right side load option so this is easier to load when a big ranging wheel is attached?

Click to expand...

Unfortunately I'm unaware of such a right-side loading option. One may exist, I just don't know about it.

The first thought that comes to mind as a way to get around the side wheel being in the way would be an eccentric or comma shaped wheel. You could rotate it around out of the way and then load from the left side just fine.

Should make a perfect gun for that.

Watch out though, if yours is as accurate as the one discussed here, and you give them good dope, newbie might beat you!