BSA.. mercury

[jasper65 6]

Hi Jasper (what a fantastic name )

 

The bottom rifle in my pic is an RB2 Airsporter , the RB stands for Rotary Breech (which i'm sure you knew), it's the same breech as the BSA SUperstar..

 

Always fancied a Centeniary Airsporter but one turned up for £385 and I turned it down, the chap sent me a message thanking me as he sold it for £550

 

I love the real BSA Springers (before they became Spanish) and recently have been searching them out more than any other makes..

 

Here's a few more Airsporters..

 

 

Cheers, John

 

Glad you like the name John, not many Jaspers about these days

 

some nice MK1's there John, is there a Club amongst them? I was offered a mint Mercury S a few years ago in .22 calibre, beleive it or not it was up for £ which was roughly the price I payed for mine brand new back in - 81 but it was in .22. my old one n the picture above is a .177 which I would have loved to have had but he was asking £250 for it . it would have been nice to of handed a gun I had as a lad back down to my lad but I wasn't paying that sort of money. on the subject of the RB2! I think this is roughly when BSA started getting Plastic'y with some models , even saw some plastic triggers fitted to the Meteors earlier which was sad to see, personaly I didn't like the plastic cocking lever release button on the RB2 which looked a bit cheap, also noticed that some earlier models started coming with plastic open sights....

 

they have a Gun Auction in kings lynn, norfolk virtually every 6 months. there's some nice old guns go through there includeing some old BSA springers! if you're not to far away I can tell you when the next one comes up, you can then contact the auctioneers who will give you a list of the guns up for sale.

 

Unfortunately all I have here now BSA Springer wise is a Cadet and a Cadet Major, both in fairly good condition which might end up on the market somtime in the future...

 

cheers, jasper

[EDDY PLENTUS 4]

Hi Eddy

 

What is the prefix on your serial# ?

 

It should be one of these for 22cal..

 

Z MERCURY MK1 0.22 1971/73

ZB MERCURY MK2 0.22 1974/78

ZC MERCURY MK3 0.22 1978---

 

The mk1 and mk2 have one piece cocking links and the mk3 has an articulated type (as does the Challenger and I believe the 'S')

 

Here's my mk2 (ZB)

 

I also have a Mercury Challenger in 22 cal (ZD)..

 

The middle one of these three..

 

The Challenger was a bit more refined than the standard Merc, it had a proper barrel axis bolt rather than just a pin so that sideways movement of the barrel could be adjusted out, the stock was also a bit better with a more pronounced cheekpiece...

 

Cheers, John

hi john i cant find anything on it besides bsa mercury, and bsa guns ltd england .22cal . those guns you lads have look exelant. the shape of the butt and the screw holes are the same as your mk2 so thats probably which one it is, cheers lads. or maybe the butt has been changed, Edited December 19, 2011 by EDDY PLENTUS

[davyt63 1,843]

Hello John

 

What a lovely collection of Mercury's and the Airsporter S . I had one of the first Airsporter S's in the late 70's earley 's, I even picked up another in the late 's called a Airsporter RB2 which had a slightly different cocking lever catch which was disapointingly made of plastic, this gun had a rounded forend which looked nice and neat but it wasn't built to the standard as the first "S" I had.

 

I also had a Mercury S when I was a lad which was offered back to me a few years ago as the guy still kept it, the problem was he wanted big bucks for it and I wasn't prepared to pay the sort of money he wanted. it was a shame as I would have loved the same gun back I had when I was a kid...

 

this is the gun when he brought it round, it still had a white spacer in the recoil pad I fitted as a lad and a old Terry Robb PTFE piston washer

 

the old BSA Mercury's and Airsporters was my favourite rifle and still is when it comes to springers..

 

Cheers, Jasp

 

Hi Jasper (what a fantastic name )

 

The bottom rifle in my pic is an RB2 Airsporter , the RB stands for Rotary Breech (which i'm sure you knew), it's the same breech as the BSA SUperstar..

 

Always fancied a Centeniary Airsporter but one turned up for £385 and I turned it down, the chap sent me a message thanking me as he sold it for £550

 

I love the real BSA Springers (before they became Spanish) and recently have been searching them out more than any other makes..

 

Here's a few more Airsporters..

 

 

Cheers, John

 

hi John

that's a cadet major on our right ? isn't it?

 

edit to say: had a closer look,i am not too sure now!

 

I have one which I am going to refurb! but sadly I think the stock is to far damaged to spend the time fixing it!

don't suppose you have a spare cadet major stock about ? at all.

pound notes of course

Davy

Edited December 19, 2011 by davyt63

[jasper65 6]

Hello Davy

 

here's a BSA Cadet and Major. the one on the right of Johns pictures has a tap to load the pellet which makes it a underlever, looks like a Airsporter MK1 - 2 to me ..

 

Jasp

[johnbaz 363]

Hello Davy

 

here's a BSA Cadet and Major. the one on the right of Johns pictures has a tap to load the pellet which makes it a underlever, looks like a Airsporter MK1 - 2 to me ..

 

Jasp

 

Hi Jasper

 

Yes, mine is a Mk1 Airsporter..

 

 

 

 

I have a BSA Cadet but someone has refinished the stock and removed the winged BSA

 

 

 

Jasper- your two look as though they would refurb beautifully

 

 

 

Cheers, John

[jasper65 6]

Hello Davy

 

here's a BSA Cadet and Major. the one on the right of Johns pictures has a tap to load the pellet which makes it a underlever, looks like a Airsporter MK1 - 2 to me ..

 

Jasp

 

Hi Jasper

 

Yes, mine is a Mk1 Airsporter..

 

 

 

 

I have a BSA Cadet but someone has refinished the stock and removed the winged BSA

 

 

 

Jasper- your two look as though they would refurb beautifully

 

 

 

Cheers, John

 

Hello John

 

I'm seriously enviouse of your guns, I would go as far as to say i have a fetish about the old BSA guns . seriously! they look stunning. its great to see these old guns preserved and on show again , its a shame you wasn't closer as I would love to see them and fancy taking on a Old Mercury again somtime in the future. the Cadet and Major I have here was pretty untidy in the pictures and have been tidied up slightly since, the top rust was taken down with some fine wire wool and blued over with just basic blueing cream, the guns are now generaly just stored in the cuboard.

 

the only thing different with my Cadet major is I had a small problem with the leather breach seal leaking and ended up converting a BSA meteor breach washer, it now makes a perfect seal but obviously not original. all the sights and the rest of the gun is standard and produces roughly a healthy 730fps the last time I chronoed it with some Eley wasps, a fine accurate gun for its time.

 

the cadet is a little disapointing as there is no elevation adjustment on the rear sight, it has a fair bit of power for a little gun but deep down for the life of me its a shame both guns didn't come complete with a scope rail...

 

cheers, Tony