My New Toy.....

cookimonster

I just picked up this BSA Majestic Featherweight in .270 Win. I came across this gun when doing my usual research into a potential new purchase, by the way my initial choices where either 308 or 30-06.

Anyhow you can’t do research on the 308 & 30-06 without coming across which is better and if you read enough you will find the .270 Win flung heartily into that mix, I would have ignorantly dismissed the .270 as a barrel burner, hard hitter and even harder kicker but I was soon converted to the better nature of the round, comparable ballistic with the 30 cal rounds, flatter trajectory and down range power if needed. The .270 didn’t tick all my boxes but then again some of those boxes are on my bucket list – back to Europe for driven game, African plains hunt etc, highland stalking etc....but it ticked enough for me to be satisfied for the next few years.

As is my usual practice I indulge in scrolling through some gun porn (steady there Mods) on the national gun shop web sites. I came upon a BSA .270 Win, again ignorance prevailed and I dismissed BSA out of hand, but the price beckoned me. So a little bit more research in the direction of BSA revealed what I think to be a little gem, if not a little tarnished, no disrespect to the previous owner, in fairness its circa 1960-ish.

So what I now have is a British hand built light weight rifle from the upper spectrum of the Birmingham Small Arms Company. These are not Purdy standard guns but where manufactured and finished in ways that are now considered custom work, such as hand lapped barrels. The Majestic’s have their name and five stars engraved into the bolt high lighted in gold and the hollow bolt handle also has a engraving detailed in the same gold paint.

The serial numbers and the Birmingham Private Viewers Date Marks are a bit conflicting giving two time periods, but I have checked the rifle and all serial numbers match. The two prefix of the serial numbers indicate production from 1963 -1970, but Birmingham Private Viewers Date Marks ‘ LB’ date it from 1st January 1960. Reading other forums and such outlines BSA ‘eccentricities’ in models and individual customization as wished for by the customer. So I will go with the proof marks and say 1960.

According to the blurb without scope it weighs 6 1/4lbs. The Featherweights has very slim stocks, usually of plain wood, with a scnable fore tip and a well shaped Monte Carlo butt;.......

.......hollowed inside at the fore end and with a hollow bolt handle, alloy floor plate. The action has an integral dovetail for scope mounting. Parker Hale rings will fit and I believe CZ 550 are compatible. The receiver is also factory drilled for a receiver sight such as a Parker-Hale 6EH. The barrel is 22" long and is slim in profile with a adjustable 3 leaf rear sight (100 – 300 yards), front adjustable ramp sight (missing hood, on order at the moment) and a very interesting internal recoil reducer.

The BESA recoil reducer which is two holes and seven slots machined into the muzzle below the fore sight was introduce when customers complained that their light weight rifle kicked too much, but it was latter done away with because they complained about the noise. Now I can tell you she will ring all your bells if you don’t ware hearing protection but she kicks no more than a light weight un modified .243. BSA did produce a range adapter which covered the ports but these are rarer than hen’s teeth. The trigger is single stage adjustable and at the moment is very light, crisp and clean with no creep etc.

The rifle came with a equally unique scope, as with the rifle the scope has no real market value only as a curiosity. It is a Japanese made Hakko Electro Point Rifle Scope 4x40 wide with an illuminated cross hair (Reticle 22) that consists of a horizontal line split by a aim point dot.

The scope is clear but is a pain to zero as it is approximately 2 MAO at 100 yards and is very hard to index on a target. Anyhow using 130gr Soft Point in Winchester and Federal I was able to get 11/2 inch groups. I believe with a finer reticle I could tighten the groups. The ‘beast in the .270’ didn’t batter me during my range time, bench rest, but it did get away from me a couple of times and let me know I wasn’t holding her right. I took 4 shots with both the Win and Fed ammo from a prone position using a sandbag under the fore arm at my (HCAP) sized deer head /neck target (please no lectures) at 208 yards (range finder).


First two (Win) group at less than an inch,.......


......... second two (Fed) a added a bit of Kentucky windage based on the POI of my last shots and ended up spreading them about 2.25 inchs apart.


The barrel is marked 150gr .270 Win so next pocket money day I’ll try them out. But as for now shes ready for the last few days of this season, then its off to the work bench for some TLC, I’ll leave the barrel alone as I think the wear on the blue is character but the stock will be refinished and I’ll give the gold paint a refresh.
She'll be my go to hill gun and I'll take her out on the big Red lads and when the fancy takes me I might take her out on weekend morning stalks on my Coilite Lease and scare the be-jezus out of a few hill walkers with her sweet and subtle tones.

If anyone knows this particular rifle or has experience with the model please jump in and comment.

gunny123

Nothing at all wrong with the old BSA's or Parker Hales. I had a PH Midland which i believe was at one time the cheapest new centrefire you could buy in the UK or Ireland. But it was Mauser 98 actioned (made in la coruna arsenal in Spain i think), very well finished, very accurate, great rifle wish i still had it now.

The problem in the UK, as here, is firearms laws are far too stringent to allow mass firearms ownership and allow a mass producer such as bsa to survive.

You will of course get the guys telling you, you need to get rid of that old fence post as it couldn't possible shoot and kill deer, But as you have shown in your pictures it certainly can.

SakoHunter75

A beautiful looking classic rifle, with lovely lines and loads of character. And accurate too: you've found yourself a real treasure there!

Thanks for sharing!

Cass

Lovely rifle and a good choice of calibre.

I don't give much mind to "barrel burner" statuses on rifles. Most rifles in Ireland don't do enough shooting to burn out the barrels. Granted some have a shorter life span than others you'd be hard pressed to find many rifles with the barrels actually shot out. Plus with the rise in gunsmiths topping and tailing is an easy fix.

Best of luck and hope she serves you well.

tac foley

There are two of these lovely old-style rifles in our local gun store, both with period scopes of high quality. One, a P-H Midland has a Kahles and the other, the BSA, has a beautiful Zeiss - each of the scopes alone is worth much more than the price of the guns. One is 7x57 Mauser, and the other in 30-06. The stocks were designed, I'm told, by the American Reinhardt Fajen, who had a thriving stock business for about forty years post-war. His trademark is the sharply-profiled pistol grip with a pointy bit, to quote Fr Dougal McGuire.

I'd be happy to own either of them. My own 7x57 Mauser sporter was made in 1912, and the overall lines haven't changed much since then.

Definitely a standing shooter, from the shape of the stock.

Good luck with it!

tac

smallfry

Nice rifle, I was given an old "well shot" .270 as my first deer rifle and it could still shoot tight groups. I later changed the rifle but still keep a .270. Best of luck with it.

gunny123

Bsa used to make a nice little short actioned stutzen (stocked to the end of the barrel) chambered for rounds like the .243 and .308. I always fancied one but never seen one for sale here.

tac foley

gunny123 wrote: »

Bsa used to make a nice little short actioned stutzen (stocked to the end of the barrel) chambered for rounds like the .243 and .308. I always fancied one but never seen one for sale here.

'From your lips...to my ears...'

https://www.guntrader.uk/guns/rifles/bsa/bolt-action/243/cf2-stutzen-161104162744001

Next.

tac

cookimonster

Tac, a question you may be able to answer.

The barrel is stamped, in the same style as proof marking and serial numbers ie as an individual marking a unlike the manufacturers name and details along the barrel, with the calibre '.270 Win' and bullet grain '150 gr'. The questions are:

Is the reference to the bullet grain meant to correspond to maybe to the calibration of the iron sights at 100-200-300 yards?

or

Recommended bullet grain for the barrel?

or

A quality thing saying the gun has been checked with the corresponding bullet?

I've tried the usual Google search to no avail but have discovered that many older rifles would have bullet grain stamped on the barrels, many a factory sporterised military rifle such as the Enfields etc etc.

Any thoughts?

tac foley

No thoughts, Sir, just knowledge.

Your rifle is probably quite old - early to middle-70's I'd guess, although if you can show me the proof marks I can tell you for sure.

All civilian firearms sold in UK [now one of the CIP members] have to be proofed before sale, including ex-military arms - by Law - The Proof Acts. Although the UK Proof Acts are almost 200 years old, UK is now a member of the C.I. P.

Here in UK, and everywhere else where gun proof is mandatory, Proof is carried out using the most common bullet weight for that calibre - in the case of the .303 British, that is the usual service bullet weight of 174gr. Also marked [usually], is the length of the chamber in decimal inches, eg., 2.222" for the .303 I recall, and the chamber pressure in long tons per square inch, usually shown as something like 18 TONS PER INCH [square symbol].

Firearms manufactured in any one of the fourteen CIP nations are acceptable, and do not require UK Proof.. The Commission internationale permanente pour l'épreuve des armes à feu portatives ("Permanent International Commission for the Proof of Small Arms" – commonly abbreviated as C.I.P.) is an international organisation which sets standards for safety testing of firearms. (The word portatives ("portable") in the name refers to the fact the C.I.P. tests small arms almost exclusively; it is ordinarily omitted from the English translation of the name.)

As of 2015, its members are the national governments of 14 countries, of which 11 are European Union member states. The C.I.P. safeguards that all firearms and ammunition sold to civilian purchasers in member states are safe for the users.

To achieve this, all such firearms are first proof tested at C.I.P. accredited Proof Houses. The same applies for cartridges; at regular intervals, cartridges are tested against the C.I.P. pressure specifications at the ammunition manufacturing plants and at C.I.P. accredited Proof Houses.

Any firearms coming to UK from non-CIP member nations have to be proofed, too. So every US-made firearm has to go through the examination [called view], the actual test with a live over-pressure cartridge [the actual Proof] and second examination [post-Proof View].

If a gun comes direct to the RoI from a non-CIP producer, then you are relying on the manufacturers' 'proof test'. Remington, for instance, tests each and every gun it makes and stamps it with a cryptic number to show that it passed.

Please note that I'm not here as an advocate of gun Proof, nor do I work secretly for either of the UK Proof Houses. Here in UK and in all the other CIP nations, it is the law.

tac

cookimonster

Got you, so it's the calibre, bullet weight and no doubt the pressure it was proofed with.

At the moment with the scope in place I can't clearly photo or examine the proof marks but from what I see and research its looks like LB left and right of the crossed lines respectively dateing it from 1st January 1960.- LXB
Are the proof marks only for a calender year 1st Jan to end of Dec?

tac foley

Calendar year, and your rifle is older than I thort. Nice one. Pal of mine up on Scotland is a full-time ghillie, and is still shooting his dad's Parker-Hale something or other bought new in 1956. 7x57 does for him. BTW, the crossed lines are little stylised sceptres.

Best

tac

WildHPR

I have a BSA carbine in .270. It has a sweet set trigger and shoots good groups.

I am interested in learning more about the proof marks and dating the firearm.

tac foley

Hmmmmmmmmmm, this will be long, but might get made into a sticky...

Let's start with Birmingham UK Proofs from 1950 - 1974 -

AB - 1950
BB - 1951
BC and CB - 1952
DB - 1953
EB - 1954
FB - 1955
GB - 1956
HB - 1957
JB - 1958
KB - 1959
LB - 1960
MB - 1961
NB - 1962
OB - 1963
PB - 1964
QB - 1965
RB - 1966
SB - 1967
TB - 1968
UB - 1969
VB - 1970
WB - 1971
XB - 1972
YB - 1973
ZB - 1974

The system then changed to a circle divided into three segments, thus

A B
1

The '1' is the inspector by seniority.


So,

AB - 1975, BB - 1976, BC and CB - 1977, DB - 1978, EB - 1979

Then it changed again, and the segment lines were omitted - FB - 1980, GB - 1981, HB - 1982, JB - 1983, KB - 1984.

It then reverted to the crossed sceptres again, thus -

L C
1

LC - 1985 - to ZC - 1997.

More on pre-1941 proofs later.

Foreign-made guns were additionally marked NOT ENGLISH MAKE on barrel and breech until 1954/55.

tac

tac foley

PS - for shotguns, this is a great site with a LOT of informations.

https://www.vintageguns.co.uk/articles/514-2/

And this -

http://www.rifleman.org.uk/Dating%20your%20rifle.htm

tac

PS - as an aside, the little .22cal BSA take-down Model 1 rifle shown in this site is mine.