Longranger wrote: »

Hi lads, got my hands on one of these unfamiliar looking rifles today. Very interesting rifle. Ten round stock loading mag, takedown style, does'nt eject the spent shells but holds them internally. You have to pull down the trigger guard and they drop out all together. It's in good nick too. From what I can find out, they were manufactured by birmingham small arms company from 1949 to 1951. Any opinions? Cheers
LR

A VERY odd design by any standards, and way over-engineered. I sincerely hope that nothing ever breaks on your new rifle, as there are NO spares to be had.

A few little foibles in the field make them almost unuseable on any kind of a formal range - you cannot check the breech clear.

As for the other product of the BSA factory - as noted - the Martini-action target rifles were in a class of their own. I have two MkII Internationals, a left-hand and a right-hand, and with untold thousands of rounds down the barrels, there are still good for 1/4" five-shot groups at 50m on a still day - with ordinary GECO standard ammunition.

Both of them together cost me less than £100.

For some eye-candy, go to the bottom of the page here - http://www.rifleman.org.uk/BSA_Model_1.html - to see my other BSA. It's a unique little rifle, as far as the BSA historians know.

tac