More Findlay loot

[MDriskill]

First things first: THANK YOU to Dan Lerma, his family, all his helpers (especially the Scout troop that busted it all day long), the walking-encyclopedia gang of collectors who attended, and to the great folks in Findlay in general - what a GREAT show, and AWESOME weekend of fun! These toys followed me home...

Very pretty Crosman 150 with fresh seals. I love these, especially this version with heavy one-piece barrel/breech.


New-in-box Diana 430L. And you thought I just went for the old stuff! Looking forward to scoping this one up.


BSF model 54 Match, tap-loading underlever target gun from the 60's. Complete with both sights, and in utterly superb condition. Tom Gaylord wrote up this very example in his blog...and it was previously owned by a couple other guys at the show! (The running joke is that there are actually very few interesting airguns out there, which are just swapped back and forth amongst a small group of nuts.)


And the piece de resistance, an uber-classic BSA underlever. Through a friend's kind help in ordering from England, I also got a copy of John Milewski's excellent new BSA book this weekend. There I learned that this is an early variant of the Standard No.1, made in the early 1920's, fitted with the unicorn-poo-rare No. 21b aperture sight, and likely imported by BSA's official US agents - Production Equipment Company in New York City. By far the best-condition pre-war BSA I've ever seen in person.

[joek]

sorry I missed you at the show,I wanted to show you my 1938 Diana. My table was next to the rare for display only table.

[45flint]

First things first: THANK YOU to Dan Lerma, his family, all his helpers (especially the Scout troop that busted it all day long), the walking-encyclopedia gang of collectors who attended, and to the great folks in Findlay in general - what a GREAT show, and AWESOME weekend of fun! These toys followed me home...

Very pretty Crosman 150 with fresh seals. I love these, especially this version with heavy one-piece barrel/breech.


New-in-box Diana 430L. And you thought I just went for the old stuff! Looking forward to scoping this one up.


BSF model 54 Match, tap-loading underlever target gun from the 60's. Complete with both sights, and in utterly superb condition. Tom Gaylord wrote up this very example in his blog...and it was previously owned by a couple other guys at the show! (The running joke is that there are actually very few interesting airguns out there, which are just swapped back and forth amongst a small group of nuts.)


And the piece de resistance, an uber-classic BSA underlever. Through a friend's kind help in ordering from England, I also got a copy of John Milewski's excellent new BSA book this weekend. There I learned that this is an early variant of the Standard No.1, made in the early 1920's, fitted with the unicorn-poo-rare No. 21b aperture sight, and likely imported by BSA's official US agents - Production Equipment Company in New York City. By far the best-condition pre-war BSA I've ever seen in person.

I saw that BSF as well and thought about it but had to stay with my prewar focus.  I was actually thrilled that the BSA Light went to someone who could actually appreciate it with that aperture sight.  You are the aperture collector!  Maybe sometime we can have a BSA Light 21b bell target shoot off?  Though I think you are the one that can actually shoot. Lol. Cool you got the book, so much went into that. Spilled coffee on mine last week, not a happy camper on that one. It was surely the best airgun show I have ever been to.

[MDriskill]

Same here! The Service is one of those collector Holy Grails - I love its quality and unique design, and will miss it - but in truth never shot it much. It was time for a new caretaker, where it can enjoy the company of kinfolk. 

I've been looking for a nice Beezer for many years and this little fellow is truly a jewel. Amazing to realize is it over ONE HUNDRED years old (Per Mr. Milewski, probably despatched in 1920) - wow.

[Acapulco]

That light sure is nice...enjoy !!

 I found one locally and snatched it up. The guy said it belonged to his great grandfather. I felt kinda bad buyin it from him because of it being in his family so long....and asked him, are u sure you want to sell .... I told him, It doesn't  take up much room, Keep it.

 He replied, i have only daughters, and their not interested.

I figured it I don't  buy someone else will. So i fanned out 90 bux ( his askin price..didn't  haggle) and bought it.

[45flint]

Same here! The Service is one of those collector Holy Grails - I love its quality and unique design, and will miss it - but in truth never shot it much. It was time for a new caretaker, where it can enjoy the company of kinfolk. 

I've been looking for a nice Beezer for many years and this little fellow is truly a jewel. Amazing to realize is it over ONE HUNDRED years old (Per Mr. Milewski, probably despatched in 1920) - wow.

I really think the BSA Light was the best target gun till the 1950’s and maybe further?  If you look at the vintage bell target shoots in England the guys almost always bring the Light or some Diana.  The basic design yes is 100 years old but is still basically used today with underlever springers.  The tap loading has been replaced it would be too expensive to make today anyway. Nothing more elegant than a tap loader!

[Spacebus]

Same here! The Service is one of those collector Holy Grails - I love its quality and unique design, and will miss it - but in truth never shot it much. It was time for a new caretaker, where it can enjoy the company of kinfolk. 

I've been looking for a nice Beezer for many years and this little fellow is truly a jewel. Amazing to realize is it over ONE HUNDRED years old (Per Mr. Milewski, probably despatched in 1920) - wow.

I really think the BSA Light was the best target gun till the 1950’s and maybe further?  If you look at the vintage bell target shoots in England the guys almost always bring the Light or some Diana.  The basic design yes is 100 years old but is still basically used today with underlever springers.  The tap loading has been replaced it would be too expensive to make today anyway. Nothing more elegant than a tap loader!

What does "tap" loading mean? These vintage guns are very interesting. I love the design on the BSA, so utilitarian yet elegant at the same time. It looks very light and enjoyable to shoot as well. I bet they are very accurate with modern ammo!

[45flint]

Same here! The Service is one of those collector Holy Grails - I love its quality and unique design, and will miss it - but in truth never shot it much. It was time for a new caretaker, where it can enjoy the company of kinfolk. 

I've been looking for a nice Beezer for many years and this little fellow is truly a jewel. Amazing to realize is it over ONE HUNDRED years old (Per Mr. Milewski, probably despatched in 1920) - wow.

I really think the BSA Light was the best target gun till the 1950’s and maybe further?  If you look at the vintage bell target shoots in England the guys almost always bring the Light or some Diana.  The basic design yes is 100 years old but is still basically used today with underlever springers.  The tap loading has been replaced it would be too expensive to make today anyway. Nothing more elegant than a tap loader!

What does "tap" loading mean? These vintage guns are very interesting. I love the design on the BSA, so utilitarian yet elegant at the same time. It looks very light and enjoyable to shoot as well. I bet they are very accurate with modern ammo!

He explains tap loading here.  Easier to see than explain.

[MDriskill]

Already explained by the video, but a loading tap works basically like a simple gas valve.

It's a steel cylinder that fits across the breech; it has a hole drilled across the center, and rotates 90 degrees via a lever. When the tap is open, the hole faces up and aligns with a hole in the top of the receiver; drop a pellet in nose-first to load. When the tap is closed, the hole and pellet are aligned with the transfer port and barrel bore for firing (the action must be cocked with the tap closed, as air is drawn into the chamber via the bore and tap).

The system has some interesting advantages. There is no resilient breech seal; the sheer close metal-to-metal fit of the tap does the job. The gun is loaded without your fingers exposed to any moving parts. An open tap is the ultimate safety; the breech is sealed so the gun physically cannot discharge a pellet or slam the piston. The position of the tap lever also indicates to the shooter and others whether the gun is ready to fire.

A tap-loading gun is slimmer and lighter than a sliding-breech one with the same-size powerplant. The receiver of course encloses only the piston, and not the piston plus its surrounding heavy sleeve.

The main disadvantage - and the reason taps kinda died out - is they are difficult to manufacture. To be accurate it must align extremely precisely with the bore and transfer port. In the old days they were individually hand-lapped, and even the best CNC machinery has never quite gotten the hang of that.

Some (mostly those selling other kinds of guns) have claimed that tap loaders are inherently inaccurate because the pellet must "jump" from the smooth tap into the rifled bore. That one always makes me roll my eyes...if it were true, there'd be no such thing as an accurate revolver, right?

[KWK]

The earliest BSA's and Lincoln Jeffries required a pellet pusher. That's what the end opposite the spanner is for. 1905, 06, and some 07's. You could still load without it. One of the Improved Model B improvements was to open up the tap so the pellet just drops in. All were still .177 then. See what it sold for? Rare as rocking horse dung, mate.

[45flint]

Some (mostly those selling other kinds of guns) have claimed that tap loaders are inherently inaccurate because the pellet must "jump" from the smooth tap into the rifled bore. That one always makes me roll my eyes...if it were true, there'd be no such thing as an accurate revolver, right?

Total words of wisdom!  I have focused now on two areas of collecting - Prewar and Taploaders.  Need to count the number of tap loaders I have now.  The latest was a BSA Stutzen acquired at Columbus last year. 

[KWK]

This is the book you want (if you can find a copy) to learn about early tap loaders and their development. Models. Marketing. History 1905 to WW1. 1919 and later not covered.

[MDriskill]

Ha...almost forgot I had that one. Which among other things immediate clarified the diff between "pegged" and "dovetail" trigger guards.

This is another cool BSA book, published by the company themselves about 1910! 64 pages with two nifty double-sided fold-out pages. You can get good copies from Cornell Publications here in the US (actually scanned from my original) - they have LOTS of other vintage airgun literature too.

https://www.cornellpubs.com/old-guns/item_desc.php?item_id=980

[KWK]

Well, thank you. I think I'll pick up a copy. When I get 'round 2 it.
BTW Almost finished rebuilding a 1906 "BSA Air Rifle". Second batch. Been slowly working on it since I acquired the missing parts. Last evening I put in a cut down HW50 spring. Seems about right. Originally had an oval section spring but did not come with the gun when I got it. I will have to make two trigger guard screws for it. No sweat.
Has a fair amount of original blue and the cylinder has gone mostly plum brown. This one has the earliest type adjustable tension loading tap. Has none of the improvements implemented in 1907. The culmination of those improvements lead to the Improved Model B after about #15,500.