Re: BSA Hunter/Royal history

[Blackjack]

Hello Brithunter,

The B.S.A. Rifles including The "Hunter" "Royel" "Majestic" and "Monach" were all cut-rifled and lap finished. When the "CF2" came out, that series of Rifles were cold hammer forged with hand finished chambers.

The "Majestic" .222 Rem, .243 Win, and .308 Win were all made on the Medium size Action.  A Short Action was never made for the "Majestic". The Long Action was offered in .270 Win. and 30/06 Spr. Also The "Majestic" was also made in .458 Win. Although the "Majestic" was offered with the BESA Recoil Reducer, this was'ent mandatory as one could order from B.S.A. any one of their rifles with out the BESA Recoil Reducer, exept the .458 Win. which was mandatory.

I used to own a .222 Rem B.S.A. "Regent" which left the factory on the 22nd of July 1960 which had the BESA R.D. which I always thought was a waste of time on a .222 Rem, and very unattractive, infact Knibbs told me that the .22 Hornet "Hunter/ Regent" were NEVER supplied with a BESA Recoil Reducers.
 This is incorrect as my friend Bill who is a B.S.A. collector owns two .22 Hornet "Hunter/Regent" Rifles with the BESA Recoil Reducers!


Although the "Majestic" rifles were offered in 1959 there was a surplus of "Hunter/Royel" parts that  needed to be used up.
The "Hunter/Royel" Short, Medium, and Long Action Rifles were produced right up to 1963 in standard weight and Featherweight. Also the Short-Action "Hunter/Royel" was never made in "Featherweight" only the Medium and Long Actions.

Hope some of this post is of interest

Best Wishs Blackjack AHA Mike { The Limey }

[Brithunter]

Mike,

      If you take that view then most of the "Big" English gunmakers weren't really gunmakers as they didn't make the action themselves. Holland & Holland, Purdy, Rigby, Greener none of them made a bolt action that I am aware of. I have some photos of a P-H Hussar on the old computer but have never seen one in person. Heck the real Safaris seem scarce enough. One day I will acquire a nice one but when one comes up it always seems to be at the wrong time .

       The information on Parker-Hale is sadly rather thin and disjointed, BSA is sadly the same, why ti should be I don't know but it was this lack of  credible information that started my quest to learn more about them and collect the catalogues and other stuff from both P-H and BSA.

  Hmmmm now I have a theory about my own majestic .243 with the BESA as the view mark has been overstamped and is illegable . I wonder if soemone ordered one and them plucked one out of inventory and altered the barrel then submitted it for reproof hence the overstamp of the view mark, the safety on it is the one found on the 1st Pattern Monarch and not the bolt tail mounted on usually found on the Majestic, so I am thing despite it's fairly low serial number (it's below 800) it must have left the factory later on.

It's nice to find another with a keen interest and good knowledge of them. I hope to learn more from you in the future. :)

[Blackjack]

Good to hear from you Brithunter,

Firstly my apology for spelling "Monarch" wrongly. Yes I will agree with you that the information on B.S.A. sporting rifles is skethy and it needs someone out there to write a thorough and comprehensive account of these suberb Rifles. I am surprised that the Company did'ent employ one of their long service Managers/Engineering employees to write about the producion of their sporting Rifles which came out of "Marshall Lake Road, Shirley, Solihull, Warwickshire. which is where the "Hunter/Royel," "Majestic," "Supersport Five" and many lovely Air Rifles came out of. The Company had moved when the "Monarch" and "CF2" came about.

Mind you, when you think of how Lord & Lady Docker creamed off all the assets from the Company, It's surprising that B.S.A. have any records or accounts that survived. Typical Upper Managerial GREED! If you fail to invest in your Company you will fail!

I do know that tons of valuable information was dumped into skips when the Dockers went under,as what happened when Parker/Hale went under. A friend of mine used to work in the P.H  stores, and he witnessed that tragedy. Not only was written information dumped but an Aladin's cave of gun parts also.

I will keep you posted regarding any useful information on B.S.A. & Parker/Hale Rifles.

Best Wishs Blackjack AKA  Mike { The Limey }

[sakorick]

Hello Mike and Kevin. I have enjoyed the read so far and would like to recommend you move this info to the Parker Hale forum. There is no reason why the Parker Hale should not include the BSA rifles as if my memory serves me, they merged at some point in time. The Parker Hale forum has gained a solid reputation as the only source of good reliable information on these fine rifles on the entire internet. Perhaps the forum title could/should be changed to Parker Hale/BSA rifles. Keep up the good work and keep the information coming! Regards, Rick.

[Brithunter]

Errr Rick,

              BSA and P-H never merged  it might have been good if they did in some ways. BSA would have acquired a better trigger for the later models and P-H got smoother actions . The BSA's are smoother normally than the M98 P-H's in fact the Majestics and the CF2's I have are almost as smooth as my Mannlicher Mdl 1892 and 1903 Schoenauer . The 1200C is the smoothest P-H I have and it's getting close.

  Strangely the pair of 1st Pattern Monarchs I have here are not as smooth and seem to drag ont he magazine platform .

[sakorick]

Errr Rick,

              BSA and P-H never merged  it might have been good if they did in some ways. BSA would have acquired a better trigger for the later models and P-H got smoother actions . The BSA's are smoother normally than the M98 P-H's in fact the Majestics and the CF2's I have are almost as smooth as my Mannlicher Mdl 1892 and 1903 Schoenauer . The 1200C is the smoothest P-H I have and it's getting close.

  Strangely the pair of 1st Pattern Monarchs I have here are not as smooth and seem to drag ont he magazine platform .

Well that's all well and good. However, all this super good information is being posted, IMHO, in the wrong place on THL. Do you agree? If so, I can have this moved to a better home!:) Regards, Rick.

[Blackjack]

Hello Rick,

What a good idea to move all the information on B.S.A. & Parker/Hale to a better home. Please can you do this.

Best Wishs Blackjack AKA Mike { The Limey }

[Blackjack]

Hello Brithunter,

Can you please respond to my recent posts to you.

You did say in one of your posts that B.S.A. Rifles, e.g. "Hunter/Royel" & "Majestic" came out of Small Heath, Birmingham. In fact those Rifles were made in Marshall Lake Road, Shirley, Solihull, Warwickshire.  When the first "Monarch" went into production the Company address was B.S.A. Guns Ltd Redditch Worcestershire. The "CF2" was made at B.S.A. Guns Limited, Birmingham, B11 2PX.

I know that the Motor Cycle production came from Small Heath and also the factory was used during WW2 for armament production. Perhaps their was some civilian Arms production at some time, I will have to check my records.

Best Wishs Blackjack AKA Mike { The Limey }

[Blackjack]

Hello To Any B.S.A. Lovers Out There,

Is their any person out there at all interested in responding to any of my B.S.A. posts. I thought I would of had a moderate amount of feed back from interested parties. B.S.A. Sporting Rifles 1954 - Mid 1990's is a fasinating and very interesting subject, and I only hope that interested people will respond.

Best Wishs Blackjack AKA Mike { The Limey }

[gitano]

I don't think anyone is avoiding you Mike. The site is experiencing some navigation trouble, and it's probably just taking folks time to find you. If you want to "ring" Brithunter's chimes, you should send him a "Private Mail". I'm sure that will get his attention.
 
Paul

[Brithunter]

Ahhh Mike I have not been able to get onto the site for a week or so. Finally managed to find the back door yesterday. I have to find the site and forum I found the gemtleman with the Royal that has the model name rollmarked into the side wall. Off hand I cannot recall which site and forum it was on .

[sakorick]

Hello To Any B.S.A. Lovers Out There,

Is their any person out there at all interested in responding to any of my B.S.A. posts. I thought I would of had a moderate amount of feed back from interested parties. B.S.A. Sporting Rifles 1954 - Mid 1990's is a fasinating and very interesting subject, and I only hope that interested people will respond.

Best Wishs Blackjack AKA Mike { The Limey }

Hello Mike. You have our full attention I assure you! You need to give it some time to develop and in the mean time, have patience. There are many of us that know very little about the BSA's....it's taken BH years to get the Parker Hale history book together so don't give up.......let it happen. You may have a new challenge tomorrow on a BSA I recently purchased.....stay tuned and don't get frustrated. Regards, Rick.

[22hornet]

Hi Mike,
I am very interested in learning all I can about BSA rifles, but I currently know very, very little.
Posting some photos of each rifle or at least the action, with a brief description of the history would be great. :)

Looking forward to your future posts!

[Brithunter]

Hmmm I will see what photos I have and what I can take and try to put something up on the forum in the next few days.

[Blackjack]

Hello Rick,

Hope all is well. I hope to collect my 1954 B.S.A. "Hunter" .222 Rem, rifle Serial No 502 early next week. This rifle is in great condition and has the "American" type stock, and thankfully no BEESA slots cut in the barrel.

Regards Blackjack AKA Mike [The Limey]