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Ahem I is not wandering and am planted here in Bulgaria after "escaping" from England.

Thank you all for the kind wishes and thoughts and as am feeling a little better about the way things happened and our treatment in the UK though the loss of eveything still smarts.

Am very sorry to read this and rather fearful as it was the NHS's failure to deal with sepsis that killed Dad. The lucky part maybe that Joe is not as old as Dad was so may get better care and possibly the hospital where Joe is is hopefully better than the Pilgrim Hospital in Boston Lincolnshire.

Greetings as this shows rumours of my demise are false!!

   There is a book covering BSA's commercial production of guns although it was only printed in a small limited number so am not sure if it is still available. The title is :-

The Golden Century by John Knibbs

     My own copy is #434 of 1000. John Knibbs International wold be whom to enquire with. I will say that is not the easiest book to follow and if also covers the Airgun production that being commercial.

Interesting about the tunnel. I shot at the Nothcotes Butts (Lincolnshire) tunnel range a few times but never really noticed an issue there.

The reason that I first tried the Hornady 130 Grn Spire Points was because I was using them in my 30-30 WCF Bolt action rifle and in that  ragged one hole groups were fairly common place at  avelocity of 2700 fps. Obviously with such good results I tried them in my other .30 calibre rifles. The Bruno/CZ 601 Std was so-so with them as was my P-H 1100 Delux in 30-06 however a previous owner had messed with the bedding on that one which I believe was very detrimental to it's precision The stock was actully loose on it when I acquired it!! That was an on-going project to get sorted but in truth I had a few too many projects on the go at once :o .

Nice shooting

 Parker -Hale made very good barrels and it seems they knew how to screw them onto actions well plus they did a reasonable bedding job otherwise their rifles would not produce such results.

My .308 1100 Lightweight like the Hornady 130 Grn Spire Points and produced tight groups including a few one ragged one holers with them so it might be worth your while considering lighter bullets as well. I believe that my reloading notes made it here but am not sure in which box they are to be found.

Good to see you 'made it' BH. Would be nice to hear the story of your bail out of the UK!

Not sure that I wish to dive into that mess again just yet. It still rankles just how much has been lost one of the easons as to why I was absent from th shooting and gun related forums!

Hi All,

       Now all you old timers please don't fall over and feint!!

     Yes it's true that Brithunter is still alive and kicking though the handle is no longer accurate as no longer am hunting. Reason being am now residing in South Eastern Europe in the country of Bulgaria. Hunting is an old tradition here and if I could learn the language that would be possible to get involved but the language is really hard to learn, well it seems to be for me at least , but am hoping to be able to unpack my reference books and get a little involved at least in the history of my interest in the British Sporting rifles and especially those from BSA and Parker-Hale.

Thank you all for the kind words. Now as for gun laws well that I simply do not know as yet. There is a tradition of hunting here like most Eastern European countries and I have made myself known to the local gunshop owner. In fact his wife is a real estate agent and we will be meeting her soon to discuss houses to buy.

As I mentioned currently we are in the heart of a city and I mean right in the middle as we are only a couple of streets away from the central square with Courthouse and Municiple council building. Have attached a few photos the one with the children playing in the fountain is right out front of the Opera house. The round fountain is just one of several around the plaza.

Hi All,

         With a little assist from Gitano am able to log in one more and we have news! Big news lot's of changes and we plan on it all being better.

        Firstly am no longer in the UK so the handle only sort of fits now. Mother and I are now residing in Eastern Europe ...................................... yes a long ways from Blighty but the fact is that we just could not afford to live there any more. I found it almost impossible to even get a job interview so now am cashing in my little pension funds and am going semi retired. We currebtly rent a small houe in the city which is strange for us having never lived in a city before but later this week we begin the house hunt for our own place that will be out of the city.

       I undrstand the wildlife is wonderful here and hope to explore once we get some wheels here but there is:-

Wild Boar
Feral Pig
Roe Deer
Red Deer
Jackal
Fox
Wolf
European Brown Bear

Lots of exotic birds like :-

Bee Eaters
Golden Oreole
Hoopooe
Storks
Ibis
Vulture
Eagles
Falcons
Swifts
Swallows

and Snakes ................ even some venomous ones.

Forrests ........................ lots of forrests and Mountains even with ski resorts. They have real winters here too and hot summers.

Huh ...... How dare you suggest that a devience of 1.8% won't blow groups to side of barn size!!!! :drama:

And now some from East Kirby where there were many makes of cars and customs as well:-



Ford 100E Prefect ....... I had a std 1960 version of this in White as my 1st car some decades back. Std engine was an 1200 SV that produced a claimed 10HP (36 bhp) and was coupled to a 3 speed manual box





Love the colour of this and even the shape and style ................. it is a TVR not sure which model though.



P41 Curtis Kittyhawk



Steerman?



P51 Mustang of course ...................... with "Just Jane" the AVRO Lancaster in the background. :D





And my Rover 75 ................... the colour is pearlescent metalic called Copperleaf Red.

This Saturday just gone there was a Rover 75/MG ZT owners club meeting held at Imperial War Museum Duxford and on Sunday it was te Pistons & Props dayy at The Lincolnshire Aviation Centre East Kirkby and I toddled off over there for the afternoon. Here are a few photos from thos events:-



This is the new acquistion a Rover 75 Classic SE CDT Automatic. The engine is the BMW M47C 2 litre diesel unit and it's job will towing.









The dark tourer (Estate/station wagon) is in a special flip/poly chromic paint that changes colour depending on light and angle viewed.



Rover also offered a range of Duo Tone colour schemes and this is just one of them.





This Spitfire is just beside the two silver cars posted earlier.



Now this one is one of the rarer 2 seater versions ...................... Spitfire.











Just a few more from Duxford.

Thank you both. Her funeral is September 6th so am going down South on the 4th to visit friends in that area as have not seen them for a couple of years now. Also just found out my best friend at school passed away a few months back ............................. no one thought to let me know though

 Things have been busy here with house viewings got two today (Tuesday) and we have three offers on the table so the move looks like it should happen before years end.

This of course means that once we get this funeral over we have to get cracking sorting out everything and emptying the Workshop and my stash of car bits ready for the move.

Once I get the photos sorted will beposting them and a new thread on the recent visits to car events at airfields. Saw a ME109 in flight for the first time on 27th (Saturday) at Duxford along with a PBY Catalina flying along with other planes including a B17 Fortress. Then Sunday afternoon it was locally to East Kirkby where a P41 Kittyhawk and P51 Mustang along with a Spitfire and Hurricane. The Lancaster was doing engines run ups and taxi runs down the field as theya re still working on getting an Air Worthy Certificate for her.

We are going through a lot of Dads stuff and working through the workshop so have a lot of tooling and micrometers surplus. I have my own Mics but I will keep a couple of Dads as keep sakes but as he ran a small machine shop we now have  a few to sell off. Some like a Moore & Wright 1-2" outside micrometer are in new condition hardly ever been used.

Am wondering if the tinkers amongst you might be interested and I will make up a list of what we have on offer. Postage on mics even to the US will not be much

It seems bad luck has not finished the family as on August 13th my sister also passed away. What is odd is that Dad dies on the 13th, my hound also dies on the 13th just 3 months after Dad passed and now my Sister also dies on the 13th.