.177 BSA Cadet, A Review and Other Bits and Bobs

For an old air rifle that i always thought a bit of a smallish youth rifle, i was pleasently surprised to find it both considerably larger and heftier when i first laid my hands on one. 

109 cm from tip too tail

The very first thing i did though was to put her over the chronoghraph to get 4.56 ft/lbs with JSB Exacts, she was old, complete and in fairly good nick and i reckoned things could only improve from here on in.

This has the look of a sporting rifle in the 50's

 BSA was responsible for the production of over 50% of all British small arms produced during WWII, so roll on 1945 and they decide to go back to an increase in thier Air rifle production and the introduction of thier new Cadet air rifle. Capable of putting out 8 ft/lb and advertised as being able to take rabbits out to 50 yards this rifle was popular amongst young adults and adults alike, trade description was not an issue in those days. Maybe if you could throw the thing 50 yards you could possibly concuss a rabbit, with a full wooden stock and heavily engineered steel construction the rifle had some interesting early BSA design features and had to be one of the prettier looking break barrel air rifles for it's time.

The prefix of CC tells me the rifle is made in the later half of the 1950's

The Cadet has a leather piston seal which in this case needed no oil to improve velocity, from what i remember from the chrony test there was no more the 25 FPS spread with any of the pellets i tested. From what i could see through the cocking slot both spring and piston appeared to be lightly lubricated, or at least it wasn't all dry and dusty. 

The Cadet has a one peice trigger and sear that hooks on to a central piston rod in the piston, how much of the sear that holds the piston rod can be adjusted by a screw in the slope at the rear of the action.

Without dimantling the rifle i had to looke at the plans on Chambers web site too find out this adjusted sear engagement.

 The stock is a one piece beechwood affair with a very long cocking slot, because it has a single piece cocking rod that is, like the rest of the rifle, very well made and solid.

Considering the length of the cocking slot, there was no movement in the stock, not one bit, non at all, zero, zilch.

The stock fits well to the action and is fixed with two screws at a 60 degree angle at the front of the action,

Screws made the old fashioned way, roled on the thighs of dusky Brummies.

and like the later Airsporter and Mercury the rear is a bolt that runs through the pistol grip and screws into the rear section of the action. 

The reat bolt. Like it say's on the tin, bolts the rear on.

The Cadet has some weight to it for its size as i said before and although it is pretty old there is no movement between the forks, or anywhere at all come to think of it, from wear over the years.

I have no idea if a pin or a bolt holds the forks around the breech, it's still a solid fit though.

There are only open sights on this rifle and has no scope rail, because scopes just weren't commonly used in the 50's. The front sight is a bead on top of a concave ramp that sits in a dovetail on the tip of the barrel, left to right adjustment could be achieved by tapping the sight along the dovetail.

The front sight had already been adjusted and was fine, notice it hangs over too the right.

From this angle the dove tail is more noticable.

The rear sights that sit on top of the breech block are real old school and tend to be found on most early 1900's air rifles, they adjust up and down only by spinning a firm horizontal thumb wheel. This allows a plate with a V notch on top to move vertically in its frame, score marks on the side of the frame and plate help keep track of adjustments

These sights were perfectly fine in the 50's and still perform well today.

The trigger and guard are very slim but also pretty solid due to the fine quality of the metal used to build it. The trigger appears to have a light too mediun release and along with the angle of the pistol grip and the low combe on the buttstock, found it very comfortable too shoot with satisfying results.

The trigger guard design is a tried and tested BSA design and can be found on later Meteors

Low recoil, trigger release, weight, and pretty nifty old school sights all added up to some good off hand accuracy. 7 out of 9 Geco wadcutters made one impressive one cm ragged hole and JSB Exacts appeared to spred vertically, however they were the only two pellets i tried at the time.

I reckon Superdomes would do well in this air rifle, should get some really.

When all is said and done, the BSA Cadet is an awesome back yard plinker that reeks of nostalgia from a time we can only imagine and most likely never happened.

This rifle came to me in good condition internally and out, and as a plinker did not need any attention apart from a little oil and wire wool for the matal work. It's fun and definately gets a thumbs up.

All the best,

Wing Commander Sir Nigel Tetlington-Smythe 

SIG Sauer P226 X Five Field Strip , Clean, and Lube

Like all KWC blow back pistols, they are designed to be as realistic as possible and that means field stripping amongst other things. The good thing about field stripping is that they can be cleaned and lubed so they work a little smoother, and of course it will prolong their life a tad longer. They're not designed to last a long time as they are quite cheap to begin with and generally made out of pot metal, but as most things wear or break they can be replaced, and with the slide removed this is possible for many parts.

Besides a box of cheap steel BB's, this is what you get out of the box.

Many people have wondered if with a bit of tinkering they could improve the power output, though most likely you would just end up with a stronger kickback and a slight drop in power which can only lead to the pistol wearing out and breaking sooner. Believe me, a lot better minds than mine have looked into this and I am quite happy to defer to their judgement for now, so i'm happy just to get a smoother running pistol that can happily decimate empty energy drink cans at a rapid rate.

So, down to business and the joys of field stripping your lovely SIG X Five, which has to be one of the major attractions in the purchasing of this fine Taiwanese replica. 

The X Five is a fairly large pistol

First thing to do is drop the mag out of the pistol as nothing is moving anywhere until it's out of the way. It's also a good idea to rack the slide and check for any BB's in the barrel. 

Checking to see if the air pistol is clear.

The top slide, which is made from Zinc alloy I believe, has to be racked back until the semi circular cutout on the bottom left side of the slide lines up with the take down lever. 

The semi-circular cut away in the slide allows the take down lever to turn 90 degrees.

Once here, the lever will be allowed to turn 90 degrees within the ark of the cut out in the slide, so when the lever is pointing downwards you are able to pull the slide all the way forward and further till it slides off the front of the pistol frame.

The slide moves freely to this point where it meets a little resistance,

but give it a little jiggle and it moves on and off the pistol frame.

Cool, the gun's in three bits now; the magazine, which could do with a spot of lubrication, the pistol body which only needs a wipe and some lube, and the slide which will dismantle further for cleaning and lubrication and is the part we're concentrating on mainly for now.

Flip the slide upside down to start removing the recoil spring, guide and barrel.

Note which way up the recoil spring guide sits where it sits against the breech block.

Push the guide forward and lift, then remove by pulling it back. 

The spring and guide are easily removed with one hand, the square lug on the end of the guide sits inside the slide.

Note which way around the square block at the end of the guide goes for when you put it back again.

Well it's a start, but there's more.

The barrel housing, inner barrel and breech lift out easily in one unit, 

Inner, outer barrel, and breech assembly

Outer barrel lifts off lug on the breech.

.177 smoothbore  brass inner barrel with rubber O ring to hold it in place inside outer barrel.

and once out, the inner barrel removes quite easily from the outer barrel.

Pistol fully field stripped, you want to strip it any further and you will need a tool kit and lots of photos for putting it back together correctly.

Now it's in bits, it is a good time to clean all the parts before applying grease and oil; these pistols are always dry and a bit dirty out of the box by all accounts.

For something so new I was surprised how much crap came off of it.

Just wiping a piece of kitchen towel over any parts that will come into contact when the slide moves is a good start, in fact a good wipe on all the internal surfaces won't do it any harm at all.

Kitchen towel removes nearly all the grime, but a dab of white spirits will do a better job.

Once any grime was removed, I started by removing the recoil springs and washer and applying a thin smear of silicone grease to the guide and springs, making sure I remembered which way around they were originally fitted.

This pistol has two recoil springs and a washer, whereas most others have just the one spring. The collapsed ends of the springs go on the outside.

I made a mix of silicone grease and silicone oil which I smeared over the outer barrel with kitchen towel, 

All it needs is the thinnest of coatings, and it looks oh so shiny.

and all the touching parts of the slide had a smear of silicone oil as well as the parts they touched on the pistol frame.

Smear the oil along with a finger.

A little silicone oil is all you need, though a little fine graphite powder mixed in would be even better.

Now that all parts were evenly lubricated, it was a simple matter to reverse the disassembly guide to put it back together, and it is pretty straight forward and simple as these pistols go.

The magazine just needed a little silicone oil along the BB tension spring and follower, 

just to help it along I worked the follower up and down the mag with my thumb.

Once the spring and follower are oiled it will not need doing again for quite a while.

Another drop of oil to the lip of the BB feed at the top of the mag and where the follower connects with and pushes the slide stop into position for good measure. 

Just the tiniest drop here, and wipe any excess that goes near the square Co2 transfer port seal behind it.

By using silicone oil you are using an oil that does not damage rubber and plastic seals, but it's still best to wipe away any excess as you only need a little to do the job properly.

As this pistol is pretty easy to field strip it should be no problem to clean and lubricate at any time, and for me this is one of the main attractions in owning a replica like this.

TTFN

Best wishes, Wing Commander Sir Nigel Tetlington-Smythe

SMK 15, Small plinker for Small People

My wife got a message from a friend of hers the other week asking if she'd know of anywhere she could sell her sons old .177 air rifle. He was no longer interested and Mum was aware of my hobby (obsession) with air rifles. Wife says " it's never really been used and it's got SMK and 15 written on it, oh and it's got a scope and gun bag with it". She won't get a lot for that I thought, i'd give her 20 or 25 quid at the most though I could suggest a few sites she could advertise it. Seems she was happy with 25 because a week later we're off to pick up the wife's new air rifle. I hand over 25 of our English pounds and in return I am given a very well padded gun bag with an unknown quantity of wood and metal inside it. Mmmm, this should be fun, I thought!

As it came, Rifle, Scope, Gun slip, and bits and bobs.

The SMK XS 15 Supergrade  air rifle is a junior size Chinese air rifle very much along the lines of the Webley Cub. For 70ish quid you get an air rifle and a 4x32 scope. Now this is an older version of the same deal coming with an extra gun slip, two packs of .177 darts, and an abrasive cloth for cleaning the gun. I would say it's about 10 years old owing to the fact that the open sights are not fibre optic, which to some people is a good thing. I reckon they're OK on some rifles, but I would be mortified if they were on my HW35, if you know what I mean!

The front sight is a square post in a hood on a raised slope and has no adjustment, apart from the post, the sight is made from a molded plastic which fits around the end of the barrel.

 The rear sight is adjustable for both elevation and windage in the traditional style and is also mainly composed of plastic, however it makes a clear and crisp sight picture when aligned with the front sight. The wheels turn with nice pronounced clicks, and there is no looseness to them at all.

When I tested the rifle, it was pretty accurate with open sights but with the scope fitted you could see the rifle could do with an internal overhaul, or maybe it was just typical of an old Chinese air rifle. We shall have to see.

The rifle having been stored for ages had tiny little rust spots all over it, so some very fine 000 wire wool and gun oil soon had those removed.

The wood was in really good condition apart from a tiny nick at the front of the stock.

I don't know what wood it is, most likely something cheap, but still looks of reasonable quality - the wood on my SMK multi pump is awful in comparison!

The SMK sign could be seen through the the half decent bluing. It has a blackness to it that is common to all SMK's I have found, not very deep.

The end cap is made of plastic along with the safety catch, the end cap being held in place with a steel pin.

 

The safety sets on cocking and pushes in easily at the rear like many Diana air rifles. I'm truly tempted to paint the white dot red but alas it is not my call.
.

The breech is held between the forks by bolt as opposed to a pin, which is always a bonus in my opinion, and a locking screw keeps the whole business in place.

The trigger is made of pressed steel and is not too heavy, it feels as if there are two stages to let off though I imagine there is no adjustment.The front screw of the trigger guard holds the stock to the action, along with two screws at the front which screw in diagonally up into front of the compression chamber.

The rubber butt pad is just what it is, made of rubber and screwed into the rear of the butt by two screws.

It doesn't need to be ventilated or anything fancy as this is a junior rifle and fires lightly with no major kick to it, and it takes very little effort to cock the gun.

The break barrel breech is held in place with a ball bearing and spring, which with the power this puts out should do the job nicely. Though wear and tear could see problems with vertical accuracy, which is a shame as the breech block is bolted horizontally.

The breech seal looks nice and healthy so I can't see any problems there for a while. In fact when I took the rifle out to the woods for some free hand practice it was surprisingly accurate at ten yards, and at 25 yards could hit a drinks can every time.

It's a junior plinking air rifle and does what it says on the tin. It's pretty solidly constructed and feels hefty in your hands and I must admit i like how it looks. The rifle feels small to me but will fit the wife nicely, I also have a Crosman 1077 which she likes to shoot as well.

I reckon that should do it for now and im sure I will be back with a blog on the internals of this feisty little bugger, that is if it's OK with the missus for me to take it apart.

TTFN

Best wishes, Wing Commander Sir Nigel Tetlington-Smythe OBE.