http://www.airgunshooting.co.uk AIRGUN WORLD 55logo on the top of the action.
The serial number on these guns is stamped
on the underside of the breech area of the
barrel, and I was looking for it to start with ‘TB’,
for a MKII. I was shocked to see the area
dented and scarred by the use of a hammer
and chisel – someone who was obviously not
competent to use hand tools had been let loose
on the gun. I really was not expecting it to be
so beaten up. I could just make out the TB and
four of the numbers, although the other was
illegible, so it was a MKII.
Unfortunately, that was not the only damage
to the gun. Some ‘silly person’ had carved their
name in the base of the pistol grip, and
another numpty had had a go at carving their
initials in the side of the stock, and that was
just the woes on the woodwork.WASTE OF A YEAR
The Meteor was made down to a price back in
the 1950/60s. It was BSA’s first attempt at a realTIM FINLEY
PLEASED TO
METEOR!
Part 1 of Tim Finley’s radical refurb of his longed-for BSA Meteor MKII
I
have a, frequently declared within these
pages, soft spot for BSA air rifles. My first
airgun was a second-hand, beaten up
MKIII Super Meteor, and my first brand-
new air rifle was a MKIV Super Meteor.
Unless you follow me on Instagram, you
won’t know that I collect knives as well and
I managed to track down a Dutch Army
folding pocket knife made in 1966, the
year I was born, from Las Vegas, of all
places. I really then wanted a BSA air rifle
from that same year, which would mean
that I needed a Meteor MKII with a TB
prefix to the serial number. That’s not an
easy thing to track down these days. Even
with the Internet, I had to wait almost a
year until I spotted a 1966 MKII, not at a
silly price, that was intact with open sights
and nothing else missing.
I found it here, in the pages of this
wonderful magazine, no less. At £120 it
was not dirt cheap by any means. For the
condition it was in, the asking price was a
bit on the rich side, even for a 50-odd-year-old
rifle. There were limited pictures available, too,
so I couldn’t see all aspects of its condition, but
I couldn’t wait any longer. Besides, I really
didn’t care if it was a beater that I had to work
on to get it presentable and working. It would
mean that something of me was being put into
the rifle as I breathed new life into it. That’s the
really brilliant thing about fixing up old
spring-powered airguns; they are relatively
simple to work compared to dabbling with
pre-charged pneumatics. Anyone can do it,
and it’s very satisfying once completed.
BEATEN UP
When the Meteor landed, my first job was to
check it actually was a MKII because the advert
did not detail the serial number at all – it just said
it was a MKII. I could tell straight away it was not
a MKI because they had two raised sections for
mounting a scope on the action. The MKII was
the first Meteor with an 11mm dovetailed scope
rail machined into the top of the cylinder, and this
is what this gun had, along with the Meteor arrow
‘to the bone’ design and manufacturing process.
The tube’s body was spot-welded in places, and
gone was the lustrous, chemically blued finish to
the steelwork as on all previous BSA rifles. This
was dispensed with in favour of a painted black,
stove-type finish. It made the BSA Meteor
unique because it had a semi-gloss hue rather
than the deep shine of a blued steel action.
Back to the present day, and the black-
painted finish on the barrel and action of my
MKII was scratched, deeply in places, and with
signs of rust. I was not counting upon
re-finishing the action and barrel’s black paint.
The more I looked at it, the sadder I got as I
noticed other little things, like chewed screw
heads, although these are easy to sort.
Job one was to strip the gun down to its bare
bones. It could have one of two types of piston
head, so I needed to see that before ordering
seals etc. The wooden stock I could re-finish
myself, but the black paint on the action and
the barrel was another matter. Stupidly, I asked »A BSA advert from the launch of the Meteor.