Welcome to this Airheads Special, I'm in Birmingham at one of the great success stories of the
British gun trade Birmingham, Small, Arms.
I should be wearing a Stetson because what I'm about to look at is deep hole drilling,
with plenty of oil and producing 18,000 barrels a year.
Our tour guide today probably knows more about barrel production than anyone else in the
world. Dave Williams has worked at BSA for 45 years, he's seen the company go through
many changes but one thing has remained a constant and that's the quality of the steel
and what he weaves out of it.
There seems to be a long way to go from what you have in your hands there to that black
thing down there?
Well this one is obviously a finished PCP and this is the raw material that we get in
what we start with. There's no holes through it no cones on it, so to start the process
off that's how it comes in.
It moves onto what we call a capstan, which is this machine here where we put a lead on
the one end for the entrance of the barrel into the swathing machine and the other end
which is the true end where all the choke is and everything is for the deep hole drilling
side.
The deep hole driller does exactly that, it creates the bore, no twist just smooth. The
drills spin one way the barrels the other. This means the effective revs increase and
increase the accuracy of the cut.
This is the bit in the barrels life where it has to be at it's most accurate really?
Yep, this part where the small shampfer is always within 2 - 3000th of an inch, the other
end we keep within 5000th of an inch.
In terms of what that does to a pellet down range what difference does a 1000th make over
50 yards?
Over 50 yards it might be an inch so it could make quite a bit of difference but when it
goes onto the next process we straighten it..after the swagging so we straighten it so we take
any imperfections out.
And there's a little bit of testing at the end?
There's alot of testing.!!!!
Next is the swagging machine, this is where the barrels get a real hammering, literally!
What we have to do is thread the barrel over the end of the mandrill which has all the
12 grooves in, wind the mandrill into the centre of the hammers so when the barrel passes
through and over the top of the mandrill with the rotation it'll give us the twist we require
which is one in 19 inches.
So this is the hammer we are talking about here, it's quite heavy. That bashes your barrel
4,000 times.
The pummeling stretches the steel making it too hot to handle.
It stretches it by around an inch or 25 millimeters which ever you like to call it these days
but we still work on this machine in English.
This is the stuff that comes out of the twist in your barrels. The barrels themselves are
taken away for grinding and the barrels destined for springer airguns have blocks braised to
them. Four barrels a day are taken to the vice for testing with that old engineer's
favourite, a lump hammer.
That's a terrible thing you've done there Dave.
Well it is really - it's alot of money down the drain just to prove the barrel is OK and
welded OK.
Now he has knocked the barrels black and blue, the survivors go off to a room full of dodgy-sounding
chemicals, this method of protecting your barrels has been in use for hundreds of years.
Now Dave is going to show me the new blue and it's black!
The one on my right which is this one which I'm moving is off the new process and the
one on the left is the blue-ing process from the old method. Can you see much difference
apart from the shine? We're still in the experimental stage testing it all out, we will put it out
on field tests see what people think.
This is an example of how a traditional company like BSA is using technology to push forward
the development of it's air rifles. Dave is part of the old guard so what does he see
in his crystal ball?
I'm coming to the end of my time now here but I'd like to come back in say 10, 20 years
time to see if it has changed and whether people do think this is still as good as what
I think it is. There are still firms in England and abroad still using cold force swagging
and I don't think it can be beaten.
This is the machine that made the Mk4 Meteor. BSA made more than a million of those airguns.
It has a history going back over 150 years...
We've been promised a look at some of the latest airguns on the market, tell me Simon
is that it?
This is it, this is a 1895 Martini Henry. That's not the latest!
No, not that latest no.. but it's our piled arms signature with the three rifles on the
badge.
That is that.
Absolutely, yes.
So where was this used? This was used in the Boer War.
The Boer War! Magnificent! Say the line, say the line...
Colin? Colin say the line...
"You're only supposed to blow the bloody doors off"
No not ..you're only supposed to blow the bloody doors off..
Zulu's sir thousands of them! Zulu's sir thousands of them!...the famous,
famous line... Can I do the other line?
Absolutely yes. This used to have a bayonet attached to it
on the side. Yes, we don't have bayonets unfortunately.
You're an airgun company you're not supposed to have bayonets.
In twist, withdraw. Absolutely.
Bit more aggression...ARGGGGHHHH
So this is not the latest. No but it's part of our heritage. A wonderful specimen really
of what we did and obviously transitions through the years of what we do now.
And it's a .450 you could shoot an elephant with this, right let's move forward a few
years what else have you got?
Not so much maybe ten or so years ago but we've got a very first spring unit, this is
a Lincoln Jeffries. This is an airgun!?
This is an airgun, which is under cocking spring. You've got a single shot.
Put the pellet in there. Absolutely. As I say this was a Lincoln Jeffries
design built under licence and this model is around 1906, 1907.
So an Edwardian gentleman's sparrow shooter. That sort of idea.
Yes, absolutely. And he would have bought it as fun thing or
for his son, Little Lord Fauntleroy. Moving on from there....
Moving forward we've got. Oh look at that, First World War, 303, the smellie . The Smellie,
absolutely. As I say, this is in absolute pristine condition. This one has not ever
left the factory. Really? Oh yes. Fully working but it is obviously a unique model.
I've always been impressed of the sights on this. The iron sights. Yes about 1916-17 this
one was manufactured. So that lifts up their. That lifts up and you drop this down. Push
that one in. Push that one in sorry, yes, you know more than me. That's it, there we
go and you've got fine adjustment here on the side. Magnificent. It really, really is
a lovely piece of work. It's absolutely standard British Tommy Atkins rifle. Absolutely. The
Great War rifle. Absolutely beautiful. Right, next one please. Next one. Moving forward
a few more years at least fifty years this is a Meteor. A lot of people have got Meteor.
We started with a mark 1, we are currently on the mark7, this is a mark5 so this is probably,
I would say, late eighties, early ninties. Right, I've said it before and I'll say it
again, You have sold a million of these didn't you. Yes. An incredible amount, yes. Absolutely
extraordinary. Why was it so popular? Just because it was very accurate, it was a very
good price and quality. People could trust the BSA Brand. It was a very, very good price
and fathers and grandfathers passed it on and that is how its gone through. The bit
that has always impressed me is the simplicity. Absolutely straight forward. Simple lines.
Beech stock, nothing that could go wrong with this. Nice weight. Lovely.
Okay, last one on the list. We started moving to PCP's and we have got - well, you say move
into PCP's but they had barely been invented by the time this came out. Yes, this is probably
an early BSA Sportsman. It is actually cutaway. You can actually see the workings of it. A
bit of a demo really. Now what really excites you is the paperwork isn't it? Yes.
There is more evidence of the sort of craftsmanship this workshop has been responsible for.
You see the date here is the 12 of November 1945. Obviously highlighted secret, so obviously
top level secret before it went into any kind of production to the naval and you can see
here, development for close range naval service. A 2 pound gun, quick fire.
What does this tell you? Well what I find fascinating is the fact that the drawing media
itself is a linen material which is waxed on.
And that would have been wheeled right past where we are standing here.
Absolutely. From half scale diagrams to the full scale
real thing. Nick here, is making the Buccaneer Airgun. A BSA Gun for export. Right, follow
me! Here's the action and here is where they put
together the last of your perfect BSA rifle. A trigger, a bolt and over here what about
a lovely stock. The last thing you get is this - the out of box experience. Look at
that. And as part of that process, there's quite a lot more testing.
Colin, you get the barrels and the actions here don't you. Do you get every single one?
We do see every barrel that is fitted to every gun that we assemble.
And what do you do once you get them in here. This particular stage is used for grouping,
velocity and just general any power issues whatsoever that might occur, whether it be
a low power, high power gun. We just set everything to a factory standard. Setting of a 12 foot
power or a high power gun. So it's all using the same process to shoot each gun. So, nothing
changes. Every gun gets treated exactly the same.
The guns on this rack, the Martini Henry, the .303 SLE, the Meteor between them represents
three million sales for BSA over the last one hundred and fifty years. Let's see what
they have got coming up ion the near future. This is a world exclusive, this is BSA's first
HFT rifle, and it's flying the flag for the British company.
Simon, that is a James Bond rifle. It's something that we're very excited about. It's our first
venture into the field of HFT hunter field target. We think it's the natural progression
for the brand, for the product to finally get into that position with an out of the
box standard factory built rifle. As you can see, it is a pretty descent looking bit of
kit. What has it got that makes it HFT? It is our
standard self-regulating Scorpion SE action and we have made it in a single shot and in
.177 specifically for the HFT scene, but the key feature is the stock that we've designed
in collaboration with our stock manufacturer, Manelli. This is a bit of a one off. What
will I pay for it? It is going to be somewhere around about the twelve, eleven hundred pound
mark and that is a sensible price point for such a competition rifle.
Are we going to see it soon? Yes it is actually going to be previewed at
the world HFT competition which is in Kelmarsh over the weekend of the Easter break.
The R10 is BSA's flagship PCP model, this together with the launch of the Ultra SE has
dramatically increased the companies market share. However, the biggest impact has been
on the international market where there sales has increased by more than 80 percent due
to the Buccaneer. Last year with the introduction of some new stock options with camoflague
and with a black tactical look we almost doubled the sales of the R10 in the UK. That itself
led to our overall sales being up by about 31 percent but internationally we grew by
83 percent last year. Specifically with a couple of models that we have designed that
aimed at the slightly different requirements of the international market.
BSA is a company with a fascinating past and is now working hard to create an exciting
future. Not only is our discerning customer looking for a good performing technical rifle
but they are also asking for a thing of beauty and I believe we are able to deliver all of
those key points which from the sales growth that we saw last year I believe makes us Britain's
leading gun manufacturer. There is plenty more in the BSA's pipeline
but that's for another day.
We're back next week and this has been an airheads special. Please hit the subscribe
button or go to our website and sign up for our newsletter. I am going to settle back
with a bottle of BSA Special Ale brewed, like this airgun, in Birmingham.