These older spring guns, made during their height of popularity, are just top shelf shooting guns! Darn, that's great pellet on pellet placement with a springer! My old Bavaria 55, I bought in 1979 shoots very well, indeed! Scott
Lovely old rifles. My brother still has his.....I've still got my old Meteor Super.....both still going strong. By the way....before heading to the range, stick your target onto a bit of old cardboard box or a cardboard pizza backing. Then just pin or staple it up. They never come unstuck then! 😊
Nice MK1 mercury-s bsa made the mercury-s mk11 at the end of 83 I preferred the MK1 and have 2 of them and they are and we're as good as anything available at the time and now. Some reviews of the mercury-s complained about the single stage trigger but I found it excellent and I never blame a trigger for poor shooting. I don't have any time for pcps I just find them boring and soulless and overpriced. I prefer to use real airguns for hunting such as the mercury airsporter hw35 hw80 anshutz 335 Diana original mod-45 etc. who needs those ugly pcps when you own these beauties. Great video my friend.
👌 the old BSA.s brilliant👍 i used to shoot a Mercury with my nextdoor neighbour as a youngster👌 spot on vin this brought back good memories👍 thank you 👌👌👌
Nice shooting Vin, That, Mercury, brought back some good memories, with my since passed best friend and best man at my wedding in 1972, we had a lot of fun together with these air rifles he had the Mercury and I had the Airsporter, happy days.
Keep em coming Vin, always a good watch. I used to have one of them in mid to late 70s as a teenager, shared it with my mate. We px it for an Airsporter but soon regretted it, hated the tap loading, underlever faff, prefer breakers. So we went back and re-px and got it back. My mate kept it in his garage and when they moved I never saw it again 😢 I recently bought a Cometa Fenix, long. Nice firing cycle out the box, better than most, trigger reasonable, it is accurate and the barrel is tight. I took the action off the stock to oil up and noticed metal bits in the stock and spring guide loose inside the spring. Stripped it down and the very badly finished spring was grinding the trigger block producing metal bits. I've now stopped using it and sent for a Welsh Willy kit. So if you get one Vin, strip it down, let us know what you find as a video. I contacted Cometa about above problem, they were aware of this issue in some rifles. They cut the springs to get it below 12ftibs. I expected nothing but they sent me a new spring and trigger unit with built in guide and a couple of nice freebies all the way from Spain at no cost to me. That's great after sales service so all forgiven.
Great to see you back Vin. I have a real soft spot for the BSA Mercury - and you've shown it's true worth...Great rifles when shot by an experienced hand - which you are. Keep up the great work
It’s allways amazing me how accurate 70 80s spring rifles are but people still go for pcp shows the right gun in the right hands had bsa at me nana house till she told me I’d never got it back nice to see you out shooting mate
@@articfox1066 thanks mate, if you can master a springer be it break barrel or fixed barrel it pretty much teaches you the fundamentals of most guns ...just my opinion of course 😉
now then this morning we were down the range monthly vintage shoot had the air sporter out open sights splitting paying cards side on at 6 metres great fun also bell target . can’t beat a bit of sunday morning vintage rifles some of the bsa’s down there are well into 100 years old
When I was a teenager a friend had a mercury 177 I had gun envy as I had a Diana with no scope and the screw holding the barrel would come loose after a few shots 😢
Nice rifle and an excellent shooter too😊. Love the old BSA rifles. I was lucky the other day when I got an Airsporter Mark 1...only ironsights on those.
Wonderful rifle my friend 👌The good old BSA's are true legends. Now the most break barrels on the market i don't even want to shoot. The last BSA i've shot was the Spitfire 10 😱😖Just an other GAMO. Great shooting 😁 Cheers!
Nice classic little rifle that Vin. I think the pcps will still be around, but they will be like Trigger's broom with the air tank replaced 3 times, valves 6 times and orings 50 times. Will be interesting to see the Cometa, I have been thinking about one of those.
I still own a mercury in 22. It was a Christmas present in 1975. I loved it back then. Then I bought a hw 35 and in 79 a fwb sport. I think seventys BSA rifles were crap compared to German ones. But more expensive they were. Of course BSA rifles are today Very good!
Hey’up Vin, good to see you buddy. Nothing wrong with that grouping mate, I should do a video with my old Webley Tracker as it’s been a while since I last shot it. Have a great week mate.
Great to see you again i bought a walther lgu a couple of days ago it's almost impossible to find them her in Norway I figured it would do nicely together with my weihrauch and air arms do you have any experience with the walther lgu
Hi Vin, I bought my .22 Mercury about 1974 and cost me £40 brand new from Lindsley Bro's Leeds. Really regret flogging it back to same shop -part ex for HW35 I think ?
Close - a ballistic pendulum. Pellet weights were calculated on a small balance scale, against a number of paper staples because they were small and consistent. Yes, I am old and had a BSA Mercury S in 1983.
I'm struggling to believe that it has the original spring. I had a mk.6 Airsporter, which is basically the same as a Mercury except underlever, & I had to change the spring 2 or 3 times a year.
@@ANationalAcrobat-qj2dl thanks for the comment buddy. Blimey 2/3 spring changes a year?? You must've been really unlucky, I've shot BSA air rifles that are 70 years old that have all original parts and never needed replacement springs. 😉
@@vincentenglish8489 My Airsporter was .22 (5.6mm) calibre & I used it for hunting. It was important for me to get clean k1II5 so I made sure the power was on-point. The springs were inexpensive & easy to change at home so WHY would anyone not change them? Even when a gun is un-cocked the spring is slightly compressed & under load. Over time the spring will become a couple of inches shorter even if the gun is not used. This obviously negatively affects the power output. When you say you have used guns with 70-year-old springs in them I simply do not believe you. And even if you did then the power must have been SERIOUSLY diminished from what it should have been. Perhaps you are too inexperienced to notice this? I used my Airsporter for many years & kept my freezer filled with it. This along with vermin control. A tin of 500 B.S.A. Pylarm (later Eley Wasp when they stopped making Pylarm) would last me an absolute maximum of two weeks & usually less than that. Best regards
@@vincentenglish8489 I did reply to you but, for reasons that I genuinely do not understand, it would appear that my reply has been censored & deleted. I will not try again. Best regards
@@ANationalAcrobat-qj2dl It seems to be a TH-cam thing my friend, I reply to all comments but I'm lucky if 50% go through. It's most annoying. Thanks kindly buddy for your comment 👍👍👍👍
@@vincentenglish8489 That's been happening to quite a few airg*n channels especially if they are from the UK. Certain words trigger the action, very dystopian.
Spring is King.😊
Thanks for the video. I've been shooting beer bottle caps with my Brummie Webley Patriot tonight :P
These older spring guns, made during their height of popularity, are just top shelf shooting guns!
Darn, that's great pellet on pellet placement with a springer!
My old Bavaria 55, I bought in 1979 shoots very well, indeed! Scott
Lovely old rifles. My brother still has his.....I've still got my old Meteor Super.....both still going strong.
By the way....before heading to the range, stick your target onto a bit of old cardboard box or a cardboard pizza backing. Then just pin or staple it up. They never come unstuck then! 😊
Nice MK1 mercury-s bsa made the mercury-s mk11 at the end of 83 I preferred the MK1 and have 2 of them and they are and we're as good as anything available at the time and now. Some reviews of the mercury-s complained about the single stage trigger but I found it excellent and I never blame a trigger for poor shooting. I don't have any time for pcps I just find them boring and soulless and overpriced. I prefer to use real airguns for hunting such as the mercury airsporter hw35 hw80 anshutz 335 Diana original mod-45 etc. who needs those ugly pcps when you own these beauties. Great video my friend.
👌 the old BSA.s brilliant👍 i used to shoot a Mercury with my nextdoor neighbour as a youngster👌 spot on vin this brought back good memories👍 thank you 👌👌👌
Good to see you back and with a spring in your step shooting again
Well Vin this takes me back used to own a BSA Mercury back in the day this brought back memories thank you for sharing.
Nice shooting Vin, That, Mercury, brought back some good memories, with my since passed best friend and best man at my wedding in 1972, we had a lot of fun together with these air rifles he had the Mercury and I had the Airsporter, happy days.
Keep em coming Vin, always a good watch.
I used to have one of them in mid to late 70s as a teenager, shared it with my mate. We px it for an Airsporter but soon regretted it, hated the tap loading, underlever faff, prefer breakers. So we went back and re-px and got it back. My mate kept it in his garage and when they moved I never saw it again 😢
I recently bought a Cometa Fenix, long. Nice firing cycle out the box, better than most, trigger reasonable, it is accurate and the barrel is tight.
I took the action off the stock to oil up and noticed metal bits in the stock and spring guide loose inside the spring.
Stripped it down and the very badly finished spring was grinding the trigger block producing metal bits. I've now stopped using it and sent for a Welsh Willy kit.
So if you get one Vin, strip it down, let us know what you find as a video.
I contacted Cometa about above problem, they were aware of this issue in some rifles. They cut the springs to get it below 12ftibs. I expected nothing but they sent me a new spring and trigger unit with built in guide and a couple of nice freebies all the way from Spain at no cost to me. That's great after sales service so all forgiven.
Hi Vin, looking forward to the future content.
Great to see you back Vin. I have a real soft spot for the BSA Mercury - and you've shown it's true worth...Great rifles when shot by an experienced hand - which you are. Keep up the great work
Great stuff..wish they still made them like this..I agree about pcp's doubt many will make it as heirloom rifles 👍👍
Fantastic. Wish I could say more. I have to watch my words 😡
It’s allways amazing me how accurate 70 80s spring rifles are but people still go for pcp shows the right gun in the right hands had bsa at me nana house till she told me I’d never got it back nice to see you out shooting mate
Good evening Vin. Nice to see you back in action 👍 and your shooting is top notch 😊 kindest regards Carl
Hey, Vins, if you can shoot abreak barrel, you can shoot anything.
@@articfox1066 thanks mate, if you can master a springer be it break barrel or fixed barrel it pretty much teaches you the fundamentals of most guns ...just my opinion of course 😉
If you can shoot a BSA break barrel you can shoot anything 🤣
now then this morning we were down the range monthly vintage shoot had the air sporter out open sights splitting paying cards side on at 6 metres great fun also bell target . can’t beat a bit of sunday morning vintage rifles some of the bsa’s down there are well into 100 years old
When I was a teenager a friend had a mercury 177 I had gun envy as I had a Diana with no scope and the screw holding the barrel would come loose after a few shots 😢
Nice rifle and an excellent shooter too😊. Love the old BSA rifles. I was lucky the other day when I got an Airsporter Mark 1...only ironsights on those.
Wonderful rifle my friend 👌The good old BSA's are true legends. Now the most break barrels on the market i don't even want to shoot. The last BSA i've shot was the Spitfire 10 😱😖Just an other GAMO. Great shooting 😁 Cheers!
@@rapalaron6348 thanks Ron, I really need just to do a pure shooting video of that rifle and show how it shoots at 55 metres. 👍👍
@@vincentenglish8489 Looking forward to that video Vince 😁
Have four meteors mk1, mk 3 super,mk5 super and a bitsa, and a lightning grt se.love em all.after a airsporter s next.can't beat the old stuff 😉
Nice classic little rifle that Vin. I think the pcps will still be around, but they will be like Trigger's broom with the air tank replaced 3 times, valves 6 times and orings 50 times. Will be interesting to see the Cometa, I have been thinking about one of those.
I still own a mercury in 22. It was a Christmas present in 1975. I loved it back then. Then I bought a hw 35 and in 79 a fwb sport. I think seventys BSA rifles were crap compared to German ones. But more expensive they were. Of course BSA rifles are today Very good!
I've got my eye on one of these at my local gun shop £195 I'm very tempted 👍👍
Is that the Mercury S?
@ps1834 sorry don't know which model it is It has a very plain stock If that helps
Hey’up Vin, good to see you buddy. Nothing wrong with that grouping mate, I should do a video with my old Webley Tracker as it’s been a while since I last shot it.
Have a great week mate.
Hi vin great to see you again great shooting, one question what camera do you use for filming all this, cheers. Roy😊
@@royfranklin6372 Hi Roy, I use a Sony Handycam CX330 mostly, occasionally will use a Sony Cybershot too, hope this helps 👍👍
😎👌
Great to see you again i bought a walther lgu a couple of days ago it's almost impossible to find them her in Norway I figured it would do nicely together with my weihrauch and air arms do you have any experience with the walther lgu
@@sap3055 yeah I rate walthers very highly indeed. I prefer the wood stock version myself...nice rifle buddy 👍👍👍👍👍
Yes it's the wood stock version I also absolutely love a nice wooden stock on my rifle instead of the synthetic one's 😊
Hi Vin, I bought my .22 Mercury about 1974 and cost me £40 brand new from Lindsley Bro's Leeds. Really regret flogging it back to same shop -part ex for HW35 I think ?
@@felgate11 aww I feel you my friend, the 35 is a great gun, tough decision there. 👍👍👍
I used to go there too,very expensive.
How did they test the Ft/Lb's before Chrono's ?. Some kind of weight & pulley contraption ? Answers on a post card please !!
@@felgate11 two ways I know of first was a calibrated weighted pendulum, the second one I'll see if anyone can guess 😉👍👍
Close - a ballistic pendulum.
Pellet weights were calculated on a small balance scale, against a number of paper staples because they were small and consistent.
Yes, I am old and had a BSA Mercury S in 1983.
@@vincentenglish8489 Firing into a water tank and measuring the displacement ?
Proud to shoot and own BSA air rifles made in Britain and by British craftsman.
The Mercury S was a brilliant gun....better than the later Supersport.
I'm struggling to believe that it has the original spring. I had a mk.6 Airsporter, which is basically the same as a Mercury except underlever, & I had to change the spring 2 or 3 times a year.
@@ANationalAcrobat-qj2dl thanks for the comment buddy. Blimey 2/3 spring changes a year?? You must've been really unlucky, I've shot BSA air rifles that are 70 years old that have all original parts and never needed replacement springs. 😉
@@vincentenglish8489 My Airsporter was .22 (5.6mm) calibre & I used it for hunting. It was important for me to get clean k1II5 so I made sure the power was on-point. The springs were inexpensive & easy to change at home so WHY would anyone not change them?
Even when a gun is un-cocked the spring is slightly compressed & under load. Over time the spring will become a couple of inches shorter even if the gun is not used. This obviously negatively affects the power output. When you say you have used guns with 70-year-old springs in them I simply do not believe you. And even if you did then the power must have been SERIOUSLY diminished from what it should have been. Perhaps you are too inexperienced to notice this? I used my Airsporter for many years & kept my freezer filled with it. This along with vermin control. A tin of 500 B.S.A. Pylarm (later Eley Wasp when they stopped making Pylarm) would last me an absolute maximum of two weeks & usually less than that.
Best regards
@@vincentenglish8489 I did reply to you but, for reasons that I genuinely do not understand, it would appear that my reply has been censored & deleted. I will not try again.
Best regards
@@ANationalAcrobat-qj2dl It seems to be a TH-cam thing my friend, I reply to all comments but I'm lucky if 50% go through. It's most annoying. Thanks kindly buddy for your comment 👍👍👍👍
@@vincentenglish8489 That's been happening to quite a few airg*n channels especially if they are from the UK. Certain words trigger the action, very dystopian.