I picked up this nifty rifle at last year's Findlay show - a second-version BSF model S54 underlever, with "Match" stock:
I bonded with it immediately. Dennis Hiller's classic tome The Collector's Guide to Air Rifles describes the S54 with the words, "What an air rifle! As soon as you pick one up you know that this is different!" And it's true...it's just adorably eccentric. And as luck would have it, this one is serial no. 4707; the very example Tom Gaylord explored at depth on his blog:
https://www.pyramydair.com/blog/2019/04/bsf-s54-match-rifle-part-5/
So what other airguns can you name that...are a full 46 inches long?
Or have the front and open rear sights pinned to the barrel in complex, easily removable cast housings?
Or have the trigger adjustments permanently engraved for ya?
Or combine an underlever with a 2-piece cocking linkage to eliminate that long fore end slot?
One thing I don't love, though, is the diopter sight. It looks kinda cool, but it's a rather fragile soft casting, has quite coarse adjustments, is laid out so that little but its ginormous OEM eye disk fits, and last but not least is threaded not for German, but British Parker-Hale eyepieces (wot?!). On top of that, this particular sight is not original to this gun, and has some bubba parts and minor damage making it hard to mount.
Which is an issue due to the gun's weird layout: the front sight is about the same height above the bore as most airguns...but the barrel sits well below the top of the receiver...and the rear sight mounts to a tall rail. So not just any diopter will work; you need one that adjusts REALLY low.
But years ago, the inimitable Robert Law at "Air Rifle Headquarters" commissioned some custom Williams sight models, including this one intended for Diana and BSF guns. The base of the sight is similar to Williams's current "low" FP-GR series, but is longer and has a non-adjusting dovetail.
I picked up a couple of these ARH sights back in the day. They vary a tiny bit in size; one of 'em resolutely refuses to fit this gun (works great on Dianas though), while the other - after some persuasion with a triangular polishing stone and some newly-invented expletives - finally succumbed to my will.
I was concerned even this one would sit too high, but a short 10-meter bench session today shows it works fine I'm happy to say...and I even like the looks of it. Mr. Gaylord has ol' 4707 shooting hard and straight, too. Obviously I have some fine tuning to go, but this beast from Erlangen might make a real shooter one day.
I bonded with it immediately. Dennis Hiller's classic tome The Collector's Guide to Air Rifles describes the S54 with the words, "What an air rifle! As soon as you pick one up you know that this is different!" And it's true...it's just adorably eccentric. And as luck would have it, this one is serial no. 4707; the very example Tom Gaylord explored at depth on his blog:
https://www.pyramydair.com/blog/2019/04/bsf-s54-match-rifle-part-5/
So what other airguns can you name that...are a full 46 inches long?
Or have the front and open rear sights pinned to the barrel in complex, easily removable cast housings?
Or have the trigger adjustments permanently engraved for ya?
Or combine an underlever with a 2-piece cocking linkage to eliminate that long fore end slot?
One thing I don't love, though, is the diopter sight. It looks kinda cool, but it's a rather fragile soft casting, has quite coarse adjustments, is laid out so that little but its ginormous OEM eye disk fits, and last but not least is threaded not for German, but British Parker-Hale eyepieces (wot?!). On top of that, this particular sight is not original to this gun, and has some bubba parts and minor damage making it hard to mount.
Which is an issue due to the gun's weird layout: the front sight is about the same height above the bore as most airguns...but the barrel sits well below the top of the receiver...and the rear sight mounts to a tall rail. So not just any diopter will work; you need one that adjusts REALLY low.
But years ago, the inimitable Robert Law at "Air Rifle Headquarters" commissioned some custom Williams sight models, including this one intended for Diana and BSF guns. The base of the sight is similar to Williams's current "low" FP-GR series, but is longer and has a non-adjusting dovetail.
I picked up a couple of these ARH sights back in the day. They vary a tiny bit in size; one of 'em resolutely refuses to fit this gun (works great on Dianas though), while the other - after some persuasion with a triangular polishing stone and some newly-invented expletives - finally succumbed to my will.
I was concerned even this one would sit too high, but a short 10-meter bench session today shows it works fine I'm happy to say...and I even like the looks of it. Mr. Gaylord has ol' 4707 shooting hard and straight, too. Obviously I have some fine tuning to go, but this beast from Erlangen might make a real shooter one day.
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that's a nice slinger right there
