An oldie but a goodie

[5ontarget]

Always the sucker for older rimfires, I came upon this one recently. A nice old falling block rimfire.
Unfortunately, I have no standard velocity or match ammo to truly test it. And there is none available. I've been on backorder for months now.


This is an old BSA Martini International MK II. The sling swivels, and hand stop are missing. The sights have been replaced with what I think are better Redfield sights. It does show a bit of wear, but it looks to have a good bit of life left in it.

These were target guns, and were made when a great deal of hand work was still done to the guns. The barrels were hand lapped and parts hand fitted. The blueing is very nice and deep with a high polished finish. Trigger is fully adjustable for weight and travel. An old pamphlet I found stated that the rifle must achieve 3 consecutive 10 shot groups cutting a 1" circle at 100yds.

I can post some better pictures if people want.

["DoubleAction"]

5on; Please post more, I'm a sucker for older firearms.

[5ontarget]

blarg, I'll try again later.

The picture link takes me back to the home screen and I went to post some additional info and I did something wrong and lost my text.

["DoubleAction"]

..50n; I have spent a lot of time writing up a post, only to have something go wrong when I try to post it. What I do now, is copy the post before I post it.

[5ontarget]

From my understanding, guns of this era were designed for prone marksmanship competitions. That has given way to the currently more popular benchrest competitions. Some of these guns are getting a second life, after some modifications, as benchrest rifles. There were a few versions of the International the original, MKII, MKIII, etc. Each later generation improving on the last, with the pinnacle being the MKIII according to several websites. Some of the major differences: MKI -> MKII saw the trigger adjustments moved to the triggerguard so adjustments could be made without taking the action out of the gun. MKII-> MKIII had changes to the stock, such that the MKIII had a fully floated barrel. MKIII -> MKIV and V reversed that and some tooling changes brought the gun back more toward the MKI and II. This happened about the time some other manufacturers were continuing to invest and develop their guns...Anschutz anyone?





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The rear sight and insert have been replaced. The insert is a German made piece with 5 color filters and an adjustable zoom up to 1.5x. I've never looked through a sight like this before. I've used some aperture sights before, but nothing of this quality or complexity.

["DoubleAction"]

....B.S.A. = Birmingham Small Arms Company ? : en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Birmingham_Small_Arms_Company

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Birmingham_Small_Arms_Company#Civilian_firearms

dscalm.warwick.ac.uk/DServe/dserve.exe?dsqIni=DServeadv.ini&dsqApp=Archive&dsqCmd=Show.tcl&dsqDb=Catalog&dsqPos=0&dsqSearch=%28%28Level%3D%27collection%27%29AND%28Reference_Code%3D%27bsa%27%29%29

....I'm fond of the older firearms because the hand craftsmanship, the steel, the wood, accuracy, the strength, and the fact that they was made to last many lifetimes if properly cared for. Nice Detailed Photos !!!