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BSA Lightning


Paul5tag
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Bored ,bored, bored! So out in the garden with my brothers lightning trying to find out which pellets suit it. Didn’t get that far as it was giving 6inch groups @25mtrs with accupels, thought it might be me so got my HW95 1inch group with the first 5pellets. Which by my standards is going some. Now over the years we’ve had a couple of Lightning’s and they’ve both been very erratic. So just wondering wether any of you lads had any dealings with the BSAlightning and what your experiences were.

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Yeah .ive currenty have 2 .

And have had at least 3 others in the past .all of them have been great .

The one thing to look for is play or slack in the breech jaws .most evident on older guns .this can be squeezed up in a vice one the barrel is removed .or for a quick  but rough fix .just bash them back tighter with a rubber mallet . (I did mine this way with one i have, that was bought a bit tatty ) it works .

My mate did the vice way (which is better ) and his group size reduced massively .

Also which cal is it .? And which version of the bsa lightening  is it 

Lightening . 

Xl tactical 

Xl wood 

Lightening se 

Se grt 

So we can help with pellet choice.

 

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I would hazard a guess that you have a Spanish built gun? The quality of the metal is much akin to jelly - the pivot pins are proof of poor quality and fixing a loose breach by crushing the 2 faces together is just shutting the proverbial gate. You could try fitting shims if you can get/adapt them but, in reality, the only way to improve the accuracy (and keep it) is to flog the thing cheap and buy something better.Sorry.

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2 minutes ago, bruno22rf said:

I would hazard a guess that you have a Spanish built gun? The quality of the metal is much akin to jelly - the pivot pins are proof of poor quality and fixing a loose breach by crushing the 2 faces together is just shutting the proverbial gate. You could try fitting shims if you can get/adapt them but, in reality, the only way to improve the accuracy (and keep it) is to flog the thing cheap and buy something better.Sorry.

That doesn’t sound to promising, as the gun probably not shot 500 pellets and every thing is tight and no play on any of the mechanism, as we’ve had another one a while back and it was the same ,I’m more inclined to agree it could be build quality.

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Yes I have one I used it today to check it wasn’t my shooting, and having used the two guns one after the other there’s no comparison , the 95 totally out classed the bsa by a country mile in all departments. Those Germans can do engineering. Cheers 

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57 minutes ago, bruno22rf said:

I would hazard a guess that you have a Spanish built gun? The quality of the metal is much akin to jelly - the pivot pins are proof of poor quality and fixing a loose breach by crushing the 2 faces together is just shutting the proverbial gate. You could try fitting shims if you can get/adapt them but, in reality, the only way to improve the accuracy (and keep it) is to flog the thing cheap and buy something better.Sorry.

Thats twaddle bruno  .

So you have a bsa lightening xl wood mk2 .

It maybe have  assembled in spain .it may not (many are 100 % British) most the components that matter are british and are better than any tosh the germans can make  im talking the bsa barrel is light years ahead in quality than a weirauch  barrel and better than a lother walther too .

Your gun maybe suffering from being badly tuned .or it may have a broken spring or your feeding it the wrong pellets .etc  but thats not the fault of the manufacturing or the gun components. 

The one weak pointis is the breech jaws 

And if its only shot 500 pellets thats not it .maybe your skill level is to blame  ? 

In 5 of them ive owned and probably 10 ive shot over the years (guns of friends etc ) ive yet to shoot one that wasnt capable of inch groups at 25 yds .

 

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Thanks for that ultrastu, although I don’t pretend to be marksman of the year, I did shoot a 1inch group with my HW95 immediately after having used the bsa. I do agree with your scope idea and may give that a try. I have heard that they can be very pellet fussy, I’ve nothing against BSA and have owned several, just not had any joy with the lightning. Thanks for your suggestions.

17 minutes ago, Ultrastu said:

Ps your scope could be totally to blame .

Try swapping the scopes over from the hw to the bsa and see what happens  

 

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I've only shot mk1 lightnings and  besides the poor trigger , but no worse then the Theoben guns of that generation they where good accurate guns. 

The only poor and that was being nice gun had a badly fitted gasram that made the gun nearly impossible to shoot. 

They where better then the Webley being made at that time for the same money. 

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25 minutes ago, Paul5tag said:

Thanks for that ultrastu, although I don’t pretend to be marksman of the year, I did shoot a 1inch group with my HW95 immediately after having used the bsa. I do agree with your scope idea and may give that a try. I have heard that they can be very pellet fussy, I’ve nothing against BSA and have owned several, just not had any joy with the lightning. Thanks for your suggestions.

 

To be fair the hw 95 and bsa lightening are totally different beasts .

The hw has a longer compression tube and heavier piston and longer barrel and is heavier all round  

The bsa has a much shorter tube .lighter piston (and hence stiffer shorter spring with much much more preload ) 

And is lighter overall .

This makes the bsa more lively to shoot which can take more skill to get the best from .it can also make the pellwt more pellet fussy .it will definatly make the gun produce different power for different pellet weights /types .

The fip of this is the hw has a slower softer shooting cycle which produces more even powers from a wider range of pellets  .

The down side to this is that the gun can be twangey (long soft spring) and with the long barrel potential for the recoil (active while the pellet is still in the barrel ) to effect  pellet poi. 

There can be a lot of milage in a short barreld fast acrion springer to get the pellet on its way before recoil /surge  plays too big a part in the equasion .

Like every thing its a set of compromises .

 

Ps id reccomend in  your .22 lightening 

Falcon accuracy plus pellets 

Or bisley lrg , rws hobbys 

Avoid  jsb exact jumbos .

H+n ftt .  Any thing above 15 grns  

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So a gun being lighter means that it could be pellet fussy? And the gun being lighter means that it will produce various ft/lb using various pellets weight/types? I might bring your attention to various olympic ISSP winning pistols being lightweight yet putting pellet on pellet or the fact that, whether you only have a little winky or a big winky, pushing different weight projectiles down it will produce different flow rates and terminal splash.As for BSA tubes being superior to LW - has someone left some Wine Gums in your carers car?

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No its not the overall  weight of the gun that produces the wider variation of power in a bsa lightening compared to a hw 95  (who actually thinks that ??🤣)

Its the length of the barrel ,piston speed , and amount of piston rebound and surge that creates the difference.

If you dont understand how these and other factors combine inside a springer and make the gun fire the pellet and make the energy it does with the shot cycle .then please stop commenting on this thread .

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54 minutes ago, Ultrastu said:

No its not the overall  weight of the gun that produces the wider variation of power in a bsa lightening compared to a hw 95  (who actually thinks that ??🤣)

Its the length of the barrel ,piston speed , and amount of piston rebound and surge that creates the difference.

If you dont understand how these and other factors combine inside a springer and make the gun fire the pellet and make the energy it does with the shot cycle .then please stop commenting on this thread .

That'll be recoil,,,, and 'hold' 👍 Glad to help 😋

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Quote " And is lighter overall. This makes the BSA more lively to shoot which can take more skill to get the best from it.It can also make the pellet (gun?) more pellet fussy. IT WILL DEFINITELY MAKE THE GUN PRODUCE DIFFERENT POWER FOR DIFFERENT PELLET WEIGHT/TYPE".

Now correct me if I'm wrong (you can do a little graph if you like) but that seems plain English to me. As a fully qualified Precision Engineer and a published (OK so many years ago) writer I'm fairly certain that your back peddling to conceal your faux pas is obvious to all. If you want to dictate to me where and when I may comment, that's a whole different can of worms, however, your aggressive comment is laughable, much like your post.

Edited by bruno22rf
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21 hours ago, Paul5tag said:

Bored ,bored, bored! So out in the garden with my brothers lightning trying to find out which pellets suit it. Didn’t get that far as it was giving 6inch groups @25mtrs with accupels, thought it might be me so got my HW95 1inch group with the first 5pellets. Which by my standards is going some. Now over the years we’ve had a couple of Lightning’s and they’ve both been very erratic. So just wondering wether any of you lads had any dealings with the BSAlightning and what your experiences were.

hello, if you want to know anything about the BSA lightning air rifle go on the UKAGF forum and ask Cloverleaf, there are very few spring air rifles that perform as they should without having to re model the internals or strip and clean/polish/repair/fit new piston seal, the Air Arm TX200 is one such air rifle that shoots as per manufacture specifications, i am sure Bruno will agree ?  

Edited by oldypigeonpopper
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The 335 and 335S were superb - unfortunately the cylinder was Aluminium on some and rumored to be prone to bulging? I had the 335S and it was sublime, not high powered but could make a Gnat sing Soprano from 50 yards away.Apologies OP, I seem to have drifted off topic.

Edited by bruno22rf
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1 hour ago, bruno22rf said:

The 335 and 335S were superb - unfortunately the cylinder was Aluminium on some and rumored to be prone to bulging? I had the 335S and it was sublime, not high powered but could make a Gnat sing Soprano from 50 yards away.Apologies OP, I seem to have drifted off topic.

hello, no worry bruno i am always drifting off some where??? will look at those, the 335 S looks interesting, not many about to purchase

Edited by oldypigeonpopper
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I bought this from a friend last week.

I had bought it off the AirgunBBS myself more than ten years ago for his Dad to shoot pests with. 

I took it out on a 35mph windy day and after some zeroing I was happy with this at 30 yards, given that I'm rather rusty with a springer.

It's in .177 flavour. I'd expect better on a still day ! IMG_20200402_160322526.jpg.5323ac9626c6096e4730a4e13b9b2569.jpgIMG_20200325_141006035.jpg.cf7ae85b74ab9cb7089a569ed054f2c1.jpg

 

 

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