Milsurp After Hours

Went to a local arms fair today and picked up this BSA Cadet for €260 / £188 / $293! Original ask was €350.

Another learning curve me thinks but it lust shouted BUY ME as I looked at the stall

It does need a good clean as there is some surface rust to deal with.

Looks good mate.
Far from its adopted home, now all you need are an original sling and the rare (repeat RARE!!) bayonet.

Aughnanure wrote:Looks good mate.
Far from its adopted home, now all you need are an original sling and the rare (repeat RARE!!) bayonet.

Plus some cases, a mold and a set of dies. Those might cost as much as the rifle
First job is a clean. Second job, slug the barrel. I have been in touch with Dave Commens at CBE down there and a single mold is going to cost me about €82 - $A 120 so I suppose that's not too bad.

NICE!

That's a great find.

-ArchFluffy

Having now stripped the wood and lock here are the remaining images of the little tyke.





All matching numbers, no corrosion under the wood, well marked BUT then ............THIS.


I think I can possibly clean it up a bit (maybe with a Dremmel) but I would appreciate any comments.

It looks like somebody has interfered with it big style Duncan, I'm no armourer but it doesn't look very fixable to me.
Here's mine for comparison......

Looks like it can be sorted, plenty of advice on the British Militaria Forum.


1/ Pull the barrel
2/ Clean it up with a Reamer (if I can find one in 32/20 Win. Brownells France do one for £177!) or try the Dremmel and very light file work...............

Duncan don't use the dremmel. Screw the barrel off you will need to make some sort of barrel vice to hold every thing in place. Chances are the barrel will be fine. The faces of the chamber bit could probably be sorted on a milling machine.

Right you are Dave.
My plan is Pull Barrel and then make some decisions I do not have access to any machinery unfortunately so whatever the solution is going to be it is going to be by hand.

I have now got my hands on a .310 case and tried it in the rifle.

I seems a snug fit and ejects perfectly every time, the case landing some 3-4 feet away so maybe I won't need to pull the barrel after all,



In the event that I do however, I have managed to get my hands on some blocks of French Barrel Oak that wine barrels are made from.