Does anyone own a BSA Hunter with mauser extractor ? what do you think of this rifle? and action ? i think they were discontinued due to cost thanks for an opinions

I have a '59 BSA Royal Featherweight that has the "Mauser" type extractor. It is a very smooth action and a nice little rifle.

I have owned a couple of these old BSA rifles as well as a few pre-64 Model 70's. The British rifles are head and shoulder above the Winchesters in both fit and finish and " smoothness" of the action.

The rifle you are referring to as a "Hunter" - which was the designation given by Frank De Haas in his books - was actually a class of rifles collectively known as the 'Royal Line". The line consisted of 4 distinct action sizes that ranged from the tiny "Regent" in 22 Hornet and .222 Rem to the massive 'Emperor" which was chambered for the 458 Win Mag.

The standard length Imperial came in both a standard weight and featherweight version. The featherweight I own in 30-06 tips the scales at 6 pounds even with a 22"barrel. Not to shabby for a rifle built in 1959 with a walnut stock.

I believe Herters marketed proprietary rifles made on these actions; maybe not these, but on some variety of BSA, the shroud was similar IIRC- was there an action designated as "Monarch", also?

That is a trim looking rig in the photo.

The Herters U-9 action was built by BSA. It too was a 100% hand-built action as were the earlier Royals but it was a push feed rather than the CRF of the original BSA sporters.

Another BSA rifle seen commonly is the CF-2. Some of the ones imported into the USA were fitted to stocks that would have made Roy Weatherby proud. High-gloss lacquer, roll-over cheek pieces, ebony fore-end tip etc. In contrast most of the rifles meant for export to Europe were fitted with oiled stocks with more subdued lines. A very special one I regret selling was a CF-2 in a full-length stock chambered in 7 x 57.

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would have made Roy Weatherby proud. High-gloss lacquer, roll-over cheek pieces, ebony fore-end tip etc.

I remember these in the rifle racks when I was a teenager- didn't BSA also build rifles on a standard looking '98 action too, at some time, or am I getting the BSA's mixed up with the Herter U9 and J9?

BSA reworked a lot of P14 and M17 Enfields into sporter rifles after WW2. Another British firm Parker Hale specialized in reworking M98 Mausers into sporters. They started with military actions and as the supply of good actions dried up moved to commercial actions such as FN and the Santa Barbara

Herters also offered an unmarked Mauser action that is believed to have originated in Yugoslavia.

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Here's a BSA Majestic in '06. 2 pos safety and CRF and built in muzzlebrake. My favorite stock shape.

Yes the BSA, like the Springfield '03, Winchester Model 70 and the P14/M17 Enfields, Ruger 77, etc are loose copies of the Mauser '98 design. It is a good design that is hard even today to improve on.

With that said however the safety and trigger on the BSA rifles are nothing like anything found on any Mauser 98. The only thing in common is that the BSA has a full length extractor on the bolt which captures the cartridge rim as it is pushed out of the magazine. The Extractor design itself is somwhat improved over the Mauser in that it is possible to "push feed" a round into the chamber without feeding it from the mag or "springing" the extractor manually like the Mauser. The BSA trigger & safety is a very complex 4 lever design that not only can be lightened down to under 2 pounds it also among the safest ever made. It is also adjustable to allow for a military like 2 stage pull if the owner desires. The safety is also side mounted which allows a very low scope mount. From an engineering standpoint it is a mechanical delight although it would be cost prohibitive to build today.

BTW, The 2 piece bottom metal on the BSA has never been a cause for concern on any rifles I have owned. The magazine latch is inside the trigger bow and the catch itself has so much bearing surface I have never heard of one popping open under recoil.

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Originally posted by richj:
Here's a BSA Majestic in '06. 2 pos safety and CRF and built in muzzlebrake. My favorite stock shape.

She is in beautiful condition. That model was sold in Canada as an "Imperial" The BESA muzzle brake was a great design in that it was designed more to keep the muzzle flip under control rather than lessen recoil. It is also a lot quieter than a lot of other brake designs. There was also a slip on cover for the brake produced by BSA

Here is a pic of her twin which has seen a lot of use.

I had a 243 Royal Featherweight with integral muzzle brake. The loudest rifle I have ever owned. It originally had alloy trigger guard floorplate assembly but I found a steel set at a gun show and changed it out. It also had a tendency to drop the firing pin when the safety was flicked off, fortunately never with a chambered round. I could never get it adjusted properly. A beautiful rifle though.

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Originally posted by fla3006:
. It also had a tendency to drop the firing pin when the safety was flicked off, fortunately never with a chambered round.

That was because someone screwed with the sear adjustment at one time. Rather than lowering the trigger pull they decreased the contact area of the sear. People playing with things they have no knowledge about is what caused today's "fixed in place" adjustment screws on most factory rifles.

Wasn't me.

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Did you put the bedding material on the area under the floor-plate? It may be preventing the floor-plate from closing far enough to allow full latching. The other thing you could do is really flush out the latch assembly in case a bit of grit is preventing the latch from extending fully. This assumes the latch itself is not chipped or bent.

These are one of my very most favourite factory rifles.The ones I loved the most were a 7x57 and a .22 Hornet, both of which were tack drivers. Why I sold either is beyond my ken.

Neither my Hornet nor my 7x57, BTW, had a muzzle brake. The brakes were on a different line of rifles, I believe, which generally had much glossier stock finish and and higher polished metal before bluing...and cost more.

The actions and so on were apparently the same design on both. None of my floor plates ever popped open, but then a Hornet and a 7x57 don't really recoil enough to proove anything in that regard.

Incidentally, these rifles were also made in .458 Winchester. I'd bet that all of THOSE had muzzle brakes.....

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I have a CF2 BSA in 300 Win Mag at the moment, but it needs a bolt (long storey and a previous owner), but the are pretty hard to find, it seems. Anyone have a lead on one? - dan