BSA Martini Action Target Rifle .22LR

BSA Martini Action Target Rifle .22LR

BSA Martini Action Target Rifle .22LR. On 7 June 1861 the Birmingham Small Arms Trade Association (formed in 1854 by some of the city’s master smiths) decided to form a public company, the Birmingham Small Arms Company Limited. Their stated purpose was to make guns by machinery. By 1863 the factory at Small Heath was complete. In 1866 it acquired its munitions factory in Adderley Park, Birmingham. From 1880 it went into bicycle manufacture, making its own designs from 1881. Between 1888 and 1893 it devoted itself solely to production of a new magazine rifle, returning to the cycle industry in 1893 with the manufacture of cycle hubs and other components. In 1906 it took over the National Arms and Ammunition Company’s premises in Sparkbrook and acquired the Eadie Manufacturing Co. Ltd. of Redditch in 1907. In 1910 it acquired the Daimler Co. Ltd. of Coventry.

Following concentrated production of the Lee Enfield rifle during World War I and further expansion, in 1918 it put its three main activities under separate management. BSA Cycles Ltd. (at Small Heath and Redditch), BSA Guns Ltd. (small arms work at Small Heath), and BSA Tools Ltd. (at Sparkbrook).

This is a lovely BSA target rifle with a heavy 29″ barrel. It is fitted with a Parker-Hale PH7A rear aperture rear sight and a tunnel front sight. These were the main competition rifle around the world in the 1950’s and 1960’s. In full working order.