My first air rifle i ever owned, given to me for my 6th Birthday. My dad had to cut the but down for me as it was too long!. Used it on my Grandfathers pig farm to shoot Starlings, that was in 1964 ... Happy days!!
Paul, these were a fairground favorite. There were two versions of transfer port designs one was straight (in line with barrel axis) which had a filter to prevent the ingress of dust and the other was angled and centrally located. As these rifles were made largely of forged components they were very expensive to produce. In 1959 the Meteor replaced it with almost every component being made of rolled and pressed components. There were a total of 116,000 Cadet Major's made. One experimental version was made .22 but proved inefficient. John Knibbs sold that very .22 barrel. The best Cadet Major I owned produced about 7 ft lbs and was very accurate with its excellent open sights. As you quite rightly say these are classic rifles of which we will never see again. I firmly believe had BSA not have chosen to cheapen their designs to the extent they did they would still be in business today but I suppose it was to reduce manufacturing costs during high inflation of the seventies. Thank you for another excellent video.
@@fieldsportcymru4636 If you can get for reasonable price then snap it up. They are nice little rifles with a fixed, non adjustable rearsight but still very accurate. I believe the trigger is non adjustable as they were aimed at the youth market at the time.
There is no way a Cadet Major will do 10 ft lbs, its one of the rifles i collect i have a lot of them, they do between 5 1/2 to 6 1/2 ft lbs the best one i have ever had done 7 ft lbs, put it over the crono on cam lets see this 10 ft lb cadet major.
I think the second bsa meteor did about 8.5ftlb maybe a tad more but I can't see a cadet major getting close to 8ftlb and if it did it would be dieseling 💥
Great review, I just bought a Gamo junior for my son, I should of held out for one of these! The older rifles are such nice quality!
Still got mine, first rifle Dad bought me when i was 11, lovely accurate well made air rifle, thank you for a great video review.
I have a 1956 vintage one. A guy sold me it about 7 years ago for £80 fully refurbished. I love it .
Yes great little rifles quite powerful and fun to shoot
My first air rifle i ever owned, given to me for my 6th Birthday. My dad had to cut the but down for me as it was too long!. Used it on my Grandfathers pig farm to shoot Starlings, that was in 1964 ... Happy days!!
Paul, these were a fairground favorite. There were two versions of transfer port designs one was straight (in line with barrel axis) which had a filter to prevent the ingress of dust and the other was angled and centrally located. As these rifles were made largely of forged components they were very expensive to produce. In 1959 the Meteor replaced it with almost every component being made of rolled and pressed components. There were a total of 116,000 Cadet Major's made. One experimental version was made .22 but proved inefficient. John Knibbs sold that very .22 barrel. The best Cadet Major I owned produced about 7 ft lbs and was very accurate with its excellent open sights. As you quite rightly say these are classic rifles of which we will never see again.
I firmly believe had BSA not have chosen to cheapen their designs to the extent they did they would still be in business today but I suppose it was to reduce manufacturing costs during high inflation of the seventies.
Thank you for another excellent video.
Thankyou for your very informative respose . Great little rifles ive got my eye on a cadet that was with this rifle
@@fieldsportcymru4636 If you can get for reasonable price then snap it up. They are nice little rifles with a fixed, non adjustable rearsight but still very accurate. I believe the trigger is non adjustable as they were aimed at the youth market at the time.
@@darrencady4261 You know your stuff mate
Add this gun, little classic great video best wishes dave chubb
I think mine was the smaller cadet.
Such slick clean lines, powerful for .177 very accurate, nice pice of kit, have to find the date of mine.
There is no way a Cadet Major will do 10 ft lbs, its one of the rifles i collect i have a lot of them, they do between 5 1/2 to 6 1/2 ft lbs the best one i have ever had done 7 ft lbs, put it over the crono on cam lets see this 10 ft lb cadet major.
I think the second bsa meteor did about 8.5ftlb maybe a tad more but I can't see a cadet major getting close to 8ftlb and if it did it would be dieseling 💥
Lovely! Looks very similar to the bsa sportsman single shot.22lr i had years ago.