BSA Extractor Solution

[tiriaq]

Working on a BSA action from a .308 sporting rifle. Don't know the proper name of the model, but it has a fore and aft moving safety lever in the bolt sleeve, double dovetail receiver rings that accept PH rings and a Mauser type extractor. The extractor is retained on a two piece version of the classic extractor collar.
Extractor was missing. Studying it, I wondered if a Mauser extractor would work. No go.
Dug out a M1917 extractor and I'll be darned if the thing wasn't an exact, install it with your fingers, fit. Exact. BSA must have been using surplus M1917 extractors when they manufactured the rifles.
Ruger did the same when they were putting the M77 rifle into production. They were having problems working out casting the extractors and as an interim measure used reworked M1917 ones.
So, if you ever run across a vintage BSA sporter with extractor issues...

 

[bearhunter]

Many BSA receivers and maybe the bolts as well were built in Yugoslavia.

The old Herters catalogs had a couple of different length actions that were not only identical to the BSA marked units but all of the component parts were interchangeable. They were the J4 and J6 actions.

BSA did the final fit and finish on these receivers in the UK.

They're a very good modification of the 98 Mauser action. I like them a lot

 

[tiriaq]

The only downside to this one from the standpoint of rebarreling it that the barrel breech face is deeply counterbored, and has an extractor cut on the right side. Bit more effort required than a Mauser.

I remember the Herter's actions. Didn't deHass do a writeup on them?

 

[bearhunter]

Yup, he mentioned the J4 and J6 actions in some articles which were imported by Herter's as U9 actions.

One thing about BSA rifles of all designations is that they used different trigger types, depending on when they were made and they weren't interchangeable.

BSA, always being cost effective found it cheaper to have modifications made to their receivers to adapt them to contract built triggers, so they went that route.

Not long afterwards they went bankrupt as firearms producers. The UK tax system and legal system drove them out of business.

I have one BSA, chambered for the 7mm Rem Mag left and it's likely going to the Salmon Arm Gun Show on Oct 21/22. Lovely rifle with an older period Bushenelle scope that I haven't shot for close to thirty years, but still gets maintained once a year, then goes back into it's corner in the safe.

IMHO, they were one of the "best type rifles'' of their period and very well respected.

 

[Leeper]

I thought the J4 was a Yugoslavian commercial Mauser action. The U9 was a BSA. I have the book and could look it up to be sure but my memory is pretty solid yet. Nothing Mauser about it. Different thread, angled locking lug seats. The only similarity to a Mauser was that it had two lugs and a trigger.

 

[bearhunter]

I thought the J4 was a Yugoslavian commercial Mauser action. The U9 was a BSA. I have the book and could look it up to be sure but my memory is pretty solid yet. Nothing Mauser about it. Different thread, angled locking lug seats. The only similarity to a Mauser was that it had two lugs and a trigger.

You're right, I was just going from memory. I used to order those U9 actions from Herter's. If you bought ten, they came in a very nicely dovetailed wooden box, with sturdy hinges, and separations that each held a complete, in the white receiver, with the bolt packed in wrapping paper. The U9 actions came out of Yugoslavia as well from what I remember.

I've got a couple of stocks in the bin that were on these actions and the Yugo Mauser actions have the same receiver bolt spacing, or so the not attached says.

Thinking back, you're right, the tangs are almost non existent and more rounded.

They cost appx as much as an FTRed Kar 98 back in the day, which many folks bought to sporterize.

If you did a bit of research, we didn't have the internet back then, you could picke up the U9 action, short chambered, threaded and profiled Douglas/ER Shaw barrel and stock, from Sheridan or even from Herter's, depending on which was cheaper and build a complete rifle of very good to excellent quality for about 2/3 the cost of an off the shelf BSA, Rem, Win or Ruger in those days.

It took a bit of time and elbow grease of course and if you didn't have the reamer/gauges/tools to finish the job properly it had to be taken to a smith for such things. Then the cost worked out to about the same as an off the shelf rifle.

 

[tiriaq]

I liked the Yugo sporting 98 action. Used in the Interarms Mk.X line of rifles. Preferred them to the Parker Hale sporters with the Spanish actions. That was before NATO bombed the crap out of Zastava. They were better finished than the ones coming in now.
Used a lot of ER Shaw barrels. Decent product at a decent price. Before the export/import situation got problematic.