I've got a Cadet, it's a plain yet solid and well put together little rifle. The rifling looks exceptionally well done, open sights only but still a fun accurate rifle.
Paul, it was because of high production costs that BSA replaced the Cadet and Cadet Major with the BSA Meteor. The Meteor was initially produced in .177 but it was discovered that it could offer a realistic performance in .22 and so .22 was produced. The Cadet Major will never produce more than 7 ft lbs and this is for an especially good one as most will run at around 6 ft lbs. The Meteor in .177 was listed as producing 7.5 ft lbs. I believe I've stated previously that the Cadet Major was made in two variants in transfer port design one being straight from the barrel bore and the other angled from the centre of the cylinder. In my experience the earlier, straight tranfer port variant perform better. A couple of things to look out for, and this applies if changing the leather piston washer is the filter can be blocked with leather fibers from the new washer. The cure being to remove the filter altogether which has absolutely no adverse effect whatsoever, the other being the screw which holds the washer to the piston can self loosen. Check this and if this is the case retighten and punch the slot in the screw head. I picked up a nice Cadet Major recently with visible etching and all its bluing intact. There is the problem that the trigger block has seized into the cylinder. Just my luck! Thanks for another excellent presentation.
If that was made in the late 1940’s or even 1950’s it’s probably the same type of rifle my dad first ever shot as a boy! He was born 1949. Condition of the rifle in the video looks immaculate. He won’t shoot my hwkt100. He wears glasses and is worried about the (lack of) recoil 😢. Such a shame, as my nephew is an accurate shooter at 8yrs with the Weihrauch. Good job they have a great bond with fishing
