BSA has thought long and hard about how it has designed and manufactured this latest rifle, both in terms of affordability, functionality and usability. As you will discover later on in this review, I’m very happy to say that I think they’ve absolutely nailed it, writes Dave Barham.
Made in Birmingham
BSA has gone back to the drawing board with this rifle. The firm has listened to its customers and has produced a very reasonably priced top-of-the-range springer that is actually built in the UK, and that home-grown quality shines through.
As far as springers go, this one is reasonably light, weighing in at just 6.7lbs unscoped for the .22 walnut-stocked version and just shy of 7lbs for the .177 model I have on test here.
The sleek design not only looks the part but feels great in your hands. The forend of the stock and pistol grip feature engraved checkering, providing a secure grip even in wet conditions, and there’s a comfortable rubber butt pad added to help absorb the recoil and make shooting the rifle for long periods more enjoyable. This butt pad is actually adjustable for height, too.
New trigger
I have always liked BSA trigger units and the one on this new Lightning CLX is no exception. Again, no expense has been spared and this BSA two-stage trigger features a gently curved metal blade, which is adjustable to give either a lighter, shorter pull or heavier, longer pull by simply turning the grub screw clockwise or counterclockwise.
What else can I tell you about this trigger unit? Well, it’s just brilliant and suits this rifle perfectly. The factory set trigger on my test rifle has about an 8mm first stage, which comes to an abrupt halt, followed by a reasonably weighty second stage pull. There was the tiniest amount of creep from the factory setting, but I eliminated this by tinkering with the grub screw to decrease the sear engagement slightly. Once I’d done that there was absolutely no stopping me. Within a few shots I knew exactly when it was going to break, and it felt super crisp every time.
This rifle features a manual safety lever, which is situated directly above the top of the pistol grip, in front of the rather nice thumb rest that has been ground out of the wooden stock. It is one of BSA’s ‘flick left to Fire and flick right for Safe’ levers, which requires minimal effort to use and is perfectly situated so you don’t have to move a muscle when the rifle is shouldered.
Cross-head: Refined spring mechanism
The Lightning CLX features a superbly engineered spring-piston system, which powers every shot with consistent, smooth performance. I put a string of 20 shots through my muzzle-mounted chronograph and obtained just a 10fps differential between them. And, if that doesn’t scream quality to you, just wait until you take it onto the range.
As far as build quality is concerned it’s top-notch and I simply cannot fault it. The barrel breaks very easily and the cocking link system is absolutely rock solid. A decent pull down cocks the rifle and the return is super light – there’s no forcing anything with the Lightning CLX, minimal effort is required throughout the process (apart from the actual compressing of the spring).
Legendary barrels
As you would expect, this rifle utilises the famous BSA cold hammer-forged barrel, which has a 0.5in UNF thread at the end to house the supplied BSA silencer, which goes a long way to ensuring that this rifle is as quiet as a springer can possibly be.
I can also tell you that the .22 model is slightly shorter than the .177, measuring 1,050mm instead of 1,100mm. This is because the two models have different length barrels. In order to make the .177 version more efficient and for both calibers to have a similar power output of around 11ft/lb BSA has given it a longer 300mm (12in) barrel, whilst the .22 model has a standard 250mm (10in) barrel – I believe that BSA is the first company to ever do this.
Precision redefined
After spending a few hours in my back garden I simply had to head to my local club range to discover what this new rifle is really capable of. The owners of my local gun club and range, Peter and his son Laurence, are both avid shooters and they also own Range & Country Shooting Supplies in Sleaford – my local gun shop. I’d been speaking to them prior to heading to the club range, and Laurence was telling me that he had been putting pellet on pellet at 25 metres with the Lightning CLX. Now I know he’s a very good shot, so I was excited to see how my abilities would perform too.
I specifically set my target at 25 metres, because after all this is a springer and it’s never going to be as accurate as my trusty R10, is it? How wrong I was. After warming up with a quick zero and splatting some knock-down targets, I set about seeing just how accurate this rifle really is.
Using a front bag, I rested my hand on top of said bag and gently cradled the rifle in order to take my first “proper” shot at a fresh target. I settled down and squeezed the trigger, sending the pellet down range and smack into the bullseye. I quickly reloaded and settled down for shot number two. I was itching to see where this pellet was going to go. To my complete surprise it went pretty much through the same hole. I continued to put another eight shots into that target and as each one hit the mark I was getting more and more astounded by what I was achieving. For me, shooting a springer at 25 metres, hitting a group the size of a 5p piece at 25-metres is unheard of, even from a supported shooting position. I was amazed that this spring piston rifle is every bit as accurate as my beloved R10se PCP at 25 metres, so I decided to really put this rifle to the test – and my own ability.
I pushed the target out to 30 metres and decided to take five shots from a supported standing position. I ended up with two groups, one with two shots pellet on pellet and one with three shots pellet on pellet, and the only reason why they weren’t all in the same hole is because of me having a slight wobble from the standing position. As far as elevation is concerned, that was spot on for all five shots. Whilst standing I took a few unsupported shots too, and the balance point of this rifle is absolutely perfect for shooting freehand.
Price: £459 (walnut), £439 (beech)
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