Comments on: BSA GRT Lightning XL SE Review

By: Tarrasik

Tarrasik — Wed, 23 Sep 2020 05:20:23 +0000

OK, I took a closer look at the BSA home page. The Lightning GRT also comes in a 24 joule version ‘for export only’. It says the .22 will do 720 ft/s, and the .177 will do 921 ft/s. 24 joules is 17.7 foot pounds. The site doesn’t list a .25 version.

Of course, the cocking effort would go up. Nothing is free.

By: Tarrasik

Tarrasik — Tue, 22 Sep 2020 23:58:09 +0000

An excellent article. However, I question the Lighning being underpowered. At 13-14 foot pounds it’s overpowered for the standard UK market. UK gunners hunt all day at moderate ranges with 12 fpe guns.

The Lightning is positioned directly between the Weihrauch HW50 and the HW95. At 6.5 pounds it is lighter than both the HW50 (3.1 kilo, or 6.8 pounds) and the HW95 (3.4 kilo, or 7.5 pounds). It is presently about $60 more than the HW50 and $20 less than the HW95 luxus. Lightning power reaches 13-14 fpe, significantly more than an HW50 even with a Vortek kit. According to Vortek, their latest HW50 HO spring kit reaches only 12 fpe at 620 fps. My US HW95 only puts out 15 fpe (17 with a Vortek kit).

The Lightning is clearly designed to be a lightweight, compact, short range,
small game hunter. It has strap anchors. It has an excellent silencer. The .25 option may be beneficial for those hunting slightly larger game in heavily wooded areas at close quarters, like raccons, beavers, turkeys and such.

By: Dave

Dave — Tue, 19 Nov 2019 00:23:05 +0000

Know anything a out the BSA Spitfire 10 shot air rifle? Not the precharge one but the gas piston one.

By: john green

john green — Fri, 15 Dec 2017 13:30:16 +0000

bought the bsa lightning grt se xl .177 in oct 2017 after 3 wks it went back to bsa for low power, only 8.67 ft/lbs,away for 2 wks and came back with note saying increased power and range tested and that was all, put 40 rws superfield 8.4gr thru it just into the ground before i put 2 strings of 10 shots thru my chrony f1, the reading on both counts averaged out at 11.58 ft/lbs with only 14 fps differential in the 20 shots, i did find however that the breech entry had been enlarged maybe a thou or so because befor i could see the barrel rifle twist at the entrance but now it was about 4mm in, no idea why but it obviously worked, bsa have said befor that their barrels are hammer forged and that makes them a tad tight? also it was slightly stiffer to cock, but overall its now a great gun for power and accuracy, well pleased
alleycatz