UK BP handguns - just for interest

[TFoley]

Dear All - since I'm always getting little billets doux asking about how things are here in yUK, I thought I'd post a small reminder...

Apropos the Ruger Old Army that we all seem to have...

We are permitted to have ANY BP handgun providing that it is loose loading and percussion or flintlock fired.

We are NOT permitted any cartridge-firing replicas or the real thing for which cartridges are currently available, such as the .45LC or the .44-40.

This applies to mainland GB only. Northern Ireland, The Isle of Man and the Channel Islands have different laws and permit modern cartridge-firing handguns.

We ARE allowed to have modifications carried out to our ROA to use nitro-powder instead of BP. These conversions are carried out by Alan Westlake, a famous [over here] handgun shooter of great note and designer of the Britarms .22 match pistol. This involves the purchase of a new cylinder and the proofing of it. This costs around £300 [$600], and must be applied for as a variation on your firearms certificate - IF you live anywhere in the UK. On top of this must be added shipping and insurance. You get to keep the original cylinder in case you want to go back to black. Note that the weapon still needs percussion caps to fire it, all that has changed is the propellant medium, and, of course, the amount of propellant you will use has been reduced dramatically in the change-over.

Alan needs the whole gun as he makes the cylinder to fit and then has the whole thing proofed in accordance with our laws here.

Look at[url] www.westlakeengineering.com[/url]

Alan can carry out conversions to .38Spec for any former BP revolver, by converting them to the so-called 'long-barrelled revolvers' that we are allowed to have. They just look totally goofy, is all.

tac

 

[mazo kid]

Is black powder difficult to obtain there? These conversions are quite costly, but if that is what it takes to keep shooting....

 

[Brian the Brit]

I'm one of the few people at our club that uses only genuine black powder. Most other muzzle loading members now use either Pyrodex or 777.

In the UK BP is classified as an 'explosive' so we have to have a local police certificate enabling us to acquire and keep it together with a 'Recipient Competent Authority Transfer Document' issued by the Health and Safety Executive in London that allows us to transport it from shop to home and from home to the range and back. Both documents (easily obtained but involving a home inspection by the police) have to be produced when we make a purchase and certainly at Bisley (where I buy my powder) a photocopy is taken of my certificate at the time of each purchase.

We also have to comply with police and fire authority requirements regarding safe storage which has to be in a specially constructed plywood box padlocked to the wall.

By contrast, Pyrodex and 777 are classified as 'propellants' and are thus exempt from all these requirements. On the downside, 777 costs in the region of £35 ($70 US) per pound over here compared with the German FO Triangle powder that I use at £15 ($30)or thereabouts per pound. Swiss powder is considerably more expensive though.

In recent years the regulations regarding the transport and carriage of powders and propellants have become more stringent and the associated steep rise in costs has made many gun dealers discontinue stocking genuine BP.

Naturally, our European neighbours the French and the Spanish have a much more relaxed attitude to BP and find our levels of control laughable. I only started shooting in 2000 so I am used to jumping through all these bureaucratic hoops.

If that's what I have to do to keep the tradition alive then so be it.

 

[TANSTAAFL]

Interesting, thx for sharing.

 

[ronrryan]

Brian, are you allowed to have this revolver loaded with "propellant" in your home? If you actually defended your family with the "propellant" loaded weapon, would YOU be the malefactor, or the person who invaded your castle to do you harm? There are actually some states in the US where a person is not allowed to have a loaded handgun in the home, according to a cousin of mine in massachusetts (home of the minutemen). Good smoke, ron in Fla

 

[Brian the Brit]

I'm no expert on UK law but I would certainly be thrown out of my club if I a) took a loaded gun home (we have to have them 'cleared' by the Range Officer before being allowed to bag them at the firing point before leaving)or b)arrived at the range with a loaded gun.

UK law on household defence is based upon the principal of 'proportional response'. Some years ago a farmer whose remote house had been broken into on numerous occasions, shot and killed a burgler as he left the property. The farmer was imprisoned and the burglar's companion who was injured claimed compensation.

I rather think that if I were caught with a loaded gun in my house I would be for the high jump.

Criminals are of course exempt from all UK gun laws :wink: