Scam or breaking the law?

[450 Martini]

I guess that there are two types of civilians for whom deacts have an appeal:

1. Those who once served in the forces and used fully functional versions of these firearms.

2. Those who never had the chance to own the real thing, either by virtue of not being old enough to enjoy them, back when they were actually legal, (hand guns / semi-auto centerfire) or would never have passed a medical in order to join the armed forces/police etc.

There are many more situations where deactivated firearms are appropriate and necessary, this is not a "Walter Mitty" issue.
I have worked in schools delivering talks and activities on military history. It is not appropriate to bring in live section 1 (or 5) firearms in to most schools for children to handle. For many children putting on a loaded set of webbing and picking up a Lee Enfield offers the chance to experience history now only found in books.
Similarly a colleague of mine does a great presentation on the history of the Machine gun corps where he teaches school groups how to operate deactivated Vickers and Lewis guns in teams according to the period manuals.
When we do film work the risk assessments say we have to use deactivated firearms if at all possible as the close supervision required for sometimes hundreds of armed extras (who are not too bright at times) would be impossible with live firearms. Even Section 5 armourers carry large stocks of deactivated firearms for this reason.

Sad as it is i would rather see a firearm deactivated and kept for display use than completely destroyed.

[GeeRam]

When we do film work the risk assessments say we have to use deactivated firearms if at all possible as the close supervision required for sometimes hundreds of armed extras (who are not too bright at times) would be impossible with live firearms. Even Section 5 armourers carry large stocks of deactivated firearms for this reason.

Pressumably now though, many of those extra's could be supplied with these Denix replicas, instead of de-acts?

I've not been involved with Living History events for well over 15 years now, so am very out of touch with what people are doing or not doing. One of our group back in the 90's was a Cadet unit leader, and the rest of us used to go and help him with taking uniforms, kit and de-acts in for lectures etc to help with the Cadets understanding etc....all in the days before rules and regs would put a stop to that now.

When I made the decision to sell all my pre-95 spec de-acts 6/7 years ago, I couldn't quite comes to terms with including my two M1928 Thompsons though, so kept them both, but now wish I had sold them with the change in rules, as I'm now stuck with them, and they are worthless instead of the £1500+ I would have got for them

[HH1]

I guess that there are two types of civilians for whom deacts have an appeal:

1. Those who once served in the forces and used fully functional versions of these firearms.

2. Those who never had the chance to own the real thing, either by virtue of not being old enough to enjoy them, back when they were actually legal, (hand guns / semi-auto centerfire) or would never have passed a medical in order to join the armed forces/police etc.

There are many more situations where deactivated firearms are appropriate and necessary, this is not a "Walter Mitty" issue.
I have worked in schools delivering talks and activities on military history. It is not appropriate to bring in live section 1 (or 5) firearms in to most schools for children to handle. For many children putting on a loaded set of webbing and picking up a Lee Enfield offers the chance to experience history now only found in books.
Similarly a colleague of mine does a great presentation on the history of the Machine gun corps where he teaches school groups how to operate deactivated Vickers and Lewis guns in teams according to the period manuals.
When we do film work the risk assessments say we have to use deactivated firearms if at all possible as the close supervision required for sometimes hundreds of armed extras (who are not too bright at times) would be impossible with live firearms. Even Section 5 armourers carry large stocks of deactivated firearms for this reason.

Sad as it is i would rather see a firearm deactivated and kept for display use than completely destroyed.

Of course, all of what you have said is true. It is wonderful that people can take their "Hobby" "Passion" and enthusiasm for firearms and expand it into the fields of Education and Acting. But that does not change what I said earlier. I'm sure that there are plenty of people involved with firearms & shooting sports that would never pass a medical to serve in the Armed Forces or Armed Police... so it is good that alternative options exist.

[Chuck]

Deacts...........mere toys.

Nahh lads and lassies, THIS is the type of Deact to have if you must have one...!

[snayperskaya]

I guess that there are two types of civilians for whom deacts have an appeal:

1. Those who once served in the forces and used fully functional versions of these firearms.

2. Those who never had the chance to own the real thing, either by virtue of not being old enough to enjoy them, back when they were actually legal, (hand guns / semi-auto centerfire) or would never have passed a medical in order to join the armed forces/police etc.

There are many more situations where deactivated firearms are appropriate and necessary, this is not a "Walter Mitty" issue.
I have worked in schools delivering talks and activities on military history. It is not appropriate to bring in live section 1 (or 5) firearms in to most schools for children to handle. For many children putting on a loaded set of webbing and picking up a Lee Enfield offers the chance to experience history now only found in books.
Similarly a colleague of mine does a great presentation on the history of the Machine gun corps where he teaches school groups how to operate deactivated Vickers and Lewis guns in teams according to the period manuals.
When we do film work the risk assessments say we have to use deactivated firearms if at all possible as the close supervision required for sometimes hundreds of armed extras (who are not too bright at times) would be impossible with live firearms. Even Section 5 armourers carry large stocks of deactivated firearms for this reason.

Sad as it is i would rather see a firearm deactivated and kept for display use than completely destroyed.

A bit off topic but does your colleague have access to any service records for The Machine Gun Corps?, my Grandfather was in the 6th Battalion K.S.L.I in France/Belgium from 1915 to 1918 but transferred to The Machine Gun Corps sometime in 1918 and ended up in The Rhineland as part of the occupation forces before returning to Blighty.

I think I may have his service number as I have his notebook from WW1, on one page is the word Passchendaele in bold letters!

[450 Martini]

Researching the MGC is notoriously difficult as the unit was disbanded in 1922 and most of the Army enlistment and personal records (WO363) were destroyed in the Blitz. The Corps records themselves were completely destroyed in a fire at Shorncliffe in 1920. The medal card index exists and you will be able to find his medal entitlements on the national archive website who are currently offering free downloads of the scanned cards while they are closed. You might have more luck with the KSLI. The War diary from the 6th KSLI 1915-19 still exists and is held at the Shropshire Archives at (Castle Gates
Shrewsbury SY1 2AQ). They might have it digitised or once this mess is over you can visit there and read it with a readers ticket. They don't normally mention ORs by name but give a great guide to what the battalion did during the war.
I hope this helps in uncovering your grandfather's story.

[snayperskaya]

Researching the MGC is notoriously difficult as the unit was disbanded in 1922 and most of the Army enlistment and personal records (WO363) were destroyed in the Blitz. The Corps records themselves were completely destroyed in a fire at Shorncliffe in 1920. The medal card index exists and you will be able to find his medal entitlements on the national archive website who are currently offering free downloads of the scanned cards while they are closed. You might have more luck with the KSLI. The War diary from the 6th KSLI 1915-19 still exists and is held at the Shropshire Archives at (Castle Gates
Shrewsbury SY1 2AQ). They might have it digitised or once this mess is over you can visit there and read it with a readers ticket. They don't normally mention ORs by name but give a great guide to what the battalion did during the war.
I hope this helps in uncovering your grandfather's story.

I’ve worked out a lot of his K.S.L.I service history from various sources and I know he was wounded four times,but went back to the Front each time, and at some point he spent some time in a Canadian Field hospital as there is a stamp in the notebook along with some German writing on the same page and in it there is also the names of what I can only assume are French soldiers and a few rifle serial numbers!

It is the Machine Gun Corps bit I don’t know about.Shrewsbury is my home town and my Grandfathers medals are in the K.S.L.I Regimental Museum in Shrewsbury Castle.During the course of my research I found out he had a brother who was killed in action at the Battle of Hooge in 1915 and his name is on The Menin Gate.In 2019 the Mrs and myself booked to stay in Ypres for a week and visit some of the places my Grandfather, and his brother, would have fought but due to unforeseen circumstances we had to cancel it and the intention was to go last year which didn’t happen for obvious reasons.

[GeeRam]

Deacts...........mere toys.

Nahh lads and lassies, THIS is the type of Deact to have if you must have one...!

a3 lightning.jpg

I think that was when Charles had it in his garden. He still owns it, but it's moved and is now on display at Thorpe Camp visitor centre.

Charles does still have this one in his garden though.....about 250 yards down the road from The Shooting Shed

[dromia]

Just love the Lightning, a true, high maintenance, thirsty, thoroughbred.

The sight and sound of it rotating on take off, nose nearly vertical, full throttle and reheat is never to be forgotten.

A Vulcan take off was another thing of awe and beauty.

[Dark Skies]

I must admit that if my Euromillions numbers ever come in I’ll be having a deactivated DShK on top of my T-62!

AA462CFD-9B47-44E6-BCEE-6FAEC2F4E371.jpeg

I'd move to Kentucky and have the real deal. :)