The UK's Finest Independent Forum for Shooters and Gun Owners. Est 2010.

After second opinions regarding barrel length of a Section 1/FAC LEVER-ACTION shotgun.

The Firearms Act 1968 provides;

(ac)any self-loading or pump-action smooth-bore gun which is not an air weapon or chambered for .22 rim-fire cartridges and either has a barrel less than 24 inches in length or is less than 40 inches in length overall;

(ad)any smooth-bore revolver gun other than one which is chambered for 9mm rim-fire cartridges or a muzzle-loading gun

Therefore a Section 1 lever-action shotgun does not have to comply with the 24” barrel 40” OAL requirements, but only has to not be a ‘short firearm’ as in;

(aba) any firearm which either has a barrel less than 30 centimetres in length or is less than 60 centimetres in length overall....

However, The Firearms Act 1988 provides;

6 Shortening of barrels.
(1)Subject to subsection (2) below, it is an offence to shorten to a length less than 24 inches the barrel of any smooth-bore gun to which section 1 of the principal Act applies other than one which has a barrel with a bore exceeding 2 inches in diameter; and that offence shall be punishable—

(a)on summary conviction, with imprisonment for a term not exceeding six months or a fine not exceeding the statutory maximum or both;
(b)on indictment, with imprisonment for a term not exceeding five years or a fine or both.

(2)It is not an offence under this section for a registered firearms dealer to shorten the barrel of a gun for the sole purpose of replacing a defective part of the barrel so as to produce a barrel not less than 24 inches in length.

Therefore while a S1 lever-action shotgun could have a barrel of less than 24” as manufactured, you could not shorten the barrel of an existing gun with a 24” barrel to less than that?

If I’m correct in this, well, I’m annoyed!

Yup, this correct and I agree, annoying in some respects. I have a single barrel .410 I want to add a sound mod to for humane despatch, yet keep the barrel to a 24" minimum. The good news is I can do it as long as the outer section which brings it to 24" is permanently attached (Screwed and TIG welded in my case) It would be really nice to bring the barrel back to 18" so still within the 'normal' S1 12/24 rule however it is a non starter....

I do wonder how the law would view this if the gun was 're-barrelled'

Damnit. I've got an Adler A110 with a 24" barrel and was hoping to get one of their 13.75" barrels sent over (already have the slot on my FAC), but for whatever reason Adler are refusing to do so and are even claiming they don't make them anymore - despite there being two models on their website showing them

Was then thinking of getting Teague to chop the barrel and re-choke it (at half the price of the original gun!!). Ah well, back to the drawing board

if your gun happened to get dropped and damaged, say around 14" from the chamber, then an RFD is committing no offense if they chop off the damaged part of barrel and retap for chokes.

Blackstuff wrote:Damnit. I've got an Adler A110 with a 24" barrel and was hoping to get one of their 13.75" barrels sent over (already have the slot on my FAC), but for whatever reason Adler are refusing to do so and are even claiming they don't make them anymore - despite there being two models on their website showing them

Was then thinking of getting Teague to chop the barrel and re-choke it (at half the price of the original gun!!). Ah well, back to the drawing board

Could you not get a 20 inch barrel model sent and have the work done as the barrel is under 24 inches at that point? I know they make that model for oz so it must be around.....

bradaz11 wrote:if your gun happened to get dropped and damaged, say around 14" from the chamber, then an RFD is committing no offense if they chop off the damaged part of barrel and retap for chokes.

An offence would be committed, because they would not be returning the barrel/repairing it to not less than 24" in length.

(2)It is not an offence under this section for a registered firearms dealer to shorten the barrel of a gun for the sole purpose of replacing a defective part of the barrel so as to produce a barrel not less than 24 inches in length.

This clause was added to allow gunsmiths to resleeve barrels, I would have thought.

bradaz11 - As TomH has said, they would have to add whatever extension on to get it to 24" unfortunately!

Sixshot - They make 13.75", 18", 20", 24" and 28" but they won't send anyone just a barrel

Rules is rules

TomH wrote:

bradaz11 wrote:if your gun happened to get dropped and damaged, say around 14" from the chamber, then an RFD is committing no offense if they chop off the damaged part of barrel and retap for chokes.

An offence would be committed, because they would not be returning the barrel/repairing it to not less than 24" in length.

(2)It is not an offence under this section for a registered firearms dealer to shorten the barrel of a gun for the sole purpose of replacing a defective part of the barrel so as to produce a barrel not less than 24 inches in length.

This clause was added to allow gunsmiths to resleeve barrels, I would have thought.

That quote says it is not an offense


Sent from my CLT-L09 using "An application"

bradaz11 wrote:

TomH wrote:

bradaz11 wrote:if your gun happened to get dropped and damaged, say around 14" from the chamber, then an RFD is committing no offense if they chop off the damaged part of barrel and retap for chokes.

An offence would be committed, because they would not be returning the barrel/repairing it to not less than 24" in length.

(2)It is not an offence under this section for a registered firearms dealer to shorten the barrel of a gun for the sole purpose of replacing a defective part of the barrel so as to produce a barrel not less than 24 inches in length.

This clause was added to allow gunsmiths to resleeve barrels, I would have thought.

That quote says it is not an offense


Sent from my CLT-L09 using "An application"

It is not an offence if, and only if, it can satisfy this part: "for the sole purpose of replacing a defective part of the barrel so as to produce a barrel not less than 24 inches in length".