Collecting/Acquiring Multiple Rifles

[Mike357]

I have a fellow club member who is about to apply for his FAC and is interested along with his son of collecting Military Rifles from the various wars. He has checked with his FEO and Fife Police generally support this.

What I would like to know on his behalf is, if collecting rifles of the same calibres and in particular I guess I mean the various models of Lee Enfield, how do you justify this to the Police?

If someone can advise me of the criteria then I will pass this on to him.

Thanks in advance peeps. sign92

[Dr. Strangelove]

When I applied for two .303 slots on my first FAC application the FEO said to write a letter detailing the different types - SMLE, No.4, No.5 etc. Being a LERA member was helpful because they have different competitions with different types of rifle, which gave me another reason.

I might be putting in for a one-for-one variation for my 5.56 to a .303 so might have to write another letter!

[targetman]

The Home Office Guide to Police says:

Chapter 13.
Good Reason to Posses a Firearm:

Collection of Firearms:

13.51 The collection of firearms by a genuinely interested collector should be accepted as a "good reason" for the grant of a Firearms Certificate.
There should be no blanket policy to prevent the collection of modern firearms (thouigh collectable firearms will tend to be of the Second World War or earlier) nor should any arbitary limits be imposed on the number or type of firearms.....

13.52 Chief officers of police should satisfy themselves that the appliocant is a bona fide collector who has a genuine interest......

Evidence that a person is a member of a relevant society (for example the Historical Breechloading Society - HBSA) might be taken as an indication that they have a genuine interest in collecting......

I would suggest that if your interest lays mainly with .303" Lee Enfields then you should join the Lee Enfield Rifle Association - LERA - to show a genuine interest.

The number of rifles or calibres you can own is not something that is set by the police, it is really governed by the size of your gun safe......get a big un...you will always want more that it can hold anyway.

The above advice to police says it all really, as long as you can show genuine interest, have the proper security and belong to an appropriate organistaion and can actually use the rifles you buy then having several of the same calibre is not a problem, despite what the FEO may think and say.

I have been collecting for a long time so have made good relationship with the local firearms branch, for example I currently have 7 X .303" rifles.....so the number of the same calibre is not a bar to owning.

[Sim G]

Got to admit, the police were great when it came to me wanting to collect lever action guns, namely Marlin. My good reason is simply "collecting" with an occasional shooting condition. I have been limited to holding a maximum of 150 rounds per caliber for the collection because of the limited shooting. Likewise, the number of same calibres don't seem to cause a problem either. Three are .22's, which is on top of my "ordinary FAC" three .22's and three of the collection are .32's, with variations for more of the same calibers.

[Porcupine]

^^Get a few under 'target shooting' for all the different disciplines so you can get as large an ammo allowance as possible, then the rest under 'collecting' when you run out of disciplines. As the quoted text says, they can't limit your number of guns except so far as you are able to store them securely, provided you have good reason for all of them - and collecting is good reason, in principle, for any extra gun.

[meles meles]

When I first applied for my FAC, I listed target shooting and collecting as my good reasons and enclosed a photocopy of my HBSA membership card. When Mr Plod came to visit prior to granting my FAC we had a long chat about the relative merits of side and base mounted magazines (the Norsquigians, always a forward looking race, had side mounted magazines on their rifles to make them easier to load in the trench warfare they predicted was coming). After a cup of tea, several jammy dodgers and a plenty of geektalk, I got my certificate - with ten slots on it !

[Sandgroper]

When Mr Plod came to visit prior to granting my FAC we had a long chat about the relative merits of side and base mounted magazines (the Norsquigians, always a forward looking race, had side mounted magazines on their rifles to make them easier to load in the trench warfare they predicted was coming).

Yep, that idea certainly stuck around! :G

PS When did the Norwegians use the Krag in the trenches?

[meles meles]

Yep, that idea certainly stuck around! :G

PS When did the Norwegians use the Krag in the trenches?

They didn't need to: In WW1 Herr Kaiser saw how well equipped they were and decided not to provoke them...

[ovenpaa]

...and in WWII the Germans having ignored Denmark's neutrality invaded Jutland to protect it from the nasty Brits and then took a sizeable number of the 60k produced Danish KragJørgensen rifles for 'safe keeping' only to mysteriously loose them.

Oops, sorry DK we appear to have lost ze rifles..

[Sandgroper]

Yep, that idea certainly stuck around! :G

PS When did the Norwegians use the Krag in the trenches?

They didn't need to: In WW1 Herr Kaiser saw how well equipped they were and decided not to provoke them...

Oh dear! :lol:

That's the spirit, George*. If nothing else works, then a
total pig-headed unwillingness to look facts in the face
will see us through.

Gen Melchett, Private Plane, Blackadder goes forth.

*meles meles