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WHY?! oh why oh why do people insist on destroying perfectly good S1 firearms!

Just seen a post on another forum from someone who owns an original L81A1 cadet target rifle. In itself it's not worth a great deal, but not many of these rifles made it out of Government service. He can't be bothered to keep up his FAC, so instead of allowing someone else to buy his single-shot S1 rifle, keeping it intact, he's getting it deactivated. Selfish sodding !!!

Words fail me when I come across ads for mint condition Enfields that have been deactivated. I can understand getting ratty old guns de-ac'd to put over the fireplace, but I just don't understand how people insist on permanently destroying perfectly good firearms!

<puts soapbox away and slinks off to bed>

Too true. In the last couple of years I have seen a stunning 4(T) boxed and an equally nice and very original Kar98 Sniper, both had been deactivated... At least when people like Terry Abrams deactivates a rifle he uses the most worn out of parts he can find, builds and then deactivates the rifle so at least the parts that could never be realistically used again can be put to some use.

I've seen mint S1 firearms go to waste in such a way, some incredibly rare pieces too,

1903 springfields aren't that uncommon deactivated yet an S1 will set you back over £1000 a deact is tops £700
Many LLEs and MLEs have gone this way too

I've told the story many times of the Colt Bisley Flat top in an obsolete caliber, which was deactivated......

Sim G wrote:I've told the story many times of the Colt Bisley Flat top in an obsolete caliber, which was deactivated......

The deactivation of obsolete calibre firearms is rapidly being a pet peeve of mine.

I've just started researching Victorian era uniforms with a view to being "in uniform" for our local museum next year, and the number of times I've found S58 revolvers that have been deactivated is driving me even further around the twist!

WTF do they do it? :cool2:

I have a deac lee Enfield no4 mk2 hanging in my study along with a K98 I bought the pair of them some years ago for a small amount from a shop selling them on behalf of a customer, the mauser is pretty past it,but the Enfield would have been a good shooting rifle. I can see why people do this as the Enfield is now worth considerably more as a wall hanger than as a shooter :( with our laws the market will always be skewed towards deacs due to the cost of keeping a live firearm in a sealed case.

Sandgroper wrote:WTF do they do it? :cool2:

I'd hassard nothing more than ignorance, which makes it an even bigger travesty. Was it not dromia who stated, (paraphrased) " with anitique arms, the current owner is merely the custodian and has a duty to pass history on to the next generation."....?

It was with a sick, sadistic pleasure that I told the bloke selling the Bisley that he'd turned a $10000 gun into 1500 quid lump of steel..... The look on his face!

As it turned out, I was wrong. The gun he'd deactivated was a lot more rare than I thought. In fact, only 17 of them having been produced. Fellas on a US forum at the time reckoned it would have been anything between 20 and 100000 dollars US.....

A real shame! Old service rifles are getting more expensive to buy as well as to find!

Ok You lot-the jury.

What I have is a P14 with target stock rebarreled 7.62.
It has no provision for scope mounting and the price of engineering would be megga.
It cost me £150 two years back and I have never fired it,apart from trying at the range.
It is single shot and the extractor is the wrong one,so feeds round in ok,but no eject.
What has crossed my mind is to deact it and hang it on the wall above the reloading bench.
Perhaps then apply for a one for one for an LBR 357Mag.
Any thoughts-what do you think?

Bryan.

BRYAN3 wrote:Ok You lot-the jury.

What I have is a P14 with target stock rebarreled 7.62.
It has no provision for scope mounting and the price of engineering would be megga.
It cost me £150 two years back and I have never fired it,apart from trying at the range.
It is single shot and the extractor is the wrong one,so feeds round in ok,but no eject.
What has crossed my mind is to deact it and hang it on the wall above the reloading bench.
Perhaps then apply for a one for one for an LBR 357Mag.
Any thoughts-what do you think?

Bryan.

Offer it to Meles Meles (Badger), he's looking for a project!