barrel extension

sniperman

hi all,might be a daft question so go easy on me:pbut in the case of a .22 with a 16"barrel,and wanting to extend it back to around 20",if say a parker hale mod was permently fixed,welded etc,to the barrel,by a gun smith,would that then become the barrel,and be classed as the overall length,making the barrel the required legal 50cm+?thanks all,

clivej

sniperman wrote: »

hi all,might be a daft question so go easy on me:pbut in the case of a .22 with a 16"barrel,and wanting to extend it back to around 20",if say a parker hale mod was permently fixed,welded etc,to the barrel,by a gun smith,would that then become the barrel,and be classed as the overall length,making the barrel the required legal 50cm+?thanks all,

I don't think that would do. You could feck up the barrel with a weld easy enough.

But if your rifle came with a 16" barrel then your OK (I know it's a grey area)
The big no no seems to be your not allowed to shorten the barrel below a certain length.

Sparks

clivej wrote: »

But if your rifle came with a 16" barrel then your OK (I know it's a grey area)

It's a gray area so by definition you're not okay.
You may be okay; or you may not be. Nobody knows for certain right now.
Hence, "gray area". We've been trying to be explicit about this in case someone read something the wrong way, thought they were fine and wound up in a deep hole full of brown smelly stuff because of that.

The big no no seems to be your not allowed to shorten the barrel below a certain length.

Yeah, that's banned outright. The only exception is that an RFD is allowed cut the barrel down below that limit (it's 50cm for rifles, 61cm for shotguns) if and only if they're doing it to fix a problem with the barrel by cutting off a bit and immediately replacing that bit.

As to whether or not a welded-on moderator would count towards barrel length, nobody knows because none of this has come before a judge for a ruling yet, but my opinion would be that there are seperate mentions of barrels and moderators in the act so they're regarded in law as seperate things, and there are also seperate mentions of overall lengths of firearms and lengths of barrels so the law's not completely simple when it comes to measurements, so there would be grounds to say no. I wouldn't bet my car on it.

Cass

I would say no. A barrel is rifled, a Mod is not. As Sparks said they are defined separately under the law. Otherwise you could weld anything onto your barrel and be good.

An option would be to visit a dealer, see if they have any old models of the gun for destruction/sale and take the barrel of it. It'll require no change of license as the barrel is the same caliber.

sniperman

thanks lads for replies,i know there have been no courts cases as of yet about this subject,i did read the legislation,and seen the words lawful authority and reasonable excuse,afaik,a person can own a rifle with a barrel less than 50cm,with lawful authority or reasonable excuse,ill focus on the reasonable excuse part,would it not be a reasonable excuse,that a person fell out hunting,the top of the barrel got wedged in some rocks and was bent/damaged beyond repair,and had to be cut for it to shoot right again?would that not be a reasonable excuse?or have i got it all wrong?thanks all

Cass

In short - no.

The law says, quite clearly, the barrel must be built back to 50 cm (or above) if it was cut to repair damage. The "lawful authority" or "reasonable excuse" are legal terms and not something you can think up. Lawful authority is infact your license. That gives you the legal authority to possess the gun. The grey area arises from the fact that the legislation says you cannot have a rifle with such a short barrel, yet because the FCA1 does not ask barrel length the issue does not come up in the application process, meaning when you are granted the license you have lawful authority.

Then we are back to the fact that a Super, by issuing the license, cannot supercede the law and so the license might even be void (not even going to touch that can of worms) when issued. Also it's up the person, and the legal onus is on you, to know what is legal and what license is appropriate and obtainable. Much like the "do i need a restricted/unrestricted license" issue. It's up to you.


To cut to the point lad you have four options:

1. Keep it, and hope you don't get stopped and questioned about it
2. Replace the barrel with a legal one
3. Somehow manage to have a gunsmith build the barrel back up with a barrel (not a suppressor, tubing, pipe, etc)
4. Scrap the gun and cut your losses.