clayman

GTA RFD members using the TNT contract, and BASC members using the ParcelForce contract have higher carriage costs in those contracts than casual parcels over the counter, but the BASC / GTA are insured to a set limit, while casual parcels non-contract are no compensation. Its likely the lower priced senders are not members of either of these Professional associations, and use the no compensation services. Bostonmick makes the subtle point:- provide a good service and you don't want for people willing to pay a fair price. So, the market is self regulatory. Those who want low costs engage the cheap dealers, but may have hassles when things go wrong, particularly lost or damaged goods. Those who prefer to have peace of mind that should anything go awry the dealer will sort it out satisfactorily will pay more for that peace of mind. There are also regional differences. Certainly, home counties have typical trademan's rates of £50 / hr + from contract firms, while in Yorkshire it can be half that, and central London double! What is a fair charge does depend on a persons location and business style. A self employed person working from home or part time can be satisfied with half or less that a High St business employing staff needs to cover. My own small gun shop needed £8000 pm T/O to break even, before the operators could take any profit. Indirect charges coming from staff wages and other admin and premises costs were about £2500 pm. Thats a lot of £25's! and its little wonder gun shops across the country are closing when customers do not support local services and prefer to discounters who probably have little after-service that the High St retailer provides by building this into his pricing. RFD's have a professional duty of care, and if they get things wrong with aspects of the service can risk fines, criminal offence and custody sentencing, and loss of RFD license and livelihood. In my own view, even an average £25 RFD charge is well under its true worth and the trade is doing shooter's a big favour in operating at round these typical charges. It may look easy and cheap to a lay person, but once you have been in the trade you realise it is not so simple as might be perceived. And as far a packing and sending is concerned, yes there is a skill and care needed. We have had guns turn up here direct into a bin bag, no box or bubble, barrels poking through - and not just once! We see some terrible packing arriving, but the big dealers who charge a proper price send beautifully boxed and wrapped parcels where damage is most unlikely. Well done Greenfields for the trophy in this aspect from me. If RFD services are unskilled, it should be possible to train some-one in 10 minutes to deal with this - but its very complex, and has repercussions if you get it wrong. Some dealers require every process is checked or duplicated ( Chris Potters gun shop a great example, very careful double checking on every register entry, a joy to observe such professional conduct).

Yes, if my maths is right, £25 at each end is the same as a £50 fee for all in. You can pay a single RFD £50 to deal with collection, carriage and reporting from the destination end, there is no requirement in law for two RFds to be involved, and single RFD can arrange collected carriage forward directly from the seller without a sending RFD; - or two RFd's one sending on behalf of the seller, and one receiving for the buyer - It adds up to the same. Also, no-one is stating whether the fees they are paying include the carriage charges or not. RFD's commonly use either the BASC parcel Force contract at about £15-00 nett carriage costs, plus their packing time and materials, or the GTA TNT contract that a bit more, around £20-00. A £10 fee will not include this, while a £50 probably does, and a £20 fee person needs to charge this on top unless they are doing all the admin on top, so that will still come to £35 to £45 gross, with yet another £20/£25 to pay at the other end. Any-one who feels that £25 each end / £50 full service is unreasonable should consider what their charge rate for their own services is? Doubt you would see much of a living from charging at £25 a job In order to earn a reasonable living, few tradesmen can charge less than £40 / 50 hr for their professional services including premises, van. tools, storage , computers, insurance, rent, rates, boo keeping services etc etc. The general rule of charge rates is that a business needs to return 3x the basic salary the employee receives. So, if a gun retailer expects to earn £20 /hr, his charge rate should be £60 /hr. Will the £10 RFD accept liability for the gun's stock broken in transit? Doubt it - while the £50 shop is likely correctly insured, will give you a loan gun while your stocks repaired, deal directly with their own insurers and not leave you with the hassle of trying to claim on your household goods away from home, or suing the carrier for negligence / losses. Is the £20 RFD a trade member of the GTA, and therefore applying a professional conduct code and having arbitration available? Or a BASC trade member with secure RFD transfer contracts ? There are many persons negligently sending guns via non-dangerous goods contracts. These have no compensation for loss or damage under most courier rules. Send a gun Parceforce at the Post-office counter and they will send it, but if its lost or damaged, no compensation. Will the £10 RFD cough up for your lost Beretta? The GTA / BASC special group contract schemes with Parcel Force and TNT will pay out for loss or damage, but you pay more for the service. Higher quality services cost more for a reason. You pays your money and you get what you pay for. JPY

Yes, while £25 or so is the norm for one end RFD handling, in reality that's a low cost for the service when compared with other professional and trade services. My Chiro chares £33 for 15 mins, Osteo £42 for 1/2hr. My accountant is £120 an hour and my solicitor £200 /hr + vat. My mechanic charges £60 /hr as do most trade services, ie appliance repair people etc. For £25 an RFD has to maintain his RFD costs including the licence, storage security, alarm system monitoring, rent, rates, insurance, IT systems and shotgun register. He has to exchange RFD details with another, receive , unpack and check serial no's. Provide reporting to the National register etc. He has top deal with your initial enquiries, then liaise with you over the source of the gun, make contacts with the third party. Receive and notify you of arrival, then deal with you and your queries when you come to the shop to collect. Realistically, £25 is a bargain. We RFD's do it for this low cost because it brings you into our shop, and we hope we may make further sales to you. If a shop charges £50 vat, it is still a realistic charge. After all, you have not bought the gun prom them and given them any profit. You have hunted around for a bargain elsewhere and then are unhappy that they want a pretty fair charge for their professional assistance in you getting the gun you want at the price you want elsewhere. I can understand where an £50 RFD charger is coming from. He's being financially realistic that you wont be spending money in his shop, but picking up you bits and pieces for the gun off eBay at lower prices, so if you want his help with getting the gun, he wants a proper value for his time and professional service. You can't do an RFD receive and hand over in less than 1/2hr tied up overall, so a £50 fee including the indirect expenses is a very reasonable charge for a highly specialised and professional service. If, on the other hand, you say, I want 1000 carts, a cleaning kit and a new slip for the gun - £250 worth, what will you bundle that in with the RFD transfer? You might see the total price mitigated quite a lot. Jerry PY RFD Sy 396

Full cased new set of 6 Mandel extended SS choke for £125-00 Replacement fit for std flush Invector

E Rizzini has three choke systems depending on the age of the gun that was made 1966 to 1996, and then continued by his nephew I Rizzini until current. The earliest ones has stubby 20mm chokes with 5mm exposed, while the later ones have longer flush chokes, but the thread TPI and position is different on the mid production from the end production, so you will need to ID which specific choke series you have. E Rizz did not make 1/8 skeet M/C ( to the best of my knowledge, never seen one), although he did make dedicated FC skeet guns. To get skeet you will need either to open up 1/4 chokes by 5 thou, or buy in the current aftermarket. I'd suggest Mandel 1/8 sk pair side ported at £34-95 each www.####.co.uk A picture of your existing flush choke will be needed for positive ID of which system you gun has.

Good, I agree with you. There are a few grounds around that insist on showing insurance, Bisley Shooting Ground being one of them. I have to confess to having a vested interest in this, as I am the founder of www.ccc3.co.uk I set this up when I left CPSA full time, as I have always felt that insurance could be better value than BASC / CPSA - and by not having a magazine and using virtual servers etc, our £10m cover remains market leading and as low as £24-95 for a year ( syndicates) or £29-95 individuals. Regards Jerry

Sec 11-6 of the Firearms Act allows the issue of a Permit to a Shooting Ground, and the holder of that permit may allow the use of a shotgun and purchase of cartridges for use at the ground by non-licensed shooters. As the permit holder is responsible for the novice under 11-6, if they allow the use of your gun, they may still require that another club member or an instructor accompanies you, as you may not be deemed sufficiently experienced to be delegated the responsibility of supervision of a novice. As suggested, ring the ground and see what their policy is. The experience of the supervising gun owner will be the biggest issue. Unless the round knows you are sufficiently experienced to take responsible supervision in hand by delegation under their 11-6, you may still need another person they accept to shoot along with you and your friend. Also, have a think about how this person ( your friend) will be insured. Instructors carry professional liability that extends to the pupil, but your insurance will not - so is the ground covering them?

Use a saddle raiser - eBay £11-95 - item 301645439532 Shotgun Comb Raiser Size 1 Cervellati Rubber Saddle - 5mm; comb lift - Brown Place this under a neoprene sleeve such as the Beartooth smoothskin. A comb set slightly high offers no dis-advantage, while a comb too low causes many problems, To test the MINIMUM height needed, use the £1-00 coin test - see the Clay Target Shooters Handbook from CPSA available as a free download .pdf from their website. If you had 4mm on the gun in the lesson, but ended up with 6mm after sleeving, this only makes a gun shoot 6cm ( 2 inches) higher to centre of a 30" pattern at 30m. Providing you are looking over the bead to view the target, not through it as per "aiming" a rifle - then slightly high is advantageous gives parallel sighting along the rib but over the bead. Too low a comb often results in shooters trying to aim the lead through the bead, and the moment the focus is dropped back to the bead to measure lead the gun tends to slow - while a higher comb setting views the target above the bead and the point of the gun is seen in the lower periphery vision as the full length of the rib "pointing" to the correct sight picture / lead.

What cab is it? If a B'sound single lock cab, the lock is made by Walsall Locks, and if a locksmith is engaged he can drill through the lock hole to a particular engagement point, then throw the drilled lock to open the cab., and fit a new lock. The key to opening a cab without damage is knowing the precise lock type fitted, and therefore its particular drill point.

Just so you understand a bit more about what you are trying to do. Firstly, SP barrels are not directly interchangeable. Each barrel is individually factory fitted, and you can't just take a barrel off another gun and fit it to your action, you will need a gunsmith to lap the second barrel in to fit - and if a second barrel is already lapped to another gun it could be undersized for you gun, and therefore sloppy in the action and potentially off the face as a result. While stocks are interchangable, its still not an on-the-moment job, remove the pad with a crosshead screwdriver, and then you need the correct stock T bar to access the stock bolt that's up a long hole in the wood. Unscrew, pull off the action, and put the other stock on. Will take a few minutes. Usual solution is to gut the stock you have to 13" or so for an 11 year old, and use a rubber / neoprene, or leather boot onto that stock to get an adult pull length for your own use. An 11 year old will be seriously handicapped trying to shoot with an adult 14 1/2" pull, likely to be leaning back to cantilever the gun weight, and will inevitably lift their head. Also, comb height for an 11 y/o will be too low, and you will need a comb raiser ( consider the Beartooth comb raisers and stock boots). Bottom line is it would be better to buy a second gun, and have one set-up for the lad, and the other as a std adult gun for you. Will be far easier, and could well be cheaper as you don't need to buy another SP, plenty of Lanber / Medallist / Laurona / Lincoln etc around in the £300-£500 range

ASI ( Anglo Spanish Imports) are the AYA importers, but the Yeoman U/O is obsolete in terms of parts. Chambers has a few parts, but no ejectors- and ASI holds nothing for the U/O series that was produced a number of years ago. Its likely you will strike a blank on finding new replacements and will need to find salvage parts, have yours repaired, or have new ones made by hand.

Mandel-Teague-Type-Taper-Shotgun-Choke-Key-12g-16g-20g-Universal- eBay item no 301641315716

new Lanber or old Lanber - chokes styles are different - original flush, or original stubby exposed? There is more than one original choke type for the Lanber. Stainless steel exposed chokes to fit all Lanber types from £19-95 each, but we need to ID your choke series. www.####.co.uk

www.####.co.uk - ex-stock

pics sent

got several with de-ac certs, rook guns £75; hammer guns £150; damacus £200 - choice of 20+ guns - pics available jerry@abaclays.com

If adaptors are manufactured, imported for sale or distribution in the UK they must be proofed. As this costs £20 or so this makes the resale marked-up retail price on commercially distributed adaptors rather high for what they are, eg the Bisley 12g / .22 is RRP £40 each. Interestingly, I am guided by my FLD that imported adaptors for personal use do not need to be proofed, so if you can find the right choice overseas and import to use yourself it may be a lot cheaper than UK bought ones. Remember to check on the legal aspect of using un-proofed imports, or making up your own, as should an accident occur insurance could argue illegal use, therefore no cover.

The answers are perfectly correct, insofar as there is no reason why an owner cannot undertake the work to the Home Office de-ac spec, and submit it to Birmingham or London for a de-ac certificate. Costs are about as suggested if you DIY, proof house charges and return P&P from them amount to around £45 for a single gun, but there are savings if several are submitted together. Downside is, the Proof House is very strict about the work, and if the DIY work is not up to scratch they will reject the gun for De-ac, and that means it is still as far as the law is concerned it is still a Sectioned gun and can only be returned ia an RFD, entailing further expense. Then the gun will need whatever extra work the Proof House requires, and re-submission with all the fees being paid a second time. Going rate to De-ac a gun is about £100 plus transport costs, and giving it out to some-one who knows their stuff should ensure first time De-ac pass, and also that the work is not crude and nasty, some of the cutting and welding etc is pretty skilled if you want the gun to not look like its been smashed to bits in the process of machining and welding.

There is no requirement in law for a gun cabinet to keep your guns in. The Firearms act requires "adequate security", and this does not need to be a cabinet. Whilst a cabinet properly secured, BS standard, and not viewable through any ground floor window should automatically meet the needs of a risk assessment at a place of storage, its is also possible that a gun that is wired or clamped to a wall, beam, joist etc. will meet the requirements, particularly if that's within a locked environment, ie, locked wardrobe, room, loft, under-stairs, basement etc. There are also instances of gun cabs actually located outside providing sufficient security, so its really a case of getting the FEO around and discussing all the options.

I have two Teague super-extended Blaser F3's, un-used in packets 3/8 and 1/2 - these are £45-00 retail on the Teague site, plus postage - I want £60 the pair posted.

several spare barrels at www.####.co.uk

Escort Mk1 - 12g 1/8th ( skeet), Stainless steel extended choke with side porting by Mandel - RRP £35-95 plus post from Mandel, our one for sale cancelled order, un-used, only £23-90 to clear - delivered.

Is this ST5 two locks, or SL5 vault locks and top box? or MT5+, RD5 or RL5+ ?? B'sound make 5 different 5 gun cabs

Are the ejectors old style ( diagonal lug) or new style ( round lug)? Bare in mind if its old style, that many of these guns are now 30yr+ old, and the old style are very difficult to get spares for where the same parts are not used on the later version. GMK are practically out of all old style spares, and have reserved most of the new style spares for their own workshops, plus doubled the price on everything they will still release. Tread warily, particularly if its the old type, as spares are becoming rare and expensive.

To test the inertia reset system dry, put in two snaps and pull one barrel as normal, then give the gun a good thump butt down onto a carpet or surface that wont damage the pad, and the thump should set the second barrel to fire. If it does, nought wrong with the gun.