Vince Green

Some .22 rifles are fussy about thier ammo, some are not. Its horses for courses, find one you like and stick to it.

There are gun breakers just as there are car breakers. Old guns get turned into spare parts so any decent gunmaker should know somewhere to contact.

I think it is entirely reasonable that the authorities would be watching who's selling and who's buying stuff like night vision equipment. If you just do it once you would not show up but if your e-bay address keeps cropping up you will start to appear on lists of people that need to be investigated. Your record would then reflect that you have been looked at. By collecting lots of random information like this thats how they start to build up the big picture. Its just intellegence gathering and it goes on all the time.

You can have a section 5 pistol on an FAC and there are people who have them, but not many. Its only a FAC and the procedure for applying for the licence is exactly the same. Its only the police and Home Office that control the criteria. As with all licencing of firearms the devil is in the criteria. However, the two section 5 dealers I know in London seem to get enough business to keep their shops open and pay the rent. The sort of stuff they sell isn't bought by vets.

At one time all FACs were open. Restricting them is just a police tactic which makes our lives more difficult. When you think about it there is no reason why you should be restricted. If you are a safe and responsible person (which you are or you wouldn't have an FAC) what difference does it make where you shoot? You are "cleared" to shoot on one farm but not the one next door - ridiculous! By doing this we gradually come to accept another meaningless piece of regulation. I have even heard of the police doing it with shotgun certificates now. People getting SGCs with clay shooting only on them - why?

Aren't they guaranteed for life? Talk to Henry Kranks or Tim Hannam

The trouble is it will all be mixed up. It could be different batches of cases even if it all came out of the same box. Yes you can reload it but is it really worth it? Milspec cases are good enough for the purpose they are made for but don't have to be target quality cases.

Why not check it out on the International Ammunition Association Forum? www.cartridgecollectors.org

Its illegal to buy or own expanding bullets unless you have a variation on your FAC to own them for hunting purposes. Since .357 is not an approved calibre for foxes or deer you are not likely to get that. Although a .357 would kill a fox with no problem at 100yds the rifle would not be accurate enough to ensure a clean kill. Anyway, nobody is stocking the bullets so its a moot point. Best FMJ bullet is the Sellier and Bellot 158grn. Don't be confused by some of these copper plated lead bullets which look like jacketed.

Your Marlin barrel won't like those lead bullets. There are two types of barrel fitted to the Marlin and by far the commonest is the microgroove barrel which really needs a jacketed bullet. Other than that fine. Bullseye is OK for carbines but slower powders like Unique or blue dot are better. Also, all this talk of jacketed soft points is a bit off topic because you can't buy them.

There is an interesting twist on the .22-250 and any other calibre which is over the velocity or energy requirement. I was told this but haven't seen it in writing. Many people have assumed that all they have to do is download the round to make it legal but its not that easy. The "authorities" whoever they may be (police, MOD or the NRA I'm not sure) have decided that they have no way of checking whether your rounds are legal or not. You could be lying or just got your sums wrong, equally you could have picked up the wrong box of ammo. Therefore all calibres are deemed to be of factory velocity irrespective of what evidence you can produce to the conterary. So its no use turning up with a loading manual or whatever and expecting to be allowed to shoot your reloads. I believe, but can't be sure, that this applies to all ranges. I am down at Bisley on Thursday so I will try to get it clarified.

CZ550Kevlar you are not allowed to do that. The range you describe is almost certainly licenced for pistol calibres only. Lots of clubs have had the same idea and have asked the question about downloading C/F rifles. The answer is always the same - no. There is a list somewhere which defines what is regarded as a pistol calibre and stuff like .308 no matter how its loaded is not legal.

Over 20 years ago we invited a guest to come shooting on some land owned by another friend. It was duck flighting, the ducks used to come over at dusk on their way to the lakes where they spent the night. We put our guest in the best spot in front of a big bush right where the ducks usually come over. I remember now that he had bought some special cartridges for the occasion. They were French Gevelot cartridges, blue plastic with a high chrome base and very distintive. Many years later the owner of the land was trimming back the bush and found one of the blue plastic cases deep inside and remembered the guest who had used them. apart from the fact that the base had gone rusty the case hadn't degraded at all after all that time.

The ammo I reload for my .303 is a lot dearer than some of the ammo I could buy. I tend not to reload as much as I used to. If you try to justify it on cost alone you have to load a lot of ammo to get back your initial investment. However, by reloading you can create a load thats taylored to your rifle and it really does increase your enjoyment.

It doesn't matter anyway. Pierced primers aren't a safety issue in a shotgun. The pressures are too low to cause any concern.

Yes, LG is the largest size that is legal .36". As Steve says thats approx 9mm.

If its an allotment with lots of human activity they probably aren't that sensitive about smell but don't risk it unless you have to. If the allotment holders have been troubled with rabbits for a long time they have probably tried all the old tricks to deter them like pee-ing on the ground near the holes where they get in or soaking string in creosote and wrapping it around the holes.

I have a 1917 SMLE that I bought about ten years ago. Don't get too much chance to use it these days but I will be down at Bisley with it on 23rd. With good ammo they shoot well but most of the surplus stuff now is rubbish. I buy Sellier and Bellot or load my own. Don't run away with the idea these were super accurate rifles. They have their limitations.

Hoppes, 009 or shooters choice are best. You are always going to get some leading, its inevetable.

Just call me ignorant but where is Sywell? Just for the record, the Competence Certificate is an MOD requirement and nothing to do with NRA . The MOD want proof that all people using their ranges are competent because if they allow somebody who is not competent use the range and there is an accident they might be found negligent. So its a massive cost to shooters and clubs against the remote possibility that the MOD might just have to fork out at some stage in the future if a claim was ever made against them. It would be better to put a pound a time on the range bookings and use it to cover an insurance. However, there is a downside, as it can be seen from this thread, it makes life for the simple honest shooter far more complicated and events much harder to organise. There is already evidence that the Police have picked up on it and are now asking for certificates when granting or renewing FACs. What I find most baffling is why the certificates have to be renewed each year? If you are competent that doesn't change from one year to the next. I was passed competent to drive a car when I was 18 and that was it.

Why release them? Going back a couple of pages on this thread. I thought we had agreed that releasing vermin, once captured, was illegal but we couldn't decide what law actually said that. I would still like to get that point clarified if we could because that really would be useful.

Have a look at the fox traps section of www.trapman.co.uk You can see how many times they stress the "humaine" aspect of the traps and while they don't actually say about re-releasing the foxes that clearly is the implied intent. The average Mr or Mrs housholder would have no way of killing or disposing of a fox. Neither would they probably want to. There used to be a man who operated around Ruislip who called himself "The Fox Man" who would trap foxes and take them away to be re-released. He was some kind of misguided do gooder but I know the local council used to refer enquiries to him. I haven't heard him mentioned recently, perhaps he's given up. I really can't see the RSPCA doing that much to rehab foxes. They are pretty cynical when it comes to money and vets cost plenty.

There were a lot of these around a few years ago but that is a particularly nice one. Unless you can get a dealer (not necessarily a gun dealer) to put it up in their shop and sell it on comission I guess e-bay.

The police do routinely sell guns handed in for disposal. That is a matter of fact and its official police policy. They put them through the auctions in the normal way. I think that what appears to have happened here is a little private enterprise.

Releasing foxes is probably illegal but the RSPCA certainly do it, however they are a law unto themselves and as such untouchable. There are a number of pest control companies who offer "humane" trapping of urban foxes so that the little housewives who pay them about £60+ per fox can know that the fox is going to have a nice long life with all its friends in the country. Actually, the same arguement applies to squirrels and its the same pest control companies that are re-releasing them as well. I would actually like to know what the law is on this because I have often been told its illegal but I don't know which law is being broken.