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"Replica" air handguns.


Cranfield
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Following the shooting in Aston, Birmingham, the newspapers and the radio news have been full of the ease in which anyone can purchase replica air powered handguns, that can "easily" be converted to fire standard handgun ammunition.

 

It has also been suggested that there are replica machine pistols that are available for airgunners, that can also be "easily" converted.

 

I am aware that you can fire a shotgun cartridge with a length of pipe, a hammer and a nail, so anything is "convertible".

I am not a current airgun owner/user/enthusiast, so

, ignoring this type of example, is it true that these weapons are available and can be "easily" converted ?

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Apparently it can be done,but to do it you need some fairly good engineering skills and equipment and bearing in mind they arnt made for the purpose be brave enough to fire it.I think if i wanted a pistol it would probably be far easier and cheaper to buy a smuggled one, that are now entering this country from overseas (russia etc).I dont know if anyone else remembers this but i thought that when these air cartridge pistols came out first back in the 80s (saxby palmer i think at the time) the cylenders were delibritly machined so they were toweak to fire a live round (you could see a portion of the cartridge)they seem to have stopped doing this,anyone know why?

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Apart from being illegal to convert to live rounds, it is extremely dangerous.  The guns were only designed for air and the use of a live round could cause the barrel to fracture.  Also, some air pistols have parts made from pug metal (a kind of die cast alloy) which is very brittle.

 

I'm sure that it would not be very difficult for the manufcturers to make them in such a way that they would be unable to be converted to fire live rounds.

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The reason for my post, was to get a reaction from some of the "airgunners" on the Forum.

I understand neil and Hammergun,s coments, I would think that a converted replica gun would be very dangerous (almost suicidal), to use with "real" ammunition.

So, is the information in the news media incorrect (perhaps not for the first time), or are we kidding ourselves and these things can be made to work ?

 

The Government are getting a lot of stick at the moment that, even after banning legally licensed handguns, "gun crime" is increasing.

The quick "Knee jerk" reaction, of minimum 5 years in prison, for being in posession of an unlicensed firearm, has been scrapped.

 

So, "knee jerks" aren,t fashionable with this Government at the moment.

This may mean that airgun licensing may not be considered, for the time being.

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