lee enfield 1917

[dogdog47]

Hi Harry
this is how peaple collected guns in the uk before ryton arms thought of deacs i think. gust have them smooth bored and on a shotgun ticket.
simples
oh for the good old days
nice smle though and a very good price too well done
Andy

[Adrian Stevenson]

Hi Dave, yet another bargain buy

Hi Andy, these used to be advertised every week in "Exchange & Mart" magazine back in the 1970's. Shotgun certs were fairly easy to obtain and were a popular way of collecting or re-enacting back then. Now changes in the law, lack of people doing the conversion work, costs, have made this kind of item dry up.

While I am a big fan of Rytons, the late Tony did not invent deacts Deacts were rare before 1988.

Cheers, Ade.

[dave1963]

i think the 410 will also fire a .45 long colt ....

[dogdog47]

Hi Ade
do you know the history of deacs?
I would love to know more
Andy

[HARRY THE MOLE]

Hi Ade
do you know the history of deacs?
I would love to know more
Andy

If I recall correctly, it was World Wide Arms who forced the issue of deactivated guns back in 1986 or 1987. It had been accepted in law that a gun could be put beyond use by deactivating the main components. But it appeared that the good old British Police Force were not prepared to accept a deactivated firearm as legal. Some Police Forces would accept them, but others wouldn't.

I recall phoning up Cheshire Police HQ and talking to a certain Police Sergeant in the firearms department. I asked him if it would be alright for me to buy a deactivated Lee-Enfield. He told me in no uncertain terms that if I was found in posession of as much as a trigger-guard he would do me. I went ahead and purchased the gun anyway - complete with bayonet for £49. Deactivated guns didn't have a deactivation certificate back then. It was a proof-house certificate explaining why the gun couldn't be proofed.

It was shortly after I purchased it that Cheshire Police finally accepted deactivated guns. The main sellers back then were World Wide Arms, Manton Arms and Ryton Arms.

As a child at the end of the 50's, I used to play in the street with a Lee-Enfield rifle. I also had a Mauser Gew98 (minus bolt) which came out of a neighbour's coal-house, and a luger (minus grips and magazine) which was given to me by a friend of the family. My friends and I used to play Japs and Commando's with them and nobody ever bothered. These days the armed response team turn up for kids playing with water pistols. How times change!

[John Brandon]

I remember going to a boot sale in 1985 and bought a wartime K98 matching numbers for £50. It was de-acted, it had the barrel cut in half and a piece welded in place of the missing bit, and the bolt welded shut

Those were the days

[dogdog47]

Hi All
i remember paying £80 for a old speck sten £80 for a lanchester. £100 for any bren, £350 for a vickers & tripod i also had a bar £130 a vickers berthier £200 Smle £80 no4 £80 all from ryton wow wish i still had them.
just a thgought but why are the prices so high i know the dealers pay a little more than scrap value the proof house charge around £35 for the ticket so why would a new speck browning mg cost £700 to £900 or a 50cal £1500 this feels like i am having my pants pulled down if i was to pay!!
I have also noticed that some guns are chopped badly and i mean really messy rarther than easy to put back in use should we pay for guns that are wrecked? Just becouse we have no choice i payed £160 for a 38 webly and scott and it had so much metal swarf in the meck i had to strip and rebuild just so the action would work. just thinking out loud as they say.
Andy

[HARRY THE MOLE]

When Inter-Arms of Manchester were shutting up shop Sten-guns were £35 each, and you could buy job-lots of cased Brens for next to nothing. And John, that K98 you are on about. I had a Gew98 which had been shortened to K98 length and welded solid and cut just like yours. It had been done by Baptey's for the film industry.

I suppose prices are high because they know people will pay that. For instance who the hell can really say that a Russian Maxim model 1912 is worth around £400? No modern army would want them, and no militia would want them either. They are too heavy for modern warefare, so they only have scrap value - which wouldn't be that great anyway. Someone is making an absolute killing from this stuff, and it's not the proof-house either. There is always an argument for some of the rarer stuff, but many types of weapons are far from being rare. The Vickers gun in my avatar was purchased from Ryton Arms around 1993. It is an 'L' series VSM gun on a 1926 dated tripod, and it cost me £395. I think you could possibly put a zero on the end of that to get one now.

[dogdog47]

Hi Harry you did well with the vickers
i remember at the time i wanted to purchase half a dozen or so for the future i told the wife they would only go up in value. she was having non of it.
just another reason to never listen to the wife
Andy

[HARRY THE MOLE]

Hi Harry you did well with the vickers
i remember at the time i wanted to purchase half a dozen or so for the future i told the wife they would only go up in value. she was having non of it.
just another reason to never listen to the wife
Andy

Hi Andy,
There was a time when you really could get these guns cheap. I used to by them just to restore. I ended up doing no less than eleven Vicker's guns - not to mention Geman WW1 Maxims and Lewis guns. The very last Vicker's gun I had cost me £600. It was a 'C' series gun on a 1916 dated tripod. The gun itself was one of the much rarer 'light-pattern' models with the milled-out receiver plates and trunnion-block. It had been de-activated in such a way that the left and right barrel-extension plates and crank could be withdrawn from the rear. My wife used to go spare when I had this stuff in the house. It is only now that she realises how much could be made from them. But it's far too late now, the days of buying cheap have long gone!

Harry.