Question for the gunsmiths.

[ovenpaa]

I would say there are literally hundreds if not thousands of rifles that have had the barrels shortened and threaded and/or crowned and not submitted for Proof. Just before we moved to the Wolds I was approached by a large gun shop who asked me if I could take maybe 5-6 rifles a week and screw cut them to accept sound moderators, drop them off on a Monday and collect them end of the week. They needed the work to be 'Trade transactions so no need for Proof' We moved before it could be taken any further and as far as I know they still use the same RFD for the work.

The issue as far as the Proof houses are concerned is the structural integrity of the barrel has been changed and as such the firearm should be resubmitted for testing. The worry is always going to be people doing such work without thinking things through and an example would be adding a 1/2"x20tpi thread to the end of a 9,3mm bore barrel. I have had a few rifles come in with barrels that have obviously been threaded with a die as opposed to being machine screw cut, another interesting find is people will sometimes walk into an engineering machine shop and ask that the end of the barrel is threaded with no consideration for correct set-up or thread standard. These same rifles are still in use on a daily/weekly basis years later without issues and displaying good accuracy regardless of how wrong the practice is.

[Blackstuff]

I didn't say that it didn't need it, just that I didn't think it was necessary as they don't check the integrity of the barrel particularly, especially the muzzle end.

Unless the gun had an exceptionally thin barrel and the person cutting it used a hammer and chisel to take the end of the barrel off I just don't see how you could take the gun out of proof, given the method they use to assess it.

[ovenpaa]

Agreed.