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A hypothetical question lets suppose some one had the necessary equipment reamers go/no go gauges etc. to remove a barrel from the action of a rifle and re chamber it. Rethread it and refit it to the action. The guy is not a registered firearms dealer or a registered gun smith. How would that work is it legal.
Is there a process that covers this sort of thing or does it have to go to a registered gun smith.

Provided that you have slots for the firearm and spare barrel(s) on your tickets I'm pretty sure that this is entirely legal. I believe that you don't even need to get it proofed unless you wish to sell or transfer it.

As Gaz says, entirely legal however in theory you will need to be with him whilst the work is carried out or at least when the barrel has been chambered.

GazMorris wrote:Provided that you have slots for the firearm and spare barrel(s) on your tickets I'm pretty sure that this is entirely legal. I believe that you don't even need to get it proofed unless you wish to sell or transfer it.

As Gaz says legit, & when you make the new chamber you need 2 slots on your FAC one for action+new barrel the other for the removed barrel. The only thing you cant do is chop up the old barrel. only an RFD can do that (& report as destroyed) or simply hand it to the police & they will destroy. If you cut a barrel up i.e. short, many police will view that as creating an illegal item under the dodgy Blairite firearms act.

Not sure poss somebody can comment - if you cut the barrel in half axially to reveal the rifling & chamber? whats the law?

You cant sell it without proof but can use it. Not sure about letting others use it though?

I normally chop the barrel through the throat of the chamber and keep the barrel for the odd spacer or cut it just in front and cross section it. Both are OK as far as I am concerned.

You can legally ask an RFD to swap a barrel with like for like chambering without applying for a variation and in theory you could even do the job yourself as long as you have the means to remove the barrel and chamber and head space the replacement. Theoretically you have a rifle on your certificate, not a rifle action, separating barrel from receiver is not an issue however there is that few minutes when the new barrel is finished and the old one is still on the bench and in rush loads of people in black.... Somehow I doubt that is really going to happen so as long as you are sensible you should be OK.

1: So in theory if I was to cut the chamber off and hand that back to my registered fire arms dealer for disposal I could keep the rest of the barrel and the action as long as I don't do any thing dodgy with it. If I subsequently wanted to change the calibre using the original action then I would need a slot on my certificate to cover the new barrel.

2: How does it work if you want to re chamber the original barrel in a different calibre 6.5x55 to 6.5x47 for example I assume the first thing you would have to do is get a slot for the new calibre if you don't all ready have one.

Alpha1 wrote:1: So in theory if I was to cut the chamber off and hand that back to my registered fire arms dealer for disposal I could keep the rest of the barrel and the action as long as I don't do any thing dodgy with it. If I subsequently wanted to change the calibre using the original action then I would need a slot on my certificate to cover the new barrel.

2: How does it work if you want to re chamber the original barrel in a different calibre 6.5x55 to 6.5x47 for example I assume the first thing you would have to do is get a slot for the new calibre if you don't all ready have one.

In theory if you cut the chamber off you just created a pistol barrel & broke the law?

Yes you need the slot for whichever cal you want to buy & then have, e.g i am looking at buying a 6mmBR & turning it into a 308 TR so am putting FAC in to ass 6mmBR so i can buy the action / donor rifle. So by same rationale in answer to no 2 above you need 6.5x55 to buy it & 6.5x47 to adapt it.

One thing I will say DIY smithing is fine but remember the police have a particular problem with conversion of deacts or lookalikes to live firing, even people creating their own firearms for illegal sale or purposes. So by the same rationale they may become quite interested in people with the equipment & ability to do this work. I would make sure my house is very much in order or become an RFD!

Yes I understand things could become sticky but I am not looking to do anything that is not entireley legal. Hence my questions.