Bren blueprints...

[tankhunter]

Boggling indeed. Just what sort of crime do they think someone is going to commit with an old Bren or SLR flash-hider? 'Old Lady Brutally Mugged With Gun Flash-Hider' is certainly a headline I've yet to see.

Mark

The merciless Mugger may well want to go to all the trouble of paying for an SLR, then removing the F/Eliminator & Hieniously poke her in the eye with it! ( I wouldnt be suprised if that would have been a Police logical response!)

[peregrinvs]

This UK outfit does repro Mk2 Bren barrels which include original flash-hiders:

Toggle rope, reenactment, Piat, Smatchet, hairbrush grenade,

Would the Home Office approve?

Mark

[tankhunter]

Well, IM not telling them what he is selling!.......

There is I belive a way round flash hiders. You bore out the centre hole so it is TOO big to fit a Real Barrel. It then will ONLY fit a replica 'Barrel' that has a muzzle diameter to fit it!

I have heard this story from a chap I know of making replica L7 GPMGs. He has to machine out the original mounting threads on flash hiders & recut a bigger thread to fit his REPLICA barrel.
Crazy I know, but it DOES get around the guidelines LAWFULLY!

[Peter Laidler]

It sounds a bit like the 'thing used to diminish the noise or flash' nonsense that's sooooooooo often quoted. Fit a readily available across the counter sound moderator to a rifle and it's unlawful (with exceptions of course....) but fit the same to your .22" air gun or shotgun and it's perfectly lawful. The law of the bleedin obvious would say that same must apply to a 'thing to dimish flash' Fitted to a No5 or an L1A1 and it's unlawful but to something that's not a firearm, such as a deact, then by definition, it must be legal.

The same MUST apply to a deact or replica barrel. If it didn't, they wouldn't be selling them fitted to deacts.

[LesterH]

The flash hider on my D/A SLR is welded on to the D/A barrel. A "friend" had a sitution where by he wanted a flash hider fitted to a D/A BAR. To be legal, a section 5 gun dealer had to screw on and fit the flash hider to the D/a Bar.
My .22 Air Arms Pro Sport has a Walther Lohar barrel fitted as standard and I don't need a licence.
Those that sit in power over us in the UK. Should realise it's the illegal hand guns and £25 AK47s that cause the crime and not the militaria collectors.

[peregrinvs]

Presumably some bright spark at the Home Office decided that flash hiders were - like removable grenade launcher attachments - technically a removable pressure bearing component and so therefore they had to be deactivated in some way. I assume this was decided when the deact specifications were tightened up in 1995 as my 1991 deactivated MkII Inglis doesn't have the flash-hider permanently pinned on, whereas my other 3 deact Brens were deactivated after 1995 and they have the flash-hiders permanently attached. Ditto the deactivated Mk1 barrel I got last year when WWA briefly had a batch.

I expect it was done for reasons of technical legal loophole avoidance rather than there actually being a real world danger of misuse. Therefore common sense doesn't come into it.

[LesterH]

Agreed as above. Most of my D/As are post 1995.

[tankhunter]

Basicaly, this all stems from the likes of Browning .30" Cal, MG34 & 42's, Etc Etc. IE: the barrels WERE Pinned in place & welded to spec.
HOWEVER, it was discovered that SOME People found that if you unscrewed the UNwelded Flash eleim off one of THESE variants of Deact. IF, you dropped it HARD on the muzzle of the barrel. This would shear the retaining pin & the Barrel would be VERY easily removed form the reciever!

To counter this, the LONDON Proof Master insisted that Flash Elims would be welded/pinned in situ. To prevent thier removal. Now somewhere down the line the words 'Flash Hider MUST be pinned or Welded to the reciever'. Has gotten a little bit confused. & the wording has been 'Generalised & sort of accepted into ALL Deact specs from then on!

At the end of the Day, it is THE Proofmaster who has the last say in anything connected with passing a deact. If he INSISTs on a flash elim being welded on. You Will NOT[/ get it passed unless this is done! It's HIS way, Or NO way. Unfair? yes. But His word is FINAL. HE has the last word, end of!

[peregrinvs]

Basicaly, this all stems from the likes of Browning .30" Cal, MG34 & 42's, Etc Etc. IE: the barrels WERE Pinned in place & welded to spec.
HOWEVER, it was discovered that SOME People found that if you unscrewed the UNwelded Flash eleim off one of THESE variants of Deact. IF, you dropped it HARD on the muzzle of the barrel. This would shear the retaining pin & the Barrel would be VERY easily removed form the reciever!

Reminds me of when I bought the aforementioned MkII Inglis at Beltring in 2009. I was trotting around some of the stalls with it prior to heading back to the car and one of the stall holders had a peer at it. He then cheerfully suggested that if I gave the end of the barrel a good whack with a mallet, I might be able to break the welds and get it off. At which point I made a swift exit...

[LesterH]

Most of the Gunsmiths doing deactivation work. Have their own interpritation on what is required to de activate. Usually it's to chop the pressure parts. Bolt action rifles and machine guns can still dry fire. Assault rifles,SMGs and automatic rifles are now full weld ups.
If you don't wish to D/A via the Proof Master, you must appeal to the Home Secritary ( I don't know any one who has done this).
May I just point out. To hold a D/A gun in the UK it must be both stamped and certified by either the London or Birmingham Proof House. If you bring in a D/A firearm from main land Europe it will still be considered to be "live" until stamped and certified by The Proof House. German Deactivations FAIL the UK Proof House tests.

Kind regards, Lester