Enfield bolt bodies for sale on e-bay UK FAC holders BEWARE.

[Buccaneer]

It is an obvious thing to say that to acquire and posses a firearm in the UK you need to have a valid Firearms Certificate with the correct variations, what some people may not be aware of is that you also need a variation to acquire and posses certain pressure bearing parts. These include the barrel, action, bolt and associated parts including the bolt body, head and firing pin.
There are at present two bolt bodies being offered for sale on ebay by someone in the UK, they are not deactivated, I have checked. Do not be tempted to bid for these items as they can not be legally acquired via this route, it can only be done by getting the necessary variation and purchasing the item from an RFD via a "face to face" transfer. Illegal sale or possession could lead to the loss of your license if discovered.
A variation might be authorised if for instance someone wanted to shoot an historic rifle with a shot out barrel, a variation could be authorised for a new barrel whilst keeping the old barrel for collecting purposes.
If you are outside the UK be warned that all "pressure bearing" parts need to be licensed for export, any item found without the necessary paperwork can be confiscated and destroyed by customs,
For what it's worth I reported both items to e-bay but I don't expect it will come to anything

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[bnz41]

I have also reported these items, Plus over the last several weeks a seller in another country has offered complete SMLE and No4 bolts (not deactivated) for sale within the UK including the price in British pounds and ships world wide on e-bay. To anyone not knowing our laws on firearm ownership and the buying/selling of pressure baring parts ie bolts this would put them in a heap of trouble.

[RobD]

I saw for sale on a UK auction site a revolver in .44 Russian - now, that's an obsolete calibre, hence this should not be a licenced firearm - except this revolver had a shortened barrel, modified (combat) sights, and was being sold with combat holster rig and 50 empty cases.
Any modification of an obsolete weapon renders it non-obsolete, as far as I know.
I notified the police firearms enquiry team about this and they did not seem interested.

[Robert303]

I would hope that most on this forum would be aware of the above but in all my years shooting I am amazed at how ignorant of the Firearms Acts some shooters are. I thought I was pretty clued up on them but have come close to getting caught out by some of the 'odd bits' and to be fair they are so badly written and modified with amendments buried in other legislation it must be a nightmare for new shooters. So well done Buccaneer for pointing this out.

[Beerhunter]

I for one think that the law on the postilion and/or sale of component parts is very clear.

The 1968 Firearms Act clearly states that Section 1 applies to "any component part". Some constabularies have, in the past, interpreted this to literally mean ANY part - and been laughed out of court. However the current interpretation is that Section 57 1 b should be applied to pressure bearing component parts only. For example a Lee-Enfield bolt body. :-)

[Brit plumber]

What if an old deactivated Lee Enfield has a complete bolt body? When I purchased my deac SMLE (I was 13) back in 1990 it came with the bolt body intact from the dealer who deactivated it and it has a London Proof House cert. At the time I never knew what was what but since then I've seen dozens and dozens of older deac (But post 1988) Lee Enfields with intact locking lugs. I don't know when the spec changed but I do know it's not retrospective. Just like Bren locking shoulders, it's a pressure bearing part but up until 1995 there was no need to remove them.

[Beerhunter]

One of the (many) problems with the deactivation specification(s) is the lack of any specifications for component parts. That is to say ONLY a whole, un-mucked-about-with gun can benefit from the legislation; for example there is no specification for the Bren second barrel, only a complete gun. (This specific issue may have been fixed by now.)

So, as I see it, all the time a component is part of a deact it benefits from the status of that gun. Remove it and reverts to being "any component part".

This movement of items between Firearms Act Sections based on context is not unusual e.g. A Smith & Wesson Hand Ejector in .445 can be: Section 5, Section 7(1) or Section 7(3) entirely dependent on context. Alternatively, an SLR is Section 5. Strip it down for components and they become the following types: no license required (e.g. the furniture), Section 1 (e.g. the breech-block), Section 5 (e.g.the gas ported barrel).

[Robert303]

The easy way is to go looking for the proof marks. It is the case in the U.K. that any pressure bearing part must bear a proof mark. The law was then quite simple. You needed a condition on your FAC to have any spare / extra proof marked parts such as bolts. When firearms were deactivated after the legal specifications were drawn up the pressure bearing parts had to have a 'Deactivated Proof mark' applied to them. Private imports of Section 1 and Section 2 Firearms and Shotguns were allowed on the appropriate FAC / Shotgun Cert. In recent years this has tightened up and suppliers have been leant on by police to demand sight of an FAC for parts not previously controlled. Last month I had to send a copy of my FAC to a dealer in order to buy a firing pin for a .22 rifle.

[Alan de Enfield]

Whilst everything said above is true, there is a 'loop-hole' where you can legally buy, own, hold or sell a complete Enfield bolt.

I have a No4 Enfield in 410 (shotgun) calibre, this is on my SGC.
My 303's and 7.62's are on my FAC

I wanted to improve the headspace as the 410 cartridge rims are much thinner than a 303 case, I checked, and was told that for a shotgun I did not need any permissons to hold parts such as bolt head, bolt body, barrel etc (parts that for a firearm would be 'pressure bearing' and require approval)

You can therefore (apparently) legally have a complete bolt (or components) as a spare, as long as you possess a shotgun to which it will fit.

[Simon P]

I have already notified my FEO at the Met Police so hopefully they will look in to it.