The UK's Finest Independent Forum for Shooters and Gun Owners. Est 2010.

Came across some pictures of my S&W 645 .45acp and Colt Python .357magnum and thought I would post them. My biggest regret is that I did not have them deactivated in July 1997.

All cartridges seen in the pics were inert - safety in mind at all times.

Last two pics didn't work. Back to the drawing board....................

Paul-Andrzej wrote:Last two pics didn't work. Back to the drawing board....................

probably just the pic size just do another post or link via photobucket etc.

Alan

Sorry for your loss.

Don't be sorry---out of 16 pistols affected by the governmant robbery I had two deactivated. They bothered me every time I saw them---destruction is distruction---we don't keep dead bodies. I sold them off pretty quickly.
The ones I am most proud of are the few that I saved from destruction by getting them exported or on the the Historic Pistol scheme. Best of all was my Colt single action which is now being happily used in a club in Northern Ireland.
Fred

The ones I am most proud of are the few that I saved from destruction by getting them exported or on the the Historic Pistol scheme. Best of all was my Colt single action which is now being happily used in a club in Northern Ireland.
Fred

Glad to hear that. They are popular with the cowboy action shooters here.

FredB, I never thought about that. On reflection if I had done the same, I could have visited them now and again and had a go. Anyway, too late now.

Wahooo.... Nice ones !! That Python was such a beauty !!

BTW I am sorry but I completely fail to understand. Instead of surrendering them, why on earth didn't the English shooters join & store them into continental clubs ?

You guys could "visit" & shoot them as much as you like depending on your time-table & finances. The day you, and not some political nerd, decide to stop, you can still sell them to a native shooter that will appreciate and give you a much better price than "Gvt's compensation".

Everybody make their own choices and I understand, in an ideal world, the pleasure of having one's toys into the safe at home. But in the real world it ain't gonna happen, so I am happy to go for second best option : ie : store & shoot them about every 6 weeks. In fact, I end up shooting my pistols more often than I shoot my UK resident full-bore rifles. Anyway, that is me and I find it works very well

'depending on your time-table & finances' - some people did move their pistols to Europe or the US, others didn't have the time or the money.

For some pistols the compensation scheme price was not unattractive, eg I bought a Hammerli rapid fire pistol in 1986 for £295, but when I wanted to sell it I couldn't find a buyer. The compensation scheme paid 75% of the new replacement price - I got £850 for the pistol, and the compensation payments for a .22 GSP and .32 conversion unit were similarly generous.

I bought gallery rifles to 'replace' my pistols.

There was a feeling amongst some shooters that if the government was going to screw us, then we would screw the maximum compensation out of them.

Sorry to be a bit negative.

I well & truly ( ) 'deactivated' mine before I surrendered them; none of them would ever fire safely again!!