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

Hi all,
I have just been watching some videos on YouTube. Where people have been making there own rifles from scratch. Most of these were in the USA and people were building semiautos. Which got me thinking could I in the UK, build a single shot version of one of these rifles by not manufacturing the gas parts. Send it off to be proofed and legally own it on a section one, provided I had a free slot for the calibre?

Yes you can certainly build one yourself and there is no legal requirement to have it Proofed unless you plan to sell it, only issue would be insurance if shooting at a club range as they may have a view on firearms that out of Proof.

You would also need individual slots on you FAC to acquire all the pressure bearing parts as well as a slot for the completed rifle

There's a member here who built his own AR-15 from parts he imported through an RFD.

Well that's good to hear I did try googling the answer and just got loads of uninformed newspaper articles about guns being bad!

What exactly do you want to build?

I was thinkin of an ak type as quite a bit can be built from scratch. How easy is it to bring in parts?

Having a friendly RFD will help you a lot, otherwise you'll have to have a slot for all the pressure bearing parts as Dromia says.

With a friendly RFD you could never own any of the components and they can sign it into your ticket when it's complete and back from proof.

deciduousedan wrote:I was thinkin of an ak type as quite a bit can be built from scratch. How easy is it to bring in parts?

Far easier to buy a Saiga or similar Romanian or Bulgarian rifle that is already straight pull.Getting all the parts would be hard over here, they have it easy in the States as they can buy "parts kits" to which they add US-made receivers etc.
I have seven bare receivers for sale in Europe but I don't think they will export them to the UK and an AR type rifle would be easier to build than an AK as an AR is modular whereas the front and rear trunnions on an AK are rivetted and they are specially designed rivets.The barrels are pressed and pinned and to select the correct barrel you need to know the journal size of the trunnion you wish to use etc.

To be honest it would be a royal pain to get all the parts necessary, the build tools required for rivetting trunnions etc.You would be hard pushed to find a gas block that was undrilled etc etc

This sort of thing is far easier in the States as everything is easily available and as i said they can easily purchase a parts kit for, as an example, a 1960s Russian AKM and thereby have all the parts that match.

Around £650 would get you a brand new Romanian straight-pull AKM with none of the hassle.......

Yes I expect that it is probably cheaper just to buy one. I did see one chap making a tool to go inside the trunnion so he could use a hydraulic press for the riveting. Am I right in thinking it would be no good to get a ordinary gas block and weld it because once section 5 always section 5? And would that also exclude used parts which would be the unmodified on a section 1 build?