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

In the last decade I have spoken with a handful of individuals who claimed to have made their own firearms that are now on their FAC. some of them have been RFDs other have RDF buddies but a couple claimed to to not use an RFD at all.

One claimed that he got the relevant slots (for each receiver, barrel and bolt) and got them 90% complete before inviting the FEO around to make the final cut and have them sign the parts onto there FAC. Another that they would just inform the licensing department once they had made a part.

I was wondering if anyone on here had gone through a similar process to build their own firearms and if so how did the process work.

I plan to email my FEO to see if Kent has a specific way of doing it, but wanted to see what steps others had to take first so I at least have some more information on the process.

I already have much of the equipment I need for what I have in mind and most of the technical knowhow to get it working but it wouldn't be worth trying to apply for an RFD at this stage (hopefully someday but just not yet).

Any information anyone has would be much appreciated

Some time ago I built a rifle out of "off the peg" bits and bobs. I applied for a variation for an action and a barrel in the usual way, then looked around and found an action, a Savage F-12 then I ordered a Shilen 6mmbr pre-chambered barrel direct from Shilen, USA as a personal import.

I also ordered a Ken Farrell 20moa rail, a Rifle Basix Sav-2 trigger, Boyd part finished stock and a Sightron 111 scope all direct from the manufactures, USA.

Screwed the lot together and made a passable rifle for not too much money. Probably not so easy to do now but can't see why if you put the effort in.

This is a 5 shot 200yd group shot with this rifle.

Nobody has mentioned getting them proofed ?

I've been wondering about this,

I've a slight hankering to make my own LBP, I am a mechanical engineer, with access to CAD, CNC mill, 3D printers, and a conventional workshop.

Pretty sure I could make everything excluding the magazines (was thinking of trying to design something to use the 33 Keltec CP33 magazine) and barrel, and springs.

But I suspect there are legal issues, both as I'm not an RFD, its not a RFD workshop and to do with possession of working drawings/CAD files for firearms parts.

Jorden wrote:Nobody has mentioned getting them proofed ?

I believe that generally speaking you only need to get a gun proofed if you are selling/transferring it onto someone else (or at least this seems to be the wording of the legislation).

E.g. you can have a barrel screw cut or rechambered yourself without reproofing it, but if you wanted to then sell/exchange it you then need to get it proofed.
I believe this is why if you sign a gun over to an RFD to do such work they are typically legally bound to get it proofed before returning it to you. (Gun Barrel Proof Act 1868-section 108 covers this i believe)

Some ranges however may have something in their insurance or rules about only using guns that have a valid proof on them.

My advice would be contact a good gunsmith explain what you want as an end product and get an estimate for the work.
Doing it yourself is a mine field. The reamers gauges and tooling alone is a substantial investment if you can find any one in the UK that will sell you them if you are not a RFD or registered gunsmith.
If you get it wrong you are several hundreds of pounds out of pocket. Local firearms licencing departments are not happy about people having the facility to build firearms in there garden sheds.
Not a risk I would be happy to take. I would go with a gunsmith every time.

You do only need to Proof if you decide to sell it and yes, check insurance if shooting at a cub.

Alpha1 wrote:My advice would be contact a good gunsmith explain what you want as an end product and get an estimate for the work.
Doing it yourself is a mine field. The reamers gauges and tooling alone is a substantial investment if you can find any one in the UK that will sell you them if you are not a RFD or registered gunsmith.
If you get it wrong you are several hundreds of pounds out of pocket. Local firearms licencing departments are not happy about people having the facility to build firearms in there garden sheds.
Not a risk I would be happy to take. I would go with a gunsmith every time.

You are probably quite right about the tooling being costly if you don't already have access to the necessary but I'm not so sure about firearms licensing be opposed to it. Locally I know of three chaps that have built their own guns from scratch. All were engineers and two worked for Rolls Royce at one time. They all said that because they had gone about it in the right way they had no resistance at all from the firearms department, and the local FEO actually told me how impressed he had been with what they had turned out which was an eight bore shotgun based on a martini type action and two muzzle loading pistols all built from scratch.

Here's one I built earlier. :)

I agree that legally you only need proof to sell an unaltered firearm, but I am quite fond of my fingers and eyes I would like to make sure.