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

Morning all!

Definitely a hypothetical question in my case but something that must occur quite a bit.

If someone was to find an old family shotgun, probably unregistered, in an attic or barn, can they give it away/sell it to a shotgun certificate holder as long as it's still legal?

If so, how would they go about doing it? Has anyone got experience with it?

Years ago RFDs would take them in “legitimise” them and transfer to a certificate holder. Modern “progressive” police forces I believe now have a very dim view of this as policy appears to criminalise the public as much as possible…

At the risk of being contentious... It will need to be in Proof. Also, it is not a great idea to submit an old gun for a modern Proof as they tend to fail.

You could still hang it on the wall even if the barrels did look like the smokestacks on a Mississippi steamer.............

Pete

My only experience of anything like this was recieving a Belgian 410 folding "poachers" shotgun that had belonged to a elderly relative who had passed away...

Looking at it, the barrel was pitted, inside and out, and the only safe way to fire it would be with it strapped to a log with a long string to the trigger..!

I handed it in to my local RFD for disposal...

Pete wrote: ↑Tue Dec 28, 2021 3:34 pm You could still hang it on the wall even if the barrels did look like the smokestacks on a Mississippi steamer.............
Pete

Assuming it was not S5.3 otherwise it would need deactivating.

The finder can't sell it but they could give it to a SGC holder. The certificate holder would then sign it on to his/her certificate themselves and notify the police of the acquisition.
This is something that I have done in the past with the support of my local constabulary who are only too happy to see "ghost guns" like this legitimised and entered into the system rather than falling into the hands of a non certificate holder.

Some interesting points of view here.

The post was originally prompted by the 1911/Sten loft find thread on here, but also a conversation I had recently where someone said they found a 410 converted Enfield years ago in their grandma's barn when clearing it out. That went to the police at the time, but his comment was 'shame we didn't know each other back then, you could have had it!'.

I couldn't see how it would have been transferable like that as they could hardly write it on my ticket. It didn't get me thinking about the legalities and practicalities of it though.

Chapuis wrote: ↑Tue Dec 28, 2021 6:58 pm The finder can't sell it but they could give it to a SGC holder. The certificate holder would then sign it on to his/her certificate themselves and notify the police of the acquisition.
This is something that I have done in the past with the support of my local constabulary who are only too happy to see "ghost guns" like this legitimised and entered into the system rather than falling into the hands of a non certificate holder.

This has been my experience in the past in a similar situation and I have entered some shotguns and even a ML pistol and a BACS style pistol into my register when they have been found in deceased's effects.

Beds & Herts (now BCH but I guess it'd still be the same) wanted the details in each case to see if there was a link to anything they were concerned about but the response came back quickly that they were not interested and "please destroy the air pistol".

Years ago when Roger was still running Shooting Supplies at Bromsgrove, I took a couple of these "found in the attic" guns to him to hand in. He would make sure that he knew as far as possible that the gun wasn't stolen and would then, after a couple of weeks, transfer them back onto my ticket for the sum of £25.
It has to be remembered that he knew me as a regular customer, so there was a certain amount of trust there.
How this would be done today may be a little different so maybe a call to your FEO would be best.