UKCF Gun Enthusiasts?

[linfield100]

I used to shoot pistols before they banned them all. Had 2 Smith and Wessons, a .22 semi auto and a 38 Special I think it was called.
Always fancied trying clays.

[Tzusskin]

Bingo, that's exactly it for me, the relaxation of target shooting. The Japanese have a saying which translates to something like 'thinking without thought' which means a state of total concentration on a particular outcome with everything almost being taken care of by your subconscious leaving your mind free to concentrate on (for me) the crosshairs and the target. Clay shooting has too much going on around it for me, I can see the attraction as every shot is different, small variations in the friction of the trap, the makeup of the clay, the charge in the cartridge, every shot needs to be read differently and the lead adjusted.

All that and some shotguns are mighty fine looking pieces of shiny.

[shooting-glasses]

love it
clays /target 22lr / and gallery,lightsports rifle for me
looking at trying black powder pistol next

[celsis]

Trusskin, I like your avatar. Mj?llnir, eh? I wear one round my neck!

[Tzusskin]

Thank you. On occasion I wear one as well, not generally day to day but I carry one all the time with my keys.

Sent from my HTC Desire using Tapatalk

[Mark3142]

I have a chance in the near future to go to a gun club and have a play with what they have. In exchange I am part of a group who wil then take them offroading on Salisbury Plain. THere is talk of going up to 900m and firing a .50 rifle. Something that I've not done before.
The thing that bugs me the most is that when you meet people who shoot rifles at static targets assume that because you were in the Army you can shoot anything they give you and actually hit the target. TO be truthfull that is just not the case. I was never a natural, I always had to work hard to achieve a very good result on the ranges

[Eddie]

I shoot a bit if this and that. My main love is IPSC, but live too far away from the range to shoot as much as I want.

Currently ding my fac renewal (what a bitch)

[M1F2R3]

This is going to be such a simpleton styled question, when handguns were made illegal.. what actually happened to them? Were they destroyed? Given to the military?

[Mark3142]

Destroyed as far as I know. The military wouldn't have received them. Before a weapon is allowed to be used by a serving service person it has to go through a huge range of tests and risk assessments etc etc. If they did take control who would get them. In such small numbers you would think SF would be the ideal recipients. But how could you confirm that the weapon that was donated to the MOD hadn't had a previous career in crime. How embarrassing would that be?

[snuffysmiff]

I have a 20g o/u shotgun which I use for clays and pest control, and a 12g s/s only for pigeons and crows. I don't have a firearms licence, but I do use a 40 year old BSA Mercury and a BSA Ultra for shooting feral pigeons in sheds and barns.

[Eddie]

The law allowed disposal. That was assumed to mean destruction, but some of them were put onto the second hand market in Europe. Guess what.... some have been recovered on British streets used in crime.

[Big_T_UK]

As somebody queried earlier, here I am. Oh my god, where to start.....

I live in Crowborough, East Sussex, on the edge of Ashdown forest. In the Second World War they broadcast various signals, including propaganda into continental Europe from an underground facility on the forest, it used to bristle with aerials. In the 80's it was expanded into a major nuclear bunker facility. At the end of the cold war it was acquired by Sussex police and rumours started to fly about what was being stored there. Soon it was rumoured it was a SIGNIFICANT portion of the handed in pistols from the country, not just Sussex; something to do with them not being able to be destroyed until some court case was settled, possibly in Europe but not sure. Well after living in the area for thirty years I finally got a tour of the facility along with my father and a few others. The retired copper that guided us for several hours (and was gloriously un-politically correct) let slip the place used to be filled with guns. Dad and I immediately twigged and started probing. Until relatively recently the place was definitely full of our pistols. Where they are now I cannot tell, destroyed almost certainly, or sold to foreign types.

As for shooting, well at the end of pistol shooting days I waved goodbye to a Beretta 92FS, a stunning Sig-Saur P226, a S&W .357 revolver, a Vostok .22 target pistol and my beloved, cherished, worshiped and adored Union Switch and Signal wartime production Colt M1911A1. Some of the compensation money was spent of a Franchi SPAS 12 assault shotgun with extras as it was the most un-PC thing I could think of getting after the pistol ban, just to piss of the plod. When I went along to a practical shotgun bunch they scared the crap out of me. I am "full-on" but that lot are certifiable. It is like a bunch of die-hard Star Trek fans with an extreme case of sexual frustration got given military shotguns and told to go play nasty. A mix is head cases and social dysfunctional. I am not sure if they scared me, or how much I saw of myself in them scared me, but I dropped that malarkey right sharpish.

Currently I shoot various disciplines. Kit wise....

Moisin Nagant 7.62r Russian bolt action rifle.
Winchester P17 in .30-06
Winchester take-down lever action rifle in .45-70
Winchester Mod. 94 lever action in .45 long Colt.
Winchester Mod. 94 lever action in .30-30
Winchester 101 sporting Diamond Grade over-and-under 12g shotgun.
Beretta 682 Onyx over-and-under shotgun (not with the later E suffix which means it was made by a machine, not a man).
Short Magazine Lee Enfield Mk3* in .303 rifle, target regulated.
Lee Enfield No.4 in .303 Fulton target regulated.
Ruger Old Army .45 black powder revolver.
Uberti (Colt pattern) Single Action .44 black powder revolver.
A few more.

I am not some wanker who collects de-activated firearms or shoots air-soft "toys" at each other. Paint-ball has its place as that is something entirely synthetic and people tend not to dress up as army types so much (which is worrying), more like snow-boarding idiots.

I do have one non-functioning toy, a WWII German MG-42 machine gun but that is just because it turns me on.

P.S. If you found any of this offensive, get a sense of humour!

[CloseEmBoth]

Offended........definitely not

Jealous ......... oh yes

[Bigboned]

I want to go play at big t's house!

[Eddie]

I know what you mean about the practical shotgun types. At non IPSC matches they can be "interesting".