True, but if they get caught the penalites are extreme. Exporting a gun out of proof is just like selling one out of proof. I do not shoot any gun until I have measured the barrels. Too many a-holes honing, reaming and buggering up good barrels to hide pits and wear. I am quite fond aof all of my fingers so trust but measure first is a sound motto.
Exactly. It is rare to find one for sale out of proof for that reason. Since exportation has to go through RFDs even those released from the unknowing (or knowingly criminal) seem to be caught. I had one a few years ago that I knew should have been cut from a provincial auction house that it turned out wasn't. It was caught by the exporter and so I had it cut (at my cost).
Interestingly there is no specification per se on wall thickness in the proof laws, the proof of the pudding, as it were, being in the testing. Tradition has it at about 20 thou. However, guns are legal to sell below that point if they are still within proof. You will see warnings to that effect at the more informed and informative auction houses like Holts
Jeremy
