Does installing Briley choke tubes cause an English gun to go out of proof?
I realize that altering the chamber length., or the bore going over 10 thousandth, etc puts a gun out of proof, was not sure if tubes did as well.
UK rules of proof are extremely strict regarding alterations to any gun. In a nut shell if you make any alterations to a barrel after it was proofed, these alterations deem the proof marks applied to the barrel negated therefore out of proof here in the UK.
I would say no. I have asked before about opening chokes and proof and was told that did not affect it.
Opening chokes is not the same as threading and adding further separate fittings to the guns bore. Of course the only definitive answer to this is to contact the London or Birmingham proof house by e-mail you will find them very helpful.
Yes email them, they are very helpful and you will get a definite answer!
You won't get much help from London right now as they have closed down because of C19, they are only doing army & police weapons and don't seem to be responding to email queries, I tried!
Birmingham seems to be still functioning but whether you will get anything useful out of them in the current circumstances I wouldn't like to say.
I would have thought they are prioritising everything as they must be suffering the same as the rest of UK industry and business.
See here:
http://www.gunproof.com/Proof_Memoranda/RULESOFP.PDFPage 7:
"6.—If a barrel of one sort is converted into a barrel of another sort, (for example a short barrel into a longer barrel or a barrel into a sound moderated barrel or from a fixed choke to an interchangeable choke,) the barrel shall be deemed out of proof from the time when the conversion is begun. (See sections 115 and 130 of the Principal Act, as amended.)"
The reproof mark is a crown over CR (bottom of page 16).
Does Kansas recognize and enforce proof laws or were you thinking for personal information? To me proof status is as much as selling point here, as any safety issue. Guns are taken out of proof all the time, but unless an attempt to sell them is made there is no issue beyond safety to me. And out of proof is not an issue at sale in the US. I wish it were.
With 350,000,000 lawyers in the US, a working proof law could end up as the greatest volume of court cases in the country because we have an endless supply of Bubba gunsmiths, both self untaught and professional, screwing up guns everyday.
Personal curiosity only. I maintain a note file on each of my guns with details on the Guns so my son will know everything worth knowing about each of the guns I value. It will also aid in their sale should they go that route one day.
The Purdey in question was a fixer up salvage. Made in 1898 with 30 inch barrels a philistine destroyed its value cutting off the gun at 26 leaving no choke. The barrels had also been reblued at some point, but not to Purdey standards. The gun was sold with rubber pad in 1898 that along the way had been replaced with a thick Heavy Pachmayr pad; All said a butt heavy gun.
Luckily min thickness was 0.027 & 0.029. The dimensions were within an eighth of my ideal. So I brought it, refinished the wood myself, had briley put tubes in it as the barrels were trashed anyway. I replaced the Pachmayr pad with a lightweight cervellati recoil pad and the gun balances now exactly where the original production entry says it should. The most important bottomline is I shoot it well.
My only current real issues on the gun is I manage to lose a chip of wood off the forend and I will need to replaces the forend Wood one day. And I want to leather cover the cervellati recoil pad.
I would love to find someone in the states who could properly rebarrel it. but that is unlikely and as the current barrels are shootable sleeving makes no sense. Maybe in ten years or so I will ship it back to England for rebarrelling, just not by Purdey as they currently charge twice what I have in the gun now for a set of 27inch barrels with fixed chokes.
Every time I shoot it I remain awed how everything on it works just like it should 121 years later.
Personally I am very happy we do not have a Proof Law here in the US.
I m tickled pink the Government has no say so as to what can be sold or not.
A lovely gun still, not less for having Briley tubes