2" mortar project on Arnies

Don't wish to be a killjoy
BUT
And we have encountered it in re-enactment in a BIG way -
What you are looking at is covered by this

Prohibited weapons and ammunition
3.â€â€

LOOK! I ham now four meggle man!
A001

 

Anyone who was in at the "birth" of paintball in this country may remember the painball bazooka. I had one. It used a 12g CO2 cartridge to fire a home made paintball salvo using styrene drinks cups. I had the knack of building smashing misslies that broke up like sabots and delivered about 25-20 paintballs on target over 30-40m.... One day I got a visit and was politely asked to surrender my Bazooka (Which was made entirely of plastic plumbing parts)..... Upon asking why I was asked if I had received the instruction manual with it..... and when I produced that the section on how to stabilise your misles with fins (both rigid and pop out) was highlighted........
"Illegal" said my visitors.... "Bye bye" said me to my bazooka as they took thsi most dangerous of implements away to God Knows where -

These days I'm more savvy.... and I can afford a GOOD Barrister.... But it's just best practice to avoid being in that situation at all.....

I mean - styrene drinks cups and paintballs - perfect gangsta drive by tool - INNIT?

Bloody hell, theres me thinking that you were on safe ground with that one.

cheers for the heads up.

Stupid catchall firearms legislation.....

I'm gobsmacked that they would take a nerf rocket projector away , firing explosives I can understand, but foam rockets ...

I wonder if I would be arrested if I tried to get on a train with 10 nerf rockets strapped around my ample gizzards ??

The bloody mental catchall Old Un is - "capable"!!!!
If "They" deem it capable of firing something naughty..... then it's naughty itself.

And a fin stabilised projectile in the UK is illegal.... I recieved HO guidance on my old mortar - I could fire explosive charges FOR DISPLAY PURPOSES as long as they were not:
Detonate on impact (so they had to be independently fused)
or
Fin Stabilisied.

SO in the end we had a certain gentlemen of most of our acquaintance, build some TF's with long fuses....... and devised a system to simply lob them out the end..... (betwen 50 and 300m!!!!)

The schreck - I was told on no account to have it capable of firing a projectile...... So I didn't.........

Crazy legislation we have -as evidenced by the wunnerful VCR Bill... and wonderfully exploited by the denizens of airsoft as read on Arnies - What a load of BS on there!!!!!! I can see they don't like us WWII re-enactor types..... hahahaha!

Quite easy to stay within though...... Did you know if you use CO2 to power it you can be done for having a Section V? why? because it emits a noxious gas!!!!!!! how lame!

It's all a bit potty . Mind you I fired fin stabilised projectiles accurately up to 90m on a regular basis when I did archery for a hobby .

Perhaps I've have to go for compound bow with Mk 9 thunderflash taped ot the end a la Dukes of Hazzard .

wow... didn't know that about law... thanks for the info.

We get away with it in re-enactment using the "for pyrotechnic purposes" clause. But this is a tight interpretation in order to stay within the law. As you're not using a pyrotechnic medium to launch or for the effect and it's not launching a line thrower etc. even something as harmless as firing a foam "slug" or even the bbs as in moscarts is technically and I say technically.... outside the law.....

I keep saying it's bloody barmy! and it is..... Just don't want anyone falling foul of it.

But - if you launch a pyrotechnic device, "pyrotechnically (i.e. using a 12g shotgun blanks) then fine...... up it goes, bounces on the ground and then fizzes a bit.... then goes BANG! Not dangerous at all (much) nad youa re within the law..... how bleeming daft is that?

About as daft as the VCR bill making the selling import or manufacture of all RIFs illegal .....apart from actual real guns... albeit deactivated .

Could you not put fishing line on a reel in one and make it a 'line thrower' or am i being hopelessly naive/optomistic and the line has to have some purpose such as a signals cable...?

would make finidng the nerf easier in dense woods too...

Sorry mate - but things as they are PLOD are mega keen to make a meal of what some of us do......

It grips mine too...... The glory days were fantastic! Some of the stuff we did would get us 20 years now!!!!!!! Then it was just funny! And Health and Safety was a nudist magazine!!!!

Ran this little bit of info past one of the ladies up in Legal at work today (knows her stuff on licensing of Firearms and Explosives back to front, then again, with what we're licensed to hold and use, thats not a surprise lol )

Interesting thing came up. For a start, she told me that your "paintball bazooka" doesn't fall directly under this bit of legislation unless the CO2 caplet is *in* the projectile, as by definition, a mortar or rocket launcher uses a propulsion system thats encased within the projectile. If it isn't then its basically a big gun. It can of course fall under other legislation (12 ft/lb for rifles etc etc)

The "stabilised" bit is still rather on the wrong side of the law though. God, the laws in this country are truly an ass lol

Must buy her coffee this week to thank her for the info, plus, she's kinda cute

The Moscart issue is an interesting one, somewhere I have a copy of correspondence with the HO that states they are OK, even though technically they could be covered under the Anti Social Behavious Act of 2003. Suppose its down to the fact that Brocock cartridges contained just the ammo and the propulsion, whereas a MOSCART contains barrels as well - making the whole thing into a gun.

Regarding CO2, Section 5(1)(b) of the Firearms Act 1968 covers "any weapon of whatever description designed or adapted for the discharge of any noxious liquid, gas or other thing". The key words there are designed and adapted. A CO2 powered air rifle is legal, because it is designed to use CO2 to propel a pellet. If you built something that was solely designed or adapted to just chuck out noxious liquids, gasses or "other things", you'd be in the shit - big time.

So essentially Kerm - Am I right or am I wrong?

I knew at the time the paintball bazooka was very grey..... but it's less fuss and when somehting is sent you as a "sample" then you don't feel a financial hole where the object had been so rather than be targetted for something else - I let them take it - far more interesting toys at the time that they didn't get to see.....

Yep a foam mini football with fins is section V.... how good is that?

trouble is - people reading these forums (monitoring them as part of their job even) read this and we "unwittingly give them knowledge and ideas they might have to come to themselves were it not for our writings.... so we are damned if we do and daned if we don't.....

Like I say - Back in the Good old Days when Dancing Meant Exploding.......

The frsutraing bit for me is that now that decent (depending on viewpoint) cheap repro uniforms are coming out and aeg manufacturers are starting to make something other than another bloody armalite and doing a few wwii guns and not only that but *cheap* wwii guns....

... and now we have this bloody stupid law.

So now wwii airsoft (and i suppose to the same extent re-enactment) has a much cheaper 'entry level' but its so much harder to get the hardware, so annoying.

OK simple legal answer all sign a disclaimer and throw half bricks at each other no fins on them and can be quite accurate at short range

As I have said before we are watched on here by anyone inc reporters etc and we all know how low they can be to find a story!!!

Nah oddball mate you really want to be using the rarer 'airborne/sas issue' brick, you can tell the airborne type as they have three weight saving holes in the middle so you could load more on a horsa.

Bit of both PD. Firing an unstabilised projectile would be fine, a stabilised one not - it would seem. Being "capable of firing XYZ" wouldnt stand up very well in court. After all, the rifles we're still allowed to own are *capable* of firing SJHP's and JHP's and they're Section V now. Shit, PIRA used to turn gas cylinders and steel tubing into mortars, cant remember BOC or British Steel being prosecuted for supplying such items in NI. If I remember correctly, there was a bit of a ruckus over some Paintball markers way back in the day, with a shipment seized oop north somewhere as they were CO2 powered, not HPA, plus, was the total muzzle energy of your bazooka over 12 ft/lb?

Regarding throwing bricks, the German side would have to use the relatively rare "brickwurfer". I believe that only 2 examples still exist, and one of them is considered suspect, as its not painted in RAL6006, and has no 'ampt stamps

Far be it from me ot correct you Jay but is that the "Birkenwerfermithoddenkarrier" you are alluding to ?

Also see US Army interest in old tech

http://www.almc.army.mil/ALOG/issues/Se ... ermat.html