I mean, if you want to understand the internals, shooting would be one of the more interesting parts, but horses for courses. MH is a lot of fun to shoot.
No-one makes replica Martini-Henry rifles; all the ones you see will be original (or at worst, a copy from the Khyber Pass between India and Pakistan and there’s pretty much none of those in Australia that I’ve seen).
There are often antiques for sale at the gun shows, and the Australian Arms Auction guys sell antiques at their auctions too - although I’m told their fees and insurance and postage charges can add quite a lot to the hammer price of items.
There is an “antiques” section on the Oz Gun Sales website too, but a few of the guns there are just old and not legally antiques.
Might also be worth joining the Historic Arms Collectors branch of SSAA too, as that will put you in touch with people who like the old guns and might know where to find suitable examples for your collection.
One of the things to watch out for is modern reproductions of muskets and cap and ball revolvers - they’re legally the same as a modern gun. An easy way to spot them is markings such as BLACK POWDER ONLY on the gun, being from manufacturers like Uberti or Euroarms, and just generally looking like a new gun and not one that’s 120+ years old.
1 Like
I had a shop insist that a pre 1900 single barrel percussion shotgun had to be registered because wads were available.
A lot of gun shops just register everything, even obviously antique stuff, which is a giant pain in the ass (not the registering guns which should be registered, the registering clearly antique guns thing).
I found a 1860s musket a few years ago that was at an OK price, but the dealer was elsewhere in QLD and had registered it, so it would have to go to another dealer who was going to charge me all the usual fees on top of the postage, then I’d have to apply to Weapons Licensing to get the gun de-registered as being an antique.
The whole thing was going to be a huge amount of fucking around and take weeks (at a minimum) for what was going to be a wallhanger, so I didn’t get it in the end.
.44 Rimfire can technically be converted and chambered to a centrefire.
Also fully contained cartridge firing guns are less likely to be let through as antiques.
“can technically be converted” …pffff
Yeah, they used to do it regularly. Convert to 44-40. Why anyone would want to molest an original Henry is beyond me.
By that rationale all Martini’s should be registered because some were converted to .303.
1 Like
Yep, firearms laws and logic are generally mutually exclusive.
Even state to state is ridiculous.
This side of a river…you’re fine, that side of a river…boom, cya in court hombre.
2 Likes
thats the same trouble ive been having im not a licence holder currently and most places will only ship dealer to dealer and the dealers want to cover their asses by registering everything im trying to wrap my head around it all still
Just get your licence then mate.
Your options are basically “Get your licence” or “Find a shop that sells antiques as antiques, go there, and buy it off them in person”.
might well have to was hoping to avoid the headache until i could get the 150kg safe but it seems im out of options any ideas on paperwork through covid i hear its a bit of an uphilll battle at the moment might need to do it sooner than later
You don’t need a safe to get your licence, not until you want to buy a Cat A/B.
Other places to buy are off people direct. If you go along to your local BP shooting range or day out. A lot of the people when I went to one were using antique rifles as you would expect, many unlicensed.
Wombat is correct in that gun safes over a certain weight do not require securing. However, antique firearms do have to be kept in a safe, even though they do not require a firearms license or registration.
Keith.
1 Like
That’s not accurate. Afaik.
If this is not accurate, please explain.
Keith.