doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com Proof House in USA??

Word

I feel like the chump for jumping back in, but maybe all the educating that would eventually come around with a proof house has no hope of happening. Most of the guns in question are around a hundred years old now, plenty of time to learn by dumb luck. But, if you prefer to nanny folks, I doubt we'll know how to treat and feed these guns another hundred years from now, as long as there are agendas.

I'll watch for your articles, but please don't mess up the DGJ too much. It's the only magazine/subscription that I've valued from the start and continue to do so. Other mags come and go, but it'd be tough to humor back door gun control from 'friends' at the DGJ.

I decided to mulberry bush the registration comment, because of willful selective ignoring of the facts. When I drift off in an interesting article, I like to pretend I'm getting decent info. It's entertainment, why do you have to kick me in the shin to put the skeptic guard up.

Larry: I'm in Louisiana hunting Timberdoodle now but checked in on this thread. Wow. These guys are so closed minded it might be easier convincing Lenin or Stalin communism is a bad thing rather than trying to show the virtues of a Proof House to the members here. IMO, they are ganging up like a pack of coyote.

There is no virtue...

After 3 years of thinking about this issue, and watching our current government in action with their gun control initiatives and all, I'm pretty sure jOe and many others here with similar sentiment are right.........A Proof House in America would be a disaster. No argument from me now.

Buzz,
Now that you resurrected this thread, I must say I like the idea of a PRIVATE "proof" SERVICE. Something along the lines of Tom Ambrust's service for shell pressure. I was like a cat on a hot tin roof when I shot my 20ga damascus Flues for the 1st time. Even after having the barrels checked out. To many wives tales.

Just a thought.
Ithaca1

Careful of stiring up this hornet's nest again. The British system actually works well because no-one has to have their gun proofed to be able to use it; that is a matter for the individual. It just becomes an offence to sell, or offer for sale, a gun that isn't so proofed. It protects the purchaser and anyone can go to the proof house to have a gun tested. In fact 'a private proof service' that you advocate. It has meant that I have been able to resurrect guns that could have become scrap and got them back into the field again and also brings peace of mind. It works here and I wouldn't want it the other way. Here it is regulated by the Gun Trade and not the Government. Lagopus.....

Yes Lagopus. But I remember recently Dig was lamenting a recent change in 'rules of proof' in England where tighter tolerances have been established and have thus rendered many old guns that were 'in proof' now 'out of proof'. Government can do things like that on a whim. I think the testing of guns where barrels have been altered is a good idea in general, but it's the mandatory thing that bothers me, and as your government has done, changing the rules on a whim, and making those rules mandatory, it's not a good thing. I believe in England's case, it's another step towards more gun control and the same thing would happen here!

The real value of a proofhouse, to the buyer of a used gun, comes in those various proofmarks. Was my gun originally 2 1/2" or 2 3/4"? For about the last century, one glance at British proofmarks would answer that question. American guns . . . you might be able to find out, IF the company's original records survive. Otherwise, you have a pre-WWII American gun, you're guessing whether it left the factory with short chambers. And very few gunsmiths who punched out chambers bothered to mark the gun with the new chamber length. Much less when the work was done.

Proofmarks also help date a gun, which is otherwise difficult to do unless company records survive. (Down to the month and year, in the case of many German guns.) Which again helps tell you--if it's not otherwise indicated on the gun--whether it had short vs 2 3/4" chambers when it left the factory.

Lagopus, you don't have total regulation of your system by the Gun Trade. Surely they don't run jails for those who violate the rules of proof. The gun trade may set the rules, but it's your police and legal system that handle enforcement. Our gun trade also sets rules. However, those rules no longer apply once the gun goes onto the second hand market. That's where our system--or lack thereof--provides less peace of mind than yours.

Yeah Larry re value, but the real intent of a Proof House WAS to insure a gun's safety to the public. However, under government control, it appears that a Proof House is now a vehicle for gun control, at least in the UK. If it's purpose was only that of gun safety, I would be all for it. But, it appears to have evolved in to much more than a safety issue, at least in the UK, where now with the changes in proof tolerances, it appears to me to be about control as opposed to safety. Also, Lagopus states proof is regulated by the gunmakers and the trade, but if it is 'illegal' to sell a gun out of proof, then that constitutes a criminal act which indeed involves the government (and according to Wikepedia, subject to a �5000 fine, and more if more than one out of proof gun is involved in the sale).