How hard can you kick yourself?

[finnbear270]

A couple of weeks ago I looked out the Merkel barrel, thought I would try to improve the readability of their faint stampings ... you know, just to make it easier at airport checks.
This attempt failed, chalk wouldn't stay in the digits, tippex also failed, decided that they would just have to look closely.
I received this rifle back in June last year, the usual electronic means of notifying licensing took place by the RFD.
It is now at this point I remember filling in the five year guarantee slip along with applying the rifle's serial number to validate it.
A few months pass by with various range sessions to zero two sighting systems for the upcoming Boar trip.
I usually prepare all my gear fastidiously for even the simplest of shooting related activities ... even so, I have experienced the odd brain fart, as some others have mentioned on here over the years, wrong bolt /no bolt/ wrong mag/ no binos etc.
Since purchasing the Merkel, I have had two variations dealt with, the only hiatus has been the time scale really, nothing else untoward.

I now move on in time to Q'ing up at Gatwick after a hairy session on the roads, I had a most simplified transition with Easyjet staff, (Gatwick top of the pro's as airport staff goes), right up until we arrived at the Border force window.
Now when the wheels do come off for Mr Finnbear, it's usually all of them, leaving me sitting on the axles.
Mr Border force asks me "Why is the serial number on the certificate completely unrelated to that on the firearm?" I feel my knees buckle ....
To be fair, before they officially seized the rifle, Lady Border force did her best to speak to North Wales licensing, but she got fed up of being informed by recorded voice telling all grouped around, that they only answer the phone on Wednesdays.
So Mr Border force rang what I can only describe as a few Spook numbers not available to the general unwashed .... This actually worked to some extent bringing a phone call to me from a nice guy in licensing, but only as I was exiting Gatwick clutching a seizure notice.

The drive home was completed in a state of WTF?, WTF??... What just happened there, realisation dawning in small portions, I distinctly remember doing the usual checks when buying a firearm, OR DID I?
I am now in a state of self doubt.

This morning I dig out the RFD transfer copy, It bears the number quoted on the FAC, NOT on the rifle,

I am off to speak with my local RFD / seller this morning, but the fact that as I am the end user of the firearm, the fault lies with me. (a small footnote, I have also been in unlawful posession by dint of wrong serial on FAC)

To be continued ...
I need a new FAC & another road trip to Gatwick, hopefully before a destruction order materialises

 

[artschool]

oh no.

 

[gixer1]

What a nightmare! Easily done though….hopefully you get it all sorted before your trip? Or was that you going to go on the trip?

 

[User00047]

Oh what a carry on! Excuse the expression
Thats awfully unfortunate. I wonder where the mix up occurred…

 

[Jagare]

A couple of years back my Swedish mate and I arranged a stalking trip in the UK. The visitors fac's sorted by my mate in the UK. I arrived in the UK a week before my Swedish pal as my daughter was getting married.
Went to pick up my mate from Gatwick and rang him to see if he had cleared customs to be told by him that his rifle had been seized. This was due to him putting his weapons licence number instead of the rifle number on the fac application form. Border force were helpful as we're Sussex police but he had to borrow a rifle and make a separate trip back to the UK from Sweden to pick up his rifle.
We're back in April for a bit of stalking but this time will be borrowing rifles.

 

[8x57]

Finnbear real sorry to hear of that mate, what an absolute nightmare.

These days its necessary to record all serial numbers that appear on a firearm, is it possible that the RFD simply recorded the number off say the barrel and not the number off the receiver, is there more than one number on your rifle?

After an incident many many years ago when a RFD sent me a revolver (postal sale) with an entirely different number to the number he had written on my FAC I always double check the number off the actual gun myself. He explained that he had entered the details for a 6" revolver when I had ordered a 4" revolver. When he realised he was packing the wrong gun he simply substituted the one for the other and forgot about rectifying the paperwork. Fortunately my local firearms department accepted this when I contacted them and said something like "We've made a note of it, just cross out the number on your FAC and write in the right number". I doubt that they would do that these days.

You mention a problem with reading the numbers on the gun. Have you tried taking a rubbing?
It's something I used to do when trying to read and record VIN numbers off fire damaged cars on a black night.

 

[Foxyboy43]

Now that's strange! Sooo where on earth or elsewhere did the alien number on the FAC originate?
I had a similar experience crossing from NI to Scotland by ferry a few years ago. Upon arrival at check-in and calmly announcing I am carrying firearms (which I had already confirmed when booking) there was a distinct sharp intake of breath from the female security person and a clear plea for help to her oppo then standing on the other side of my car.
The source of her obvious concern was:-
a. She had never processed a firearm before; and
b. She had forgotten her glasses.
This soon became apparent when, in the garden shed that then passed for a secure building, she could not read my FAC never mind the serial numbers on the guns. Nor could her oppo as he too had forgotten his glasses - so in the spirit of helpfulness I offered to read them each out loud so the numbers could be tallied whilst the myopic woman recorded them on a piece of paper which I later learned (bear with) they faxed to the scottish port - fine, super, marvellous….. All seemed good and off went your hero to the land of Alba.
4 days later and smelling of fresh deer your hero arrived at the scottish ferry terminal and again, though with some trepidation, made the usual declaration. This time I was escorted by a lady security person into the security building where she reassuringly donned a pair of glasses and politely asked me to remove the firearms from the slips and read out the serial numbers - which I gladly did.
Long story short on the NI fax the AYA was recorded as AIA and the number on the form was an anagram of what was on the gun. Furthermore the Remington serial number was by some magic a digit more than that on the form. Lord how we laughed, ha, ha, ha….
The bespectacled one obviously noticed the look of rising panic in my countenance and quickly announced “ ah hen, I see they’ve forgotten their glasses again over there - away you go….”
So no harm done then.

 

[Bavarianbrit]

I bought a new Tikka .308 from the Franconia main shop in Wurzburg serial nr so & so then put it onto my German FAC all OK. Then looking deeper at the rifle it was serial nr so & so OK but the calibre stamp said .223. Took a lot of tooing & froing on the phone to get them to take it back and refund me.

 

[finnbear270]

All is now clear, There is another serial number on the action ….. currently obscured by the rail only the receiver number is on the fac no mention of the barrel serial, seems this is where the gang”””k starts, I am now educated & introduced to the world of “Modular rifles”, IF & ONLY IF it had been a Wednesday flight we could have spoken direct with the f l o & sorted the issue over the phone, an expensive lesson in attention deficit on my part, just waiting on the fresh fac to be issued in readiness for another visit to Border force Gatwick.

 

[sikadog]

My previous custom pig rifle had the serial number stamped underneath the barrel.
Oh how much fun was it stripping the rifle in the middle of departures at Manchester Airport.
Not.

 

[dave 67]

Interestingly I have a modular rifle Steve, when I purchased the rifle it has a serial number on the action that is on my FAC as 6.5x55, I also have a barrel in 7x64 and that has its own serial number that is called out on my certificate, my 6.5 barrel serial number is not called out on my certificate, think I’ll just hunt in the UK to save any issues, but think I might have a word with my FEO, just wondering if that will open a can of worms I don’t need.
Bit of a trip back home for you from Gatwick

 

[pendle]

I have two rws titans swap barrel's . Only the barrel has the serial number on.

 

[ion]

Now that's strange! Sooo where on earth or elsewhere did the alien number on the FAC originate?
I had a similar experience crossing from NI to Scotland by ferry a few years ago. Upon arrival at check-in and calmly announcing I am carrying firearms (which I had already confirmed when booking) there was a distinct sharp intake of breath from the female security person and a clear plea for help to her oppo then standing on the other side of my car.
The source of her obvious concern was:-
a. She had never processed a firearm before; and
b. She had forgotten her glasses.
This soon became apparent when, in the garden shed that then passed for a secure building, she could not read my FAC never mind the serial numbers on the guns. Nor could her oppo as he too had forgotten his glasses - so in the spirit of helpfulness I offered to read them each out loud so the numbers could be tallied whilst the myopic woman recorded them on a piece of paper which I later learned (bear with) they faxed to the scottish port - fine, super, marvellous….. All seemed good and off went your hero to the land of Alba.
4 days later and smelling of fresh deer your hero arrived at the scottish ferry terminal and again, though with some trepidation, made the usual declaration. This time I was escorted by a lady security person into the security building where she reassuringly donned a pair of glasses and politely asked me to remove the firearms from the slips and read out the serial numbers - which I gladly did.
Long story short on the NI fax the AYA was recorded as AIA and the number on the form was an anagram of what was on the gun. Furthermore the Remington serial number was by some magic a digit more than that on the form. Lord how we laughed, ha, ha, ha….
The bespectacled one obviously noticed the look of rising panic in my countenance and quickly announced “ ah hen, I see they’ve forgotten their glasses again over there - away you go….”
So no harm done then.

Sounds like P & O. After one circus of bringing firearms in to shack, show firearms which they are not allowed to handle, and then they did not have their copy of paperwork for the return trip.
Now a Stena fan - book in sporting goods by phone, answer sensible questions at security and allow security to ooh and aah over dog!

 

[pendle]

I have two rws titans swap barrel's . Only the barrel has the serial number on.

I know it's not a Merkel . But us stalkers with these swap barrel rifles

I emailed Robler Waffern the makers of the titan 6 and 3 moduler rifles
R/E serial numbers
There service manager replied.

 

[Dalua]

Interestingly I have a modular rifle Steve, when I purchased the rifle it has a serial number on the action that is on my FAC as 6.5x55, I also have a barrel in 7x64 and that has its own serial number that is called out on my certificate, my 6.5 barrel serial number is not called out on my certificate, think I’ll just hunt in the UK to save any issues, but think I might have a word with my FEO, just wondering if that will open a can of worms I don’t need.

My Mauser M03s are on my FAC with barrels (all have s/n), bolt-head (some have s/n), bolts (none has s/n), and receivers (none has s/n) all entered separately - and that, although it looks like a load of faff, seems to be the modern legally-correct way to do it.

If, like Dave, you have a a modular 6.5x55 rifle on your FAC as a single entry and a separate entry for a 7x64 barrel, then there would appear to be no authority to possess a 7x64 rifle, nor a 6.5x55 barrel.

 

[finnbear270]

Just got back from Border force armoury Gatwick, Fair play to North Wales FLO, I picked up a brand new FAC yesterday with the correct details entered on, Seems the original notification of number was the one on the barrel, but when I tipped up to fly out the one on the FAC was referring to the one on the action ... you know the one that sensible manufacturers apply to the side of action ... not a tiny microscopic one that is situated under the scope rail

So much for Vorsprung Durch Teknik.

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[finnbear270]

Also I should mention whilst the Border force were very loathe to seize, they could do nothing else as 1) The RFD 's were closed Mondays, and 2) Firearms Licensing only pick up the phone on Wednesdays, this last comment raised guffaws on both my visits.

 

[8x57]

Also I should mention whilst the Border force were very loathe to seize, they could do nothing else as 1) The RFD 's were closed Mondays, and 2) Firearms Licensing only pick up the phone on Wednesdays, this last comment raised guffaws on both my visits.

I wonder if North Wales Police have a similar policy for other matters e.g. only deal with burglaries on a Monday, or armed robberies on a Tuesday.

Sounds like a police service that doesn't provide a service.

 

[enfieldspares]

Ah well at least it wasn't a 12 bore shotgun with the serial number entered as "729"!

 

[finnbear270]

Just back from the farm, I thought I would check some more Vorsprung durch teknick, After having to disassemble the 9.3 sighting system to satisfy Border force before being allowed to retrieve the rifle, No shift in p.o.i, in either red dot or meopta scopes … five rounds through same area with both systems,at 100 metres, ignore the 25-06 six o’clock. So the Dentler mounts are Alles in Ordnung