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Have to admit I do like getting twinkies even so often ����

Thanks gitano, ill get round to reading it sometime lol

No idea how bad the media is over here in the UK, the BBC is filled with left wing socialist types, could go into more detail but I won't bother, suffice to say they were nearly reliable until the labour government took them to task a few years ago (after the BBC raised questions about a coroners verdict of suicide on a man who supposedly slashed his own throat - the man in question being a government advisor who said Iraq had no wmd's and we had no justification for going to war with Iraq...)

Anyway what I will say is that people here are starting to wake up and support UKIP, and there has been a bit of a backlash against Muslims/immigrants, however the government and media have tried to suppress reporting it to prevent further trouble). Things are getting interesting in the UK all right...

Sorry guys, noob type question from the UK. Centre fire semi's autos are illegal here so I've limited experience with ar15/m16 type rifles (used one years ago on a military range). Now this isn't an important question, but I keep hearing people talking about buying different uppers instead of a whole new gun... Why is that?

Now as I said I've very limited experience with ar's so go easy on me lol I know how simple they are to swap around but every time I see someone say "just buy a new upper" (today's post where I read this was on Facebook regarding .300blk for deer), I can't help but think "why not just buy a whole gun?" Considering the lower only has the mag well, stock and trigger unit they cant be that expensive, can they? I can see a slight benefit if storage is at a premium, but even then id rather have 6 fully functioning firearms than 1 rifle with 5 spare uppers.... Or am I totally missing the point here?

Thanks Gitano, thought I might as well show you what I've been up to lol

Bill the easiest way to look at the UK is that it's basically 4 separate countries, each country with vary amounts of self rule; think of it like America with different states having different rules. In the mainland (England, Scotland and Wales) they have different gun laws to us; they can own almost as many shotguns as they want (max 2 in the mag and 1 in the chamber), air rifles under 12ft/lb power don't require a licence, and pistols are nearly impossible to get (nearly, but not totally).

Here in Northern Ireland our licensing system is stricter, but we have more options. Due to the troubles we had over the years (terrorists etc) it was impossible to remove pistols due to the amount of people that were granted them for self defence (personal protection weapons). Also due to the amount of people who were military/police trained, and the fact were still quite a rural country, we don't have the same "guns are evil" attitude that prevails in the rest of the UK. Because of that pistols are still easy-ish to get (you can see the taurus sitting on the application forms), but as we don't have the same troubles we used to they're usually now only granted for target shooting at approved ranges, and you must be a member of a gun club.

On the plus side tho, the police don't view moderators/surpressors as anything special, they're just held as another firearm on your licence, that's why you can see one on all my rifles lol

thought I'd post a few pics I've taken the last couple of years. There's been a few different guns gone through the cabinets, havnt done just as much hunting as I used to but might change that soon. At the very least you'll get to see some of the northern Irish countryside!




Mossberg 817 with a stock I made/adapted for it. Managed to break the gun so swapped for a cz 455 lol



And of course I made a stock for the cz 455 as well



Few mackerel caught while sea fishing



Last Boxing Day morning, about to leave for our annual get together, clay pigeon and rifle shooting. Left to right lanber victoria lux 12ga, basque 12ga, ags pcr1 .22 air rifle, cz 455 17hmr, cz 527 .222, hatsan escort mpa 12ga, mossberg 535 12ga.



First fox with the .222



Neck shot rabbit with the .222



Practice - 280 yard group with the .222, shot from prone using bipod



Spot of lunch while out shooting at a farm yard



Large crow with the lanber



Rabbit with the hatsan escort



Bit of pest control, decoying over a wheat field that was just combined



And the results of decoying after a couple of hours (not much about)



Taurus 9mil that broke after 50 rounds lol



Beretta 9mil to replace the taurus lol



Early morning fox hunting, using a mojo super predator decoy in the field



And finally, me looking serious while early morning fox hunting lol

thanks paul, things have improved alot from the accident. it wasnt a major accident but i ended up with a damaged joint in my neck and whiplash after it - something i didnt think existed after working in car insurance all these years! but i ended up needing 12 sessions of physiotherapy, so im a bit more sympathetic with people suffering from it now.
 
rbh 5 people in our gun club bought taurus pistols at the same time, and all have had problems, ranging from sights falling off to more major issues - two of the pistols (mine included) developed a lip of metal at the slide where it locks up with the barrel, after 2 mags it was tough to open so i took it and cleaned it, thinking id missed some packing grase. went back to the range and fired another 2 mags and the gun totally locked up, so its been sent back to the supplier. hopefully picking up my beretta this saturday, was using it last week and it shoots great, but takes a while to get it added to my licence

Been a while since I stopped in so thought I'd say hi and see how everyone's doing? Things are quiet enough here with me in Northern Ireland lol can't remember when I last posted here, so quick update... Still shooting, mostly pest vermin control, but also target shooting with pistols, etc / recently bought a taurus pt 24/7 OSS 9mil hitch fell apart after 50 rounds so now waiting on a beretta 92fs; I've changed the contents of my gun cabinets quite a bit, now have a .22 air rifle, cz 527 .222, and 4 12ga shotguns, plus 9mm... Started reloading as well (mainly to load up low power rounds for the .222 so I can shoot rabbits without blowing them to pieces), and can't think of much else lol oh also now an NRA certified range safety officer (yep the American NRA). Havnt been shooting much with the 12ga's the last year due to a car accident, but that's slowly starting to change, so fingers crossed lol

thanks guys, it shoots quite well with the new stock fitted, i was quite surprised by it. i havnt done any bedding as such so far (hence being surprised at it shooting so well), when i get around to it i'll be asking a few questions as its the first time ive done it! bedding it was going to be next on the list but the stocks currently sitting on a shelf in my spare room gathering dust -  my 10/22 is treated like a jack of all trades, being kitted out for what i need at the time; at the minute i need a close range (up to 50 yards) fox gun for night shooting, so ive put the original stock back on and fitted a torch and reflex sight for quick shooting and running targets. but ill get round to it someday lol

I know alot of people on here wont like it but i thought i'd show one i completed this year - an accuracy international l96 stock conversion for the ruger 10/22. I've seen a few conversions but they mostly seem to be submachine gun types which dont really do it for me. my guns are used for hunting/pest control so i need something functional, plus running around south armagh with a submachine gun isnt the best of ideas :laugh:

so long story short a friend was given an l96 airsoft gun that was in pieces, he got me to try to help him fix it but it was hopeless. he was going to just put it back together and hang it on his wall until an idea hit me; the stock seemed quite wide, and after a few measurements and a big of haggling he went happily on his way with an old wooden 10/22 stock that he was going to mate the l96 barrel, etc into, so it would look like a safari rifle for his wall, and i was left with the stock for the l96. luckily (or unluckily?) i'd twisted my ankle the night before when out hunting and i was off work for the next week, so i had plenty of time to work on the project. it went very smoothly with very few hiccups (for a change). i was tempted to sell this stock on ebay lately (in fact i had it listed) because the 10/22 is usually left in the cabinet in favour of my mossberg 17hmr, but i decided to hold onto it - for the moment anyway lol



so heres the stock stripped down with the 10/22 set inside just to get an idea how itd look and what would need done, 10/22 was riding high at this point



half the work done, receiver etc fitted in, but still some work needing done to the barrel channel (barrel sitting high)



just before the last coat of varnish went on; id sprayed it olive drab and was trying to work out where to put the ruger decal - again i didnt want it to look like an actual l96 too much . it looks quite shiny but the previous coat hadnt been sanded yet. nb i put black insulating tape under the ejector port/cocking handle to protect the stock from hot cases and from being scratched when cocking



almost finished product - just needed to trim down the padding at the end of the barrel channel (can see it sitting up a bit). i also fitted a textured rubber grip to the stock and (although you cant see it) modified the old bb gun magazine (which clicked in under the forend) so that it holds a lens cloth; not really necessary but without the magazine the was a large hole under the forend. i was temmpted jut to gue the mag in flush and paint it but thought i might as well make it useful.

you can see that i had to fit high scope mounts because of the cheekpiece on the stock, i was tempted to remove it but decided to keep it for the look of the stock - plus it gives me an excuse to trick the rifle out like this every so often



so there you go, a stock conversion completed in under a week. i could probably fiddle about with a few more things on it but im pretty happy with how it turned out :D

i prefer using zos scopes, get them on evilbay - http://shop.ebay.co.uk/i.html?_from=R40&_trksid=p5197.m570.l1313&_nkw=zos+scope&_sacat=See-All-Categories

theyre a little known brand (in the uk anyway) and very cheap. i'm not going into a sales pitch but they make the scopes for the chinese army and also make them for other manufacturers who then rebrand them and stick the price up 3 or 4 times.

not sure how theyll work on a .308 though; ive had 6 of them, mounted on .22lr, .17hmr, .223 and a 12ga and i've never had a problem except when i once dropped my marlin hmr and the eye piece bent upwards - then again the stock also split in two so it was understandable lol

just my thoughts

sorry meant to upload a few pic's of the mossberg 817 17hmr, got it about 3 weeks ago. bit difficult to be upbeat after reading whats happening with bh tho
 

 
anyway heres the hmr as it arrived; the front of the stock is hinged so if can fold down to be a grip and/or a short monopod; cant fit a bipod though as the grip wont support one (more in a bit...). i fitted a zos 3-9 scope, a moderator, and fiddled about with it so i could get a sling attached as well. i cant describe to you how well this gun feels and handles; its incredibly light yet has a good balance and the stock feels like it was designed to fit me!
 

 
took this last night; ive had the rifle out a few times so far; been very impressed with it but i find the grip/monopod a bit lacking; ok for shots to about 80 yards but after that its hit or miss... lol excuse the pun. i drilled a small hole in the bottom of the stock and fitted a bipod, should steady things up for those 150 yard shots. you can see the bipods a bit further back than you'd normally fit on a rifle; as i mentioned earlier its because the fold down grip wouldnt support one. dont think itll cause any problems though. also ill be replacing the 3-9 scope with a 4-16 scope; the 3-9 just doesnt have the accuracy i need for those long range shots :undecided:
 

 
and finally i took this pic today; i do alot of my pest control shooting in the evenings and at night, so needed a torch. thats a romisen t6 6 cree led model, runs on four 3.7v cr123a batteries. had a quick play with it last night and it lights up the area well to about 100 yards. its very heavy on batteries though, so im waiting on more rechargeable ones arriving before giving it a proper blitz. i was tempted to go for a nd3 laser designator light; a friend has had a couple and theyre excellent, although theyre a bit too pricey at the moment (£250; over $400!)
 
if youre thinking about getting a 17hmr i would definitely advise you to consider the mossberg 817 from the experience ive had so far. compared to the marlin 917 i owned its a very different gun; while the marlin was super accurate and rock steady it was very heavy, it felt more like a target rifle. this mossberg feels like its designed with the hunter in mind, the short barrel makes it a whiz to use from a vehicle as well; admittedly some ingenuity is required if you want to attach a sling and/or a bipod, but if i can do it anyone can
 
still need to do some proper target shooting and groupings with the mossberg since fitting the bipod, and theres no point doing that til i get the new scope, so i cant say which of the two is the most accurate, but so far its pulled down rabbits at over 100 yards so im pretty confident itll do ok

bh mate i wish i could say im shocked by the treatment youve received, but im not. unfortunately its my view that most plod's are incompetent idiots - one recently challenged me by saying "have you a licence for that rifle?" when i was carrying a mossberg pump action shotgun! and im not prejudiced against them, plenty of my family have been cops, even one of my ex's was a cop.
 
why exactly did they seize everything? over here we need a licence to hand load, is it the same over there? or have you appeared on their radar for something and theyve decided to go in heavy handed? sometimes i think their actions are designed to provoke a reaction from us, so they can turn around to the tabloid filth and protest "oh he attacked us so we had no choice"
 
ps are you a member of basc, etc? oh and last time i had a bit of trouble with feo's i got in touch with as many local politicians as possible, the pressure soon piled on and my problem was sorted out very quickly then

and heres the mossberg 535



believe it or not this was the very first shot i took out of the gun, i was walking down a lane to shoot a few targets when two crows came over. the first was about 50 yards out and 70ft high so i left him, but the second came about 40 yards and a bit lower. i was tempted to leave it but i thought that the 535's not that much diffierent from my old 500's, so i might as well try. pulled ahead a bit, squeezed the trigger and down he came! :)

ps excuse the morose looking labweiler, she's in heat at the moment and not in the best of moods for hunting...

thanks, it kinda has that effect doesnt it :)