Antiques and Barrel Length

[tactical870]

A few months back someone on here asked a question regarding the legalities of cutting a barrel on a SXS antique class shotgun below 18". The debate seemed evenly divided on weather it was legal or not. I posed the question the the CFC and never got a reply.... Until yesterday. (2 months to answer my email, LOL) Here is the decision from the CFC regarding cutting barrels below 18".

Hello,The Antique status of a firearm would not change if the barrel was shortened. It would still be viewed as a firearm if it were used in a crime.

Hope this clears things up for eveyone.

 

[Win 38-55]

There you go; straight from the horse's mouth, as they say. I would recommend you keep that email on file. If you do shorten your antique class shotgun barrel, I'd also recommend printing off a copy of the email and keeping it with your antique. I agree with CFC, as the barrel length is not stated in the law for antiques and is, therefore, irrelevant.

 

[dingus]

Funny when i asked they said it was ilegal for you to shorten the barrel. Just depends who you ask i guess.
To Be Fair the Tec i asked was Asumeing it was Ilegal i think.

Like every other Knife Law and Gun law in Canada, it Depends who you ask and they (the Law) can decide if they want to to charge you just for s**ts a giggles decideing what your INTENT is,
What a Fuked up system.

Just make sure you have the right INTENT guys.

 

[mooncoon]

The barrels that you cut are going to have to be on an antique to start with; the phrasing makes me think you are talking about a cartridge gun and the vast majority of those are modern because of guage. Your only hope would be to bush and chamber a 12 guage to the 14 guage greener police shell THEN shorten the barrel (reverse would be illegal) and even then you would be wise to say you did not know when the barrels were shortened and presumed them to be pre 1898. Bottom line is that you would be skating on extremely thin ice.
You would probably be on slightly safer grounds in the case of a percussion gun but I would think you would be again on extremely thin ice in case of a modern flint shotgun or rifle (which is also classed as antique)

cheers mooncoon

 

[tactical870]

I got to thinking the other day that it'd be easy to bush a 12 or 16 ga down to to 24 ga. Gotta check and see if that one is on the list. I think Fiocci is even still making ammo for it... My plan was actually to take a damaged percussion gun and cut it down to 12" with a pistol grip. Handy for grouse and pretty cool at the same time.

 

[mooncoon]

The 24 guage is not on the list but if you can make the bushing, you can also make the same for the 14 guage police shell and a forming tool to convert winchester AA shells into 14 guage police shells
More importantly however, I think that if inspected by a CO in the bush or by police en route, you would expend a lot of energy and probably money in defending your actions

cheers mooncoon

 

[jethunter]

I think mooncoon nailed it. If a firearm is already classed as antique, it can have any length bbl and still be classified as antique. The thing is it can't be an antique if it 10, 12, 16, 20, 28 gauge or .410. If you have a pre-1898 SxS 14 gauge, you would be in luck. Otherwise it's not antique and falls under the regular firearm rules for barrel length.