IS 32-40 an antique rifle calibre?

I've always found that a particularly amusing aspect of antique law... why in gods name would they be more worried about small caliber rifles? They're low pressure cartridges that never performed overly well..... probably someone's misguided paranoia over a criminal putting a silencer on it and getting up do some nefarious mouse shooting.
 
Yeah .... but....

H Wally

Since when did guns laws make any sense? A green CFC employee once 'de-reg'd' a 2nd Gen Colt Navy for me. We argued about it and she insisted she could do it as it was a "Colt". Even to her, it seemed logical.
I got the letter and months later a phone call from her irate supervisor who told me that I had made an incorrect application for 'antique' status. We had words about it as I had since taken it into the US to a reenactment.

It must be coming obvious to even the public that gun laws don't prevent crime, just impact on the law-abiding. Every gun crime proves it and I almost rub my hands with glee every time some drug pusher gets shot by another.

Of course, the antis see this as proof that guns are evil, handguns are designed to kill, etc. Like you, I must own a lot of defective guns as they haven't killed anyone.
 
H Wally said:
I've always found that a particularly amusing aspect of antique law... why in gods name would they be more worried about small caliber rifles? They're low pressure cartridges that never performed overly well..... probably someone's misguided paranoia over a criminal putting a silencer on it and getting up do some nefarious mouse shooting.
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I think they were specifically targeting the 30-30 and .32 special cartrdiges to make sure they could not be "antiqued". No other explanation that I can think of.

A single shot 25-20 can't be an antique but a 45-70 can.... there's some sound, effective legislation; just shows how braindead and ineffective our whole "justice" system really is.
 
Sharps '63 said:
H Wally

Since when did guns laws make any sense? A green CFC employee once 'de-reg'd' a 2nd Gen Colt Navy for me. We argued about it and she insisted she could do it as it was a "Colt". Even to her, it seemed logical.
I got the letter and months later a phone call from her irate supervisor who told me that I had made an incorrect application for 'antique' status. We had words about it as I had since taken it into the US to a reenactment.

It must be coming obvious to even the public that gun laws don't prevent crime, just impact on the law-abiding. Every gun crime proves it and I almost rub my hands with glee every time some drug pusher gets shot by another.

Of course, the antis see this as proof that guns are evil, handguns are designed to kill, etc. Like you, I must own a lot of defective guns as they haven't killed anyone.
Click to expand...

Haha - agreed. None of our laws make any sense, but I would have liked to have heard the train of thought that lead to this decision. It's probably as jethunter says and they were trying to target the "easily" accessible cartridges.... I guess that kind of backfired when the big companies started making 45/70 ammo and reloading gear again:p
 
H Wally said:
Haha - agreed. None of our laws make any sense, but I would have liked to have heard the train of thought that lead to this decision. It's probably as jethunter says and they were trying to target the "easily" accessible cartridges.... I guess that kind of backfired when the big companies started making 45/70 ammo and reloading gear again:p
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Have to argue that one. I think .45-70, .45 Colt, and (not counting a brief lapse) .44-40 have all been in continuous production since their inception since 1873.

What I find funny (or not) is explaining the antique status laws to the American shooters I've ben known to consort with. Still have to laugh at the look a certain well known scheutzen shooter had on his face when I told him that under Canadian law, if he took an original Ballard in .38-55, and screwed a .32-40 barrel onto it, it would then be subject to regulation. Poor fellow's head near exploded trying to make sense of it.
 
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I'm no expert but there are some ATF rules about modern & obsolete ammunition with regards to antique status firearms & federally controlled modern day firearms, especially center fires, that is mind numbing to say the least. And that's just one dept. take on it! At least our laws & orders in council on antiques, albeit murky, are controlled by one body. It's far from a perfect system, but the U.S. has some serious snags in theirs as well, that could land you in the Big House for a longtime.
 
Fair enough - but I was under the impression that 45/70 fell out of favour and the manufacturers focussed on it far less for a period? That's what I'm reading on wikipedia and a couple older reloading books, I wasn't there :p
 
I think the modern status of rifles under 8.3 mm is largely to do with single shot rifles in military calibers. Martinis in 303 for example. Logic would have said that the non magazine clause would have eliminated most of the guns in the under 8.3 category. I think the one advantage of the current law is that it does away with the term "cartridges commercially available" because that was a very fuzzy description and open to a wide variety of interpretations

cheers mooncoon
 
I'm thinking there are some other areas of metric / imperial conversion that are very close they give the gun owner the benefit of the doubt and was wondering about this one; doesn't sound like it. Has anyone ever asked a 'Technician' that question?
In Ontario don't they allow the 7mm in as being legal under the .275" law even though technicaly it is not?
 
The Ontario hunting regulation accepts .270 Winchester. I've never heard of the 7mm being approved. Not really relevant to the federal law.
You are best to ask a tech, but I would not be optimistic that the .32-40 qualifies.
 
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