Legal position on mixed serial numbers

[McTrucky]

Asking for a friend....

If a shotgun's barrels get mixed up during cleaning or whatever and no one notices, and ultimately one of the guns is sold; this leaves a gun with different serial numbers on the barrels and on the receiver. 

The numbers on the receiver correspond to what is on the shotgun certificate.

Is this a problem legally?  The gun which was sold went to a dealer a long time ago so tracking could be difficult.

 

[vmax1010]

Similar thing happened to me in that the dealer put down the wrong number on my certificate, only when I came to sell it it came to light, I phoned the firearms department and they just amended the records there and then no probs was a few years ago though 

 

[wynno]

A Blaser I bought from Litts of Newport ( remember them ?)many years ago had two different serial numbers on the barrels and the action. The one that was on my certificate was the one on the action, the logic behind this was “well you can change the barrels,but you can’t change the action “

 

[Jan Powell]

Asking for a friend....

If a shotgun's barrels get mixed up during cleaning or whatever and no one notices, and ultimately one of the guns is sold; this leaves a gun with different serial numbers on the barrels and on the receiver. 

The numbers on the receiver correspond to what is on the shotgun certificate.

Is this a problem legally?  The gun which was sold went to a dealer a long time ago so tracking could be difficult.

No, it's quite commonplace, particularly if a second barrel is bought. Many competition guns are mixed and matched nowadays and often won't have corresponding serial numbers.

The only time it can cause issues is when you travel overseas. On several occasions when I've passed through ports or airports for events abroad it's raised eyebrows. The best way to solve this is to ask your firearms licensing department to record the barrels as a separate entry on your certificate. I'm just back from Portugal where this separate entry saved lots of inconvenience at Porto airport!

 

[Mike]

The first Blaser shotguns just had the serial number on the barrels, my firearms department were not very happy 

 

[Freddypip]

Same here. 686 20 gauge has the receiver's serial number on my certificate. As Wynno says barrels can be swapped over so their number shouldn't (really) matter though a mismatching set is likley to affect the guns value.

Jan's comments regarding travelling abroad are useful to know.

Older guns will normally need a gunsmith to "let in" a new set of barrels so its unlikley they would get mixed up as such. Newer guns (Blazer states this) can have their barrels swapped over without any work. This isn't that imporant but if I was buying I would probaly ask for an explaination.

 

[nohoper]

Krieghoff usually have different serial nos on the action and barrels both were recorded on my certificate problem arose when new firearms guy wasn’t sure what to do but sorted in the end with no problems

 

[Bebo]

Krieghoff usually have different serial nos on the action and barrels both were recorded on my certificate problem arose when new firearms guy wasn’t sure what to do but sorted in the end with no problems

Ditto that both are recorded on my cert. Hasn't caused any problems so far.

 

[ColinD]

Do Krieghoff sort through them to find the best fitting action/barrel before boxing them up

 

[Jan Powell]

Do Krieghoff sort through them to find the best fitting action/barrel before boxing them up

https://www.krieghoff.co.uk/faq-serial-numbers.html

 

[McTrucky]

Many thanks everybody.  Puts, my.... errr, my friend's, mind at rest.

@Freddypip The gun at this end is a 20ga Silver Pigeon.  I don't suppose your barrel's serial number ends in ..602S or ..704S?  If so, could be we have two matching pairs between us. 

 

[Freddypip]

Sorry - ***6B.

It's a sporting receiver with game barrels. It didn't really pick that up when I got it because it suited my daughter (at the time) so well.

 

[ColinD]

Do Krieghoff sort through them to find the best fitting action/barrel before boxing them up

https://www.krieghoff.co.uk/faq-serial-numbers.html

So they do then