Go back to the future

There are historical and legal reasons for the decline in interest in vintage rifles in this country. When I was a child, to have a modest collection of sporting and military rifles was not an uncommon thing for a country gentleman. My father had only a passing interest, but owned more than a dozen. My primary school headmaster had more than 100. I know this, because he used to bring them to school to show us.

Sadly, for most people, the casual ease with which mild interest could be nurtured into a hobby and perhaps even grow into a passion has been stifled by increasingly restrictive legislation. It is hard to develop an interest in anything if you can’t have it and rarely see it. The fact is, a barrier to the ownership and use of vintage firearms, like all firearms now, stands firmly between them and us.

The firearms we are allowed now