FiL died recently and left a shotgun behind. He wasn’t a keen shooter and it hasn’t been used for years so suspect it’s not a great gun, bought originally for shooting rabbits in the fields surrounding their house. Does a generic 12 bore have any value? I don’t know what make it is at this point so appreciate this is vague. Had a look at a couple of websites but they seem to be branded guns which carry value.

As a side note from what I can gather we have to notify the firearm licensing manager as to his death but given it is securely locked away and no one who knows it’s there is considered a risk there is no need to inform the police. To be honest I have my doubts as to whether my MiL will know where the cabinet key is!

The coroner’s office will notify firearms licensing if he is a legitimate certificate holder. The police have arrangements u der these circumstances to take the shotgun to a registered firearms dealer who will dispose of it for the benefit of the deceased’s estate. Other scenario is for a shotgun certificate holder to take ownership of it. As for keys, look in his sock drawer. And if any firearms owners on here keep their keys in the sock drawer, buy a cheap safe for them. Now that he has died, keeping quiet means that potentially anyone who has the gun in the house without proper certification and fails to take reasonable steps to surrender it is liable to prosecution.

You really have to contact the police

Guide on Firearms Licensing Law

1.10.

In the event of death of owner

In the event of the death of a certificate holder the
person inheriting the effects
must surrender
or declare the weapons to the police or a registered firearms dealer. Failure to do so would
result in the inheritor being in breach of the law by having the firearms in their possession; it is
the responsibility of the inheritor to find out whether firearms are part of the deceased effects.
Registered firearms dealers will be able to advise on the value of the items and how best to
proceed in accordance with the inheritor’s wishes. Options include applying for a firearms licence,
selling/transferring the firearm (to a museum or collector) or destroying it

If it is a single barrelled 12 bore it’s likely to be worth less than £50.

Double barrelled, well – it’s your original piece of string. Anything from £100 up. If he wasn’t a keen shotgunner and it was used purely as tool for rabbit control it’s probably a low-end Russian( (Baikal) or Italian (Rizinni) make.

As above on legal requirements

If you find that it has come from the Netherlands twice (look for names on the shiny bits) worth nowt and I would be happy to relieve you of the offending item

Speak to Police ASAP.

Illegal ownership = 5 years mandatory prison sentence. (Judge has no discretion on sentencing)

Where are you? I have space in my cabinet if you want me to store it (Derbyshire area)

I was recently clearing out my grandparents house and found 3 boxes containing 150 high powered rifle rounds. Just contacted the police on 101, told them what I’d found and they came round pretty sharpish to pick them up.

yep, law is above. It will be considered a risk.

The value can be anything from £50 to £10000 (and up!) but I suspect a couple of hundred quid. I’m in Somerset, happy to put in my cabinet if I can be of any assistance, however most gun shops will offer a service quite cheaply, and assist with the selling (which you are not allowed to do without a certificate)

As an aside, I am aware of an individual who ‘found’ several hundred rounds of 7.62 ammunition stacked at the back of his garage with some dodgy old 12bore carts. They are all now dropped into the sea (a long way off shore in a firing range) as the disposal would be too difficult as he ‘couldn’t remember’ how he got them.

I might also be interested in buying it depending on what it is!

We had a guy at work who it turned out had a live 6″ artillery shell on his desk as a memento. Caused all sorts of fuss when someone found out it was live. Luckily between the Police being called and them arriving a colleague unscrewed the pin and removed all the explosive powder, so when it was found it was no longer live…

Anyway, one chap was arrested and later released with no charge whilst his colleague’s kids were the envy of all their friends as they had a 1kg of cordite or similar to play with…..

The joys of working on an ex-MoD R&D site..

I’m south Lancs with space in my cabinet if you’re near, but being as you’re not the cert holder I’m not sure any legal cert owner would be able to add it to their own cert (would be nice to know if that is possible though).

I’d speak to an RFD before the Police, once the Police have possession I imagine it would be awkward to then get it to an RFD.

fwiw you don’t need a cert to be in possession of his cartridges.

Seriously chaps

The OP has no legal right to the gun, he can’t ask someone else to store it or sell it without both of you getting a visit from the police (vans/dogs the whole bash down door)

Really a bad idea to put on a public forum offers of storing it or offers to buy the darn thing unless you want a really early wake up call 🙄

Rkk01, the judge always has discretion in exceptional circumstances. STW is probably not the place to decide if an event that happens every week (the inheritance of a legally held gun by a person without a suitable certificate) is exceptional.

However, even then I am not sure 5y min applies to weapons which could be legally held. I thought it was for weapons that were banned outright.

That said, a firearms conviction, even with a conditional discharge is not going to do anyone any favours, so I would suggest calling a local firearms dealer or the police.

What I missed out is that the police can arrange for a certificate holder to take possession if you don’t want it to be disposed of via an RFD. Don’t try to arrange it yourself.

I’d speak to an RFD before the Police,

This, absolutely – contact an RFD soonest, they are used to dealing with this type of situation and you should get an honest appraisal of its worth and then follow his advice.

Scapegoat is also right that any certificate holder should be able to help you out, but my experience is that many police officers (and firearms departments) don’t know the law as well as they perhaps ought to, and that if your first point of call is the police, then it will end up being melted down.

Thanks all, will get onto this pronto. Seems the pdf on the BASC wasn’t as helpful as I originally thought. RFD – Registered Firearms Dealer?

And a slight twist…. MiL now thinks the FiL passed it to another friend (who has a valid licence and secure cabinet) a while back as it turns out it’s not in the cupboard at home. Shambles. She’s now on the phone to confirm the location. If not then I’ll call the police to inform them that we do not know the location of the gun.

For those that asked we’re in Sussex and appreciate the offer re storage but sounds like it is significant risk to you.

Caused all sorts of fuss when someone found out it was live.

How would you know, out of interest? (I know very little about such things.)

Ok. We’re fairly certain the gun is in the friend’s cabinet. Wife of friend is checking when she gets home. And it’s on his certificate. Panic over.

Teamhurtmore – as it happens it is. Yours for a fiver?

OP as above you can buy a brand new pretty decent Browning for £200-ish and a machine made Beretta for not much more so second hand no-name brand isn’t worth much at all.

Have a look round for any shells/cartridges, you want to have those disposed of any/or given away with the weapon.

Link to a £200 Browning please?

I think you mean a beat up, worn out Browning may be available for £200.

Link to a £200 Browning please?

I am sure you know better than me but that’s what I remember them being when I was looking a few years ago, clearly I don’t remember well

Semi auto Brownings start at £800 and their cheapest over/under is £1300 ish. Berettas are around the same. £350 will get you a semi auto Hatsan which is a very good gun. You can get Turkush o/u’s for £500 or a Bikal SBS for £295 I think.
It’s impossible to value the op’s gun without seeing it, a Bikal could be £95 but if it’s a no name English gun it could be £300 or even more if it’s nice 🙂

Glad you’re sorted op and none of us have to resort to anything ‘illegal’ or have our back doors smashed in.

Gotama – Member 
Teamhurtmore – as it happens it is. Yours for a fiver?

I was joking. If it is truly a H&H gun, I would be stealing off you. Think £000s……but if you insist 😉

Not that it matters now in this instance, but for future reference, the police can’t just destroy firearms because they’re firearms. They are somebody’s property and there are rules about such things (and indeed an ECHR Article on the matter). They will often take possession of them, but when the alternative is to leave someone else unlawfully in possession of them they can’t really do otherwise. I do of course appreciate that lots of polices talk shite and will tell you that it’s going in the fiery furnace and that’s that sir, but they’re wrong 🙂 We had a thread on this fairly recently and I went and checked the procedure with the property lady.

@Gotama – if you want to sell, I might be interested, depending on details and value of course. I was in a similar situation when my dad died about 10 years ago, but now have a licence and 3 of his guns. No time to shoot them, for the time being at least, but I’m sure I’ll find the time one day!

Let me know – email in profile.
Cheers
Nick

if your first point of call is the police, then it will end up being melted down.

Not that it matters now in this instance, but for future reference, the police can’t just destroy firearms because they’re firearms. They are somebody’s property and there are rules about such things

Unfortunately both you and I know that isn’t always the way these things pan out. But yeah, the more people who know the above the better.