ferretfixer

Such is life Rob! No chance of tracking them to thier next owner? Mike.

Rob, Did you follow up that lead i gave you for one of these guns? Mike.

There is a company there called the International Repo Depot. (Earl Tucker) Who imports tracked AFVS & the like. I sold him my Scorpion a few years back. He is based in Housten & could help you. It's worth an Email! Mike. :-D

An Armamant company I used to work for, got gifted an Ex Naval Bofors from a sea cadet unit that was dispanded. It sat outside the Factory for many years with just the barrel stored inside the Factory Armoury. I saw an ad years ago in a Windscreen mag green sheet advertiesd for a guy looking for one. I contacted him, did a deal on behalf of our Boss. De-Activated & certified it. & The chap came and collected it. It went to the isle of wight to complete a Portee restoration. I was pleased because we were going to deact it & restore it as a gateguard outside the factory. When it was pointed out that some of the local 'Lovely Kiddie Winks' would love to climb on it after hours. They might fall or injure themselves & the company sued! So that idea was shelved & the boss was simply going to scrap it. Good job i had the foresight to stall him so it could be saved! Too much has gone to the melting pot. Look at RL's, they built 73 Thousand of them! Where are they now! (I know a lot were left abroad when Brit troops returned from far flung corners of the globe) There should be more about, but you dont see THAT many at shows! I guess the Pertol situation hasnt helped when you can get Daf's & MK's! Mike. :kiss:

Chris, A small but usefull tip. To save time & energy climbing in & out of the vehicle. Simply remove one of the side escape hatches to view your timing marks. a LOT easier! Mike. :-D

Looking round......No one here at present........BANG! :nut:

Well you learn something new every day! I never knew the Queen cleaned her own tyres!....:cool2:

Hi Iain, Yes, it would be good to see a copy of the letter, IF, you get one back. :undecided: My Father lost over £35,000 in the 'Compensation' scheme effected over the last Government deabacle over changing rules! (Firearms) The Government lost a lot of money over compensation over handguns & has stated that 'This must never happen again'. That is why in the F/Arms amendment act, certain blocks in the legislation have been left blank. So they can retrospectively Ban anything they want by introducing legislation that they want. Very sly & devious Me'thinks! You can bet your life that anything affecting us in the future, we will NOT be compensated for! Mike

The government 'shot themselves in the foot' so to speak after the debacle over 'Commpensation' on the Banning of handguns. It made absolutely NO difference to Armed Crime whatsoever. (As WAS pointed out by the shooting comunity at the time) It cost the Tax payer Multi Millions of pounds in Comp. This time, as we have a more enlightened member of Parliment who actually IS listening to US as enthusiasts & Hobbyists. This is laudable & should be encouraged. It can be seen that certain members have magnificently stepped forward to assist the Hon Member in his Task of 'getting it right' on this subject. We use the highways a lot less than comercial traffic, we cause less problems than aforesaid traffic & are actualy also custodians of History for this country. We educate & inform the public with our hobby & facinate others & stimulate them to become owners like ouselves. This is a living museum which lives & breaths. Convential museums cannot compete with wat we do. People from all over the world attend our larger shows & all shows bring income to this countrys coffers. Albiet small in context! There very small numbers of accidents at our shows (Mostly NONE at all) But at football matches there can be violence & policing costs involved. The voice of classic cars, Traction engine owners, Vehicle owners & enthusiasts in general should join together as one voice to be heard. The more the merrier. We need to show the Government that we are indeed A VERY significant amount of people who DO use the highways & NEED to be heard. The voice of reason & inteligent arguments put forward by Antar Mike & others here is excellent. We Do NOT need to get heated & angry about this DRAFT consultaion. But we DO need to work with the elected Hon.Member to consult in a CONSTRUCTIVE & reasoned manner to effect a positive outcome for all of us concerned with our chosen Hobby. Just my two pennies worth, but written from bitter expierience over the 'Consultaion' period with regards to the Firearms Amendment act! Mike. :undecided:

Better than 'Crushed Nuts'! :-D

Nice looking vehicles these, I have often looked 'sideways' at them at shows! Wouldnt mind one myself, though I hear engine wise they are a bit unreliable. Is this so, do you know? Mike

As one of the joys of 'Donating' forty Millinon quid a day for being in the e.u. Wouldnt it be nicer (& money better spent!) to make at least one of these payment sums to Bovvy. After all, it's a Museum for the education & preservation of a valuable asset for the NATION! :undecided:

Probably a 'Thanks for your efforts on Behalf of the Company'! :-D

As for 6 pounder parts I can't find much at all,so its a case of 'make do and mend'.:undecided: Rob.........................rnixartillery. Rob, I Totaly empathise!.....:-D Mike

Nice work Rob, couldnt help noticing the N.O.S boxed spares on the shelf in the background!......:cool2: Mike.

I also Knew Tony VERY well, what a shame. I hope Lillian can keep the Bussiness going. Tony was a Gentleman & always up front & honest in his bussiness dealings with me. Tony had some amazing contacts, & was one of the VERY privelidged few to gain access to former Soviet Russia to get the Kursk Captured German weapons out & to the UK. I hope this may continue as if not, the prices of Thompsons & MG34's will rocket!...:-( My Condolences to Tonys Family. Mike. :embarrassed:

Put it into finacial context then: .30 Browning £600-£850 .303" Bren £275-£325 7.62mm LMG L4A4 £900-£1200 (Anything lower priced than that is usually a FAKE!) GPMG £2,500-£2,750 Does that make it any easier to make a choice!....:-D

I believe the correct designation for this vehicle is actualy a MK2/7. This means it started life as a 2/6 with the Vigalant A/T System fitted. When the Vigi went out of Fashion on the Ferret. they were modified with the removal of the launch boxes from the Turret, & also the spare missle boxes from the side & a spare wheel fitted. The Turret hand traverse mech was left in situ & the Turret hatch left as it was with the bigger hinges. (These were to clear the missile launch perisciope I belive.) all the other SMALL odities such as placement of certain boxes Etc. Were also left alone, if they did not interfere with normal operation the same as a 'Normal' MK2/3. there is a Similar 2/7 to this outside the Guards Museum at Wellington Barracks in London. To my OWN personal knowledge, there is only one 2/6 in private hands complete, & another in Bovvy. I stand to be corrected. :nut: Mike.

However, seeing as I'm having a good look first, what things am I looking out for? Any tips would be greatly appreciated. Cheers Paul A potential HUGE fuel bill!...(4MPG) :-D

You right there Griff! I used to be able to use a Local T.A units pit for work on my private car. Not so now, 'H&S/ insurance wont cover it Mike, your not serving now Etc!' So I cant see that one either, or indeed, having the resources to supply qualified inspecting personell. With the Army Soooooo stretched these days!......:cool2:

That is correct, it is for all the cables, spare handset & other bits & bobs (Ancilleries). The loop for a spade or pickaxe handle is also correct. :yawn:

I cant confirm that this is true. But I heard Scimitars were utilised by The Regular Army. And Sabre was used by the T.A? Sabre remanufactured/modified from Fox Turrets & Scorpion Hulls. Mike.

It was indeed common, postwar. For a lot of equipment to be sea dumped to get rid of 'Warlike Stores' Etc. To prevent it being reused, or the possibility of someone getting an Armoured vehicle going & causing damage Etc. There was SO much kit laying around, & everyone was understandably sick of anything to do with War. The quickest & easiest method was seadumping. This was especialy so with Ammunition & bombs Etc. The time used with labour, Gas, Logistics Etc for gas cuting was insufficient for the vast amount of work to be done. Postwar, it was almost the 'Norm' to seadump stuff. I can attest to the dumping of Small Arms & Ammo in bulk. My Father was also an Armourer, & was involved on occassion with this procedure. Everything was put into barges/lighters & towed out to deep water. The barges apparantly were hollow walled & had doors in the bottom of the load bays. these opened up to drop thier loads into the sea. He recounted many tails of camps that we had both been to in our Service carreers. Where, in his day. So many stens, brens, revolvers Etc by the hundereds. Had been stripped of internals & simply buried in woods around the garrison to get rid of them. To my knowledge, they are STILL there today! (NO, Im NOT revealing where they are!) It would NEVER happen today! All Ordanace Ammo, Has to be fired off to get rid of it. There are specialist companies that tender for this service. NOTHING is Seadumped anymore to enviromental issues. (By Britain, anyway!) All Small Arms & Larger ordinance spares Etc & anything 'Sensitive'. Is Gas cut & melted as Secure scrap. When I was Stationed at the School of Infantry as one of the school Armourers. I lived in quarters & had a Willys Jeep (& later a Kubelwagen) which I drove a lot & attended shows in. I was obviously known around the garrison for my collecting hobby! Another soldier who lived opposite me, told me about two .303" No.4 Rifle barreled actions he had dug up in a 'certain camp' not far from where we lived. I got both of them from him & in return offered to restore & build them up to thier normal configuration before they were stripped down. This i did & took both of them to one of the ranges for test firing after my restoration & evaluation.hey BOTH fired & grouped admirably! Just goes to show you dosent it? Both rifles were then De-Activated by me & got certs for. Back to sea dumping! When I lived in Sussex, I knew a captain of a dregger vessel. He bemoaned the fact that on frequent trips out to dredge shipping lanes to keep them 'deep water'. Old shells & the like were often bought up. this meant draging out the local E.O.D teams to deal with these things & the 'downtime' involved in the cessation of work till these shells were destroyed Etc. Eventually, they simply kept lobbing them over the side so they didnt have the inconvinience involved with E.O.D Etc! he bought me one back as a souvienier. It was encrusted with barnicals and the like. I eventually got the fuse end assembly off this rusted & molusk encrusted example, & do you know what I found? The inside was as clean as the day it was made! Full of explosive Etc. It just goes to show you that airtight ordanance does NOT deteriorate very well internally! I DO NOT ENDORSE THIS PRACTICE OF OPENING UP ANY ORDANANCE BY ANY PERSON NOT QUALIFIED TO DO SO! IT IS EXCEPTIONALY DANGEROUS IF YOU DO NOT KNOW EXACTLY WHAT YOU ARE DOING!!! As an aside, this post could be linked to the recent article on the Richard Montgomery ship, & the associated Dangers attached! Mike. :nut:

May have had one. A lot of different things were done at unit level that was unique to a particular vehilcle, or even unit. The official Buff says' it should have x,y,z Etc. But, a particular section, sqn, Company Etc may well have 'done thier own thing'. A good example is the laod basket on the rear of SOME Ferrets. This was NEVER an officail mod. BUT, A Hell of a lot of units made & used them. Each units construction was slightly different. But th end results were all similar. This did not just apply to weapons. Individual soldiers did thier own thing in the field also with personal equipment. As MANY our Ex Serving Comrades on this Forum will attest! :cool2: