So that I can manufacture Muzzle Loading Revolvers, Alfa supply me with part built .357 revolvers, that have never been completed and have no cylinders, thus they are not Section 5 prohibited firearms. I then carry out various modifications and fit a muzzle loading cylinder of my own design, the completed revolver is then proofed as a Muzzle Loading Revolver.

Stainless Steel Alfa 3", 4", 6" & 2" Barreled  Muzzle Loading Revolvers: £1264.00
Extra Cylinders: £320.00 Each.                         (2" by special order)  Prices as at 13/2/23

Weaver sight rail:
The rearsight is removed and a weaver rail can be fitted in its place  £55.00 each.
Target Handgrips:
Target handgrips with an adjustable palm shelf as fitted to the sport model are available to special order, they cost £150.00 each.

The Sport version has a different shaped barrel shroud, fitted with larger "Target" type open sights, The sides of the shroud have a groove running along the top of the edges which form a "weaver rail" so that a red dot sight can be fitted without having to disturb the open sights. They come with an adgustable palmshelf target grip as standardand in a fitted case.

These are made to special order.

Alfa Sport Muzzle Loading Revolver: In the region of £1200.00 Current price to be confirmed on order.  Please specify left or right handed.

                                                         Extra cylinders: £320.00 each

Alfa MLR Availability as at 13 February 2023

Now available to order

On the 25^th November 2121 I had a visit from a member of the National Crime Agency who wanted to check what had happened to some Alfa ML Revolver Frame and barrel assemblies.

He gave me the serial numbers and I furnished him with the required information from my records. He left apparently happy with what he had seen.

On the 11th of March 2022      the next shipment of ML Frame/barrel assemblies was seized by an Officer of the Border Force at Manchester Airport. (Seizure Ref. E5618076) Since then, Border force have refused to say when they will be released.

They were being imported at my request by Merseyside Armoury, who are the Alfa Agents in UK.

Officer Lewis Believes they are section 5 prohibited firearms in spite of them never having been a complete firearm. They say they are waiting for a “Firearms Expert” to tell them the category of the firearms. I cannot understand what the delay is, unless they are trawling through all the Home Office “Experts” to find one that agrees with Officer Lewis and gives them the result the Home office wants.

As a result of this seizure my business has had no income, as I was waiting for the seized parts to complete orders for a list of waiting customers. This has meant that I cannot fund the development of the Britmark .22 Long Pistol, or complete the final parts for the Britarms .357 ML Revolver.

 5/8/22 I have managed to contact John Glen's Office in Salisbury and he has contacted Border Force, who say that they are Waiting for the National Crime Agency to complete their invesyigations. The NCA??? Do they really think that I am supplying the underworld with Firearms??? Someone has dug themselves into a hole and is still diggig.

The Gun Trade Organisation have not been able to get any answers from Border Force either.

12/01/2023

I placed an order for a further ten 6" Alfa Barrel and frame assenblies but without the barrel tube and shroud having been fitted. They arrived from Alfa  at Manchester Airport on 26th November 2022 and were seized by Border Farce on the 28th.

Terry will be taking Border Force to Court at the end of March, If we loose, then Border Force will destroy the first shipment. I then fully expect it to take another twelve months to get to court to determine the fate of the second shipment of 6" Alfa ML Frames and Barrels.

Two years without income should be enough to Bankrupt any normal business. But I never considered myself to be normal and I will be able to survive, but without the "nice" things I can have with a thriving business.

So. All in All, it looks like the small man being shafted by the Government. I cannot decide if they are delaying things in the hope that I will go Bankrupt, or if it is plain Incompetence.

If you would like an Alfa MLR please Email me and ask to be put on to the waiting list and I will contact you when I am able to resume production. If you are in a position to put pressure on the Government in any way, to help resolve this, then I would be most grateful, as will the long list of people waiting for their Alfa ML Revolvers.

13/2/2023    GOOD NEWS !

The ten 6" Alfa frame and Barrel assemblie, supplied without the barrels fitted have been released to us and I am now in the process of building them up to supply people that have been waiting for a year or more. I will now put an order in to satisfy the remainder of the people on the waiting list.

Things seem to be moving again so place your orders if you want an Alfa ML Revolver.

3/4/2023  Not Good News

I had hoped to include a piece on the court case between our (Westlake Engineering’s) importer for Alfa, Merseyside Armoury, and Border Force, but this has now been postponed until November as they declined to let firearms, on the day we appeared at court, into the court building.

Everyone involved in the case are agreed that the firearms, as the exhibits, must be present in the court room, to enable proper discussion and assessment of the various points being argued. Our forensic expert did apply to the court in advance, and received written permission from the court, to bring firearms to the court. But on the day we were stopped at the door.

The court official who had given permission was over-ruled by her boss, who then passed it up to the regional boss. He in turn said he could not make a decision and passed it up to the national boss.

The national boss said “NO”. The national boss said “it is unprecedented to have firearms in court”, and it is policy not to have firearms in court, and a risk assessment must be done.

A copy of this policy was requested on the day, but could not be produced, and had never been seen by the court official that initially gave written permission. The court had known that the case was coming for months, so if a risk assessment was required why was it not done? Unprecedented to have firearms in court – well I think the barristers on both sides would disagree, as would the police and border force. Even Merseyside Armoury and Westlake Engineering have been expert witnesses in cases involving firearms, where the firearms were the exhibits in court.

The armed Police did an on the spot risk assessment but this was not acceptable to the national boss, despite the court officils stating that the armed police knew far more about firearms and were much better placed to comment on risk than they were.

It was a complete farce. So we wait and see what happens in November.

Below I have reproduced the letter I sent to border force for them to forward to their “Firearms Expert”.

When does a pistol component become section 5 ?

 The Firearms Act 1997 Says: 

(2)In subsection (1) (which describes weapons which are prohibited by section 5), after paragraph (ab) there shall be inserted the following paragraph—

“(aba)any firearm which either has a barrel less than 30 centimetres in length or is less than 60 centimetres in length overall, other than an air weapon, a small-calibre pistol, a muzzle-loading gun or a firearm designed as signalling apparatus;”.

44 Firearm certificates for certain firearms used for target shooting: special conditions.

(1)If a chief officer of police is satisfied, on an application for the grant or renewal of a firearm certificate in relation to any rifle or muzzle-loading pistol which is not a prohibited weapon, that the applicant’s only reason for having it in his possession is to use it for target shooting, any certificate which may be granted to the applicant or, as the case may be, renewed shall be held subject to the following conditions (in addition to any other conditions), namely—

(a)the rifle or pistol is only to be used for target shooting; and

(b)the holder must be a member of an approved rifle club or, as the case may be, muzzle-loading pistol club specified in the certificate.

(2)In this section, “muzzle loading pistol” means a pistol designed to be loaded at the muzzle end of the barrel or chamber with a loose charge and a separate ball (or other missile).

The 1968 Act says in section 57 :

[F4(1D)For the purposes of subsection (1)(c), each of the following items is a relevant component part in relation to a lethal barrelled weapon or a prohibited weapon—

(a)a barrel, chamber or cylinder,

(b)a frame, body or receiver,

(c)a breech block, bolt or other mechanism for containing the pressure of discharge at the rear of a chamber,

but only where the item is capable of being used as a part of a lethal barrelled weapon or a prohibited weapon.]

I manufacture Britarms .22 LR Target Pistols. Prior to the 1997 Ban on short firearms  I manufactured them as shown in the Top picture, after the ban I manufactured them in “Long Pistol” format, as shown in the centre.  Both pistols use a frame (bottom) which is identical in all aspects except for the addition of a rod for the balance weight of the long pistol.

This raises the question At what stage of manufacture does a firearms part become section 5 prohibited ?

You might be tempted to say that a frame with a balance rod fitted is section 1.  But what about before the rod is fitted, or if the frame is assembled into a pistol with a 6” barrel ?

The only logical answer is that the pistol must be assembled into a functioning firearm before the classification can be made.

The only difference between the Britarms Long Barrel pistol and the short barrel version is the length of the barrel tube fitted to the barrel shroud and a balance rod fitted to the frame of the LBP. The remainder of the parts are identical and interchangeable.

I purchase from Alfa, Frame and barrel assemblies without a cylinder, the serial numbers have the prefix MLR , which I then complete as a .357 Muzzle loading revolver. These have never been a complete firearm and therefore cannot be considered to be section 5 prohibited firearms.

It is accepted that Alfa .357 Magnum Long Barrelled Revolvers are section 1 firearms in UK.

They are manufactured by Alfa using frames and cylinders identical to the short-barrelled revolvers they sell in Europe and to those they sell to me to be made into Muzzle loaders. How can an Alfa LBR be considered section 1 If the frame or cylinder classification is fixed as section 5 before the revolver is assembled into any particular format?

Due to Browning no longer manufacturing the Buckmark .22 rifles, we can no longer get new rifles for the conversion to long pistols. However if you can find a used rifle I will convert it for you. Contact me for more details.      alan@westlakeengineering.com

However, as I have decided that the Ruger 10/22 is a non starter for a LB pistol,

I am working on making some Browning Buckmark frames and barrels to produce the "Britmark .22 Long Pistol".