6" barrel, 4" barrel, 3" barrel and 2" barrel.
Good news for those outside UK
I now have Authority from the Czech Ministry for trade and industry to export The Alfa ML Revolvers
So if you would like one, contact me at alan@westlakeengineering.com for details of how to go about it.
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.
12th July 2023 I have just received a consignment of 6" , 4", and 3" Frame assemblies. Contact me to place an order.
Stainless Steel Alfa 3", 4", 6" & 2" Barreled Muzzle Loading Revolvers: £1347.00
Extra Cylinders: £320.00 Each.
(2" by special order) Prices as at 12/7/23
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 £1500.00 Current price to be confirmed on order. Please specify left or right handed.
Extra cylinders: £320.00 each
Alfa MLR Availability as at 12 July 2023 Frames in stock
Now available to order
On the 25th 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?
The Alfa is a section 1 firearm and can be held on a firearms certificate. To purchase one you will need a variation for a cal. .357" muzzel loading revolver and one for each extra cylinder you want.
Rachel is now making bullets for use in our revolvers. They are available in the following types.
148 grain hollow base wadcutter.
148 grain solid base wadcutter.
148 grain solid base round nose.
They are packed in cartons of 144 bullets and cost £35.00 per carton.
Please note that on14/9/23 Rachel reviewed the costs etc. of making these bullets and found that she was now paying you to buy them. Thus the price increase.
They can be collected from the workshop or we can post them at a fee of £14.00 for 4 Cartons.
Please check for costs for different quanties.
To order bullets contact rachel@westlakeengineering.com
6" Revolver Gunslip £15.00
Long Barrel Pistol Gunslip £30.00
Postage £5.00
Or made to your own design on request. Contact rachel@westlakeengineering.com to order.
Keep your eyes open for the new Britarms muzzle loading revolver which is currently being designed.
We are currently making test components and the tooling to make them during production. The pictures show the test frame being machined.
8th November 2017
These pictures show the progress so far. Aluminium frame and barrel shroud prove the machining fits and tolerances. Most small parts are made and working correctly. It has fired primers and the trigger shows great potential. The adjustable front sight gives 3 pre-set elevation settings. The rearsight will be adjustable for elevation and windage.
March 18th 2020
I now have a functioning prototype and am in the process of getting all the production parts in place so I can make a second revolver using production parts. Once that is done and I am satisfied with its performance, then I will be making the first small production batch and I will know how much I need to charge for them.
June 2021
As I have decided to re-design some of the internal components we are sort of back to stage one, until I get them in production format and can test their function. Frustrating but necessary I'm afraid.
April 2022
I'm still waiting for the final production parts. so that I can check out the final design.
February 2023
Due to the seizure of the Alfas and the lack of funds due to no sales, the Britarms ML Revolver is on hold until I can afford to spend more money on it.
Using the Alfa Muzzle Loading Revolver
To load the revolver the cylinder is removed by sliding it rearwards off of the open yoke, spent primers can then be ejected by using the pricker provided through the flash hole.
A measured charge of Powder is poured into the chamber and a bullet inserted into the chamber. The press provided is then used to press the bullet in, seating it just below the chamber mouth.
When all six chambers have been loaded the cylinder can be fitted back on to the yoke, and the primers may then be fitted into the primer pockets, seating them firmly home with finger pressure. Once this is done and the yoke has been closed the pistol is ready to fire.
Charge size, using a 148 Gr. Soft Lead Bullet
Suggested Charge startpoint Maximum safe Charge
Green Dot 2.3 Gr. Green Dot 2.9 Gr.
Unique 2.6 Gr. Unique 3.3 Gr.
Herco 3 Gr. Herco 3.5 Gr.
Blue Dot 3.8 Gr Blue Dot 5.3 Gr.
Use more than the Maximum listed above or with other powders I will accept no responsibility for damage caused by overpressure.
Generally you will get the smallest groups using soft lead hollow base wadcutter bullets. However I suggest that you use solid base bullets until you are familiar with the gun, to eliminate the chances of leaving a hollow base in the barrel, because you inadvertently used too powerful a charge.
You will find that as you decrease the charge one tenth of a grain at a time, the group size will decrease, until you start to get the occasional flyer because they don’t all stabilise properly; Come up a couple of tenths and this is your "standard" charge. When you change something, you will need to check again.
I use .38 fired cases with the necks "belled" to hold the measured charges, using a wadcutter inserted in the neck as a stopper. On the range you pull out the bullet, pour the charge into the cylinder and press the bullet in on top.
Your local gun dealer should be able to get wadcutters for you. Edgar Brothers will supply them with Sellier & Belliot wadcutters. I can supply bullets made to my specifications but carriage is very expensive, so you would need to pick them up from Salisbury or buy ten boxes at a time and get free carriage.
Comparative measurements of one .22 LR Case full of powder
Green Dot 2.5Gr. Max Charge 3.5Gr.
Unique 2.8Gr. Max Charge 3.3Gr.
Herco 2.9Gr. Max Charge 3.5Gr.
Blue Dot 3.7Gr Max Charge 5.3Gr.
Anvil Conversions Measure with CD Plunger
Green Dot 2.3 Gr.
Unique 2.6 Gr.
Herco 2.9 Gr.
Blue Dot 3.6 Gr.
The Revolver is designed to use a 148 grain soft lead Bullet of .357” Diameter, propelled by large grain slow burning powder such as Green Dot, Unique, Herco or Blue Dot. Ignited by a 209 Shotgun primer. (Do not use Magnum primers). These large grain powders will not leak from the flash hole during loading, and, with the large flash from the shotgun primers, will give a more progressive burn than obtained with fine grain powders, where all the powder can ignite before the bullet starts to move. This causes a spike in pressure which can fracture primers where the firing pin dents it, causing gas leakage and a build up of copper deposits on the firing pin. The build up of these deposits can cause the firing pin to fail to retract. This will jam the cylinders rotation.
The Revolver has been proofed to .38 S&W Spl. pressures, so use the powder manufacturer’s data for .38 Spl with a 148 gr lead bullet when selecting a charge weight to use. Do not exceed the service load laid down, as excessive pressure causes an increase of burn rate which can cause severe overpressure and damage to the revolver.
If using Hollow base wadcutter bullets use a small charge to reduce the pressure, or the base of the bullet may separate from the head and possibly cause a bulged barrel when the next shot is fired.
When you buy the Alfa it will come with the loading guide above and also with a coaching guide on how to use the firearm safely and accurately.
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".