Converting an FN8 air pistol to a air rifle...

[Brizza1982]

Hi all,

I have a spare falcon thumbhole stock and wanting to find an FN8 air pistol to go into this to create a light hunter with a 3-9x40 scope and decent silencer. Can this be done?

thanks,

Ian

[bullbarrel]

It would have to stay sub 6ft/lbs and I wouldn't want to hunt with that few ft/lbs.

[Rickenbacker]

I don't know about the legal aspect of pistol -to- rifle, but it'd probably be cheaper and easier to get a FN12 or Bearcat action to go in your nice stock. And you'd get a lot more shots per fill.

[Snapshot]

You'd have to do some work to move the trigger blade as it's upside down and back to front in the pistol compared with the rifle.
The cocking lever and bolt would also be on the wrong side.

Falcon used to sell the FN8 action as a rifle so you'd be better off looking for one of those to avoid the mechanical and legal problems.

[airgunnut]

If it was built as a pistol then no-mater what you do to it (put a stock on it, put a longer barrel on it and up the power) in the eyes of the law it will always be a pistol, so if you get your collar felt by the law then you will be in court facing fire arms offences, (5 years B&B at her magisteys pleasure)
Do your self a favour leave it as a pistol and sell it to get an fn 8 rifle or an fn 12, as you will have to sort out the trigger, the transfer port will have to be altered and at 12 foot pounds you will only get about 10 shots (or less depending on how efficiently you balance the size of the transfer port and the strength of the hammer spring) I know with a fn 19 if you tried to go over about 18 foot pounds with the the stranded transfer port then it uses more air without the power going up (wasting air).

[theoben33]

I got 30 or 32 full power shots from an fn8 rifle I used to own in .22 calibre at 12 ft/lb.

[airgunnut]

I got 30 or 32 full power shots from an fn8 rifle I used to own in .22 calibre at 12 ft/lb.

I should have said that my fn19 was in .177 which is not as efficient with air, my fn8 pistol at 5.8 foot pounds only gives me about 35 shots before power starts to drop.

[oling]

If it was built as a pistol then no-mater what you do to it (put a stock on it, put a longer barrel on it and up the power) in the eyes of the law it will always be a pistol, so if you get your collar felt by the law then you will be in court facing fire arms offences, (5 years B&B at her magisteys pleasure)
Do your self a favour leave it as a pistol and sell it to get an fn 8 rifle or an fn 12, as you will have to sort out the trigger, the transfer port will have to be altered and at 12 foot pounds you will only get about 10 shots (or less depending on how efficiently you balance the size of the transfer port and the strength of the hammer spring) I know with a fn 19 if you tried to go over about 18 foot pounds with the the stranded transfer port then it uses more air without the power going up (wasting air).

This is always stated about 'once a pistol, always a pistol' but I can't find any official information stating that. Could you link me where it states in the law that that's the case?

[Gerard]

I couldn't stand the grip of my Brocock Atomic (essentially the same pistol as the FN8 I think) and so put it into a Boyd's Blaster stock which I skeletonized. With a 4x scope mounted this made a neat little carbine, but I found it a bit bulky to get out to places to shoot by public transit (I don't drive) so I further modified the stock to make it a takedown. Still a bit bulky though... so I swapped that stock for a 1/2" stainless steel band bent to grip shape and a couple of wood panels carved to let into the sides of that. Then replaced the rear plug with a plastic one and a length of 3/8" aluminum rod, a CF tube glued over that to stiffen it, to form an easily removed wire stock. Now it's my ratter for around the yard, with a focusable laser mounted and the beam dialed out to rat sized at 10 metres as the illumination source, making the scope crosshairs stand out very clearly. The diffused laser doesn't seem to bother rats as they sit there waiting to be smacked. We've got a bit of a plague of the things this past year in my region. At just under 500fps with RWS Hobby pellets (after a LOT of tuning experiments to get a flatter shot string than stock, which had been much too steep a curve to make for a reliable point of impact) it has plenty of power for rats, while complying with our pistol power level law which is even more limited than yours in the UK. It's still legally a pistol after all. One can elevate an air pistol to higher power here, but it requires a restricted weapons permit and locks down use to gun ranges and special permissions for transport etc, so not really worthwhile.

[Geezer]

This is always stated about 'once a pistol, always a pistol' but I can't find any official information stating that. Could you link me where it states in the law that that's the case?

It isn't in the law, which is open to interpretation by the CPS and judges. It's a sensible assumption made by shooters to avoid possibly getting in legal trouble.

[airgunnut]

The law states that conversion should not affect classification, to me this means the maker classed the pistol as a pistol, but the best thing to do is phone your local firearms officer.

[gingernut]

Arent you confusing this with once FAC always FAC?

[astraman1]

last thread i saw about this kinda thing was if it was a pistol converted to 12ftlb it needed to have a certain length barrel and the whole theing stock to tip of barrel had to be a certain length

[Snapshot]

last thread i saw about this kinda thing was if it was a pistol converted to 12ftlb it needed to have a certain length barrel and the whole theing stock to tip of barrel had to be a certain length

That's definitely wrong and getting confused with the 12" minimum barrel, 24" minimum length for firearms.