Update

See BBC news site – Deactivated gun ban ‘by year end’

Couple of quotes:

A Home Office spokesman said any new law brought in following the home secretary’s announcement would relate “almost entirely” to pre-1995 guns.

Ms Smith also said she wanted to “balance protecting the public with the rights of responsible collectors of deactivated firearms”.

Somehow I don’t feel reassured 🙁

Piece of cake if you know what you’re doing…
I’ve “reactivated” M2’s that have been cut clean in half with a gas axe, tested em at the range & then sent em off to Govt museums for display.;)

I think the two inch deep, half an inch wide gas axe cut they put across the junction between the barrel and the breech might test even your undoubted skills 😉 and that is of course ignoring the impact damage from hitting the ground at 400 miles an hour, driving the muzzle two feet into the shale bed rock 16 feet below the surface 😮 Finally never mind any heat distortion! the breech was already decidedly out of shape 😀 and then there is the small matter of sixty years burial and the resulting corrosion!

MOD Plate

It is indeed a MOD plate and these would have been fitted to major sub assemblies of the airframe to record modifications made during service – the DRG no being the drawing number of that assembly and someone here will no doubt be able to id what bit it was attached to.

Though they somtimes carry the name of the aircraft type, I have never seen one with the aircraft’s serial number or indeed any individual identity number on it attributable to the aircraft and any given aircraft would have had several of these fitted.

CHECK THIS OUT, HARDLY SEVERAL METERS DOWN IS IT. TYPICIAL PRESS JUNK WHICH GETS PRINTED IN SOME PAPERS
http://www.goolecourier.co.uk/news/Unexploded-bomb-found-in-a.3634276.jp

Doesnt look like anything near a “500 pounder” and for a detector find, that is pretty deep 😉 Only a few of us have access to Forsters :diablo:

Nice of them to include a map of the location too – should be crawling with detectorists soon :rolleyes: Seriously though – a local Lancaster crash site near me has a roman road running through it and the local detector club told me they had identified the site as prime ground for their hobby – without knowing about the Lanc! 😮 They arranged one of their group meets there and were soon disgusted by the contamination with thousands of “aluminium cornflakes” – it ruined their day and eventually they were forced to give up as modern detectors, being set up to find a tiny roman coin at 12″ down, just could not cope! They said ferrous is easy to distinguish with these machines and disregard, but not quality aluminium.

Perhaps the comment that a machine gun had been found there in the past was why someone would want to persist digging 2 feet down on a large ferrous contact!?! Most detector users I know wouldnt even stick their spade in on such a signal. From the evidence it would look like he knew what might be buried there???

Langford Lodge !?!?!?!

Also a bit more on the film here.

+ a quick Google finds the following details: B-17G, serial number 42-97862, crashed into Cave Hill on June 1st, 1944. pilot was Lester B. Brooks. Navigator Flight Lt. Joseph V. Nobilione

Fresh Air

Hi there, N Wotherspoon,

Go on, get some sea air in yer lungs mate. JJ.

Hi “JJ” – Just back from a day getting plenty of fresh air, thanks – hunting for a P-51 – didn’t find it though 🙁 – This Time !!! We’ll be back! 😀 Thanks for you note of encouragement, however I’m afraid its not the way I like to do things – some of the points you raise are quite correct, but I have been in charge of recovery projects and know all too well the difficulties that can arise when a wreck is in such an exposed location – I also know what some daft idiots will do – we had two incidents of theft on our Time team project for instance – fortunately the police recovered the first item and a “quiet word” in the right places effected the “re-discovery” of the second ! 😎 I have also had to deal with crowd control when details of one or two of our digs have got out before the project – 99% of those who turn up are well meaning and just curious – just rather unaware of the dangers of peering over the edge of deep holes! 😮 But the other 1% have other motives IMO 😡 . The point I was trying to raise was that, perhaps unintentionally, the impression that seemed to be coming over on the forum was that anyone who went near this wreck was up to no good – I feel that this has been corrected now.

I am a great believer in free speech and think it is great that we have this forum as a platform where views can be aired and when concerns arise, there is the opportunity for those involved in such projects to put forward their case and often allay people’s fears and correct misconceptions. I have had extensive, informative and friendly, correspondence both from members of TIGHAR and the individual who decided that this aircraft should be saved and IMO went about it in the best way he saw fit – I’m not saying I would have done things the same way, but at least he did something! I also bear no grudge or envy regarding his “laying claim” to this wreck – it is on his doorstep and his actions all appear to be for genuine motives. Sure it’s a great find, but I have already discovered a largely complete airframe (& know the locations of a few more!) and I know our groups limitations, what the museum I am involved with can and cannot take on and of course what can and probably cannot be achieved with regard to realistic conservation with current technology and materials. TIGHAR obviously seem to do things differently to the way groups operate over here, but I, for one, am prepared to give them a chance and look forward to seeing what they achieve – it is not going to be an easy recovery !

Bayeux Museum

Have to confess it is several years since I visted this museum – have driven past a few times since, but failed to persuade the wife & kids to go around again! 😮

I did take quite a few photos – mainly of the substantail reconstruction of a wrecked Spitfire – may not be everybody’s idea of what should be done with it, but the visual impact to the casual visitor is pretty impressive – I do recall some Typhoon parts in a display case and a couple of Hispanos from it nearby on a stand – think I took photos of the latter – mainly for the details of the stand with a thought to copying it for our growing collection of old iron!:D

Note my area, as we try to stick to the North West of England – though have been known to stray to foriegn parts such as Cumbria and even Yorkshire!!! 😮

My first Forster was bought from a chap on Jersey, who said he had bought it in the hope of finding the iron cannon from a shipwreck just off shore – turned out after a few more years research he found a document in which it was noted that in a last desperate attempt to save his ship, the captain ordered the cannon to be thrown overboard some two miles before the ship came ashore and foundered – not aviation I know, but to those in the know it might help track down the location.

Anyway he was very dissapointed as in two years of searching the beach, all he found was the remains of an Me110!!! 😮 How true or elaborated the story is I have no idea – but I can tell you the Forster functions perfectly and is very good at pinpointing cannon – Hispano 😀