What common calibres are in the UK?

[Mortblanc]

Both also owned .38 caliber revolvers, but that is a moot point for you fellows.

After I was an older teenager both of them were gifted with .22 rim fire rifles, but I can honestly say I never saw either of them take the rifles out of the closet. They had no use for them.

I do not know what happened to either of the rifles but I have the shotgun from one and the pistol from the other. Both are older than myself but still used on a regular basis.

So how long will your firearms last? Both of those are 65+ and going strong under regular use.

A couple of years back I found a coffee tin filled with shells that had come to me with the shotgun. That gun was handed down to me in 1976, and I know that some of the 00 buckshot shells had been in that can since I was born. I remembered them distinctly from my childhood because they were green paper hulls, with a rolled crimp, that had swollen and shrunk making the buckshot load appear lumpy.

I stuck them in a heavy old single shot that I keep for such things and fired a few for effect. Every one of those 30-60 year old shells fired like they had been purchased yesterday.

Which also proves that your ammo will last a while too.