r/canadaguns • u/BadluckyKamy • Mar 06 '26

Shitpost / Memes Is this qualifying as an antique?

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Im dead serious, obliviously can't buy one but I'm really wondering if that's technically the only full automatic gun legal in Canada

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u/mischling2543 Mar 07 '26

Perhaps not but a true Gatling is crank-operated so it should be considered a manual action and therefore not have any magazine capacity rules

2

u/sardaukarqc Mar 08 '26

The people who wrote the law are ignorant, but not to the point of not knowing about hand cranks. Any Gatling is a prohib.

2

u/mischling2543 Mar 08 '26

Do you have a source for that? Any time I've looked into it, it's been a big grey area because no one's put the effort into acquiring a proper Gatling

2

u/sardaukarqc Mar 09 '26

I'd have to look it up to give you the actual wording of the law,, but any device that makes a gun functionally full auto is a prohibited device itself. That's why we don't have clamp-on hand or electric cranks, bump stocks or FRTs.

2

u/sardaukarqc Mar 09 '26

Well, I took a look at the law, and there is a detail I had forgotten about. The law clearly states that it applies to devices that would speed up the firing rate of semi-automatic firearms, so I was wrong.

In the end what kills the antique eligibility is, as stated by BigRedGunNut, the magazine. The law states that an antique is

"A rifle manufactured before 1898 that is capable of discharging centre-fire cartridges, whether with a smooth or rifled bore, having a bore diameter of 8.3 mm or greater, measured from land to land in the case of a rifled bore, with the exception of a repeating firearm fed by any type of cartridge magazine."

Still, a true old-fashioned Gatling, antique or newly made, should be non-restricted according to the law.