As an alternative, why not try researching local gun clubs. It may be that you can find a member who has the correct licence and access to the sort of gun you want who would be prepared to get involved.

I do not know this but it's possible that you would be able to use such a gun if (a) no ammunition is present and (b) the licence holder is present at all times. At least your local club would be able to tell you.
Failing that you may be able to get away with a "toy" gun for long shots and using the licence holder's hand/real gun for the close ups.

(And, of course, you'd give the club and the individual member credit on the film which is kudos for them and makes your film look a bigger production)

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Tim

i'm fairly sure when i was in prague a couple of years ago you could easily find shops will all kinds of replica guns. getting them back home would be the problem

Presumably production companies based in the UK or filming in the UK that use a veritable armory on set (I'm thinking Bond franchise type movies) have some sort of agreement to source real deactivated hardware or functional dummies for their projects. Do they use airsoft gear too? Or do they source their stuff elsewhere?..

Interesting thread, I've never really considered how the film industry source their guns, particularly in the UK where basically owning a stick you picked up in the woods that looks vaguely gun-shaped is likely to see you lying in the dirt with your hands ziplocked behind you while the anti-terrorist police consider whether to empty all their clips into you.

Surely they're all too busy nowadays preventing people making holiday videos in public places?

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Tim

Wolf Armouries will hire to Film Producers.

email: wolfarmouries@aol.com
phone: +44 (0) 870 754 9653
web: http://www.wolfarmouries.co.uk

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Andrew

www.killerheelsproductions.com

top link ^^^^^

And - lols - some of the above.

what? ---------------------------------------------------

I live in the US, but here they sell some pretty realistic cap guns. I myself was thinking about picking one of these up for use in one of my projects. Another benefit of them is that they are relatively cheap. This may or may not work for you as cap guns are almost always pistol shaped.

Try amateur dramatic/theatrical societies...Worked for me once...

ebay should have it, try there.