Antique/Vintage terms for Weapons-Criteria/Basis

[Yasho]

Friends,
I want to know when is a weapon(pistol/revolver/gun/rifle) classified as being antique/vintage?
Please enlighten me.
Thank you.

[art_collector]

All rifles guns revolver & pistols more than 100 years old are covered under antiquities act. In most cases the standard to check the same are the model nos embossed on the firearms............

How accurate the system is in its classification ......can be judged from the fact that all rare and expensive firearms have been exported and all duds hang on the walls as antiques....

[Grumpy]

The usual convention is that an item should be 100 years old to qualify as an antique but as far as firearms are concerned it depends on the particular country concerned. In the USA for example, the BATF classifies any firearm built prior to 1898 as an antique and, as such, free of any licencing requirements. The UK doesn`t work by age or dates but by whether the cartridge a gun is chambered for is classified as obsolete - those guns listed as such are free of licencing requirements EXCEPT if the gun concerned is used to shoot with in which case it has to be licensed.
There is no official designation of `vintage` or `veteran` for guns - unlike cars which have extremely specific dates for those two terms.
Work on 100 years and you should be OK.