A DAD and his son went fishing in a canal with a giant magnet — and caught a World War One machine gun.

Builder Billy Nixon, 48, and Reece, 14, pulled up the rusty relic during a day out.

Their pals dredged up three more from the Sheffield and South Yorkshire Navigation at Rotherham as they enjoyed the popular hobby of looking for metal in waterways using magnets tied to ropes.

Dad-of-two Billy, of Leeds, called police when he got home and they took the gun away.

It was sent to an expert who authenticated it as a Vickers from the Great War.

Billy said: “As soon as the barrel came out of the water I knew what we’d found.

"To have a piece of history in my hands, to have pulled it up from the depths, is a feeling I just can’t describe.

“You wonder who held this gun, what they were like and their story. It’s magical.”

Billy reckons the guns were being transported in boxes to a smelting plant when they fell into the water.

He hopes the 7.7mm water-cooled guns, made by Vickers Limited for the British Army and operated by teams of up to eight men, will go on display in a museum.

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