Recommended purchases

[Skean Dhude]

One thing I recommend to everyone reading these sites is to apply for a shotgun certificate at a minimum and a firearms license if possible. For most of us it is not going to be an issue. The following information is a repost from the main site.

A shotgun certificate is very easy to obtain. Simply phone your local police station and ask for the firearms office. Tell them what you want and they will send you out the necessary paperwork to apply for one.

I strongly advise you to apply for one now. It costs about £50 plus the gun cabinet, photographs and time. Biggest issue is getting someone ‘approved’ to countersign it. This has to be a person with an occupation on the approved list. A relic from the class wars. Once approved and after the safety chat you can then buy a shotgun and ammunition and keep them at home. You can buy as many shotguns as you wish and as much ammunition as you can fit in the gun cabinet. Purchased shotguns are recorded on your certificate and are checked at certificate renewal.

You should do that as a minimum.

In addition you can also apply for a Firearms certificate although that is more hassle. You need two ‘approved’ people, another £50, more photographs and justification. Justification can be approval from someone to use their land for hunting vermin (the land must also be approved) or a representative of an approved range for target shooting. It can be cheaper if you link both certificates together. Range shooting is not recommended as a solution as it restricts use to that range and your firearms and ammunition must be kept there. Get out and find a local farmer who will let you shoot on his land. I went around the farms knocking on the doors. Be friendly. Even then when you first apply you will have a closed firearms license which means you can only shoot on approved land. To get more land approved you have to send the details in to have your license amended. Eventually, at renewal, it will become an open license and you won’t have that problem.

In addition, you will have a ‘slot’ on your firearm certificate. Once you have bought a firearms that slot will be filled. You will not be able to buy another unless you apply for another slot and justify why you want that firearm. Usually, it will be a different calibre for different prey.

Bear in mind that an air rifle of more than 12lb/ft is classed as a firearm and will take up one of those slots.

For a firearm you also have different storage requirements. You need the ammunition locked in a separate box inside the gun cabinet plus you have a defined number of bullets you can have in your possession and how many you can buy at one time. Thus you may buy 500 .22 bullets and store 600 .22 bullets. Purchases of ammunition and firearms are recorded on your certificate and are checked at certificate renewal.

As you go on you can apply for changes, called variations, which will allow larger calibres, more ammunition, etc. each change will cost you a fee and more form filling with every item requiring you to justify why you should have one.

[maddog]

do you think that the laws may change on guns due to the petitions

[Skean Dhude]

(30 August 2011, 13:19)maddog Wrote: do you think that the laws may change on guns due to the petitions

Doubt it. They have already shown their contempt for us when we petition things they don't want. They only use the petitions they like and there are plenty of people willing to help them with their chosen petitions.

[grumpy old man]

i,am not too worried about guns i can hunt easy with precharge air rifles the rest is to much hassel for me. you can buy crossbows that do a good job as well and if i thought things were heading fast down that line i would stop off at the old pub for a couple of paints with the locals

[Skean Dhude]

Grumpy,

An air rifle won't do it when you are terminating feral dogs, for example.

Best get a shotgun certificate now. It will send a message that we are not scared of guns and you can get practise on the use of.

[grumpy old man]

i do a fair bit of shooting but use my causins shotguns, we go out together. the perks of living in the country.

[Skean Dhude]

Exactly. That is one reason I want to move there.

[Reynard]

I had been considering a crossbow as I hate filling out forms :-) however, the shotgun certificate makes a lot of sense. Unfortunately being skint neither is really an option for me until the new year. I was wondering if you needed a reason for getting a SC? I don't have my own land on which to shoot and I certainly do not need one for my profession... so would it be a good idea to join a club that shoots clays a while before applying?

My budget for the gun and cabinet would be in the region of £500, does anyone have any recommendations on makes and models for both the cabinet and the gun?

[Brian]

Reynard,
I'm going through the process now.
The form is not a big deal, the pain is getting someone to countersign the form and endorse the photos you need.
You don't need to prove the proposed use for the gun, you only indicate the sort of thing you have in mind, eg. clays, rough shooting, driven game etc. and have an idea of where you can legally do this, so if you've already joined a club that would be best.
You can expect to pay around £100 for the cabinet (a good supplier is guncabinetsdirect who have free delivery and fixing kit on some models). The gun you choose is a big subject but go for a 12 bore; traditionalists prefer side-by-side doubles but the clay shooting brigade prefer over-unders. Pumps and semi-autos are restricted to two shells in the magazine under the SC rules but both are OK for clay shooting. All of these can be obtained for under £200 second hand but the cheapest of all is the single and can cost under £100, which with an ejector is still a good rough shooting gun but is unsuitable for clays due to the rapid second shot requirement in some disciplines. Chokes are a another mine-field but on a double you can't go wrong with three quarters and a quarter, semi-autos and pumps often have multi-chokes so you can change them for the sort of shooting you are doing and single barrel guns are mainly full choke as standard. Full choke gives you the longest range as it constricts the spread of the shot whilst true cylinder has no constriction and the shot spreads quite widely, then you have quarter, half and 3 quarters in between.
Cartridge choice is a subject in it's own right and very fascinating too.
Hope that helps a bit and just go for it.
Brian

[Skean Dhude]

Reynard,

You do not need a reason now but I would stick with clays to start with an intent to go for rough shooting. It is a good training regime. Although I don't shoot anything living unless I am going to eat it or it is a pest.

Brian,

You have gone into it. I would agree with what you say but you can get cheap pumps and they are more suitable for after events. If the mickey mouse laws in place are reduced then you can get larger capacity at a later date.

The important thing is having a SC allows you to buy the cartridges. You can then stock up as much as is allowed and as you can buy them in batches of 1000 it is quite a bit. My firearms officer didn't even blink when he seen my stack of shotgun shells. He was only interested in the bullets which are restricted. Plus, you can buy as many shotguns as you can fit in cabinets. Get a big cabinet if you intend to get more than one.

There are various types of cartridges ranging from small shot for small birds up to large shot for geese and so on. The bigger the shot the bigger the creature you can hunt. Save the air rifle for birds.