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.