Shooting & stuff
Went shooting with my uncle yesterday for the first time; despite the lack of critters and my inexperience I managed to bag myself a nice fat (flying!) wood pigeon and a rabbit, the only successes of the day - beginners luck eh :rolleyes: It was a great day, good bit of family bonding, learned many a skill and now have dinner for the next two evenings! :thumright:
I was idly wondering if there's anyone on here that shoots? The only person I know with a shotgun certificate is my uncle (and he's greek cypriot and pretty old-skool!) and at some point I'd like to apply for a shotgun certificate so purely out of interest.... 1. Has anyone had a shotgun or FAC denied / revoked and if so, why? 2. At the moment I seem to be moving house a lot; has anyone had problems transferring their certificate across different police authorities? 3. How the heck did you find somewhere to shoot? 4. What do you shoot at? What do you shoot with? 5. Anyone want some of this rabbit stew? In fact, I retract that... ;) |
Re: Shooting & stuff
I'm gonna be applying for my shotgun cert soon, but for clays not animals.
Apparently they are easy to get and even easier to lose. |
Re: Shooting & stuff
The only problem I had was a policy issue.
Lancs refused to add another rifle to my FAC as policy was no more than 6. Even when I put a copy of the firearms act in front of the copper and said where is this limit defined? I briefly moved to West Mercia juristiction and got 9 on my FAC. When I moved back I had broken the mythical limit and never had any issues when I then started adding strange requests for black powder pistols etc. |
Re: Shooting & stuff
I have .22 air rifle and a few of us go shooting on one of their relatives land, currently not able to use my rifle as i think I've pushed it over the limit threshold. my friends is registered as a firearm as its surpassed the limit.
As for the getting land problem, most farmers will be more than happy to allow you on their land if you say you're only shooting pests and get insurance. There is a rifle association (i forget the name) that you join for 40 quid a year and it provides insurance cover, show the farmer the card and they'll more than likely say yes as it shows you're not a complete pikey and he's going to make some money should anything happen. I've only recently got into it and its bluddy addictive, not after a shotgun but would like to progress onto a proper rifle in the future. My rifle is kill effective over about 80-90 yards so it packs some punch, upgraded to a 3-9x50AO scope on it which I'm yet waiting to use. |
Re: Shooting & stuff
1. IIRC Prior criminal record/commit an offencel can result in the loss of even a clearly demonstrated right to have a shotgun ticket (Dunno how much things have changed but i was always under the impression that the FO has to find a reason not to give you a shotgun ticket, while the onus is on you to prove why you should have a FAC)
2. I never moved while i held a FAC but storage of a shotgun is easy, of a FAC is a bit trickier - Keep your guns in a club armoury? 3. Grew up with it, got my first .410 at age 8 4. Used to hunt - everything from vermin control to deer stalking and the odd cull. Also full bore pistol and rifle shooting never up to ISPC standards really tho 5. Errr no thanks, retracted or not :P |
Re: Shooting & stuff
I have both a FAC and A SGC, at the moment I use my shotgun for clays and my rifle for bunnies. Its a right for people to have a shotgun (assuming your police checks come back OK and you can store them securely) where as anything on a FAC must be justified. I got my FAC at the end of last year which gives me permission to acquire a 22LR and a 17HMR, both with restrictions on the amount of ammo I can acquire and keep. The gun I wanted was a 17HMR however the FEO wasn't to keen, preferring me to get a 22LR instead but I stuck to my guns and managed to justify the HMR due the the land I shoot on requiring me to take longer range shots plus ricochets can be a big problem on the slower/heavier 22LR rounds.
Depending what you want to do insurance and legal cover is a must, I'm with BASC which is around £60 a year, my main motivation was fear of accusations being made by crappy neighbours, bearing in mind your guns will be taken immediately on an accusation being made. If it ever happens the legal cover will no doubt come in handy. It may be worth you reading the pigeonwatch forums as they cover all aspects of UK shooting. Anyway, shameless excuse for a picture http://farm4.staticflickr.com/3799/8...bcdc4245_b.jpg Quote:
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Re: Shooting & stuff
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So you've also had a lot of experience; when approaching landowners do you find they want to see references from previous landowners etc. or is it just the regular paperwork? My uncle reckons that finding a farm / land where they're willing to let you shoot is like finding unicorn poo, either they already have a regular shooter on the land or they just don't want the risk of allowing an unknown to shoot over their land. Quote:
Did you get your sgc before the fac? I've been thinking about (for the distant future!) either an fac airgun or HMR/22LR for rabbits but of course one needs to provide a good reason for owning it etc. If one already used a shotgun on land with a rating for HMR, say, would it then be much easier to convince your local FEO that you need a rifle? Thanks for your replies everyone, it's all very interesting to hear about the experience of others! Got a lot of reading / shooting to do before I start any applications I think! |
Re: Shooting & stuff
The 17HMR calibre is superior to a a 22LR in every way ballisticaly, it packs a lot more punch (around 250 ft/lb), flatter trajectory, far more accurate and it expands/fragments explosively however it cant be moderated / silenced very well due to the sonic boom of the projectile (it can be heard for about a mile around on open land, that's with a suppressor) whereas a 22LR using sub sonic ammo is almost silent. With the HMR I can put small hen eggs out at 220 yards and achieve a decent hit rate:)
Oh, if you intend to eat your prey aim for the head with a HMR, bearing in mind a HMR will drop a fox easily they make a right mess of rabbit meat! The land I shoot on is around 600 acres of mainly moorland which is cleared up to .308/7.62mm. in order to clear land you need to walk a licensing officer around the land detailing the boundary's, footpaths, safe backstops etc and depending on the layout they will clear the land suitably. If you have a few years experience under your belt you can ask them to open your ticket up to allow you deem land suitable by yourself without having to have it cleared. Clay shooting can work out expensive 100 clays at my local place are £30 with 125 shells costing about £25, its certainly fun but that £55 can be blown in around an hour:) This guys worth a watch - http://www.youtube.com/user/Frenchie...?feature=watch, basically when I got my FAC they put a condition on saying that I needed to go out with an "experienced vermin controller" before they would let me out alone so I went out with this guy a few times who was happy with my safety, he wrote a letter to the police who then removed the condition. I had a go with his .243 which is an absolute monster with around 2000 ft/lb of energy :) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fG-mxaZqrDI He has an interesting video of zeroing a HMR in with another new shooter http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zi7CzRdEsYQ |
Re: Shooting & stuff
no bunnys at that range it wouldn't be effective. Yet to take a shot at a bunny but pigeons and crows are still clean kills at around 50-60 through the chest, neck or head if i fluke. Up to yet i've only been using a 4x40 scope so its really long range stuff hasn't yet been tested
I'm using superdomes at the minute which has made a huge difference to power (slightly more drop) and replaced a lot of internals with stainless parts plus the valve has been degutted of its filters and opened up more along with the exhaust block. I've done a fair bit to it but i don't want to risk taking it out before i get it chrono'd, i've had some close 20 yard shots in teh garden and its making a mess of half inch ply so fairly sure its long surpassed the limit |
Re: Shooting & stuff
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There is no rule of thumb, it depends on the conditions on the day, the kill zone of the quarry you are shooting at, the gun, the pellet, the scope, the time taken for the pellet to cover the distance being enough for the quarry to have moved, whether the shooters having a good day.... The only correct maximum range is the range at which you can be 100% sure of a clean kill. When shooting at animals and birds, if you are wondering whether or not your shot will be successful, then you shouldn't be taking that shot. If that means 25 yards is too far, then it's too far. |
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