What steps to take part in shooting as a sport

Call Me Jimmy

Ok so I'm sure ye's have had threads like this before but I don't see any, feel free to point me in the right direction.

Basically I would like to know what steps I would have to take to get a gun and start shooting? Also the costs involved, I noticed the licence costs but what sort of guns are allowed? If I wanted to buy a pistol, how much does the average one cost etc...

Any information about how to get involved in shooting in ireland is what I'm looking for.

Thanks.

bullets

Call Me Jimmy wrote:

Basically I would like to know what steps I would have to take to get a gun and start shooting? Also the costs involved, I noticed the licence costs but what sort of guns are allowed?

Is it just Pistol your interested in or other firearms?

Reason I ask is from From talking to people at the Gun Club I am a member of
a big issue they see is people that simply want to join the gun
club to get their hands on a handgun without any experiance
with any other type of firearm. They appear to be very
wary of people popping out of the blue and wanting
to go straight into fireing handgun. There is nothing wrong with that
but all it needs is for one nut-job to be a member of a club
and do something stupid or dangerous with a pistol to ruin it
all for the club. (I'm not saying your a nut job
or anything Im just trying say they need to
be cautious) From the "vibe" I get its kinda
frowned upon and quite a lot of people tend to recommend that
someone start off with another fiream such as a rifle/shotgun and move
onto pistol. Out of all the fireams the Pistol seems to get EXTRA attention
when it comes to safty and with good reason.

Getting a Pistol licence from what I have read here on the boards
can require a lot of patients. Some people wait over a year for a licence
to come through. I reckon myself its far easier to get a licence for something
else if you already have a licence for something already.
ie get a shotgun or rifle first then at a later date apply for a Pistol.
easier than being a total newbie appying for a pistol without any previous
experiance with firearms.

If your not hunting you will need to join a gun club.
This could be around 4-500 Euro for a new member and
about 250-300 Euro every year afterwards.

You can buy a new .22/.17 Rimfire rifle for about 350-500 Euros which
would be good and cheap to start off. Ammo for a .22 is around
a fiver for 50 Rounds or around 15 Euro for 17's
Centerfire (bigger stuff) is way more expensive more along the lines of
30 Euro for 20 Rounds.

You can get a .22LR SIG Mosquito Pistol for about 325 Euros.
Dunno about air pistol prices etc.

With Pistols from what I hear a lot of the local Garda/Superintendants
that issue the licences insist on you having a Gunsafe with a 3rd Party
monitored alarm for a Pistol (but it depends on your area and where you are living as some Supers may be easier to deal with than others)

Goto shoot.ie which is Duffys Gun shop in Galway
They have a list of Rifles/Pistols/Ammo and prices to give you
a rough idea of the costs of the hardware.

~B

Call Me Jimmy

Wow thanks for that post, a lot of info there.

Regarding pistols, I wouldn't only like to shoot pistols, I assumed pistols would be the entry point as they're smaller but obviously not. The price seems pretty damn steep for the gun club, not sure if I'de be able to afford that much... I'll have to think about it.

Thanks again.

jaycee

The price seems pretty damn steep for the gun club,

Sure it''s not cheap , but then joining some health clubs is more expensive and
most golf clubs cost a lot more to join and for membership.

With regard to prices in general , the costs involved in buying a rifle or a shotgun don't look too bad compared to the price of a set of golf clubs either.

bullets

Call Me Jimmy wrote:

The price seems pretty damn steep for the gun club, not sure if I'de be able to afford that much... I'll have to think about it.

You dont have to buy straight away. Some clubs allow you to hire
equipment from them. And some clubs you dont need to be a member
to do this you can be supervised as a guest/visitor.

Only a once off buy for a lot of the Equipment which you can always flog.
A rimfire rifle or pistol would probably last your over a decade.
The Initial Club fees I was shocked at I paid 480Euro and the club I am with
has now gone upto over 500 for new members and I dont know what it is for
existing members. Most clubs are non-profit so all the money goes into
improving the facilities of the club.

some clubs will allows people to visit and Hire a .22 Rifle for the day
and shoot. The Club I am with charges under a tenner to hire a rifle
for the day and ammo costs 4.50 for a box of 50 Rounds. Buy
a set of target faces for about 3 Euro and your happy out!
(And you dont have to be a member so you can go try shooting
for a day for under 20 bucks!)

~B

alan123

Interested in shotgun shooting? Lots of classes of sport. You can pick up a second hand gun for €100. You will need permission to shoot on some land to get your licence (free) and then you can go to a clayground like Courtlough and shoot a few clays. If you like it you can get a better gun, join a club, enter comps, try a rifle etc. To shoot Courtlough on your own (without and instructor) you will need insurance. This costs €60 with Countryside Alliance or €100 with ICPSA. Insurance is advisable even if you just want to shoot pigeons on the land you have permission on. Total cost €160 + licence + ammo@ €45 for 250 rounds. Clays about €35 per hundred. Oh and dont forget oil and ear plugs...€10.

Sparks

Alan, that's hugely expensive compared to say, ISSF air pistol
€250-300 for a new Baikal air pistol that will take you from never having fired a firearm before right through to World Cup level and which will last you long enough for your kids to pass on to your grandkids. Pellets are about €8-10 per 500, paper targets are as cheap as you'd expect.
Basicly, it's the cheapest route into target shooting.

Bananaman

Alan,

You best bet is to contact a club - tell em that you would like to try a few different disciplines of shooting and arrange a time that suits for you to come and try it out. The Club will generally give you a time when there are plenty of experienced members about to "mind" you and give you instruction.

I'm a member of Hilltop and you can shoot Shotgun, .22 Rifle and .22 Pistol there.

With a bit of experience and once people have a had a look at your handling and range etiquette (you need to be safe before you're any good) you could progress onto full bore pistols. It is best to learn your handling etc with a .22 as it is easier to handle.

Sparks has pointed out that Air Pistol and Air Rifle are a cheaper alternative to start out with.

I would recommend you try as many disciplines as possible and see what gives you the horn.

I have tried em all over the last year or so and Practical Pistol and more recently Clay Pigeon shooting do it for me.
I've only had a few shots with Fullbore Rifle as yet but it's day will come.

B'Man

bullets

Sparks wrote:

€250-300 for a new Baikal air pistol that will take you from never having fired a firearm before right through to World Cup level and which will last you long enough for your kids to pass on to your grandkids.

Bloody heck I thought ye guys would be spending the big bucks on
hardware like that. If it would be only 300 Smacks for a pistol then I
defo would be up for buying my own and giving it a lash. Only probs
would be who would be around to provide propper training.

Do ya need a 3rd party monitored alarm for that kinda stuff ?

~B

Nightprowler

Ah Yeh! A lad from Limerick looking to buy a shooter! some things never change!!
only joking lad, I used to live up there myself, lovely place.
I'm over in Germany at the moment just bought a brand new air rifle from Weihrauch for 399 euro you can get them alot cheaper than that but I went for one of the better ones very powerful and deadly accurate, you can buy them over the counter here but they are power restricted to 7.5 joules ( 130 mps ) which is fine for a bit of target practice still extremely accurate, but all you have to do is change the spring which is also an over the counter affair, and then fit it yourself ( they won't fit it for you ) that brings the power up to 290mps which is well powerful enough to take out a rabbit ( spring cost 18 euro )


It might be worth a trip over for you, I can't imagine you having any problem with customs if you go with the ferry, I haven't even seen a customs official all the times I've gone backwards and forwards. I think they're all at the airports checking you don't bring too much toothpaste onto the plane!

here's the website from Weihrauch

http://www.weihrauch-sport.de/englisch/e_startseite/e_index.htm

rrpc

Nightprowler wrote:

It might be worth a trip over for you, I can't imagine you having any problem with customs if you go with the ferry, I haven't even seen a customs official all the times I've gone backwards and forwards. I think they're all at the airports checking you don't bring too much toothpaste onto the plane!

I can only hope that you are not encouraging someone to break the law. It is illegal to import a firearm into this country from the EU without first getting a firearms certificate for the firearm and an importation licence.

freddieot

Originally Posted by Nightprowler
"It might be worth a trip over for you, I can't imagine you having any problem with customs if you go with the ferry, I haven't even seen a customs official all the times I've gone backwards and forwards. I think they're all at the airports checking you don't bring too much toothpaste onto the plane!"


That is just the sort of comment that brings the shooting community into disrepute and makes us look like chancers. (It does nothing for the image of Boards either).

Thankfully the majority of shooters in this country seek to adhere to the law, however irritating that might be from time to time given some of our more conservative firearms legislation.

You will need a Firearms Certificate for the rifle as it will be over 1 Joule in power. You may also need an Article 7 form from your local Garda Station. You do for an ordinary rifle but I'm uncertain what the rule is about Air Rifles.

Good luck.

Sparks

Air rifles and cartridge rifles are all firearms under the law, the rules are exactly the same for each.

Nightprowler, that's 2 posts and 2 attempts to encourage people to break the law by my count. One more and you'll be banned.

BryanL

yeah it's easy enough to bring them back in and you don't need to go to customs with it, but you have to have things sorted with the Gardai by licencing it before you take it back and get a temporary gun importation licence(for the one gun from the DOJ)
Bryan

freddieot

It is very easy to buy and bring a gun into the country. The Policy of the DOJ in making it awkward for Firearms Delaers here to import and stock pistols has forced a lot of people to come to grips with the procedure. It has also shown up the sometimes very big difference in price between buying something on the continent or buying it here, sometimes hundreds of euro.

If you bring it back through the Airport, the Airline should as a matter of course hand it over to Customs.

If you bring it on a Ferry you should make them aware that you are doing that and I expect you will have to give it to them for safe-keeping by the Purser during the trip.

Either way, you should inform Customs when you arrive back here. They are supposed to inspect all firearms entering the State even those that people bring away on trips and then bring back home. My own experience is that the more up front you are the easier things go.

Customs will want to see your Irish Firearms Certificate. They have no interest in article 7 (a DOJ requirement) , invoices, European Firearms Pass or any importation documents - just your cert. If the serial number matches the cert then it's 'have a nice day'. If not then it's 'a room with no view'. Remember customs main focus these days is on drugs and ciggies. They have no interest in picking on legitimate shooters with the correct paperwork.

I guarantee if you do it once and see the savings and how easy it is you will be loathe to buy any firearm in this country again.

Clare gunner

Also to point out ,you can arrive back at customs,declare you have the firearm with you and ask them to put the firearm "in bond".Which means it ends up in the secure section of the customs warehouse called the bonded section.This is for goods that while technically Irish soil ,have not been cleared for enterance into Irish society,or are being re exported to another country for want of a better word.
So as such you have not imported the weapon to Irland.It is being held by Revenue untill the paperwork is sorted[IE your liscense ,etc].So there is no crime being comitted.Other advantage is,the customs lads dont want firearms knocking around too long in the "secure area",so it can be used as a pressure point to get your application speeded up abit.
Other tip,try to get to fire your new purchase[ legally of course in a safe manner !!!]in the country of purchase.You can then declare it as a used item,and substantially knock the import duty on it as well.;)

rrpc

Clare gunner wrote:

Other tip,try to get to fire your new purchase[ legally of course in a safe manner !!!]in the country of purchase.You can then declare it as a used item,and substantially knock the import duty on it as well.;)

There is only import duty on goods from outside the EU. VAT is the only other tax you may have to pay, but if you have already paid it in the country of origin there is no liability.

freddieot

CG is right about the Customs process at the Airport, you could ask for them to take it into bond if you don't have a certificate at the time. However, I would not recommend it.

1. Chances are you may pi*s them off as they will have to do paperwork etc. for something which should never have happened. Depending on when you arrive there may only be a couple of offficers on duty and that will annoy them even more so don't expect any favours. The result - Now they have an interest in you. Be prepared to 'prove' that you paid the VAT even if you bought it in an EU country.

2. Your local Super will have his nose out of joint because you did not apply for the certificate in advance. He won't care or be influenced by the fact that Customs have the firearm as it is not his problem. He will care that you may have thought that you could influence him somehow by doing things this way. Any opportunity and possibly you won't get your cert or they will drag it out as long as possilbe and you will have started off your relationship with them badly.

3. Customs will eventually seize and destroy your firearm if you can't produce a valid certificate. They are not in the storage business. You won't be able to sell it on to someone else etc. as it won't be your property.

All in all you are better off to get the licence first. I bought a pistol in Germany earlier this year. (i) Got serial number and bill of sale from the dealer in Germany (ii) applied for Certificate, 2 months later had certificate (iii) Also got an Article 7 from the cops at the same time (iv) Sent copy of Article 7. to dealer (v) He sent me the gun.

I had to pay him of course but this was done by bank transfer. I never even met the guy or visited his shop. I'm thiking of getting another rifle later this year and I'll definitely do the same thing again.

Clare gunner

True enough Freddie,but whata goin to do if you really spot the gun of your hearts desire and you are under a bidding time like on egun and it is a personal sale??
I am not saying do this every other week,but use it for emergency use only or extreme cases.:D

rrpc

Clare gunner wrote:

True enough Freddie,but whata goin to do if you really spot the gun of your hearts desire and you are under a bidding time like on egun and it is a personal sale??
I am not saying do this every other week,but use it for emergency use only or extreme cases.:D

You can still bid on the item and pay for it. The only thing that will delay you is shipping it in. If the vendor has your money he's not going to complain if the paperwork has to catch up. He also will have to have export permits for the firearm which an individual is unlikely to have.