Prohibited?

José Alaninho

Well, first I'd like to say it's good to be on boards.ie for the first time, hope we can all get along!

My question is regarding the legality of semi-autos. I know rimfire and shotgun are legal, but as regards centrefire semis? My guess is completely illegal, but does anyone know for sure?

My reason being, I was recently shortlisted for the Reserve Defence Forces shooting team, and it would be a major advantage if I could have my own steyr AUG-Z! But I presume there's no chance of that...

Rovi

Fullbore semi-automatics are perfectly legal here, just hard to licence.
They suffer from EBR-ophobia, and bring on severe attacks of the vapours and mutterings of "Idontlikedalookodat" among those tasked with administering the firearms certification system.

I'd imagine that an application for a semi-auto AUG would give rise to much rending of garments and gnashing of teeth, but there are various others out there, so you never know.
It'd depend very much on the Garda district in which you reside and your relationship with said Gardai.

Give it a go, you'll be establishing a precedent for the rest of us.

José Alaninho

Well they gave me a license for a .22LR with no gun club, land or previous firearms certificate... it was based solely on being a member of the RDF

Why wouldn't they like the look of this?

José Alaninho

Just a side note: she's a f**ckin beauty ain't she?

fishdog

People have been issued with firearms certificates for similar firearms in semi auto in sevral different calibres including .223

The key is to justify having such a firearm. Without a suitable authorised range or land to hunt on I would consider your chances zero.

How easy it is to get a license for any firearm also depends very much on where you live. In some areas it is simply not possible to get particular firearms that may be no problem only a mile down the road.

bullets

I got one.....but tis not real its only an airsoft toy.
The real civi AUG has recently just hit the UK market I can expect they
will be very popular. They are certainly advertised enough.
I would love one but being old school reserve I
would love an FAL better.

Seen a few semi-auto's here, One of the lad in the club I am with
has an M4 in 22LR and I recently met another lad who had a HK SL8 (civilian version of the G36) in .223 that was semi. Lovely looking even it it looks
a little urban shooter visiting the country/yuppie looking. (cant talk am one myself)

A little OT but as the AUG was mentioned I thought
I would include a family pic of my toys!! since I cant afford the real thing I can
have some wall hangers that look nice and I can collect legally without a licence....

~B

Our man in Havana

The only thing I noticed when applying for a 22lr semi auto was it took a long time to get the licence and I had to be interviewed by special branch.

dos29

my 1st post but ive been lurking for a while and ive seen a lot of interesting stuff on shooting boards. im currently waiting on license for 223 rem 700 vlss, 1st rifle, but im in the pdf 7 yrs now. when i tried for the license 1st it was with 1 farmers signature. they told me no way and to come back with 2nd! id be very curious to find out how jose got a license based solely on being rdf! dont get me wrong, im not rdf bashing here, just getting more and more miffed at the all round lack of consistency on the gardai's part! could ya tell me what rough part yer from? cos its not my part of west cork id say!

fishdog

id be very curious to find out how jose got a license based solely on being rdf!

That has little or nothing to do with it. Where you live has a far larger bearing on your application, unfair but true!

revan23

i can imagine it would be very difficult to get a licence for an AUG, mainly because it's not specificaly a hunting or a target rifle as such, i got my first licence for a mossberg 500 and my second gun was a remmy 700 .220 swift, without being in a gun club, but i think it was more to do with where i live and the garda impression of me when i went to see him. the fact that i was in the RDF had nothing to do with it, maybe depending on your local super it might impress them but like dos said, i dont see why it should.

Our man in Havana

It really does matter where you live. If I lived another 2 miles down the road I would be in an area where you will get nothing from the super without a fight. I am lucky that my super is very reasonable and so long as you don't take the p*** he usually has no problems once you have been fully vetted by special branch.

macnas

Bullets, maybe we should call you Pellets instead:D:D

sidneyreilly

1. Join a club with suitable range and or get permission to shhoot vermin.

2.apply for Steyr .223 Semi automatic rifle

3. spin the wheel and bet on black

Or go in and ask FO to amend you .22lr to .223 and spin the wheel again:)

sidneyreilly

bullets wrote: »

I got one.....but tis not real its only an airsoft toy.
The real civi AUG has recently just hit the UK market I can expect they
will be very popular. They are certainly advertised enough.

Thats a straight pull bolt action bullets, centre fire semi's are off the list in the U.K.

Nice selection of toys!

maglite

So bullets is the guy we keep hearing about with all those automatic weapons in limerick:eek:

sidneyreilly

maglite wrote: »

So bullets is the guy we keep hearing about with all those automatic weapons in limerick:eek:

Hey! why didnt I think of that:D:D

José Alaninho

Well first of all I’d like to say that’s a SWEET collection. All airsoft yes? Might get into that myself some day!
Secondly I am not sure at all how I got my licence, I simply walked into my local Garda station, wearing my school uniform of all things, told him I was in the RDF, and filled out the form. Two weeks later i got my licence. Must be a gun-friendly area... As i said before I have a tiny scrap of land, am not in a gun club, and just told the guy it was for target practice. Not a single other question, no ammo restriction, nothing.
As an aside I have gone off the idea of an AUG-Z for now as I haven’t got the money. Will probably go for a Remy 700 SPS in .223 instead (possibly DM?). Duffy’s has it for like 900 euro which is a good enough price for a new rifle.
Thanks for the info anyway guys, I can see myself fitting in just fine around here...

Our man in Havana

Secondly I am not sure at all how I got my licence, I simply walked into my local Garda station, wearing my school uniform of all things, told him I was in the RDF, and filled out the form. Two weeks later i got my licence. Must be a gun-friendly area... As i said before I have a tiny scrap of land, am not in a gun club, and just told the guy it was for target practice. Not a single other question, no ammo restriction, nothing.

I must move to your area.

I am still waiting on an answer to a single barrel shotgun application submitted 5 weeks ago and I already hold a rifle licence.

bullets

maglite wrote: »

So bullets is the guy we keep hearing about with all those automatic weapons in limerick:eek:

Nah that guy spells his name "bulletz" but I keep getting the blame
(Anyone that visits Limerick will see "bulletz" graffiti in quite a few places)

In work I put up with a lot of stick from the lads, everytime the newspaper
reports anything or more graffiti is spotted I get asked "where were you last night"

~B

José Alaninho

Actually he spells it BULLITZ

José Alaninho

PS Bullets, is that an M14 I spy in your pic? If so be proud of her, I've fired the real thing and it is truly the greatest battle rifle of all time. Not to mention the most beautiful...:rolleyes:

sidneyreilly

José Alaninho wrote: »

PS Bullets, is that an M14 I spy in your pic? If so be proud of her, I've fired the real thing and it is truly the greatest battle rifle of all time. Not to mention the most beautiful...:rolleyes:

And a cracking target and sporting rifle...

bullets

José Alaninho wrote: »

PS Bullets, is that an M14 I spy in your pic?

Yep was thinking of getting a real wood stock for her at some stage.
I'll stop talking about airsoft now cos there is a separate board for it and its
off topic here. (And I dont want any of the mods getting peeved at me and locking your thread)

~B

revan23

just wondering... if you're not in a gun club, and dont really have any land.. where were you gonna use a semi-auto .223?

José Alaninho

Hadn't thought about that part... jesus good point! I was just curious either way as to the legality of them... I will join a club at some point when I get a larger piece of hardware than my little .22

bullets

José Alaninho wrote: »

Hadn't thought about that part... jesus good point! I was just curious either way as to the legality of them... I will join a club at some point when I get a larger piece of hardware than my little .22

The .22 should last you a a good while and is a cheap way of learning
to shoot good before moving onto center fire. Lots of the lads at the range
have told me is that they often go back and train on the .22 as its less forgiving that the centrefire.

When you get sick of fireing at 50m. Switch to supersonics to reach out to 100m,
you could alway pick up a cheap .17HMR also which can reach out and touch
200m on a mild non-windy day all the time in the background you could be saving for a nice centrefire so if and when you outgrow your rimmy you
will be nice and experienced so you wont wear out the nice expensive barrel
on a bigger calibre in a hurry.


I spent 6-7 years in the reserves and was good and won trophys etc
when it came to shooting via the reserves standard. It does not count
for much when is comes to "civi" shooting. As I mentioned before on an
older thread when I started shooting at my local range I realized just
how little I knew about shooting and how little the FCA/RDF had thought me
when it came to the bigger picture.

My training in the FCA was crude and basic but it served its purpose.
You were not trying to get aiming 1inch groups etc etc.
Not trying to dis the reserves as I loved every minute of my training
and loved shooting. but with Iron sites and old worn out FN's with
worn rifling and burned out barrels if you managed to hit the target at all at 300m it was considered ok and even good.

~B

José Alaninho

bullets wrote: »

My training in the FCA was crude and basic but it served its purpose.
You were not trying to get aiming 1inch groups etc etc.
Not trying to dis the reserves as I loved every minute of my training
and loved shooting. but with Iron sites and old worn out FN's with
worn rifling and burned out barrels if you managed to hit the target at all at 300m it was considered ok and even good.

~B

One of our first range exercises was grouping competition at 200 yards prone, some guys managed 3 1/2 inches with five rounds! But as I said the AUG is just a fancy I had at the time of posting... for target work I'll prob move on to a .17HMR as you say.

bullets

José Alaninho wrote: »

for target work I'll prob move on to a .17HMR as you say.

The HMR is great I love it and most of my posts
here involve a mention of it as its the only rifle I got!!
but ya gotta be aware of a few things
that may be a dis-advantage if you get one.

Some of the smaller clubs and ranges wont allow it as its super sonic.
I know fermoy club and some others will only allow .22 subsonics
and even though the 17 is smaller and less prone to ricochet
and can be moderated so it has only the same noise report of a .22
I think they still dont allow it for some reason.
(I never found out why? surely it could not be backstop damage could it?)

Also Most rimfire competitions only allow the .22 and in subsonic,
they are almost raciest when it comes to the super sonic HMR.
And as of yet I have heard of NO competitions organized for it.

So if ya want to enter competitions you (at the moment) will
need to stick to your .22. (The rifles are cheap enough to own both though)

Got a few pics of my gear here. must update them soon as I got better targets
and got a more expensive scope now:
http://s173.photobucket.com/albums/w70/bullets_ie/17hmr/?start=all
~B

José Alaninho

I'll be stickin to the .22 for a good while yet anyway. Thanks for the info though. My next purchase is actually going to be a Remy 870 pump-action 12 gauge!

Sparks

bullets wrote: »

When you get sick of fireing at 50m. Switch to supersonics to reach out to 100m

Don't! You can group very well at 100m with ordinary .22 subsonics, but the supersonics will need to stay supersonic out past the 100m mark (or they start tumbling before they reach the target) and that extra speed means that they're affected more by wind. Stick with the subs and you'll get better results.

Either way, you'll learn more about wind by shooting more of the cheaper .22 rounds than by shooting fewer of the more expensive centrefire rounds.

My training in the FCA was crude and basic but it served its purpose.
You were not trying to get aiming 1inch groups etc etc.

Yup. Minute of other guy not minute of arc. Civilian shooting's slightly different

meathstevie

Bullets,a bit beside the point but if you loved the FAL throw FN2000 in a search engine and see for yourself how spaceage the crowd in Liege has gone...looks amazing and if it's the usual FN quality it must be sublime.