Buying pellets in Ireland.

steeevo93

Hello just a quick question. Do you need a lisecnece to buy a tin of pellets either .22 or .177 in a shop here in Ireland? I know you can buy em off ebay but is this illegal?
thanks steve ...

greenpeter

Yes you need a license to buy them from a gun dealer.

jap gt

if you have a licence for the air rifle you can buy the pellets from any dealer

Cass

As the lads above have said you need a license to own an Air Rifle, and this license allows you to purchase the pellets for said rifle.

To buy from ebay you would need an import license, the dealers license you are buying from and to provide your license along with these other documents to the DOJ to apply for the import license. Its all free to apply for, but honestly its alot of extra work considering most Irish gun dealers carry a line of some type of pellets.

Trying to buy them from ebay without the necessary licenses and import paperwork could/will land you in alot of trouble.

chem

Not trying to rock the boat here, but does it say anywhere in the law that pellets are classed as ammo? Must be the only country to class shaped lead as ammo?

demonloop

This was asked before, and I asked the below question but the thread died.

Pellets have no licensing requirements in the UK, as per the EU Weapons Directive, so should that not apply across all member states?

It was the PSNI Firearms office who told me that, but of course small differences do exist between states.

From EU Directive
Firearm: any portable barrelled weapon that expels, is designed to expel or may be converted to expel a shot, bullet or projectile by the action of a combustible propellant.
Ammunition: the complete round or the components of thereof, including cartridge cases, primers, propellant powder, bullets or projectiles, that are used in a firearm.

Sparks

chem wrote: »

Must be the only country to class shaped lead as ammo?

Yeah, we pretty much are.

Sparks

demonloop wrote: »

Pellets have no licensing requirements in the UK, as per the EU Weapons Directive, so should that not apply across all member states?

The problem is that the EU Weapons Directive explicity cedes final authority to the member states for their firearms laws. Which is why airguns can be a firearm at all here, and why we don't have the A/B/C/D classification system.
And why the Europass isn't the sole document you need in Ireland if you're visiting to shoot in a target shooting match

demonloop

Sparks wrote: »

The problem is that the EU Weapons Directive explicity cedes final authority to the member states for their firearms laws. Which is why airguns can be a firearm at all here, and why we don't have the A/B/C/D classification system.
And why the Europass isn't the sole document you need in Ireland if you're visiting to shoot in a target shooting match

I'm glad to get a proper answer to this; as I mentioned above, the last thread died.

I knew each state had their own variances, but I thought it would make sense for the system to be the same as the north, ie, airguns are licensed as firearms, but no licensing on pellets.

For once it seems the PSNI took a fairly sensible approach and applied that part of the Directive.

Sparks

To be honest, most of the time the regs in NI seem far more shooter-friendly than they do in the ROI!