Help please

7.62 rule

Hi, anyone out there know the story on ownership of antique firearms?

I have a chance to buy a Colt 1860 blackpowder pistol for handy money, I've always wanted to collect old Colt firearms. The seller is willing to ship to me.

So, is there any collectors out there that have done this type of thing before?

If I remember right their used to be some mention in the old firearms act, 1928, of no need to license really old guns, curio, or relic.

About ten years ago I phoned up Garda ballistics section and the guy told me that you did not need to apply for a license if the firearm was older than 1890, black powder or rimfire obseleite type, ie;- 41cal rimfire etc.
But ownership or use of black powder or caps was another matter.

Now while we are on the whole topic, before I shuffle of this mortal coil, theirs a few things I'd truly love to do, one is to own a blackpowder shotgun and use it to hunt Pheasants. Not flintlock, percussion. it seems to me a a very memorable way to hunt game. (A purpose built black powder shotgun, I've handled old side by side hammer guns and they point like a cruise missile, craftmanship like that isn't around these days.)

In the USA they sell these guns as kits, buy it in the shop and bring it home and put it together like an airfix model, but to my mind the brass bits look a bit tacky compared to a true antique firearm.:)

I do not reload and have no notion of trying to blow myself up mixing saltpeter cocktails, so where can one legally procure black powder, and how does one go about it? I've been able to buy blackpowder loaded 12 gauge loads, and wow these were a lot of fun, hardly any recoil, lots of smoke and to my mind longer bang noise. I recommend that if anyone buys these, remember it is highly important to clean your shotguns barrel each and every time you fire one of these cartridges as blackpowder is a different kettle of fish to nitro cartridges, even wee 22 RWS flobert bullets will mess up a barrel very quickly if you did not clean your barrel after using them. Ok, I may have answered my own question, is it possible to use the blackpowder from shop bought 12 gauge BP cartridges? Or is even that another type with a different burn rate?

Last question, is there a cowboy/western firearms owners club, or blackpowder club down here? If not why not? "Were here for a good time, not a long time" . ;)

Thanks in advance for all replies. PM me if the reply is very detailed, please, thanks.

landkeeper

i seem to remember it's illegal/impossible to have/obtain blackpowder as it's classed as an explosive i have a friend who does a lot of re-enactment stuff for films and historic functions with cannon ans muskets etc and they have to use something called pyrodex and the hoops he has to jump through are many

foxboy

Remember being asked to fire shots from shotgun back stage in wexford for some 1798 thing
don't know what they were but alot of smoke and really destroyed the barrel ( completly black inside ) took alot of cleaning