New to shooting

Luckysasha

Just bought my first gun a Cz-455 .22lr. Is there any restriction on the amount of ammo I can buy for this. I am seeing boxes of 525 bullets for sale in Irish gun shops on the web

dodderangler

You would've had to put it on your licence of how many your allowed to have at one time

Luckysasha

My gun dealer filled in the forms for me. I just had to drop them in to the station and see the superintendent. I remember seeing 200 I think on the form. Does that mean I can only buy 200 at a time or I can only have 200 with me if I'm out shooting.

Witcher

You can only have 200 total at any one time. That includes ammo you have with you and at home.

German pointer

it will say on the back of your licence how many rounds you can have it may or may not be the ammout asked for on the application.

PS welcom to the shooting club

Luckysasha

Thanks for that and the welcome German. So in theory I could buy 200 rounds today, go home and buy 200 more the next day.? Sorry for the confusion. Also a lot of gun shops offer online ammo purchases it seems all you have to do is send them a copy of your license. This part of it seems a bit loose personally speaking what's to stop someone making a copy of my license

Heavy handed

You can only have 200 at any one time. Once you've your 200 used you can purchase another 200. Remember spent rounds also count so make sure you dispose of your spent ammunition.

Witcher

Luckysasha wrote: »

Thanks for that and the welcome German. So in theory I could buy 200 rounds today, go home and buy 200 more the next day.? Sorry for the confusion. Also a lot of gun shops offer online ammo purchases it seems all you have to do is send them a copy of your license. This part of it seems a bit loose personally speaking what's to stop someone making a copy of my license

No because then you would be in possession of 400 rounds.

Luckysasha

Sorry Strider I ment to say if I buy 200 rounds, go home and shoot them all then I can buy 200 more the next day. Just on the spent rounds issue what do you guys do with your spent casings if your shooting at home on the farm. I presume you can leave them behind you at the range but obviously you can throw them in the wheelie bin at home !!!!!

dodderangler

Yes you can buy more if you use them all as long as the spent ones are disposed of properly
If you only use 100 you can purchase another hundred next day

tac foley

How do you 'dispose of them properly'?

If they are still classed as live rounds?

tac

dazed+confused

Luckysasha wrote: »

A lot of gun shops offer online ammo purchases it seems all you have to do is send them a copy of your license. This part of it seems a bit loose personally speaking what's to stop someone making a copy of my license

Your name and address is on your licence and the gun shop is only permitted to send to the name and address on the licence. Worst case scenario is a load of free ammo arrives in the post!

Luckysasha

tac foley wrote: »

How do you 'dispose of them properly'?

If they are still classed as live rounds?

tac

Maybe I'm over thinking this bit Tac. If on a good day of shooting I have 100 spent cases as I will be shooting on my own land I don't just want to walk away and leave them where they fall. So I was just wondering when lads gather up their casings at the end of the day how do they dispose of them. Is it as simple as chucking them in the bin

tac foley

I suspect not. It's a question that has always intrigued me and I don't bleeve I've ever had a straight answer to it. As I recall, only the Republic of Ireland and Washington DC treat empty cases as live ammunition.

tac

Luckysasha

You would wonder then if the spent cases are classed as live ammunition why there isn't an approved method of disposal. Ie : return them to your dealer when buying new stock. I know it's not feasible to collect everyone you fire but if you have a couple of hundred spent cases sitting in a bucket in the shed because you don't want to leave them in the fields are you leaving yourself open to prosecution if your local Sargent stops by. So that brings me back to my original question, how do lads generally dispose of used casings

Witcher

Lads put them in the bin whether they admit it here or not. I'm a member of a range so it's not an issue for me personally.

Heavy handed

Flatten them with a hammer and take it to your nearest metal recycling merchant

Luckysasha

Heavy handed wrote: »

Flatten them with a hammer and take it to your nearest metal recycling merchant

Funny I actually thought of that with the way scrap prices are. How long would you collecting a couple of stone of brass. It's good to talk !!!!!!!!

IRLConor

Luckysasha wrote: »

Funny I actually thought of that with the way scrap prices are. How long would you collecting a couple of stone of brass. It's good to talk !!!!!!!!

Recycling the lead out of a backstop is a bit easier to do, since you're not as long collecting a useful weight of it.

You need to be shooting a lot to make it worth the trip. I know at least one club that recycles both the lead and brass but it takes tens of thousands of rounds shot before it's worth the hassle.

If you're just shooting on your own, it isn't going to be worth the hassle trying to recycle the brass.

Luckysasha

As I said at the start I'm new to all this so all help is greatly appreciated. What way does the range shooting work. I got my gun for pest control around the farm. Can I just turn up to my local range and shoot or do I have to be a member ? Would it look a bit odd just turning up on my own on a Saturday morning just to do a bit of target practice

IRLConor

Luckysasha wrote: »

As I said at the start I'm new to all this so all help is greatly appreciated. What way does the range shooting work. I got my gun for pest control around the farm. Can I just turn up to my local range and shoot or do I have to be a member ? Would it look a bit odd just turning up on my own on a Saturday morning just to do a bit of target practice

Some ranges will require you to be a member, some will allow you to shoot if you're signed in as a guest of a member. It all depends on their own rules and possibly on any conditions that were attached to their authorisation by the Gardai.

Your best bet is to contact your nearest range and have a chat with them. They'll be able to fill you in on what they can and can't accommodate.

deeksofdoom

The law makes a lot of sense doesn't it?

Really well thought out.

Just as well the guys making up the rules are really well qualified to do their jobs.

tac foley

deeksofdoom wrote: »

The law makes a lot of sense doesn't it?

Really well thought out.

Just as well the guys making up the rules are really well qualified to do their jobs.

tac

Nekarsulm

tac foley wrote: »

How do you 'dispose of them properly'?

If they are still classed as live rounds?

tac

If they are "live" rounds, why not fire them again?

Luckysasha

If you guys are confused imagine what state I'm in !!!!! Doing a bit of googling yesterday I came across a website in the UK that sells magazines and will post to Ireland. My rifle will be coming with a 5 round mag but I can get a 10 round mag from this UK site. Any hassle with buying one online and getting it posted to me ? Is it ok from a law point of view to use a 10 round mag (or bigger they have a 25 round mag too)

German pointer

10 round mags are ok anything bigger is only available on a restricted licence. no problem getting them posted once you have your licence. look at CZ Europe website I bought 4 from them a while back and it worked out about 26 Euro each including postage as opposed to over 40 here

Luckysasha

Thanks for that. I was looking at riflemags.co.uk and the 10 round is working out about €34 delivered. Any difference between steel and polymer mags ? Both have a stainless steel follower

Cass

Nekarsulm wrote: »

If they are "live" rounds, why not fire them again?

I get your point, but we use the term live incorrectly here. I've done it myself.

When we say they are classed as live rounds what we should be saying is they are classed as component parts of a live round. IOW the bits that make up the round as opposed to its ability to fire or not. This breaks down into four categories :

• Case
• Bullet
• Propellant
• Primer

If you're in possession of any of these you have a "live" round according to the law. Your license covers you for the case and bullet, but no the other two.

tac foley

It still does not explain how you are supposed to legally dispose of them.

Without either primer or propellant they are simply bits of brass.

tac

Luckysasha

I seem to have opened a can of worms here !!!!!!! Just how strict is this law. Has anyone ever been prosecuted for having 100 spent rounds in a bucket in the corner of the shed while they had 200 unused rounds in the safe. Im not being disrespectful of the law I know it's there for a reason. I suppose it's only when newbies like me come along and ask seemingly innocent questions it get people talking.

Nekarsulm

I never heard of anyone being prosecuted for this on its own. Now if you were in investigated for some other breach of the firearms act, say you are found poaching or firing from the public road etc, it might be lumped in with other charges.
While firearms dealers are still filling in sales details into a ledger book, and the purchaser can go around a number of dealers in various different counties on the same day purchasing max allowed ammo in each, there is little or no practical control of limits.

Cass

tac foley wrote: »

It still does not explain how you are supposed to legally dispose of them.

Without either primer or propellant they are simply bits of brass.

tac

Of course my post did not address that because i was not answering that. However if you want an answer as to how to dispose of your brass then imo you have a couple of options.

Legal ones:

• Go to a range and dispose of it there.
• Find out if a scrap yard is authorised to accept spent casings (rarer than hen's teeth i'd imagine)

Illegal or improper ones:

• Dump them in a ditch
• Throw them into your bin for weekly collection
• Leave them where they fall (in the field)

Luckysasha wrote: »

I seem to have opened a can of worms here !!!!!!!

Don't sweat it. It comes up occasionally.

Just how strict is this law.

Depends really. I've heard of it being enforced in some case (you could count them on one hand type of thing), but ask yourself this. Do you want the hassle of being another one of those cases?

Has anyone ever been prosecuted for having 100 spent rounds in a bucket in the corner of the shed while they had 200 unused rounds in the safe.

One person i heard of has been. He lost his guns and licenses. Long story and not realy for this thread. Two other cases i know of were people with ammo displays (of various calibers) when they did not have a license for each caliber. Those were thrown out of court.

Im not being disrespectful of the law I know it's there for a reason. I suppose it's only when newbies like me come along and ask seemingly innocent questions it get people talking.

As said above it's been asked repeatedly over the years,. It's a valid question and one that never has an easy answer because of the way the laws in Ireland are. Like most things it's a case of there is a legal way to do it and the way most people do it because it's what they've always done and it's not enforced (if it were even enforceable to begin with).

tac foley

Thanks for that, Cass. Much obliged to you.

tac

Luckysasha

Thanks Cass and to all in this group for the helpful and friendly advice. It's much appreciated.

dodderangler

Suppose if you threw a handful of empty .223 or .243 casings at someone you could hurt them or really pîss them off

Luckysasha

Just on this. I dropped the license application forms in with the Garda on Thursday 17th and got my grant letter in the post Friday 25th. So I payed my €80 at the post office. I was expecting to be waiting months for this to go through. Definitely didn't think it would be wrapped up in a week or two

thebeerbaron

Luckysasha wrote: »

Just on this. I dropped the license application forms in with the Garda on Thursday 17th and got my grant letter in the post Friday 25th. So I payed my €80 at the post office. I was expecting to be waiting months for this to go through. Definitely didn't think it would be wrapped up in a week or two

Mine took 2 months!

Luckysasha

Actual license arrived in the post today. Exactly 13 days from leaving the forms in the Garda station. So I'm picking up my rifle tomorrow evening

Cass

Nice one. Congrats.