Shooting in Northern Ireland

cosieman

Does anybody from the roi do practical shooting up north or centrefire pistol shooting up north do some clubs let you rent a gun if you own a gun in the roi or do the club allow people down south to participate in practical shotgun.

NASRPC

There are plenty of Centrefire Pistol Competitions in the Republic.

NASRPC National Competitions are hosted in both the Republic and Northern Ireland

Virtually all of them offer Centrefire Pistol Competitive opportunities.

There are at least two or three competitions hosted each year in Northern Ireland. All of them offer Centrefire Pistol Competitive opportunities.

In fact, the 2019 Irish Open, is to be hosted by Bracken Gun Club outside Strabane in Co. Tyrone on the weekend of July 5/6/7 2019 - and will include many centrefire pistol disciplines.

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I can't speak for clubs in Northern Ireland wrt to IPSC Handgun or Shotgun - if you contact the clubs directly they will be able to let you know. Perhaps speak to IPSC Northern Ireland.

However, many people from the Republic compete in IPSC Handgun, Rifle & Shotgun and have done so, to my knowledge, for at least the last 15 years- just not in the Republic itself, since 2009.

Please, be aware that to compete in IPSC Handgun or Shotgun you will need to complete a competition license course and test - often called a "black badge" in reference to the Canadian System - before you are permitted to enter a competition of Level II (Regional) or above.

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Hope it helps,
NASRPC
http://nasrpc.ie

cosieman

Would it be possible to do it without the ownership of a centre fire handgun?

gunny123

cosieman wrote: »

Would it be possible to do it without the ownership of a centre fire handgun?

Nope, not in the republic, only the owner of the c/f may handle and shoot it. Do not know about NI, but i seriously doubt they rent out pistols. They may have club guns for members.

Wadi14

If your licenced for a firearm in the Republic, and have an EU pass you can apply for a NI firearms visitors pass from the PSNI through a sponsor(someone from NI) to bring that firearm into NI so shoot. 16 pound sterling. it can be valid for up to a year at a time as long as your ROI firearms licence is valid during that period.

tac foley

Wadi14 wrote: »

If your licenced for a firearm in the Republic, and have an EU pass you can apply for a NI firearms visitors pass from the PSNI through a sponsor(someone from NI) to bring that firearm into NI so shoot. 16 pound sterling. it can be valid for up to a year at a time as long as your ROI firearms licence is valid during that period.

Please see post #3 - I don't think that the OP has either a pistol or a license, hence his question about hiring a pistol.

cosieman

Might try doing that with my shotgun and try and get into practical shotgun.

cosieman

I have a licence for a shotgun and a .22 but i am curious about practical shooting and centrefire handgun which is sadly out of the cards legally here.

tac foley

cosieman wrote: »

Might try doing that with my shotgun and try and get into practical shotgun.

Do you have an eight-shot capacity semi-auto shotgun?

NASRPC

You should be able to join a club in Northern Ireland and then utilise club guns to take part in training - then take it from there.

Note I said "should".

To know for a fact - you will need to contact one of the clubs and talk to them about it.

SVI40

Hi Cosieman,

All ROI IPSC shooters need to travel outside of the state for us to train.

To join IPSC ROI, you need to be a licenced firearms owner, prior to joining, and as was mentioned you need to attend and pass the IPSC Competition Licence Course in order to compete in any competition of Level 2 or above. There are five levels of competition, Level 1 being a club shoot, and Level 5 being the World Shoot championships. In order to compete, you must be a member of the IPSC region in which you reside.

IPSCNI shoot both practical handgun and shotgun, and some clubs also do mini rifle.

Probably the handiest club for anyone traveling from ROI is NITSA, just the far side of Newry. They have a number of club Glock and CZ pistols for members to use, and are open for membership.

If you email rdireland2018@gmail.com you will be able to contact the Regional Director for IPSC in the ROI and he can answer any questions you may have.

SVI40

Cadpat_cowboy

cosieman wrote: »

I have a licence for a shotgun and a .22 but i am curious about practical shooting and centrefire handgun which is sadly out of the cards legally here.

I feel your pain man would love to give it a go pity its outlawed here.

cosieman

Would love to get into cowboy action shooting.

cosieman

I wonder if their is anyway to try and get practical shooting legalised here even other strict countries like england your are allowed shame the law was made by gardai thinking i do not like the look of that now.

jb88

cosieman wrote: »

Would it be possible to do it without the ownership of a centre fire handgun?

If you have any queries let me know via PM. Its relatively straightforward if you get the correct introductions.
Lots of guys compete in NI.

mrbrianj

tac foley wrote: »

Yes, but only IF there is a clear and documented threat to your life. A CCWP is not generally handed out with the Tesco vouchers.

If my wife catches me spending any more money on shooting, there Will be a clear and documented treat to my life!:D

Grizzly 45

cosieman wrote: »

I wonder if their is anyway to try and get practical shooting legalised here even other strict countries like england your are allowed shame the law was made by gardai thinking i do not like the look of that now.

Yes, there is..But it would require some" testicular matter" on the part of those interested in bringing it back.

Simply put IPSC could be shot here under German IPSC rules. Germany has banned "combat training" since 1945 and yet has an ever-growing IPSC population.In short both Govt and shooters sat down like adults and discussed exactly what the govt and law enforcement/military considered "combat training" to be.
The end result came out as.

No hostage targets,no shooting off ground on unstable platforms,no movement whatsoever with a loaded firearm between stages. You must load on the station, No shooting from" barricades and from doors& windows"That's left pretty open to debate as what a window and door might consist of in size.So AFIK they even got it down to a specific size measurement.
As well as the usual stuff that would be considered anywhere else the norm for "combat training".Like drawing from a concealed holster under a jacket,shooting at targets at arms length leapfrog tactics etc,etc.

If there is one crowd in Europe that have their gun laws down pat as to what is allowed or not and define exactly what's what. It's Germany. As AGS found out much to their cost in district courts across the land, where German witnesses and technical evidence came into play in the handgun and semi-auto sorting rifle cases.

Nor does it require a change to the CJA either.IPSC under German rules is not "combat training" and as it is a sport and has nothing to do with combat,it falls outside the remit even her under German rules.

All it requires is interested parties sit down here and hammer out exactly what is the definition of "combat training" and build a discipline that does not violate those parameters. Irish solution to an Irish problem.

Plus at the moment we do have a Garda comissioner who comes from an armed police force, knows damn well the difference between combat training and IPSC,that has been legal up in his former patch since day one[as well as the butt end from the barrel of a gun too].And that criminals/IRA and other assorted boogeymen don't shoot or need IPSC to train themselves.

On our side, however, we have a load of "Don't rock the boat and Fuk you Jack"ism. It's been a decade now since 2008 and isn't it time we start talking to the PTB,who in fairness, hasn't been the worst to the Irish shooting community in a long time?
Some common sense, and talking like adults could get iPSC back no problem,but it requires someone to stick their head over the parapet, and I am quite willing to do it,IF there is someone beside me, and not All right BEHIND me.:rolleyes:

gunny123

Grizzly 45 wrote: »

Yes, there is..But it would require some" testicular matter" on the part of those interested in bringing it back.

Simply put IPSC could be shot here under German IPSC rules. Germany has banned "combat training" since 1945 and yet has an ever-growing IPSC population.In short both Govt and shooters sat down like adults and discussed exactly what the govt and law enforcement/military considered "combat training" to be.
The end result came out as.

No hostage targets,no shooting off ground on unstable platforms,no movement whatsoever with a loaded firearm between stages. You must load on the station, No shooting from" barricades and from doors& windows"That's left pretty open to debate as what a window and door might consist of in size.So AFIK they even got it down to a specific size measurement.
As well as the usual stuff that would be considered anywhere else the norm for "combat training".Like drawing from a concealed holster under a jacket,shooting at targets at arms length leapfrog tactics etc,etc.

If there is one crowd in Europe that have their gun laws down pat as to what is allowed or not and define exactly what's what. It's Germany. As AGS found out much to their cost in district courts across the land, where German witnesses and technical evidence came into play in the handgun and semi-auto sorting rifle cases.

Nor does it require a change to the CJA either.IPSC under German rules is not "combat training" and as it is a sport and has nothing to do with combat,it falls outside the remit even her under German rules.

All it requires is interested parties sit down here and hammer out exactly what is the definition of "combat training" and build a discipline that does not violate those parameters. Irish solution to an Irish problem.

Plus at the moment we do have a Garda comissioner who comes from an armed police force, knows damn well the difference between combat training and IPSC,that has been legal up in his former patch since day one[as well as the butt end from the barrel of a gun too].And that criminals/IRA and other assorted boogeymen don't shoot or need IPSC to train themselves.

On our side, however, we have a load of "Don't rock the boat and Fuk you Jack"ism. It's been a decade now since 2008 and isn't it time we start talking to the PTB,who in fairness, hasn't been the worst to the Irish shooting community in a long time?
Some common sense, and talking like adults could get iPSC back no problem,but it requires someone to stick their head over the parapet, and I am quite willing to do it,IF there is someone beside me, and not All right BEHIND me.:rolleyes:

A new commissioner, plus the horrible little hob goblin TD who went on a banning spree in 2008, is long gone.

Grizzly 45

Exactly, if a week is a long time in politics in Ireland ,ten years is in biblical times.

tac foley

TBH, it's not helped by the price you have to pay for factory ammunition for centrefire stuff. I'll be perfectly frank, and tell you that if I had to buy factory fodder for any one of the calibres I shoot, I'd be taking up crotcheting.

cosieman

Shame reloading is illegal here even in the UK you can reload would save a feck load on centrefire ammo making ammo that suits my gun well.

tac foley

As Cass would tell you - and he has actually posted the details here many times and grown old doing so - it is not actually 'illegal'. What is IS, is very difficult to get authorised - unless you are in a postion to actually use the facilties of the Midlands and have the need to do so. As in serious target rifle shooting up to and including national level. The whole reloading deal in the RoI was brought in for the 2011 International Creedmoor competition held in the Republic of Ireland, where it was justifiably felt that the home team would be at a decided disadvantage when competing against foreign teams for whom reloading was a way of life. The result was that the team was authorised to reload, and having done so, produced the stunning results that they did.

cosieman

But it is a lot more difficult here for no reason compared to places like Germany or the UK.

tac foley

cosieman wrote: »

But it is a lot more difficult here for no reason compared to places like Germany or the UK.

Reloading in the RoI is more difficult than it is anywhere else in the Western World, where reloading/making your own ammunition from scratch is the norm, rather than being anything exceptional. I don't know anybody here in UK who does NOT reload, except for the rimfire stuff that cannot be reloaded. However, it is a very contentious issue in this site, for obvious reasons, so I'm going to stop there.

Grizzly 45

Reloading is not illegal here but made so legally difficult to do it, it is impossible to carry it out. Unless you were actually going to set up a munitions factory!

There is commercial legislation there, and that's what the PTB will run with irrespective if you reload a handful of deer rounds or are supplying a military contract someplace.
Even the Midlands, for the amount reloaded there, the setup is complete overkill and it had to be done like that, as everyone on the PTB side was going into ABC CYA mode, as this was a first off[and only one so far] situation.:(

The UK is still probably the easiest to reload without any hassle. Germany requires a cert in reloading ammo. All of about a weekend course.95% of EU regulations on moving, storing, and keeping explosive substances,5% on how you actually reload a shell!

Then you need a safe storage room and place to reload. Too bad if you are living in an apartment block[75%of Germans do] or" multi-family building",you aint getting permission. We were lucky as our house had an old air raid shelter in the cellar,so we were granted permission from the county council,so to speak who deals with licensing things.

tac foley

I've reloaded for rifle and handgun - from 6.5 up to .577 - on the kitchen table, on a Workmate in the conservatory and for that umpteen years, in my little shed. My Black Powder is stored in a Home Office-approved wooden container which is compartmented, but my nitro stuff is on the shelf, just like it is in the gun store from where I bought it.

You CAN pay a bunch of money to go and do an NRA reloading course, which means that you've done the NRA reloading course and nothing more that that. But if you have a pal who is already a reloader, he can teach you in an evening, and watch you do it safely. All you have to do is EXACTLY what is says in the book, and not make up your own rules or data.

I've been reloading, often as many as twelve different calibres, since 1968, and can reliably count to ten on my own fingers and thumbs.