civdef wrote: »

I'm not sure of the current state of play on reloading (very interested though).

IT is being reviewed by the DOJ via their "policy dept" however when they issue a review on this might be anyone's guess, as they review the entire legislation, as they are all of three people reviewing the entire Irish legislation that relates to the Dept of Justice.A recommendation can be either good/bad news too, and it doesn't mean it has to be acted on either by the govt or minister.

Under current legislation a local authority can definitely register a premise to store up to 22.68Kg of powder and SAA on an RP1 form

Though the separation distances for small amounts of Hazard class 4 (powder & primers) are listed as zero.

So getting to be a registered premise is doable. What comes after that is my question. Import licences?

Storage and manufacturing ammo are two completely different things in the law AFAICS
You might be able to get permission to "store powder" but you will need a different bucket of fish to make ammo and that won't happen until...

Once the fire chief has signed off, once the Gardai sign off, once the council sign off on your planning permission to construct or modify suitable premises to store and manufacture ammo.Once you have gone thru the notice of planning permission objections from people nowhere near your neighbourhood and are professional paid objectors in some cases.

Once you somehow convince them you are reloading for personal usage and not for commercial usage, and good luck with THAT one as there is no,none, zero, Nil,Nein,Non, Nyet exemption clause for hobby reloading in this above act of the storage of explosive order 2007. Yeah, it is "doable " alright if you want to throw alot of time, lawyers and monies at it.:rolleyes:

Importing the powder...Let's just go briefly there...assuming someone brave enough is going to do this commercially. As this will apply to even those buying a couple of kgs for personal use.

It won't be a jaunt up to NI, as with Brexit the paperwork will become even worse once they quit the EU, as you will now be importing from a non-EU country.

It will require a PSNI /AGS escort to and from the border, as the DOJ is obligated to inform both forces of a movement of explosives per EU DIRECTIVES, and you will be paying both police forces for their manpower and time. That might be expensive now with STG/Euro rates in the future, and will NI have enough powder for a bulk shipment down South?

Oh, and make sure your truck or van is EU compliant as well for carrying explosives, and your driver has his EU Hazmat/Explosives qualifications up to date as well.

France perhaps? Hmmm...Going to be an expensive trip, as carrying explosives on ships or ferries is a kind of costly nautical affair I believe in time and paperwork too.IF they are willing to transport it too that is.

Lads, let's get it into our heads. This will not be a cheap or easy option under current legislation in any shape or form. We are stuck under factory/commercial legislation with both storage and manufacture under the 2007 storage of explosives legislation, possibly even EU law.

Acquiring, importing and transporting, we are hit by both EU and national legislation.

And under EU legislation, you can be damn well assured we will need to do some sort of course on UN, EU and national legislation on reloading or manufacturing munitions and the safe storage and transport etc thereof as the EU calls it. So like HCAP etc...Who teaches the teachers?
IOW spend two days learning about the law on transport, storage, and record-keeping and about 2 hours on how to actually reload a bullet or cartridge.:[ That's the German reloaders license:rolleyes:] and I cant see it being much better a variation here, except with a bigger price tag!

The best bet would be to demand a clause added onto the 2007 SI that exempts non-commercial manufacturing or reloading and storage of up to 5 kgs of nitro powder,as it is a propellant rather than an explosive as well as Pyrodex for BP shooters, and primers from this SI, as it had this exemption in the 1955 act.

At least if we had that, it would at least make it legally easier, and it would then allow gun dealers etc to see if it was a viable market to get into, as they would also have to modify their premises to store powder on a commercial rate