Hi,

I'm moving to the UK with the family for 3 years and am interested to know if it is easy enough to obtain a firearms licence for a non-UK citizen?

I'm from New Zealand and mainly hunt deer. It is very easy to get your licence here, with little bureaucracy, and even easier to get out and hunt on public land. How does the UK compare?

I suspect this question has been asked before so please feel free to point me towards any discussion threads that I have obviously not found.

Regards

Some information to start you off.

http://basc.org.uk/firearms/visiting-the-uk-to-shoot/


No public land is available to shoot on in the UK.

Steve.

The information posted above is not appropriate and will not work for you. What (I think) you are asking is the route to what we call here a Firearms Certificate - licence by any other name.

It involves filling in a form and paying money (about eighty quid - its just changed) - and then waiting a long time.

The sticking points for you could be that you need to list two referees who have known you personally (not family) for at least two years and are willing to be "interviewed" by phone to say basically that you are not a loony. You also need to state your doctors name who may also be contacted for a medical reference.

You will also need "security" (a cabinet) in place - you will be visited at home by the police to check this.

Yes its all a bit traumatic - but on the other hand most criminals here don't carry guns.

FTNZ,

Pretty much what Kuwinda said, however with current licencing the biggest hurdle is getting a nominated land permission which is approved by the police.

There's no public land here so stalking will come through friends or guided opportunities.

If you don't mind borrowing a rifle then getting you out is easy.

If you are moving to the London area then drop me a line and we can grab a beer

K

Thanks all for your responses, much appreciated. I could easily get referees and a safe sorted, so good to know.

Fallow Buck, just a follow up on your comments, is it the case that getting a firearms certificate is dependent on the fact of first having land to hunt on? Or can you just get a certificate and then look?

And thank you for the kind offer, when I have moved over and settled in I'll take you up on it to pick your brains!

Kind regards

The "approval" process does not happen in Scotland - too much land and not nearly enough bodies to check it.

You will in any event need to demonstrate a "need" to have a firearm - this does not have to be a piece of leased land but can be booked hunts - either way you need to have some written proof that you have reasonable cause to have a firearm.

Unfortunately the realities of the licensing process vary wildly from place to place - which they should not of course. If you have a look on the Stalking Directory website the Home Office Guidance (to the Police on firearms licensing) is reproduced there somewhere as a sticky - its a bit too much to post here. Lots of other useful information which is UK deer stalking related.

quote:

Originally posted by ftnz:
Thanks all for your responses, much appreciated. I could easily get referees and a safe sorted, so good to know.

Fallow Buck, just a follow up on your comments, is it the case that getting a firearms certificate is dependent on the fact of first having land to hunt on? Or can you just get a certificate and then look?

And thank you for the kind offer, when I have moved over and settled in I'll take you up on it to pick your brains!

Kind regards

South of the border, (especially in London & the south-east) police forces want specific land nominated. If that land is in Scotland or outside their constabulary's geography then they call the relevant authority to make sure the person in question has got access to that land and that the land is approved for the calibre in question. The Firearms offices are usually split by county.

With booked hunts (in our case) the police call me and ask for details of the piece of land the client is booked on and then they contact the local police authorities to ratify the questions I mentioned above. It's a pain that has led to no end of problems and is never consistent. I even had one client that rang me last week so I could tell him what his FAC conditions meant. He basically had no land and no restrictions!!!

What I have had Dumfries do before now is look at an ordinance survey map to approve there is sufficient topography for a calibre??!!

As Kuwinda says, the fact that each force acts along its own guidelines is major issue, so where you live has an impact.

It seems more onerous than it actually is, and the good news is that if you don't mind borrowing a gun you can go and hunt tomorrow.... That is the important thing!!

K