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Guy,

A friend of mine just got a call from FL regarding his 1 fior 1 variation. No problem reinstating his slot due to sale of one rifle, BUT at the same time he has had all his ammuniton allocations reduced. They have reduced his allocation by 200 rounds of both .223 and .308 and 1000 rounds of .22.

Blah blah, "in accordance with home office guidance"

A recent variation on my certificate resulted in removal of a spare slot for a .22 rifle as it had been 12 months since I'd applied and hadn't filled the slot.

Are we now beginning to see a back door restrcition on firearms and ammuntion by Chief Superintendents outside of the offical guidance?

I rarely have anything other than fullsome praise for my FL department but this is starting to look suspicious.

Hello
What did you expect, I would not trust any of them as far as I could throw them.
Looking forward to shooting in 2023 even with all of the obstacles, get it done as the way things are going its not going too last much longer in its present form.

They have been doing this for years and seems to be a diktat from the Home office to reduce the amount of ammunition in circulation.
If you make it known that it will cause an issue they generally back down. For example if you have multiple rifles in the same calibre that you reload for and need to use separate batches of brass for or have different bullets or weights for different jobs or have a mix of reloads and factory you will have enough good reason to retain your current allocation.
Remember firearm certificates are based "Good Reason". If you cannot justify that "good reason" you can't have it.

My automatic reaction to dropping limits will be, you've made a mistake and lowered my limit, what do you expect me to do with the ammo I have above the new limit, which until I recommended this fac was legally held

From the authorities point of view having less ammunition in circulation is never going to be a bad thing , so a bit of opportunistic reducing of allowable limits on an fac makes it look as if they are doing their job. In the event the holder says little or nothing and accepts it , they’ve “done a good job” from their side of the desk.
However a well reasoned and detailed explanantion as to why the previous holding is still justifiable , would with a bit of polite and firm back and forth along with any additional info asked for , i’d expect result in the previous holdings neing reinstated.

These days everything seems to be a bit more difficult than it should be, c’est la vie.

Most certificate holders are well aware of ammunition requirements for there type of shooting and ask for sensible amounts the Plod just need to be educated as to why they are asking for that set amount. They have no idea of why a practical shooter would need x amounts or why a bench rest shooter needs x amounts. You should not just roll over and accept it challenge them. If I think they are taking the pee I say so and challenge it.
You just need to be up to date and understand the legislation.
Last time I renewed my Club certificate I asked for thousands of rounds in all sorts of Calibers that the Club can legitimately shoot on ranges available to us. They went in to melt down. I asked why don,t you send some one round and we can discuss the issue and I reminded them that the Club certificate that I have held for the last ( I can remember how many years) has not changed the ammunition allowance. It transpired that the long serving Licencing enquiry officer I had dealt with had retired. So the brand new Officers processing the certificate with an application with well in excess of 10,000 rounds freaked out. I did remind them that it is a Club certificate not my personnel certificate and may be you should look on your computer and any comments by your retired officer. Luckily I am licenced by Cleveland so we had a sensible discussion and everything was sorted out.
The ammunition allowance stayed the same no problem.

But don't roll over if you are not happy challenge them and like I said read the guidelines and familiarise you self with them and quote them when you are dealing with plod.

I normally ask for 1000 rounds for more common calibres. I put less down for the calibres that no factory ammunition is available for and handloading is the only option, as I am not going to reload up to that level. I have not had any knocked back yet. I don't usually get too close to my allowance except for one calibre where I have been close to the limit. I like to have a bit of headroom so if two or three hundred rounds become available at a good price, I can buy it and not have to worry about going over. The allowance for our little smallbore club has been the same for many years. We can have 30,000 rounds but don't go anywhere near that.
Regards
Peter.

I've just had a 1-4-1 variation and the FEO rang and said that my existing ammo allocations were over the 300 limit in the guidelines. After a bit of discussion I asked to keep the 2k .22rf, and 750 for .38/357, but everything else could go down to 300.
When my FAC arrived the allocations were unchanged, but they'd only given me 300 for the new calibre.
Thinking about it, on the variation form it doesn't ask (or I can't remember seeing) a column for how many rnds of a calibre you want... it used to on a the paper forms..

Daryll wrote: ↑Fri Dec 23, 2022 9:04 pm I've just had a 1-4-1 variation and the FEO rang and said that my existing ammo allocations were over the 300 limit in the guidelines. After a bit of discussion I asked to keep the 2k .22rf, and 750 for .38/357, but everything else could go down to 300.
When my FAC arrived the allocations were unchanged, but they'd only given me 300 for the new calibre.
Thinking about it, on the variation form it doesn't ask (or I can't remember seeing) a column for how many rnds of a calibre you want... it used to on a the paper forms..

The online system we have in Herts doesn't have a 'number of rounds' for the 1 for 1 variation as you'd already have an allocation for that. Standard variation for new firearm and ammo does have it. 300 seems to be the norm.... BUT I can't find a figure quoted in the HO Guidance to support this

I have just had a variation to change the calibres on two open slots. I already have a 7.5x54mm rifle and a 7.5x55mm rifle. They are noted on my FAC as just 7.5mm rifles and the ammunition is down as 7.5mm to cover both. I changed one of the open slots to 7.5x55mm as I knew what I was buying and added an ammunition requirement for 1000 rounds of 7.5x55mm. It came back as I requested. My FAC is a bit of a mess regarding calibres and cartridges. I used to have rifles and ammunition listed as just 6.5mm. However, I have rifles in 6.5x50 Japanese, 6.5x52 Carcano, 6.5x55 Swedish and 6.5x58 Portuguese. I tried to get it sorted out at the Northern Shooting show and did get most of the 6.5mm rifles and ammunition updated to the actual cartridge. I was still left with two of the rifles listed as 6.5mm and a random 1000 round allowance of 6.5mm ammunition as well as the actual individual cartridges. The lady at the computer was getting confused with all the alterations, so I left it. I didn't want to start on the 8mm list after that. I could do with sitting down at their computer to update everything, but that is not going to happen.
Regards
Peter.