The UK's Finest Independent Forum for Shooters and Gun Owners. Est 2010.

TattooedGun wrote:Anyone know the law on shooting blanks out of a real firearm, do you have to be on a range....?

Aye...and have a DSC1 & 2, forklift truck insurance, an up to date RadioGram licence, Blood Donor & Organ Donor cards & a Dudley Leisure Centre MULTIPASS

No bullet = not live ammunition.
MOST blank firing guns are not on FAC.

saddler wrote:

TattooedGun wrote:Anyone know the law on shooting blanks out of a real firearm, do you have to be on a range....?

Aye...and have a DSC1 & 2, forklift truck insurance, an up to date RadioGram licence, Blood Donor & Organ Donor cards & a Dudley Leisure Centre MULTIPASS

No bullet = not live ammunition.
MOST blank firing guns are not on FAC.

So legally speaking, I shoot the blanks in my back garden, someone calls the police because they see a guy shooting a (Very Loud) gun in his back garden. They show up and it's a section 1 firearm and I just what, show them the cases and expect them to know what a blank looks like...?

Seriously wonder about the level of absolute twaddle you come out with sometimes when asking a serious question.

One of my FAC conditions States:

"The firearms shall be used with blank ammunition or charges for the purposes of living history, demonstrations and battle reenactment under supervision of the appointed officers of xxxxxxxx living history societies."

I am a "appointed officer" of 5 reenactment groups. This means i can fire blanks where i see fit whilst in uniform, with permission of the landowner of course.
This includes places like cemeteries (grave re dedications & funerals of group members)

One of my associates built a trench system in his back garden and regularly stages full scale battles there.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article ... mmies.html

450 Martini wrote:One of my FAC conditions States:

"The firearms shall be used with blank ammunition or charges for the purposes of living history, demonstrations and battle reenactment under supervision of the appointed officers of xxxxxxxx living history societies."

I am a "appointed officer" of 5 reenactment groups. This means i can fire blanks where i see fit whilst in uniform, with permission of the landowner of course.
This includes places like cemeteries (grave re dedications & funerals of group members)

One of my associates built a trench system in his back garden and regularly stages full scale battles there.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article ... mmies.html

That's a really cool trench, and the fact that you have it written on your certificate in that manor would point to it not being okay to do without it written on there, with an FAC firearm...

450 Martini wrote:One of my FAC conditions States:

"The firearms shall be used with blank ammunition or charges for the purposes of living history, demonstrations and battle reenactment under supervision of the appointed officers of xxxxxxxx living history societies."

do you have live ammo on your ticket for those rifles though?

do you have live ammo on your ticket for those rifles though?

Yes i do, i Was target shooting for several years before i started reenacting, My force are fine with me using my rifles for both reenacting and target shooting. I have noticed a few others in other groups have the same conditions allowing multiple uses.
I also have the standard target shooting conditions as well, the reenacting one is just tacked on at the end of my conditions

DL. wrote:

Blackstuff wrote:Just take it to the police station with your FAC/SGC to cover your back

If there's no licence required to own blanks and the booking officer on the desk doesn't need you name and address to take in handed in firearms related items, the last thing I would do would be go into a police station waving an FAC/SGC.

Who said anything about 'waving it'? Take them to the police station, if the officer knows what he's talking about he'll just take them from you and that'll be that. If he/she's a jobsworth/prat he/she might make a big deal about it and having your certificate handy is a trump card to get them to shut up.

I seriously doubt you'd be able to drop anything like that off at the police station without giving your details. If thats not for you just give them away or burn them as suggested but you'll probably be disappointed if you're expecting to hear a battle reenactment come from the fire, the ones i've burnt before just fizz or at best pop.

TattooedGun wrote:

saddler wrote:

TattooedGun wrote:Anyone know the law on shooting blanks out of a real firearm, do you have to be on a range....?

Aye...and have a DSC1 & 2, forklift truck insurance, an up to date RadioGram licence, Blood Donor & Organ Donor cards & a Dudley Leisure Centre MULTIPASS

No bullet = not live ammunition.
MOST blank firing guns are not on FAC.

So legally speaking, I shoot the blanks in my back garden, someone calls the police because they see a guy shooting a (Very Loud) gun in his back garden. They show up and it's a section 1 firearm and I just what, show them the cases and expect them to know what a blank looks like...?

Seriously wonder about the level of absolute twaddle you come out with sometimes when asking a serious question.

In fairness to Jon you didn't say you'd be standing outside in a residential setting letting loose without apparently warning your neighbours beforehand. IMO while you wouldn't be breaking any firearms laws per se, if you caused distress to your neighbours while doing that you would have broken the law, at the very least 'disturbed the peace'. It would however be an absolutely mental thing to try in those circumstances.

Not alerting/disturbing your neighbours is the key so if you wanted to do it outside you could wait until around 5th November, or if you wanted to see how much 'fun' it is to shoot guns indoors you could stick on a war film and crank up the volume and then join in

Having fired some blanks through real firearms though i wouldn't recommend it as they are absolutely filthy cartridges, or at least the Fiocchi 9mm, 9mmR and 12b saluting blanks are. You should also know that a load of cr@p comes out of blanks which can damage fragile stuff

Unless you have an open ticket that allows you to "use" said firearm (we're talking section 1 firearms here) anywhere you deem it safe to do so - then firing blanks or not you're committing an offence if you do it in your garden (or off other land / ranges you have permissions to shoot on).

If we're talking section 2 shotguns, then strictly speaking the blanks can be shot off in your garden - however, if you live near other houses then I'd suggest that's a bad idea - noise and the ill informed. It's upto the shooter to justify near (I might go with, within 100 yards - and I'd blat them off say Saturday morning at about 1100 - everyone should be up and it's over and done with quickly).

In my case, I'd shoot the blanks off on my range - it's probably the most appropriate place for it locally.

Doesn't the condition relating to where you can use the firearms reference it in conjunction with the S1 ammunition too? Therefore if you're using non-certificated ammo you don't have to be on a range?

If not, an open ticket might not help either as the open condition only references shooting AOLQ and zeroing (mine do anyway), which you can't do with blanks.....

How ridiculous a situation would it be if you could shoot off blank ammo in a blank firer on a piece of land, but if you put the same ammo in an S1 firearm on the same land you'd get in bother