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

Due to where my cabinet is stored, a condition on mine is that I store my bolts (bolt actions only) separate from my rifles & not in the ammo safe internally situated in said cabinet. I also have to add trigger locks to each rifle... They're stored in a garage so that's the reasoning & the only reason I was allowed to store it there. They also hinted, but not stipulated, they'd rather me have CCTV installed which we were doing anyway prior to this.
These I believe are on my notes at GMP & as such any visit will check I'm abiding to these conditions. They've said failure to do so could result in my certificate being revoked.

The ONLY important issue here is what is written on the FAC. If, and only if, there's a CONDITION on the FAC to store rifle bolts in a separate cabinet SHOULD you do so. Anything else is personal preference!

Bolts out, decocked, and stored in a separate safe. Not a requirement, just good security practice - you need to defeat two safes to have a working firearm.

I doubt very much that separate bolt storage has any historic statistical significance in criminal use of stolen rifles - IIRC there is hardly any recorded criminal use of rifles at all, less for poaching and the like.

I keep all of the bolts in the rifles, albeit I have good reason to. I have a large number of Enfields, and many of these do not have numbered or matching numbered bolts. When you consider that a bolt from a black powder rifle (Metford) will fit and function in a 7.62/.308W weapon (i.e. a 2A1), the safety implications of bolt mix-ups far outweigh the security aspects.

Storing bolts (and/or target sights!) separately has the real-world effect of blokes turning up on the range with an inoperable rifle, and a lot of nice rifles heading for scrap via the auctions because a deceased's estate liquidation or a police confiscation failed to reunite the vital parts...

To add... GMP are also asking new holders to keep spent cartridges (shotgun initially but asking for any rifle cartridges too) for forensic use should any rifle be stolen. I was sent 6 evidence bags with my certificates & a long letter.
Maybe GMP are just being over the top? But they have said any visit will check the "conditions" noted, but they do not say as such on my FAC or SGC. Not a huge issue for me, not bothered if I need to put trigger locks on or store the bolt in the house. Rather be over the top myself than blasé about it at any point.

zanes wrote:Bolt actions stored bolts out gives more space in the cabinet. Reason enough for I.

+1.

Activ8 wrote:To add... GMP are also asking new holders to keep spent cartridges (shotgun initially but asking for any rifle cartridges too) for forensic use should any rifle be stolen. I was sent 6 evidence bags with my certificates & a long letter.
Maybe GMP are just being over the top? But they have said any visit will check the "conditions" noted, but they do not say as such on my FAC or SGC. Not a huge issue for me, not bothered if I need to put trigger locks on or store the bolt in the house. Rather be over the top myself than blasé about it at any point.

What. The. f***.

To add... GMP are also asking new holders to keep spent cartridges (shotgun initially but asking for any rifle cartridges too) for forensic use should any rifle be stolen. I was sent 6 evidence bags with my certificates & a long letter

The only firearms required to be ballistic tested here are handguns. I suspect that the testing is more to do what you might do with the firearm rather than if they are stolen, i have never heard of the police requesting what you have described.

Department of Justice Northern Ireland.
Firearms and Explosives Branch Ballistic Testing
Ballistic testing of handguns is required when a new handgun is introduced into
Northern Ireland or the ownership of a handgun already in Northern Ireland

Rifles in one cabinet, the bolts that are easy to remove are stored in an internal safe, within the rifle safe itself and then all ammo stored in a 3rd safe on top. I don't remove the bolts for any semi or semi-auto style rifle because it's impractical. Everything's bolted together and all safes are bolted to a 2' thick stone wall with 9 x 8" coach bolts. Window locks and an alarm and a dog. I think that's reasonable...

Presumably the NI testing (and associated "bagging and tagging") is done under direct police control/supervision rather than a few bags being posted out- can't see GMP's method standing up in court.