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

One of our Club members is going through his FAC renewal and just had his visit from an Aberdeenshire FEO.

FEO wants records of how many times each rifle has been used and number of shots fired on each occasion, for the last 5 years!!! Club secretary (me) asked to provide range attendance logs.

FEO stipulates that he expects each rifle to have been used at least 3 times per year.

FEO says that Crows & Rooks are not to be shot with .22lr rifle conditioned for sporting use/Pest control/vermin destruction???

FEO counted every round of ammo in the house.

Renewal visit lasted over 2 ½ hours.

This is for a shooter who has held a FAC for many years and never had a ‘renewal’ like it!

Is this the way Police Scotland is going now? Or is the guy just Anal?

Wow

Rather than just posting here, ooman, have him take his FEO's Chief Constabubble to task for overstepping his authority. Ask for a written explanation of why the FEO is requiring things that have no basis in law.

Sounds like a prick, i would follow the above advice.

3 times a year I think is in the guidance. Its what I was asked for with records going back for 3 years.
I don't think a round count record is required.
FEO has every right to check your guns and count your ammo. And ask about key access.
He could have asked to check the powder quantity and the amount of primers stored.
No idea on crow shooting.
I don't really see any issue with any of that TBH.
Just my view and probably contentious!
Tony

The last FEO who asked how many rounds I had was shown my 4 ammo cabinets and told to start counting!
He backed off.

From the Guidance

13.53 Target shooters may be expected to use their firearms fairly regularly, say three or more
times a year. The police should consider on renewal whether “good reason” continues in
respect of all firearms held for this purpose. However, failure to shoot in a year should be
regarded as grounds for further enquiries to be made, rather than the automatic partial
revocation of the certificate for lack of “good reason”. For example, there may be personal
circumstances such as illness, working away (where this is not to be repeated regularly),
or practice for a particular competition that may preclude the use of all the firearms
concerned. In some cases, competitions for unusual or older arms may be few each year.
Owners, and especially collectors, may also not want to regularly shoot old, historic, and
valuable firearms, thus avoiding excessive wear and tear.

mag41uk wrote:3 times a year I think is in the guidance. Its what I was asked for with records going back for 3 years.

Really - any idea what page that is on, as I'm only aware of annual use being mentioned...with records being held at club level

mag41uk wrote:He could have asked to check the powder quantity and the amount of primers stored.

Under what authority? HSE administer that part of things, or has that changed?

mag41uk wrote:No idea on crow shooting. I don't really see any issue with any of that TBH.
Just my view and probably contentious!
Tony

It's a valid caliber for vermin control & conditioned for that purpose on the FAC. So WHY does the FEO question this when his own office have given it the ok?

LOTS to pull apart from the OP's report of the FEO visit.
Not to worry though - if the SNP get Independence they'll ban private ownership anyway - maybe this FEO is working to new SNP issued rulings & he is one of the enlightened masses...

Can anyone shed light on the primer count? I thought primed cases counted towards your ammo held but primer count??

Perhaps he was a proctologist in a past life