Land deemed suitable by the chief of police?

EccentricJackal

Well-Known Member
Hi All,

I have recently recieved my FAC and been and bought a .22LR and .308.

I have permission to shoot on some land and the owner has said I can sight in my .308 there and said that it is cleared for it.

I tried to check this with the FAO but they couldn't find the land by name on their system (I know it has been checked as this was confirmed as my permission for my .22)

Do I need to push this any further or have I satisfied my legal obligation to shoot there with the .308?

I know the licensing guidance used to say that confirming with the owner was enough but i can't seem to find that in the latest 2014 version.

Any help would be much appreciated.

Cheers

Ryan
 
As with all these things, the only answer that matters is the one from your licencing department, so ignore the advice on here and speak to them, it is their call, and they alone will be able to give you the definitive answer.
 
If the fire arms licencing dept can't find it then don't shoot it

ask the questions regarding they look into it on why it can't be found and or get it cleared

until they have it on the system cleared don't shoot it
 
Thanks for the advice everyone, I ended up calling the Firearms Officer who did my original interview and found that the land was registered but they had spelt the name incorrectly.

It turned out to only be cleared for .22LR, and although the officer offered to have it looked at again, we agreed it is unlikely to pass for higher caliber (it has safe backstops but no quarry species hence i was only intending its use for zeroing). The person who had told me .308 was fine I now believe has an open ticket making the clearence irrelevant to him anyway.

If anything it serves as a cautionary tale - just because others shoot their .308 doesnt mean you can skip the check with the police!

Thanks again,

Ryan
 
Again, this only serves to highlight the nonsense in having land checked and FACs conditioned in this manner. If it's deemed safe for a .22 then it should be deemed 'safe' full stop (or 'backstop', as the case may be) So theoretically any FAC holder with permission, an open ticket and a .50cal can blat away to their hearts content, but you can only use your .22 on the land? Madness :cuckoo:

So where are you going to zero your .308? I'd (politely of course) argue your case with them, making sure you highlight that you'll be zeroing only, and that you'll ensure you have safe backstops
 
Completely agree that the system is daft.

If it was my land I would push more, in this case the owner has already gone well out of his way to help me out with my FAC so I at least plan to leave it a while before asking him for anything more (ie guiding the FAO around again).

Going to head to Diggle ranges to zero as i was planning to look into joining for some full bore target shooting anyway :) I was just being lazy and trying to avoid the hour and a half drive!
 
daft the feo could turn up to find open ticket holder shooting his .50cal have a look at the land and say not safe for any shooting and leave the open ticket holder to carry on
 
I'm South Yorkshire (and have had nothing but good experiences so far with the team here) but the land in question is in North Yorkshire.
 
I don't understand what the presence of quarry species has to do with wanting this land to zero on. Are the licencing office pushed for time, so they've persuaded you to agree it's not suitable rather than having to spend time going to and fro to see if it is suitable?
 
Surely presence of quarry is only an issue if your land is your good reason for having the rifle and a separate issue to it's saftey.
 
I'm pretty sure the firearms licensing guidance says that land is approved based on safety and likelyhood of quarry species (could be wrong, it has been a while since i read it). You're right that the presence of quarry is seperate to safety but there are no seperate clearances for zeroing and hunting, so if they cleared it for me to zero (with my good reason being elsewhere) that wouldnt stop someone else using the now cleared land as their good reason by itself. I dont think it is to do with workload as I spoke to me FAO whihc is South Yorkshire, and the land would be assessed by North Yorkshire.

I am not agreeing with this logic, just putting it forward as a suggested thought process on their part. Like I said, if they listened to logic they would probably approve it but I've already had a great deal of help from the landowner with regards to my FAC, so for now I am gratefully leaving him alone for a while!
 
Just as a matter of interest, if you do not have anywhere to shoot your 308 how did you get it granted in the first place?
Ignore this if you are a member of a club and have a target shooting condition but your post seems to say otherwise.

ian.
 
Sorry if the post wasn't clear, I am a member of a club (with some limited access to full bore ranges) and also have deer stalks booked + previous outings with John from Yorkshire Roe Stalking (would highly reccommend) - this was an attempt to Zero the rifle in preperation for an outing without driving to an open range in Diggle or Calton Moor.

Ryan
 
Sorry if the post wasn't clear, I am a member of a club (with some limited access to full bore ranges) and also have deer stalks booked + previous outings with John from Yorkshire Roe Stalking (would highly reccommend) - this was an attempt to Zero the rifle in preperation for an outing without driving to an open range in Diggle or Calton Moor.

Ryan

Thanks for clearing that up Ryan

Ian.
 
My first 'open' certificate(40 years ago) allowed me to use the weapon on any land(with permission) where the owner or occupier was using a 'similar calibre' weapon. Recently, I have heard of a condition that allows zeroing on any land where the certificate holder has permission to shoot.
 
My first 'open' certificate(40 years ago) allowed me to use the weapon on any land(with permission) where the owner or occupier was using a 'similar calibre' weapon. Recently, I have heard of a condition that allows zeroing on any land where the certificate holder has permission to shoot.

The latter is the condition on my relatively recently opened cert. though there was a similar condition at grant for land cleared for the calibre
 
My "open" certificate states on any land I have permission to shoot although I only shoot larger calibres on certain farms: common sense + my decision/responsibility but that applies to every calibre and every shot you take.
 
Back
Top