Are you aware of what’s allowed, what’s not and what licences you need?

Fully working modern firing replicas of muzzle-loading and breech-loading firearms, for example those used to fire blanks by historical re-enactment societies but capable of firing live ammunition, must be held on certificate. Breech-loading firearms originally chambered for the following ammunition, and which retain that original chambering, should be regarded as benefiting from exemption as antiques under section 58 2 of the Firearms Act The chances of the survival of more than a tiny number of most of these cartridges — or of the arms which they fit — are very low indeed.

But those firearms listed in bold may survive in some quantity. Each cartridge in the list is followed by initials referring to a published source whose description may be accepted as the norm for each round. These are as follows. Remember — if you want to shoot your gun, none of this applies — you need a licence.

Glossary of firearms terms

Action Against Crime and Disorder Unit. Your First Vintage Gun. No licence needed for old muzzle loaders. The police need to be notified of each gun you buy or sell, and your certificate updated and signed by the seller. Before you get too carried away, remember that all your shotguns must be stored in your secure cabinet, so dont allow your collection to exceed the cabinets capacity.


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There are no special requirements for owning or storing regular clay and game shotgun ammunition, but you will need to produce your Shotgun Certificate in order to buy cartridges. Where and how you use any shotgun you own legally is covered by a raft of other laws, as noted earlier, but remember that the firearms laws still require you to keep it secure against unauthorised access at all times. That means not leaving it unattended at a clay stand or while you go off to the shoot lunch, as well as taking sensible precautions while travelling to a shoot.

If you need to leave your car, at a service station for instance, the gun should be hidden from view and the car locked. Ideally the gun would be secured with a trigger lock or cable, and you could also remove the fore-end and slip it in your pocket. The other main category of interest to the sporting shooter is Section 1 firearms, which for our purposes are mainly rifles. This covers the full range of sporting calibres from the humble. Also in this category are some of the less common shotguns and shotgun ammunition such as solid slug ammo for instance.

To own a Section 1 firearm, you will need a Firearms Certificate. This is issued by your local police in much the same way as a Shotgun Certificate, but you use a different form and the questions are more probing. For a Firearms Certificate you need to specify each of the guns you want to acquire, and explain why you want them.

8 Unusual Civil War Weapons - HISTORY

The police use a chart to decide whether the calibres youve requested are suitable for the use you plan to put them to. If you ask for a. Different forces seem to interpret this differently. Some will allow a. Its as well to discuss all this with your Firearms Enquiry Officer in good time, to avoid wasting time and money pursuing a route the police will not sanction. With a Firearms Certificate its up to you to provide good reason for wanting each gun, and show that you have somewhere suitable where you have permission to shoot.

The police will check out the land you specify to ensure you really do have permission to shoot there and if its appropriate for the type of gun you are requesting. With your Firearms Certificate application, you will need to provide details of two people willing to act as referees. As with a Shotgun Certificate, they must have known you for at least two years and be people of good standing in the community.

The police have some discretion in how they interpret good standing, so if you have difficulty finding someone suitable who knows you well, do ask for their advice. The referees will be asked to fill in a fairly detailed form about you, so make sure they are willing to do so before putting their names down.

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You will also have to provide details of your doctor and authorise the police to ask questions about your medical history. Like a Shotgun Certificate application, you will receive a visit from the Firearms Enquiry Officer who will check the details of your application and inspect your security arrangements. Remember that unlike shotgun ammo, rifle ammo must be stored securely and separately from the gun, so you will need a separate, lockable box big enough to accommodate the ammo you plan to buy. Its rare for a Shotgun Certificate to contain any special conditions about how and where you use your shotguns, but with a Firearms Certificate there will normally be conditions that specify what and where you may shoot for each gun listed on the certificate.

These conditions normally follow a prescribed form of words, to be found in Appendix 3 of the Home Office guidance document referred to previously. Increasingly, certain police forces are taking it upon themselves to add further conditions which may, for instance, specify that a rifle is only to be used from a high seat, or that you are accompanied by an experienced shooter until you have gained more experience yourself. You may be happy to comply, but to some shooters this seems a step too far.

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If you have any concerns about conditions applied to your certificate, then BASCs firearms department should be able to advise you. Originally developed by General Gabriel J. Rains, these antipersonnel explosives were typically iron containers rigged with gunpowder, a fuse and a brass detonation cap. Rains first used the subterranean booby traps in during the Peninsula Campaign, and later buried thousands more around Richmond and in various parts of the Deep South. In fact, some of these still-active landmines were only recovered in Alabama as recently as the s.

While they proved an intimidating method of psychological warfare, landmines were often viewed as an unethical form of combat. Union General George B.

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Perhaps their most vociferous critic was Union General William T. Sherman, who lost several troops to underground landmines during his famous March to the Sea. Along with landmines, the Civil War was also a major testing ground for underwater mines. Both sides mined harbors and rivers with torpedoes, but the Confederacy enjoyed greater success. Starting in with the sinking of the ironclad Cairo, Confederate torpedoes destroyed dozens of Union ships and damaged several others.

Union torpedoes, meanwhile, only sank six Confederate Navy vessels. The rebels owed their skill at underwater warfare in part to Matthew Fontaine Maury, an oceanographer who first demonstrated the use of mines in The Confederacy also succeeded in using submarines to turn mines into offensive weapons. In the H.


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Hunley destroyed the Union sloop-of-war Housatonic after ramming it with a pole-mounted torpedo, becoming the first combat submarine to successfully sink an enemy ship.