Thread: Safe Requirements and Licence Questions

Originally Posted by ipv

Hey all,

I am doing my firearms licence test in two weeks and have one question about that and one about the safe.

Licence test question: I have been studying up and doing the quiz on the Police website, I have scored low a few times as the test asks about bullet travel and specific firearm questions. Am I expected to know the distance all calibre bullets can/will travel? I was under the impression that the test was only on the Arms code and 7 main rules.

Safe Question: I am going to purchase a safe that has two compartments for firearms and ammo. Reading the Police guidelines it states that the cabinet should be fixed to two surfaces not that it must. I don’t want to skimp on security but I also need to understand what the rules are. Must I bolt it to the floor and wall?

Cheers

You don't need to be a ballistics expert, but generally a rifle will be dangerous far further out than a shotgun as round shot from a SG loses speed relatively fast.

It is relevant to the 7 rules in checking your firing zone. Think shooting an animal silhouetted over the horizon or up in a tree. A SG should be fine, but less so a rifle in that case.

For some commonsense ballistics, assume a .30 cal (~7.62mm) full power cartridge rifle will shoot 3-5km (that's a firing zone you just can't check is safe).
The same .30 cal (~7.62mm) may kill an animal through a 1m tree trunk at short range. Again relevant to firearms safety and pointing the firearm in a safe direction. The bullet can kill through a house very easily so pointing your firearm at a wall is not a totally "safe" direction either. You have to realise that a centrefire rifle is scarily powerful and designed to cause death at distance, so treat it with 100% caution, and don't "get used to it".

A .22LR will classically go out to a mile (1.6km), same considerations for going through wooden walls at short distance. Massively more powerful than an air rifle. A falling projectile at 1.5km or less can still kill or take out an eye, something to think about if shooting possums up a tree in a built up area. I heard of a fat sun bather who had a .22 rimfire projectile (shot almost vertically up by a neighbour) fall down onto her abdomen and lodge in her subcutaneous fat. Ignorance reigns supreme in a lot of places.

A wee trap in the exam is when two answers can both seem right (they MAY both be right in fact) but for the test the correct answer is the right answer which pertains to firearm SAFETY.

Good luck with the exam.