Thread: Mountain Safety Council Firearms Course

Getting a licence to own a fireman in NZ is a pretty casual affair compared to the UK. Back 15yrs ago when I lived there things were reasonably tight, today is even worse. You had to apply for both a shotgun licence and a separate rifle licence. With the rifle licence you even had to apply for the calibre that you were proposing to use before you were even granted it, for each calibre on the licence you had to put forward good reasons why you needed to own such a calibre. As a beginner or first time license holder the chance of getting a 300WSM was slim to nothing. One way of increasing the chance of getting a centre fire ticket was to take and successfully pass a British Deer Stalkers course. These were held several times a year all over the country and consisted of a three day course covering both practical skills and in-depth instruction on safety, ballistics, deer management, the law and equipment for deer stalking. The practical side not only consisted of shooting centre fire rifles at different ranges and positions but also the butchering and the care of the carcass after shooting. To pass the course you were expected to score 3 out of 3 at prone 100m, 70m sitting or kneeling and 50m standing, also there was a 100 question test that you had to get 80%. This was just the basic course and you could go on and complete advanced courses. Today in the Uk certainly in Wiltshire the county I come from you have to do this course to get a ticket. My point is that this might be the extreme but it gave me an extremely good grounding into the use of firearms and the shooting of larger game animals. Some where between this and what we have now in NZ would in my opinion be better for all. How we do it or who controls/runs it is open for discussion. Please discuss.