New Rifle Purchase Process - Stage 1 Complete

Recently I posted that I had ordered a new rifle. Well today I received the phone call I had been waiting for! It had arrived in the gun store and was awaiting my attention!

After checking the state of my bank account I headed down the hill to the gun shop and after eventually finding a parking spot I went in. Now I am not sure why but it looks like gun-buying season has hit! There were people everywhere. One of the employees was even complaining that he was having to work too hard selling all these guns.

I waited (im)patiently - there are at least lots of pretty things to look at while waiting - and eventually the owner (Barry) was free and when he saw me he smiled and asked one of the other employees to go get the two rifles for me to look at.

So out came two large, white boxes - Shooting Buddy's and mine - and we opened mine first! It is beautiful!!! Comes up onto the shoulder really easily and the bolt is as smooth as butter! After fondling it for awhile we packed it away and opened Shooting Buddy's. There really was no need for this - his has been in the store all along and he has already checked it out but why turn down the opportunity to handle a firearm? The gun is almost as nice as mine ... :)

Anyway after the guns were put away it was time for the paperwork. Firstly the exchange of large amounts of electrons for two receipts. Unfortunately my gun was more expensive than Shooting Buddy's and while Barry did (jokingly) offer to switch the amounts on the receipts I declined.

Electrons processed ... Receipts given; it was time for the Serviceability Certificates. Basically a (registered and individually numbered) piece of paper from an authorised person saying that the gun is serviceable. All guns that are being licensed require one.

That done and serial numbers doubled checked. The next step in the process was a "property letter". When you licence a firearm here you have to prove "genuine need". Vermin control on a farm is an acceptable reason and this is done by way of a thing called a property letter. Barry had found a property that was happy for us to help control vermin on - and with a range of vermin suitable for the two calibers that we were licensing. My rifle is a .223 and Shooting Buddy's is a .308, so we needed a property of appropriate size with a range of vermin.

Letters were handed over and that, my friends, is the end of phase 1.

The next step in the process is for Shooting Buddy and me to complete the online forearms licence application form, then print it out and take it with ID to the Post Office.

Now unfortunately Shooting Buddy won't be down in Perth until the 17th so it will have to wait until then. Once we have done that it is then a matter of being patient and waiting for the Firearms Branch to process the application. Apparently applications are being processed quite quickly through Firearms Branch currently - so fingers crossed that we won't have to wait too long.