Thread: A Blast From the Past. Firearms Licensing Old Style.

Greetings All,
My dearly beloved had been tidying up somewhere and found three of the old Firearms Test Certificates from the late 1970's and 1980,s. These used to be issued by Mountain Safety Council Firearms Safety Instructors to prospective firearms owners after an evenings instruction and a test. One was for my son dated from when he was 8 years old. He had come with me one test night sat through the instruction with his ears flapping. As I was handing out the test papers I gave him one as well and in spite of no prep he passed and was duly issued his certificate signed by one of the other instructors. He did the test again closer to when he could get his license, same result, and had his license issued by his 16th Birthday. I think it took about 3 days. It was a simpler time.
Regards Grandpamac.

Yup... nothing like the "good ol' days" to remind us how simpler life used to be. I still have my original little red Firearms License book stashed away in the attic from about 1982/83. Unfortunately I don't appear to have a copy of my "Lifetime" license which lasted for only a few years before suddenly becoming "nothing like a lifetime" license. Fast forward 37 years and and we have layer upon layer of checks and balances with an application form just short of being a novel... and I feel no safer than I did 37 years ago when everyone - certainly just about every farmer in the country - had a rifle lazing around in the back of their wardrobe or under the bed.

I had a similar experience, with my wife, when I was instructing. She knew nothing about firearms, but listened intently, and passed with a 100% result. Often young men failed the test, while nearly every woman passed. My theory was that the young guys "knew it all", therefore didn't have to listen, and failed; while woman listen, process the information, and pass.

Originally Posted by Ranger 888

I had a similar experience, with my wife, when I was instructing. She knew nothing about firearms, but listened intently, and passed with a 100% result. Often young men failed the test, while nearly every woman passed. My theory was that the young guys "knew it all", therefore didn't have to listen, and failed; while woman listen, process the information, and pass.

It's often been my experience with regard to female shooters too and for the very reasons you mentioned.

I used to have a permit to shoot from the road onto private property, and road berms, we used to shoot in the town inside city limits in Alex too just using common sense.

Originally Posted by grandpamac

Greetings All,
My dearly beloved had been tidying up somewhere and found three of the old Firearms Test Certificates from the late 1970's and 1980,s. These used to be issued by Mountain Safety Council Firearms Safety Instructors to prospective firearms owners after an evenings instruction and a test. One was for my son dated from when he was 8 years old. He had come with me one test night sat through the instruction with his ears flapping. As I was handing out the test papers I gave him one as well and in spite of no prep he passed and was duly issued his certificate signed by one of the other instructors. He did the test again closer to when he could get his license, same result, and had his license issued by his 16th Birthday. I think it took about 3 days. It was a simpler time.
Regards Grandpamac.

Here ya go



Same era I remember getting on the Arthurs Pass railcar at Christchurch Railway station with my pack and a 303. It was ski season and it was packed. No-one even blinked an eye!
Imagine that now........if youcan

I remember my dads licence was a folded one and it was red in the outside ?

Originally Posted by Bos

Here ya go
Attachment 160504
Attachment 160505

Same era I remember getting on the Arthurs Pass railcar at Christchurch Railway station with my pack and a 303. It was ski season and it was packed. No-one even blinked an eye!
Imagine that now........if youcan

Still got my original Certificates Of Rego somewhere, the wife will know where. First one cost me the old currency (right on the changeover in 1967). Still got that rifle.

Re Railway travel - one of our old rifle club members was in his young days in the Navy in Auckland. The Navy used to put him, carrying his rifle on the train to Trentham to attend the Fullbore Nationals at the Trentham Rifle Ranges. I think it was the overnighter and I am not sure if the 303 was in a canvass bag or not.

Even Australia where they seem to be trying to out do us & the UK for bureaucratic stupidity, were known for some common sense /real life experience application of rules not long ago .Back in the 80's when l got my first taste of guiding & was working in the remote Top End whenever l could, as l gained experience /reputation to get full time work guiding .

So l could support me & the missus in remote areas even while the guiding work slowed down during the "Wet"or monsoon season ,l went & did my Professional Helicopter Shooters qualification course,then held just outside a little country town about a 1 1/2 hours out of Darwin.After passing that me & 3 others who passed the course went to the little 2 man cop shop with the Instructor & paper work in hand .The cops & the Instructor were both locals & old mates ,l was the only one actually living/ working in a remote area so the instructor got me to wait while the other blokes were finished & went outside & he explained to the old copper how l was working as a guide,living remote etc & got the copper to agree to ticking the box giving me a carry licence for a Handgun as well .

A couple of years later l was working basically year round guiding ,chopper shooting & catching scrub bulls for a Aboriginal Corp,trying to make ends meet during the off season during the "Wet",to get to know the locals & gain trust to be given access to traditional lands/sacred sites etc .This meant l would at times be driving a 2 trailer cattle truck 100's of miles across rough dirt tracks, as well as Bull Catchers,trail bikes & Quads etc all while never having a truck licence, as we were in the middle of now where & would rarely ,apart from Aboriginal locals, ever see any one else . One day we were stuck at camp as a early wet season storm had came through & the cops from the nearest town ,(probably 300 miles away by road), flew in with the mail plane which they did once in a blue moon to check on all the road vehicles rego etc ,no one was on the most wanted list hiding out & no sly grogging to the locals was going on .

The camp boss asked him about getting us licences for the trucks etc while he was there,he told me to hop in the old Bedford tray truck & take him for a spin up & down the air strip the old girl had hardly any clutch left from towing other vehicles out of bogs etc so you had to tickle through the gear & after we did a 10 minute drive & rocked up back at camp he promptly pulled a pad from his brief case & l thought would just give us a licence for the small tray truck, instead after checking with the boss what l had been up to he gave me a full Road Train Licence with the added livestock accreditation ,he then also gave me a bike licence with out even asking .

If any of them were caught doing it now we would all be thrown into the clanger for years .

Do we have more safety or less common sense and more bureaucracy?

Not that many years ago, I saw 2 young fellas sitting on their packs in the ChCh airport departure lounge with rifles beside them. Got on the plane and put their gear in the OH locker.
No worries mate.

My training was clips across the ear from grownups if I waved an "empty" single shot 22 around.
Soon learned to be aware of where the thing was pointed.

Guns ARE NOT DANGEROUS.
People are and the most dangerous of all are the omnipotent moral busybodies who feel entitled to force everyone else to do what they say.

Perhaps it is not a coincidence that so many of these busybodies end up as politicians and government (our) employees?

Guns are tools and using them, like using other tools, requires, training, practice and experience.

The people with the the practice and experience are the ones who can and should be doing the training and those without should mind their own business.

Of course, some sensible and consistent rules and regulations are necessary for the common good but the most important ought to be don't mess with other people that are not messing with you.

IMO, the range officers at our local gun clubs might be the people best qualified to train and certify safe, fit and proper, users of firearms.

Originally Posted by Survy

I remember my dads licence was a folded one and it was red in the outside ?

Sounds like the original "lifetime" license from the mid 80's when the police decided to change it from a permit system.
The family bought the farm in the 70's when I was a kid, it came with 2 rifles left in the house, a savage .22 (still have it) and a .303

Originally Posted by zimmer

Still got my original Certificates Of Rego somewhere, the wife will know where. First one cost me the old currency (right on the changeover in 1967). Still got that rifle.

Re Railway travel - one of our old rifle club members was in his young days in the Navy in Auckland. The Navy used to put him, carrying his rifle on the train to Trentham to attend the Fullbore Nationals at the Trentham Rifle Ranges. I think it was the overnighter and I am not sure if the 303 was in a canvass bag or not.

From what I have heard over the years it was common for shooters to travel to Trentham to shoot for the Belt via train in the Defence rifle club days. if I recall correctly the travel was subsidised by the Army, as was the accommodation, food & ammunition.

Back in the 60s I used to get a Permit to Procure to borrow Dads 222 Vixen, permit was good for 28 days.

It's just a pity that we live in a world full of crime and corruption these days.

The war on drugs declared by the good old boy reagan really stuck one up everyone's ass, made drugs more valuable, so in turn came crim's that needed that AK47 for protection.

I remember the stories when I was hunting with my Granda in Ireland, but we don't live in that world anymore.
I like a good rant as much as the next man, but considering most of the 'old brigade' can't navigate in Mozilla Firefox without looking for a fox on fire.......well.

There are many more Idiots these days, no morals, no values and no respect, so yeah I like the stories, but someone sitting on the bus with a Tippmann .22 won't end well these days.


anyway.

Correct me if wrong but I seem to remember in the late 60s and poss early 70s we did not need a firearms licence at all - just a Permit to Procure a firearm. Went to the copshop, got your permit, then off to the local gunshop. Very quick, very easy. Those were the days when cars and 4wds would go past with rifles in a rack in the back window while the famer/hunter was in town.

Oddly enough there were very few firearms problems back then...... Very few murders, not so much crime at all actually