Thread: Mountain Safety Council Firearms Course

After what has happened yesterday to the firearms people in MSC head office and the firearms technical committee there is an opening for someone else to get the contract to supply the course/licence to the Police.

i really think a practical 15 shot test must be part of MSC course.

Originally Posted by Breyt

i really think a practical 15 shot test must be part of MSC course.

Why?

Originally Posted by Breyt

i really think a practical 15 shot test must be part of MSC course.

I would be interested to hear your thinking too...

Originally Posted by stug

After what has happened yesterday to the firearms people in MSC head office and the firearms technical committee there is an opening for someone else to get the contract to supply the course/licence to the Police.

Vote for Koshogi, he offers his protection.

Beware what you wish for, in the UK there is a push by the police for a dsc1, $600, it was takes 3 days, for deer hunters, if you want to hunt on state forest land you have to pay a lease and a minimum of dsc2 $2k, there is a whole industry now offering courses, and slowly the anti gun brigade are pushing for more training, not that a basic gun handling course is a bad thing, but it depends what you want out of it, the NZ course is basic, but then again most of the accidents seem to be experienced (allegedly) hunters not identifying there targets.

Yep your right. My uncle and my cousin have done the two courses in Scotland. Quite tough to get the top scores .Subsequently my uncle helped the local organiser for the next few courses.once, one of the candidates was a woman who was struggling with her shooting and could not hit the target were she was meant to. My uncle helped her and she managed to go through that part. she was safe in the way she used her rifle but never had a chance to have access to a shooting range and to be taught properly.
Those two courses definitely raise the level of knowledge of the people released in the woods with a rifle over there.
But as you mentioned , over there deers talkers are quite often on their own on a certain block of land and there are no other hunter in the vicinity to get mistaken for a deer and shot at.
In France we have a good number of accidents every year due to hunting. And guess what, most of the time it happens during big game driven shoots ( wild boar, red deer and roe deer) where multiple hunters are occupying a same parcel of wood and one of them is not respecting the shooting directions. There is no intense hunting courses over there. Just a basic hunting exam with a shot gun practical test where you have to show safe handling and fire two shots.
On the target shooting side of things in France, the number of death must be 1 out of 150000 participants over a ten year period.and the level of serious injuries is low as well. The mendatory insurance that the shooters have to pay every year when they renew their licence is the equivalent of $5.

I am not sure that a course like in the UK would make people in the woods safer but they would make them more knowledgeable hunters.
How ever a firearm handling course within the first year of newbies getting their licence ( being on a target range for the ones who do not wish to hunt and in the field for the hunters) and a refresher every ten years when we renew ours licence would not be a bad thing.
The first year you could be on your "learner's", which allows you to acquire your gun of choice and ammunitions and practice on shooting ranges or farm lands handling and shooting. When you feel ready and confident you pass your firearm handling course that then allows you to apply for doc permits to hunt on public land ( or allows you to compete on different ranges if you are a target shooter).

But as said in the precedent post, it could become a pen in the but to do and run all those practical courses.
But it is probably better if we sort out our shit ourselves rather than having it imposed upon us in a more costly and drastic way.

Originally Posted by Taff

Beware what you wish for, in the UK there is a push by the police for a dsc1, $600, it was takes 3 days, for deer hunters, if you want to hunt on state forest land you have to pay a lease and a minimum of dsc2 $2k, there is a whole industry now offering courses, and slowly the anti gun brigade are pushing for more training, not that a basic gun handling course is a bad thing, but it depends what you want out of it, the NZ course is basic, but then again most of the accidents seem to be experienced (allegedly) hunters not identifying there targets.

I suspect that the anti-gunners have cottoned on toone of the weaknesses in the system. ie they cannot be upfront get guns banned as long as a decent % NZers want and use them. However if you make it too expensive then gradually ppl will drop out until there are too few left to have a sizable % of voter voice and then no worries ban them.

The other one they are winning on is divide and conquer, ie "lets go after the semi-autos this year" at which point the small bore target shooters and other segments opt out of taking any part as this problem will never happen to them. Hence why we need to advocate for COLFo etc, we need a voice up there at a high level.

"there is an opening for someone else to get the contract to supply the course/licence to the Police." yet it is already supplied at virtually no cost, ergo a private contractor is going to be charging some significant cost per course, per person, that will impact ppl who earn teh least the most.

Looks like NZ Police are looking at other training providers now.

http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/BU160...y-training.htm

Just wondering if anyone knows the approx price of doing the course and sitting the test?

My boy needs to sit the test but not as part of a license application. Just curious as he is not ready to do it just yet otherwise I would just ask when booking.

Thanks.

The course/test is free. A certificate is given to those that pass and is valid for one year for a firearms licence application. Visit your nearest Arms Officer to make a booking and pick up a copy of the Police Arms Code.