SAP Sharpshooters

Chatmaster said:
I have fired a couple of rounds with a Draganov and it is a fantastic firearm, It is light and accurate as well as semi-auto. If you are on the shooting range it is a true pleasure at a 100m.
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Lee Enfield .303 No.4 Mk I (the one with the 'pigsticker' bayonet)

Very interesting experience when I fired a couple of rounds with this rifle.
 
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A buddy of mine owned a Musgrave .50 caliber hunting rifle back in the old Apartheid days when a civilian could still own a cannon like that. That's not a sniping rifle but was still deadly accurate at extreme range and packed a massive punch. I never fired a round with that thing but I saw a picture of what it did to a pig at short range (and this was a fully grown plaasvark, not a little speenvarkie: one shot for all practical purposes cut the pig in half!). My buddy used to place 200 liter drums at 1000 yards and picked them off like Coke cans. Amazing!

I saw this gun at the AIM show last year:
http://www.truvelo.co.za/armoury/graph/338_800.jpg

According to the company rep that gun is still (theoretically) available to a South African civilian. In fact, he said that he sold one to a civvy just before the show. It uses the .338 Lapua caliber which was specifically developed for sniping by the Finns. I'll give various parts of my anatomy to own that weapon!

Sorry for going off topic. I got a bit carried away there.
 
StrongTurd said:
According to the company rep that gun is still (theoretically) available to a South African civilian.
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Well, it's a bolt action rifle in a standard hunting cartridge... should be as easy [1] to licence as a Remington 700.

Koos

[1] For imaginary values of "easy".
 
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Ja, but they want almost R30k for it without a scope...

So you're looking at about R50k in total. And the .338 Lapua rounds are apparently >R40 each. Ouch!
 
Yeah, Lapua is a marksman's caliber, made to fine tolerances... Gets better trajectory than a .50. Upwards of R40/round still sounds a bit expensive, though.

Personally I'd rather have an AI AWM in .338, but if you prefer to support local, that's fine. :) For me nothing beats the look of Accuracy International's rifles. I think they're about the same price as the Truvelo... assuming that you can convince someone to import one for you.

Oh, and we're way off [-]target[/-]topic anyway, may as well discuss what people like in marksman's rifles. ;)
 
So as far as my (limited) understanding of the gun law goes you've got to actually buy the rifle once all the paperwork is in place (but before your license is issued). The dealer will then keep it for you. However, if the license application gets rejected, then you've basically lost your R30k. Is that correct?
 
The paperwork is done for a specific firearm, so the dealer needs to have the firearm before he can do any paperwork. Otherwise, though, you're pretty much dead on. You have two choices if your license is refused: let the dealer try and sell it, or hand it in. Even if you find a buyer, you probably still won't get a decent value for it...

Edit: Oh wait, forgot. You also have the option to appeal, though that takes ages. Then you can take the CFR to court, which you could probably afford to do if you've bought that rifle ;) They pretty much roll over and grant your license if you do the court thing.

Edit v.2: Maybe we should put the firearms law into the 'Useful laws' thread in OT? Lot of people don't seem to know much about it.
 
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StrongTurd said:
So as far as my (limited) understanding of the gun law goes you've got to actually buy the rifle once all the paperwork is in place (but before your license is issued). The dealer will then keep it for you. However, if the license application gets rejected, then you've basically lost your R30k. Is that correct?
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Well, sort of :-)

It's an arrangement between you and the dealer. You can either pay the whole price up front, or you can put down a deposit. But since you're basically borrowing the rest of the cost price from the dealer, the end price ends up more (if this makes sense). In the second scenario you'd lose the deposit only.

If the licence is not granted then the firearm still belongs to you, even though it lives in the dealer's safe. So you can sell it back to the dealer (at a reduced price) or sell it on to someone else (who might get the licence).

With the new law, the first step is to get competency. In theory, once you're competent, you're 80% or so there. If you don't get competency you won't get a licence.

So do the competency and once you have that get the gun -- in theory.

In practice it takes so bloody long that it's worth the money you might be throwing away to do the two processes in parallel. My competency took a year. Getting the licence applications to Pretoria took 4 months. It happened in parallel so I potentially saved four months (the apps ended up waiting for the competency).

Hope that helps. You might find more info on GOSA's website.

Koos
 
Thanks for the clarification, guys.

BTW have any of you done any black powder shooting? Great fun.

I've got a 50 caliber Layman Great Plains and a Pietta New Army 44 caliber revolver, both of which I shoot quite regularly. The big advantage with black powder is that the red tape involved is far less than with a modern firearm.
 
The only thing you need is a permit to keep black powder. All you do is have your fingerprints taken, fill in a form and wait about two weeks, after which your (permanent) black powder permit is issued. You are now free to buy and use as many black powder weapons as you please.
 
StrongTurd said:
I've got a 50 caliber Layman Great Plains and a Pietta New Army 44 caliber revolver, both of which I shoot quite regularly. The big advantage with black powder is that the red tape involved is far less than with a modern firearm.
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You do realise that the amended act calls for you to licence that revolver?

You have a year, according to the draft regulations released yesterday.

Koos
 
Ja, I do. Can you imagine what will happen if I hand this weapon in at a police station and it then "get lost" as tends to happen to most handed-in weapons and it then ends up in the hands of some armed robber. I'd pay good money to see this robber arrempting to load the weapon and then trying to rob a bank with it!

There is not a single known case of a crime ever being committed with a black powder weapon in SA..which once again proves the stupidity of this law.
 
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