Easiest way to add Hunting to a Sport shooting licence

[bladeracer]

I just Googled AHNi and it turns out I'm already registered on their forum

[Gamerancher]

Gee you lot are a touchy bunch!
Never said anyone HAD to join SSAA. Was just a suggestion to the original question and another follow up question. It is not compulsory.
I don't know your history with SSAA and by the tone of your replies probably wouldn't want to.
I get good use out of my membership as I utilize their facilities a LOT due to my participation in Silhouette shooting.
Are you fella's that hate them so much the type who turns up to a range while there is a competition in progress and whinge about not being able to get out your "loudenboomer" and shoot the s**t out of the place? Had plenty of those conversations.
Oh, by the way, I don't have them down as my only "genuine need" either.

[bladeracer]

Gee you lot are a touchy bunch!
Never said anyone HAD to join SSAA. Was just a suggestion to the original question and another follow up question. It is not compulsory.
I don't know your history with SSAA and by the tone of your replies probably wouldn't want to.
I get good use out of my membership as I utilize their facilities a LOT due to my participation in Silhouette shooting.
Are you fella's that hate them so much the type who turns up to a range while there is a competition in progress and whinge about not being able to get out your "loudenboomer" and shoot the s**t out of the place? Had plenty of those conversations.
Oh, by the way, I don't have them down as my only "genuine need" either.

There is a general perception in my experience that you have to join SSAA to be a firearms owner, which leads to many people paying SSAA fees purely because they've been told they have to, so they're happy to expect nothing in return. If SSAA actually supported their members then they'd be more useful, and justify their fees. To me, currently, SSAA is just an expensive admin system solely focused on their own growth over the future growth of sporting shooting. Field & Game offer the same things as SSAA but I almost never hear them being offered as an alternative to new shooters. As mentioned above, I've never heard of AHNi being offered to shooters in Vic/NSW/Tas as yet another option. The only situation I can imagine that SSAA might actually make a stand against would be if the government tries to remove the requirement to have membership of a hunting club as a genuine reason.

Never been to a SSAA range, but if they support your shooting choices more power to you. Is Silhouette only available at SSAA ranges? Of the hundreds of thousands of licenced shooters, how many shoot at SSAA ranges? I don't know of any recreational or competitive shooters down my way that trek to a SSAA range when there are plenty of non-SSAA ranges around. I guess SSAA's own bottom line is higher on their list of priorities than growing our sport for our future shooters?

[pomemax]

[
According to that all you need is a game licence from DPI.
http://www.dpi.nsw.gov.au/hunting[/quote]
yes i thought of that way too but to get a nsw game licence R you need of be a member of a hunting (keep reading )

[Gamerancher]

So you've never been to a range but have an opinion on what happens there? If you want to know someone who competes, you'll have to go take a look. Yes, there are some snouts in the trough, as there is in any large organisation. I only compete in Rifle Metallic Silhouette, but there are plenty of other disciplines available.
At $85 per year for full access to Australia wide facilities, $20 million liability insurance, support and opportunity to get into representative teams and travel overseas, I reckon I get my moneys worth.
They also have plenty of programs to encourage juniors to get involved in shooting.

[bladeracer]

So you've never been to a range but have an opinion on what happens there? If you want to know someone who competes, you'll have to go take a look. Yes, there are some snouts in the trough, as there is in any large organisation. I only compete in Rifle Metallic Silhouette, but there are plenty of other disciplines available.
At $85 per year for full access to Australia wide facilities, $20 million liability insurance, support and opportunity to get into representative teams and travel overseas, I reckon I get my moneys worth.
They also have plenty of programs to encourage juniors to get involved in shooting.

Where did I say I had any opinion on what happens at an SSAA range?
I'm sure the ranges are just fine.
The SSAA organisation is the problem.
I know people that shoot competitively, I don't know any that shoot at SSAA ranges. From what I can gather there are only two ranges in Victoria? I don't know that two ranges in the whole of Victoria makes them "Australia Wide" unless they expect Victorians from every corner to travel for hours for the pleasure of using their range, while bypassing so many closer non-SSAA ranges.
F&G also include liability insurance as does AHNi.
If you are saying that SSAA pays all the expenses of sending shooters overseas to compete then that's awesome...for that handful of members I guess. I'd always assumed that competitors had to foot most of the travel expenses themselves though?
How do they encourage young shooters, are they getting into the schools and promoting the sport to non-shooters, or merely making it available to young shooters who already know about the sport through their parents? My daughter certainly never brought home anything about shooting courses from her school.

[Gamerancher]

Little River, Springvale, Wodonga, Mildura, Marong and Shepparton, that's .......?

Oh, and 400 clubs spread across ALL states

[HulkFury]

I ended up checking with a nearby (non SSAA) range, and it's a target/hunting club. So it turns out that is the easiest way. I'm already with a Smallbore club, but this has a 100m range as well.

[ColJ]

A little bit off track but, firstly I live in Vic on a rural property. I'm a member of the SSAA for a number of reasons. 1 you get free insurance 2 you're counted, as in they have a full time lobbyist on our behalf in Canberra to fight for our rights 3 A media office to help counter the propergander in print and TV 4 Ranges to compete if that's your thing , I haven't, but I like the fact it's an option 5 A hunting/ vermin control sub branch 6 A Magazine in the cost of membership. Which is well rounded ie hunting stories, reloading, politics, club results, in Vic we get a branch magazine as well.
These are a few reasons that ALL of us should consider being a member.
I believe that the SSAA has good ethics as well.

[Gamerancher]

Thanks for the support ColJ.
I sometimes think that people have one bad encounter and then rag on the association forever.
At somewhere around 180,00 members at the moment, must be doing something right.
Folks need to have a look at the website and see just what they offer nowadays, I think some will be surprised.

[bladeracer]

You guys will be pleased to know that I have taken heed of your comments and renewed my SSAA membership

[ColJ]

You guys will be pleased to know that I have taken heed of your comments and renewed my SSAA membership

back!! Also think it's great that everyone has expressed their views well

[BBJ]

At somewhere around 180,00 members at the moment, must be doing something right.

Not to rag on them here but I'd say that's mostly about being the only game in town really...

[Yipikaye]

Hi Guys,

I have a question about genuine reason for hunting. The form asks if it's Cat A or B. I have permission to shoot on a small property 5HA in Bipin near Sydney. I can only shoot a .22 there but would like to add class B anyway. Do I need to use the club for this?

Also a comment on the SSAA. I am very new. Still applying for my licence I too thought I had to be a member of the SSAA to get my licence so I joined. That said I don't regret it at all.

The guys at Syd Anzac range have been great helping me with my application, fixing lots of bad habits I picked up shooting the s**t out of things OS, teaching techniques and safety etc.

[Gamerancher]

If you've already joined and plan on attending range facilities I would suggest ticking all of the boxes on your application. That is, A & B as well as target and hunting. Membership of SSAA gives you the "genuine need" without having to have letters of permission from property owners and validation for cat B. You will need to attend a range at least 4 times per year to do the required attendances for target & hunting or twice a year if you just tick hunting. Adding target shooting opens up the availability of participating in any of a large number of available competitions. It must be on your membership as well as your licence.

[pomemax]

bigfellascott
Is correct you don,t need to join SSAA or field and game in nsw for a reason you just need a property letter from a land holder.
As the op has Target already he just has to add hunting Ring FAR they will tell you how to do that .
If you intend to just hunt feral animal in nsw you need to have a property letter private land or R licence to shoot on state forests.
If you thinking of hunting DEER you need an R licence to hunt public land or a G licence to hunt on private land check the DPI web site they are not a pest in NSW, both of witch you need to be a member of hunting club to obtain

[sungazer]

I had a look at the what you can and cant do on the Vic Police website and if you held a license in any other category for instance Primary Producer or Hunting I read it to read you could go to any range and participate in target shooting including joining a club and target shoot as a hobby. Please correct me if I am wrong. It is getting harder to understand and comply with all the time.
I am hesitant to add extra categories as I worry some times as if you stop that particular one it might affect your complete license.

[bladeracer]

I had a look at the what you can and cant do on the Vic Police website and if you held a license in any other category for instance Primary Producer or Hunting I read it to read you could go to any range and participate in target shooting including joining a club and target shoot as a hobby. Please correct me if I am wrong. It is getting harder to understand and comply with all the time.
I am hesitant to add extra categories as I worry some times as if you stop that particular one it might affect your complete license.

I emailed Vic Firearms a few weeks ago with a question along this line. They rang me the following week and agreed with me that the only reason anybody needs target as a genuine reason is if you want to have large get-togethers on private property, most commonly shooting clays. Otherwise, everything that any firearms owner would want to do in Victoria is covered by Hunting as the genuine reason.
I emailed them back thanking them and requesting that in writing. They seem to have gone quite though.

I also emailed NSW Firearms Registry to see if a Victoria hunting-only licence allows the same uses across the border or if some things require "Target" up in NSW. Their worthless response was simply to redirect me to the websites and legislation I'd already spent hours trawling through.

[Gamerancher]

NSW requires "target" to be listed as genuine reason if you wish to compete in target shooting events. You can attend a range and sight-in or do load testing on a "hunting" licence but you cannot participate in any competitions. Ol' mate was asking about NSW, just trying to broaden his options. He might have trouble convincing a property owner with 12 acres surrounded by neighbors to endorse him for a centrefire.