Firearm License Application Progress (South Australia)

Questions about South Australian gun and ammunition laws. S.A. Firearms Act 2015.

Firearm License Application Progress (South Australia)

Post by scope » 05 Apr 2016, 12:54 pm

Hello everyone,

I will be logging the process of my firearm application to benefit others that are after this information. This information can be found on the Police website, but this will make it easier for new comers.

For lack of a better term, I've finally decided to bite the bullet and apply for my firearm license, I live in SA. This is something that I have been putting aside and questioning for a few years. When I'm out camping/shooting, on private property, I'll generally just shoot under the supervision of someone else's license and use their firearms. Obviously, there comes a point in time when want your own of everything - that time being now.

The firearm license that I will be applying for will be class A and B, both for purpose of 2 and 3. WHAT DO THESE APLHABETIC NUMBERS MEAN?

A firearms licence is first broken up into classes (A, B, C, D & H). Each class represents different types of firearms;

Class A: Air rifles, air guns, and paintball firearms; 22 rimfire rifles (not self-loading); single or double barrel shotguns (not self-loading or pump action) and include receivers.
Class B: Muzzle loading firearms (not being handguns); revolving chamber rifles; centrefire (not self-loading); break action shotgun/rifle combinations. All other firearms not class A firearms (not being prescribed firearms, handguns, self-loading or pump action shotguns), including receivers.
Class C: Self loading rimfire rifles with a magazine capacity no greater than 10 rounds; self loading shotguns with a magazine capacity no greater than 5 round; pump action shotguns with a magazine capacity no greater than 5 rounds, and includes receivers.
Class D: Self loading rimfire rifles with a magazine capacity of more than 10 rounds; self loading centrefire rifles; self loading shotguns with a magazine capacity of more than 5 rounds and a pump action shotgun with a magazine capacity of more than 5 rounds, and including receivers.
Class H: All handguns (including Air pistols)
Each class is then broken up into purpose of use (POU):

POU 1. Club Use (Competition / Practice at a club)
POU 2. Target Shooting (General sighting in)
POU 3. Hunting
POU 4. Paintball
POU 5. Primary Production
POU 6. Security Industry
POU 7. Other as Provided by Registrar (For example dealer / trainer)

The first step is to visit a police station and acquire a firearms license form, PD303. You can also visit the police website and retrieve a PDF version of the form.
https://www.police.sa.gov.au/__data/ass ... _pd303.pdf

29/03/2016 - I simply typed in the blanks on the form, printed it out and signed it. I then visited my local police station, Holden Hill, with;
- At least 100 points of original identification (I used my passport and drivers license)
- Photocopies of said at least 100 points identification
- Completed PD303 firearm application form

The officer looked over my form to ensure it had been correctly filled out, accepted my identification + copies and then proceeded to advise me of a wait time of anywhere from 2 weeks to 6 months, depending on how busy the Firearm Branch are.

This is going to be a long wait, so I will be using this time to research and read reviews at what gun safe and firearms to purchase. Something that I would suggest, so when the license is approved you know exactly what to purchase.

If I have left anything out, please feel free to post below.
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Re: Firearm License Application Progress (South Australia)

Post by PaladinAus » 05 Apr 2016, 4:52 pm

Be prepared to be waiting far closer to 6 months than 2 weeks. Last I heard they were just getting around to applications from October 2015. Add to that waiting to get into a course, then another month or two for them to approve all your paperwork, 9 months isn't out of the question.

Worth it though. Good luck with and enjoy.
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Re: Firearm License Application Progress (South Australia)

Post by southeast varmiter » 05 Apr 2016, 5:29 pm

PaladinAus wrote:Be prepared to be waiting far closer to 6 months than 2 weeks. Last I heard they were just getting around to applications from October 2015. Add to that waiting to get into a course, then another month or two for them to approve all your paperwork, 9 months isn't out of the question.

Worth it though. Good luck with and enjoy.

Deliberate delays i'm sure.
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Re: Firearm License Application Progress (South Australia)

Post by scope » 05 Apr 2016, 8:11 pm

The time delay doesn't bother me. More time to research.
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Re: Firearm License Application Progress (South Australia)

Post by Stubbles McBeard » 05 Apr 2016, 9:18 pm

Hey mate, I'm a south Aussie as well, recently got my license. I'll give you the rundown of my story. Submitted my application April 2015, got my licence in Jan this year. TAFE was my biggest hurdle, firearms branch were very helpful albeit they had a couple bungles as well.
Like I said, applied in April. Come August I hadn't heard anything, so I gave firearms a ring. They said the approval letter had been sent late June, however it's not unheard of to get lost in the post. They re-sent it and it arrived within a week.
Next comes TAFE. When you receive your approval letter, you ring Regency campus to enroll in a course. I chose my date and location, and waited for my enrollment papers to arrive. They did, however some details were incorrect. No worries I thought, contacted them again, they said they'd resend, and go ahead and pay the fee. I paid the fee, papers were never sent.
However, in this time I needed to change the date due to family reasons. They were happy to do so, and they apologised for not sending the enrollment form. By the time I received the form, filled it out and sent it back, I was informed that particular date was over booked, and I had to choose a different date. This was early October, I had booked the 10th, in Murray Bridge. The only date available after that was November, in Berri or Pt Augusta... Or wait until next year (This year). So i took the Berri one, they sent the papers, all was well and I was told I'd receive the course books in the post soon.
Fast forward to the week before the course, no books yet. Rang TAFE, they said oh sorry they were never sent, and you won't get them in time, just let the instructor know. Lucky I had a mate who had applied same time as me but had finished his course, so I borrowed his books for a read. Finally I did the course, was a great day, and a fantastic excuse to spend a couple hours on the motorbike up and back. (I live in Murray Bridge, Berri is about 2.5 hours drive away.)

Long story short, firearms branch have been nothing but helpful, but TAFE need a careful nudge every now and then. Good luck, and hopefully you have a better (read: shorter) experience than me.
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Re: Firearm License Application Progress (South Australia)

Post by GLS_1956 » 06 Apr 2016, 12:04 pm

And I gripe when I have to fill out a 4473 form and wait for the NICS.
I've been asked: "How many guns do you need to have?" My answer remains the same: "One more."
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Re: Firearm License Application Progress (South Australia)

Post by PaladinAus » 06 Apr 2016, 3:30 pm

Yeah. I submitted a PTA last month. I was told on the phone it MIGHT get looked at this week, probably next week. To think other states in this country can get it done same business day...
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Re: Firearm License Application Progress (South Australia)

Post by scope » 08 Apr 2016, 10:36 am

Stubbles McBeard wrote:Hey mate, I'm a south Aussie as well, recently got my license. I'll give you the rundown of my story. Submitted my application April 2015, got my licence in Jan this year. TAFE was my biggest hurdle, firearms branch were very helpful albeit they had a couple bungles as well.
Like I said, applied in April. Come August I hadn't heard anything, so I gave firearms a ring. They said the approval letter had been sent late June, however it's not unheard of to get lost in the post. They re-sent it and it arrived within a week.
Next comes TAFE. When you receive your approval letter, you ring Regency campus to enroll in a course. I chose my date and location, and waited for my enrollment papers to arrive. They did, however some details were incorrect. No worries I thought, contacted them again, they said they'd resend, and go ahead and pay the fee. I paid the fee, papers were never sent.
However, in this time I needed to change the date due to family reasons. They were happy to do so, and they apologised for not sending the enrollment form. By the time I received the form, filled it out and sent it back, I was informed that particular date was over booked, and I had to choose a different date. This was early October, I had booked the 10th, in Murray Bridge. The only date available after that was November, in Berri or Pt Augusta... Or wait until next year (This year). So i took the Berri one, they sent the papers, all was well and I was told I'd receive the course books in the post soon.
Fast forward to the week before the course, no books yet. Rang TAFE, they said oh sorry they were never sent, and you won't get them in time, just let the instructor know. Lucky I had a mate who had applied same time as me but had finished his course, so I borrowed his books for a read. Finally I did the course, was a great day, and a fantastic excuse to spend a couple hours on the motorbike up and back. (I live in Murray Bridge, Berri is about 2.5 hours drive away.)

Long story short, firearms branch have been nothing but helpful, but TAFE need a careful nudge every now and then. Good luck, and hopefully you have a better (read: shorter) experience than me.


Woah! Sorry to hear that you had to jump through so many hurdles. I will learn from what you had to go through and call up around the 2-3 months mark just to double check to see how it's going. Can you remember how much the TAFE course was?
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Re: Firearm License Application Progress (South Australia)

Post by Stubbles McBeard » 08 Apr 2016, 12:15 pm

About $200 if I recall correctly.
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Re: Firearm License Application Progress (South Australia)

Post by scope » 28 Apr 2016, 1:10 pm

Coming up to one month tomorrow, still no word of approval from the Firearms branch (not expecting anything, anytime soon)

There has been some movement according to the SAPOL website though. You can keep a rough track of where they are up to in there applications on their website;

Image[/URL]

This jumped massively, at start of the week it was sitting at applications from October 30th. Now its showing as January.
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Re: Firearm License Application Progress (South Australia)

Post by on_one_wheel » 29 Apr 2016, 1:17 am

They typically update their Web page Friday afternoon unless it's a publuc holiday ... I've been watching it closely lately waiting on pta's.
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Re: Firearm License Application Progress (South Australia)

Post by PaladinAus » 29 Apr 2016, 2:48 pm

Yeah I noticed that they updated it on Thursday too. And are now down to a 1 week delay... having said that, my application from 31 MAR 16 still hasn't been looked at, so I'd take that website with a pinch of salt.
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Re: Firearm License Application Progress (South Australia)

Post by scope » 02 Jun 2016, 3:07 pm

Quite some movement within the last few weeks. Provided that the website is accurate, it is so close to approaching the date that I submitted my application (29/03)

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Re: Firearm License Application Progress (South Australia)

Post by <<Genesis93>> » 02 Jun 2016, 4:46 pm

That the police are processing applications received on 9 March, that is submitted about 3 months ago is a disgrace.... there's no excuse other than the 'force' placing such a low priority on such 'frivolities' of life as lawful firearm ownership....

The police will claim it's a resourcing problem.... so if after all the Billions of dollars thrown at the 9 Australian police department, they still cant managed the licensing of firearms - with sufficient respect for the punters, I'd say it is well past the time that the burden was removed from their basket of duties.

Have the Roads authorities manage the licensing just as they manage drivers licensing with the only addition check being a criminal record check; if your not prohibited what else is there? checking club membership, if they even do it??
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Re: Firearm License Application Progress (South Australia)

Post by on_one_wheel » 02 Jun 2016, 9:49 pm

don't forget that they need to check each person out properly, who knows how involved this process is now days.

They are going great guns with the pta's at the moment. My last one only took 2 weeks full turn around.
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Re: Firearm License Application Progress (South Australia)

Post by Mr.Seacucumber » 02 Jun 2016, 10:20 pm

on_one_wheel wrote:don't forget that they need to check each person out properly, who knows how involved this process is now days.

They are going great guns with the pta's at the moment. My last one only took 2 weeks full turn around.


I'll be honest that really makes no sense, my Victoria license application took the minimum 28 days and my PTA's take less then a day, I rang up the store in the afternoon last week and picked it up the next morning. There is a problem when you can have such huge differences between states.
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Re: Firearm License Application Progress (South Australia)

Post by on_one_wheel » 03 Jun 2016, 3:05 pm

Mate ! This is South Australia we're talking about here, add that to the equation.

Compared to the eastern states ...
Speed of application processing in days ÷2
Due to old technology / paperwork / nothing online.
Minus (public holidays x 2.5)
Everything on hold and people take days off before and sometimes after.

A working week is 4.5 days
Because Friday is a half day, caus it's Friday and weekends.

Oh yeah ... and there's only 3 people working in the SA FA Branch and if anyone of them is off for the day, the whole process grinds to a halt.
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Re: Firearm License Application Progress (South Australia)

Post by on_one_wheel » 03 Jun 2016, 3:19 pm

Sa council workers.

I see this council crew working , one bloke diggs a hole the next one fills it in and the last one puts some water on it.

They continue this all the way down the street.
So I asked " what are you blokes doing ?
one bloke diggs a hole the next one fills it in and the last one puts some water on it.... what's the point of that? "

One council worker looked up and said " Just cos Johnny aint here to put the trees in, don't mean we stop working "




What's the moral of the story?

You don't want to be getting paperwork processed when Heather isn't in to lick the envelopes, you'll receive a empty envelope in the post and someone in Australia Post will have all your info.
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Re: Firearm License Application Progress (South Australia)

Post by scope » 14 Jun 2016, 12:43 pm

Today, I received a letter in the post advising that I have been approved for my firearm license and the next steps, whom to call to book etc.

Called and booked my course @ Naracoorte on the 28/08 (closest date available) they advised that they will be sending out an info pack, application forms and payment details.

Time to buy a safe ;)
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Re: Firearm License Application Progress (South Australia)

Post by ClaytonT88 » 09 Sep 2018, 4:10 pm

scope wrote:Today, I received a letter in the post advising that I have been approved for my firearm license and the next steps, whom to call to book etc.

Called and booked my course @ Naracoorte on the 28/08 (closest date available) they advised that they will be sending out an info pack, application forms and payment details.

Time to buy a safe ;)


And that was that?
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Re: Firearm License Application Progress (South Australia)

Post by Stix » 09 Sep 2018, 4:42 pm

ClaytonT88 wrote:
scope wrote:Today, I received a letter in the post advising that I have been approved for my firearm license and the next steps, whom to call to book etc.

Called and booked my course @ Naracoorte on the 28/08 (closest date available) they advised that they will be sending out an info pack, application forms and payment details.

Time to buy a safe ;)


And that was that?


Hey Clayton, dont hold your breath for a reply...look at the date of his last post :shock:
The man who knows everything, doesnt really know everything...he's just stopped learning...
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Re: Firearm License Application Progress (South Australia)

Post by Gaznazdiak » 09 Sep 2018, 6:18 pm

Stix wrote:
ClaytonT88 wrote:
scope wrote:Today, I received a letter in the post advising that I have been approved for my firearm license and the next steps, whom to call to book etc.

Called and booked my course @ Naracoorte on the 28/08 (closest date available) they advised that they will be sending out an info pack, application forms and payment details.

Time to buy a safe ;)


And that was that?


Hey Clayton, dont hold your breath for a reply...look at the date of his last post :shock:


Poor bugger's probably still waiting :D
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Re: Firearm License Application Progress (South Australia)

Post by ClaytonT88 » 09 Sep 2018, 6:20 pm

Haha, yeah I know, I'm just casting lures, doesn't look like people get a notification when someone replies and I can see he's not that active since but still interested to see how people went with their applications for a licence, I submitted mine on the 10th of August and it looks like they're not far off processing it. I was told to expect a 5-8 week wait but last weekend I went out shooting for the first time in a long while and I'm getting itchy feet!
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Re: Firearm License Application Progress (South Australia)

Post by Gaznazdiak » 09 Sep 2018, 6:23 pm

ClaytonT88 wrote:Haha, yeah I know, I'm just casting lures, doesn't look like people get a notification when someone replies and I can see he's not that active since but still interested to see how people went with their applications for a licence, I submitted mine on the 10th of August and it looks like they're not far off processing it. I was told to expect a 5-8 week wait but last weekend I went out shooting for the first time in a long while and I'm getting itchy feet!


They do love to drag it out don't they?
Good luck :thumbsup:
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Re: Firearm License Application Progress (South Australia)

Post by ClaytonT88 » 09 Sep 2018, 6:26 pm

Thanks mate, yeah I'm just impatient, didn't help I couldn't find my passport for 2 months after moving! and finding things to distract me from homework (haha!)
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