The UK's Finest Independent Forum for Shooters and Gun Owners. Est 2010.

Around July last year I received an email from my firearms certification and explosives licensing department saying that if I wished to acquire and keep 777 I should send them my explosives license to have the appropriate classification for 777 entered there upon.

This I duly did.

dromia wrote:Around July last year I received an email from my firearms certification and explosives licensing department saying that if I wished to acquire and keep 777 I should send them my explosives license to have the appropriate classification for 777 entered there upon.

This I duly did.

Is this police 'make it up as we go along' law or actual legislation now?

I don't think this is the police but the HSE.

For whatever reason 777 has the UN0499 classification and to keep and acquire such propellants requires an explosives licence with UN0499 authority. These are HSE c!assifications and documentation which the firearms certification and explosives licensing department administer.

dromia wrote:I don't think this is the police but the HSE.

For whatever reason 777 has the UN0499 classification and to keep and acquire such propellants requires an explosives licence with UN0499 authority. These are HSE c!assifications and documentation which the firearms certification and explosives licensing department administer.

So during the pandemic thousands of shooters legally in possession of BP substitute powders such at 777 were quietly made criminals without recourse to getting an explosives license issued due to the police ceasing new grants for the foreseeable future.
How very British.

dromia wrote:I don't think this is the police but the HSE.

For whatever reason 777 has the UN0499 classification and to keep and acquire such propellants requires an explosives licence with UN0499 authority. These are HSE c!assifications and documentation which the firearms certification and explosives licensing department administer.

I put in an application for an explosive cert a few days ago - although TVP's website is still stating it isn't handling new grants at the moment I figured if I put it in it'd at least be in the pile. This actually paid off as I got a call a few days later and it was all done over the phone.
However, it appears this is not a well known requirement as the chap I spoke to knew nothing about it and wondered why, after years of not requiring an explosives ticket, I'd suddenly put in for one. I had to recite the new requirements as per the info given on Krank's. It will be interesting to see if the shops I usually get my 777 BP substitutes from will ask to see my bit of paper. It may be a while before it trickles down.
In any event, I figured as I had to have a bit of paper I may as well get black powder stuck on it too.

You don’t have to use substitutes now, do you? Got the BP licence, so use proper BP.

Sim G wrote:You don’t have to use substitutes now, do you? Got the BP licence, so use proper BP.

It depends. BP and Pyrodex were frowned upon at my local range due to the excessive smoke and "acrid stench".
That said, on occasion, on the quiet, I did squeeze off a few of the latter. Nobody seemed to notice, leastways nobody complained about the smell <snigger>. Aaaaand suddenly I'm twelve again.

However, during lockdown we had a new, better, ventilation system put in so it might be OK now. Or okay-ish depending on the group shooting at the time. It's only ever a handful of retired guys in the morning.

I used substitutes for years. When I went over to real BP I was very much in the same boat. An indoor club that wouldn’t allow it for the same reasons. I acquired some quality BP and was taken aback that the smell, smoke, residue and cleaning of the guns afterwards is far less than the substitutes! Accuracy is out of the park as well, compared to.

I’ve been using it for several years now. None of them have a clue.

my tub of 777 has a UN0161 classification?

greenshoots

I am confused

UN0161 is smokeless powder

UN0499 is solid propellant

I would have thought Triple 7 is a smokeless powder