Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Europe European laws and rules related to weapons, hunting and shooting

In order not to spoil other topics, I decided to make a special topic to deal with laws and rules about hunting, shooting, guns and ammo in different countries in Europe.
I would like to bring you closer through what all of we from Europe must pass to legally possess weapons, hunt and shoot.
I will speak to you about laws in Serbia, the country of southeastern Europe on the Balkan peninsula, and I hope that other members of the forums, who are from Europe will talk, about the rules in in their countries.

Purchaseing weapons

Ther are seweral categoryes of weapons. I will speak about category B.
Category B - any firearms (short, long, semi-automatic, repetitive, single shot, two-shot, with rifled or smooth bore) on smokeless powder.

Category B weapons can be procured and held by persons who:
- are adult,18+;
- are citizens of the Republic of Serbia or permanently resident aliens;
- are medically capable for haveing weapons;
- they have not been judicially convicted of imprisonment for crimes:
- have not been punished effectively in the last four years for misdemeanors in the field of public order and peace;
- on the basis of security and operational checks at the place of residence, place of work, their behavior does not indicate that they will pose a threat to themselves or others and public order and peace;
- are trained to handle firearms;
- have a cause for haveing weapons which is:
(1) for category B personal weapons - if they are likely to have personal security threatened due to the nature of the transaction or other circumstances,
(2) for category B hunting weapons - provide proof that they meet the conditions for possession of a hunting card,
(3) for sports weapons - a certificate of active membership in a sports shooting organization;
- have the conditions for safe storage and storage of weapons.

I will describe the procedure of buying a hunting rifle. You are loyal citizen, 18+ and you wish to be hunter and buy hunting rifle.

1. You need to have valid hunting card. Membership in a hunting society costs 100-150$ per year and you get hunting card. Hunting card last for one year.
2. You need to be trained to handle hunting rifle and get confirmation for it. Ther are 4 diferent handle trainings (pistol-revolver, rifle, shotgun and rimfire rifle). That is 60-100$ per training and its valid for a lifetime.
3. Confirmation on medically capablety for haveing weapons- 20-40$ (ones every 5 years),
4. Confirmation that you have not been punished - 15$,
5. Have gun safe (you need to have it beafore even baying guns).

When you have all the paper work mentioned above you go to your locall police station to submit a request for permission to purchase rifle.
Of course, you have to pay a fee for that, about 55$ for every pistol, revolver, rifle and rimfire rifle you are asking for permission to purchase. 35$ for every shotgun you are asking for permission to purchase.
Than comes police check, both in databases and in the field. Two policemen come to your home, talk to your family and neighbors. They check your gun safe to.
If everything is fine you can hope to get permission to purchase rifle. Police have the discretion right to not give you permission for purchaseing, even if you meet all the conditions. And they do not have to give you an explanation of why they do not allow you.

When you finaly have you permission for purchaseing rifle its shooping time.

Whit that permission to purchase rifle you go to store and buy rifle. Store fill up what rifle you both on your permission for purchaseing (tupe, caliber, serial number...).
If you do not buy a rifle in a store, you woona buy from a person, you first make a contract at notary (fee is 20-30$ for that). Than that person you are buying rifle from and you go to his local police station and there police fill up your permission for purchaseing and delete that rifle from his persons record.

Its not THE END yet.

After purchasing a rifle you have a deadline of 8 days to go to your local police station with a rifle and filled permission to purchase rifle to register that rifle to your name.
Of course you have to pay a fee for that again, about 55$ for every pistol, revolver, rifle and rimfire rifle, 35$ for every shotgun+10$ for rifle ID card.

And finally now you legally own a hunting rifle
You spend 360$ on paperwork and procedures + travel expenses + the price of the rifle itself + ammo, scope...

The procedure is the same for purchaseing of pistols, revolvers, shotguns, rimfire...

How many weapons will you own unther these circumstances?
I have 2 bolt action rifles, 2 shotguns, .22lr rimfire rifle, air rifle (you cant even buy air rifle totaly free of paperwork), .22lr pistol and 9mm pistol.

Thanks very much for that information.

There sure is a lot of red tape involved in owning a firearm over there, not to mention all those separate fees you have to pay. But, at least you can buy and own a gun. That means a lot.

Can you legally own semi-auto rifles, such as the AR-15 or the AK-47 types?

Interesting indeed. Thanks!

We are fortunate here, and determined to stay that way.

We can legally own semi-auto rifles, such as the AR-15 or the AK-47. The buying procedure is the same. They are registered as hunting rifles or as sports guns (IPSC).
You are forutante, and I support you in our fight for your rights and 2. amendment.

Purchaseing ammunition
Until two years ago, the number of rounds you could buy legally was up to 60 per year per 1 weapon (rifle, pistol, rimfire..).
And not just that, to bay that 60 round (or 50 if it is 50 round box, or 20,40) you had to go to a local police station to ask for a permission to purchase ammo (Of course you have to pay a fee for that, about 6$), and few days later you need to go again in a local police station to receive paper which your personal information is written on, the caliber of the weapons you need ammo for and that you are allowed to buy up to 60 pieces. Whit that paper, your ID card and ID card of that weapon you need ammo for you go to shop and by ammo. This purchasing permint is valid for 6 months, if you do not buy ammunition for the 6 months you are obliged to return the paper to the local police station.

You can buy ammunition for the shotgun as much as you want and without a permit to buy ammunition (you just need your ID card and ID card of that weapon you need ammo for).

Database of sold ammunition was made by the seller and forwarded to the police (data on who bought what and when). Of course you can always go to the shooting range and buy ammunition there but yo need to shoot it ther and you will pay it 3 times more than in shops.

Nowdays the law has changed (after many many years, more than 25). Now we can by ammunition as much as we want and without a permit to buy ammunition. You just need your ID card and ID card of that weapon you need ammo for and of course the database is still made and forwarded to the police.

Ammo cost.
For example the cheapest ammo in Serbia is PPU. Until recently box of PPU ammo was much cheaper in USA than a box of the same ammo in shops in Serbia.
PPU is made in Serbia.
At this moment PPU .223r, 55 Grain Soft Point at midwayusa.com cost $0.59/Round and in Serbia $0.67/Round. You can only imagine what the difference in price was before the price increase in USA. I will not mention that the quality of ammunition is not the same, PPU for export is more precise and better.

It's good that the ammo rules were eased. The old rules would've been a real nuisance.

What are the rules, if any, on archery tackle including crossbows. I assume you still need the hunting card to hunt, but what about just for target shooting.

Thanks. This is very interesting, and a good warning for us here since a there are plenty of people who see what you go through as "reasonable" for us too.

Good thread, hope more euro-folks chime in.

Having recently hunted Romania, I can add a few more:

Restrictions on the number of cartridges which can be purchased at one time (I think it was 100 or 200 total without police permission).
No gunpowder, thus no muzzle-loaders (and no muzzle-loader hunting). Also no cartridge reloading.
Very restrictive as to where you can practice. Add to that the restrictions on ammunition and my impression was that most "practice" took place in the game fields.
No bowhunting. They were intrigued by the concept of using crossbows to hunt (also not allowed).
Gun stores are small and very expensive. My outfitter took me to visit "the largest gun store" in the city, and three people was pretty much the capacity for the main showroom. (There were two rooms; one with hunting clothing, knives, and optics, and a back room with the guns and ammunition). Firearms, ammo, and hunting equipment seemed to run 2-3x more than what I might expect to pay in the US.

The rest pretty much tracks what the OP wrote in his posts above.

It looks like Romanians laws are more stringent than those in Serbia.
Bows, crossbows, airweapons are fall in to C and D categoryes of weapons.

Category C - disarmed firearms, old weapons and its modern copies which do not use centerfire and rimfire cartridges, airweapons with a kinetic energy of 10.5 J or bullet speed 200 m / s or greater and a caliber greater than 4,5 mm and a "string" weapons with tension greater than 450 N, or a tensile weight greater than 101 lb;

Category D - cold weapons, gas sprays, electric shock devices, airweapons weapons whose kinetic energy is less than 10.5 J or the projectile speed is less than 200 m / s of a caliber of 4.5 mm or less, as well as "string" weapons with a tension up to 450 N, or whose tensile weight is up to 101 lb.

Category C weapons can be purchased freely (18+) and kept with check-in application to the local police station.
D-category weapons can be purchased freely and kept without check-in to the local police station.

Hunting with bow and crossbow is allowed only in fenced hunting grounds and only if the manager of that hunting area foresaw that on a hunting basis. In other cases it is forbidden to hunt whit bow and crossbow.

Hunting with airweapons is not allowed.

Guns on black powder are allowed to buy and own. They fall in to Category C. Black powder guns can be bought but there is nowhere to buy black powder. There is no store that sells black powder.

Reloading is allowed, you just needs to take the test of safe ammunition handling and get a permit from local police station. But again there is no store where we can legally buy reloading supplies.

angler how does what you have described compare to driving a car. I.E. What must you do and cost to be able to drive a car. Just asking Cheers NC

Of course procedure around the drivers licence is complicated to. You have to go to the driver training school, thats theoretical and practical part of the training. You must have an appropriate medical certificate. That all costs around 600-700$. I'm talking about a car license. As a new driver, you have a trial driving license for at least 2 years, than you can apply for regular license.

And one more thing average salary in Serbia is about 400-450$ per month.

Do the muzzys allow that?

Excuse me, muzzys are who or what?