[Gunna]

Hey I've read a lot about world war 2 and was interesting in owning/collecting and possibly shooting some guns. I really don't know much about guns at all. I was interested in standard issue guns. I live in Australia and am 21. Gun laws here are strict and I'm not sure what to do.

I'm interested in handguns and rifles such as the k98.

Any suggestions and help would be good.

Hope they aint too expensive..

[Roswell 1847]

If for some reason you can't legally own a real rifle you'll find that there are some excellent airsoft replicas of WW2 military rifles, handguns and even machineguns.
Theres also the Deactivated guns and guns built using original parts assembled on a dummy receiver.

[Gunna]

What about if I was a member of a club or they were decommissioned?

so just for handguns, are there any cheap legitimate ones? I mean as they were used by real soldiers in the war..

[Jim K]

I don't know the Australian law, but I understand handguns are very severly restricted, manually operated rifles and shotguns less so, semi-auto rifles and shotguns banned completely.

I suggest you contact a local gun dealer or a local shooting club; they should be able to tell you what you can buy and approximate prices, and any other information you need.

Jim

[AussieMike]

Double post - sorry'

m

[AussieMike]

G'day,

Laws depend on which state of Australia you live in. You need to check with your state Firearms Registry. As You are over 18 and, hopefully, do not have a criminal record you should have no probs with rifles if you join a club but you will need a storage safe. Pistols are not impossible but need a lot of security.

You can buy nice ex military rifles and pistols for $A300+ at places like Lawrence Ordinance in Sydney.

regards,

mike

[GlowinPontiac]

not sure about australia but around here you often see nazi marked mausers, springfield rifles, mosin nagants and other WW2 guns in almost every gunstore.

the good thing is that most are relatively cheap with the exception of the garand.

[Roswell 1847]

I'd read maybe 15 years ago that a Military semi-auto or selective fire rifle could be privately owned in Australia if it were permanently modified to fire as a single shot only and chambered for a non military cartridge.
The article mention a cartridge designated as the 7.7X54R. Since the .303 British is a 7.7X56R, I figured it was some sort of shortened version of that popular cartridge. The more shallow chamber would prevent use of any military .303 such as FMJ, AP, and Tracer or incendiary rounds.
The article was not very detailed and left much unanswered. The situation was a lot worse for gun owners over there only a few months after I saw that article so its likely those loopholes never went into effect.