The official AusBow

238232 wrote:

Mozart wrote:So, anything home made is an air gun and therefore requires a licence? Where as a Titan that will blow holes in all sorts of stuff is legal, or is there something about modifying them? Seriously, isn't this off topic? Maybe a new thread is in order?

To tack on to what mull said, technically yes. The exemption I mentioned earlier for children's toys and so on makes them legal in their original state as sold by the manufacturer, and in its stock state a Titan with its mega missile isn't going to blow holes in anything. Also note the warnings on all the blasters to not modify them or the darts, I'm pretty sure that's there for legal reasons.

Practically, the laws are made vague so that a lot of this can be at the officer/court's discretion. If an officer wants to confiscate my Alpha Trooper that I've modded to shoot... say... 50 feet, I'd say that's very unusual and I was probably doing something stupid with it.

But if I plug my Titan and put on a barrel so it can shoot 1/4" BBs, I'm pretty sure it'll do a hell of a lot more damage than the 0.177 cal air pistols I've plinked around with, which are lumped all under handguns, and requiring a Cat H license/permit. In that state, I fully expect it to be classified as an air rifle and for me to be charged with who knows how much stuff under the Firearms Act. Possession and manufacture of illegal firearms and probably other things.

Yeh, fully agree. Manufacture/modification of illegal firearms wouldn't be much fun to deal with in court. Certainly more heartache/stress/coin than it's worth. This is definitely where common sense/discretion come on board.

Wow this thread blew off track abit, anyway, first thing, awesome Ausbow, looks fantastic, can you do a video on it?

All i know about the laws is, as long as it doesnt replicate a real weapon you will be fine. Thats why airsoft is not legal ANYWHERE in australia, because they look real. If nerf looked real, they wouldnt be here. You cannot simply apply for an import permit and start buying airsoft, doesnt happen like that, been there, tried that. I travel to NZ twice a year to play it, think i'd go there if i knew i could buy it?

If they knew what titans and BBBB's could do, they wouldnt sell them.

boosted6 wrote:Wow this thread blew off track abit, anyway, first thing, awesome Ausbow, looks fantastic, can you do a video on it?

All i know about the laws is, as long as it doesnt replicate a real weapon you will be fine. Thats why airsoft is not legal ANYWHERE in australia, because they look real. If nerf looked real, they wouldnt be here. You cannot simply apply for an import permit and start buying airsoft, doesnt happen like that, been there, tried that. I travel to NZ twice a year to play it, think i'd go there if i knew i could buy it?

If they knew what titans and BBBB's could do, they wouldnt sell them.

I am calling BS on that. We have tons of toy weapons that are modeled off real ones (albeit smaller and with an orange tip), but also here in QLD you can pick up a replica weapon too. If those things are legal than it would be logical to make airsoft guns legal too under the assumption that they are banned because they look real.

But then again the law is retarded.

There are two bits to this:

For the purposes of defining a firearm, the law doesn't care what it looks like, they care about whether it fires a projectile. As noted earlier in the thread, in NSW law at least there's no mention of muzzle velocity, projectile type or the method of propulsion. Stock Nerf stuff is fine due to an exception regarding items designed and marketed as children's toys. This is the part we're concerned about, as a homemade is clearly not covered by either part.

There's also a bit on replica firearms, which unlike QLD are illegal in NSW last I checked. This is the part that cares about what something looks like, and if it looks like a real firearm then it gets classified as one. This part we don't care about so much unless you go and paint your blasters all black or something.

But as might have been said earlier in the thread, laws for different states vary (e.g. the 180 fps rule for SA), so it's highly recommended you read up on them yourself.

I know the laws, i'm on an airsoft forum trying to have it legalised here, and trust me, the look of them is EVERYTHING.

Just ask the police of what their #1 gripe is.
They dont want more replica guns(airsoft)being circulated around the country.

The only gun the government may let us use is an old M14 style rifle for a trial.

I dont class a crap, 180fps springer bb gun as an airsoft.

It seems that you're taking what you've learnt in why the police don't want to legalise airsoft and trying to apply it to Nerf.

From what I've seen, the power and velocity of airsoft at least has a precedent in the form of paintball, even if they do require a firearms license to own. Where there's no precedent is in the looks of airsoft guns, which is what the police are having problems with as you say. Unless you guys are pushing to have it completely unregulated with no license system at all? In that case then I'd find it very strange if they were only concerned about the looks.

This is Nerf, which has no license because stock blasters simply don't fire hard enough, being children's toys and all. If we start firing darts at a dangerous enough velocity, they won't care about the looks, but they will start to classify the higher powered ones as firearms. We don't want to go near the area of having licenses at all.

Here's a thought experiment. If you take a Titan, plug the OPV and install a 2 foot barrel to shoot stefans weighted with 1/4" BBs or 0 ball sinkers and show it to the police, what will happen? Will they:

a) Say it's fine because it doesn't look like a real firearm and that's all they're worried about
b) Confiscate it as a dangerous weapon because it can fire things with enough force to seriously injure someone

My money's on b.

Just my experience on a Titan and the police.

I was testing mine in the front yard, and the cops pulled up. They'd had a call saying someone in the vincinity was using an air rifle. They were really good about it, once I showed them what it actually was (ie: they didn't take me out Rodney King style, nor did they taser me haha). Admittedly, I only gave it half the normal amount of pumps.

But, they did advise me not to leave my residence with it and use it in a public place.

End result, they had no idea what the actual rulings/laws for my state was, they just asked me to err on the side of caution. I've spoken to a few coppers since, and not many of them have in-depth knowledge of the pertaining weapons act for Qld, as it's a different area of the QPS. I'd assume this would be similar in most states.

A bit off-topic, but the message I'm trying to convey is to check with the actual weapons licencing branch of your state's police service, if you have any concerns - which could apply to the Ausbow.

Cheers,

Damn you had the police pull up.

That would have been a surprise.

Good you only pumped it afew times, they would have spun out and taken it off you if they saw the power, haha.

I live in a small town, so it wasn't that big of a deal. In the city may have been another issue altogether...

I would imagine that modded and homemade dart guns fall into the same legal category as urinating in brunswick st mall on a friday night. Consequences range from none, to a warning from a lenient cop, to an arrest/confiscation from an on the ball cop, to a all out national investigation from an elite cop. Fortunately for nerfers most cops probably couldn't care less as long as everyone who gets tagged consents and no-one gets hurt.

Also bump for range test!

mister_elliott wrote:I would imagine that modded and homemade dart guns fall into the same legal category as urinating in brunswick st mall on a friday night. Consequences range from none, to a warning from a lenient cop, to an arrest/confiscation from an on the ball cop, to a all out national investigation from an elite cop. Fortunately for nerfers most cops probably couldn't care less as long as everyone who gets tagged consents and no-one gets hurt.

Also bump for range test!

So you want a range test huh? HUH? well, we'll see what we can do about that.

clunk07 wrote:Just my experience on a Titan and the police.

I was testing mine in the front yard, and the cops pulled up. They'd had a call saying someone in the vincinity was using an air rifle. They were really good about it, once I showed them what it actually was (ie: they didn't take me out Rodney King style, nor did they taser me haha). Admittedly, I only gave it half the normal amount of pumps.

But, they did advise me not to leave my residence with it and use it in a public place.

End result, they had no idea what the actual rulings/laws for my state was, they just asked me to err on the side of caution. I've spoken to a few coppers since, and not many of them have in-depth knowledge of the pertaining weapons act for Qld, as it's a different area of the QPS. I'd assume this would be similar in most states.

A bit off-topic, but the message I'm trying to convey is to check with the actual weapons licencing branch of your state's police service, if you have any concerns - which could apply to the Ausbow.

Cheers,

Haha, I do quite a bit of range testing in my front yard (since it connects with our neighbour's, who doesn't mind "me and my toy guns bullets" landing on her yard. I live in the suburbs, so I suppose it only takes one NIMBY for me to get the call up. Mind you, I'm testing my singled TS, and it looks very much so like a rifle.

Imagine what people will think of singled/RSCBed PASs.

Mozart wrote:Imagine what people will think of singled/RSCBed PASs.

Yeh, I've been ranging my singled PAS out the front. Most of my neighbours are pretty good about it, as I generally aim in to one of their yards, or just down the street if I'm using the Titan.

I think the cops were called due to the sound, not so much the look, as it definitely wasn't my immediate neighbours who made the call.

Still, I'm pretty sure I'll be painting the PAS extremely bright colours. haha

I usually test my big stuff at like 2am down the street. Only for like 3 or 4 shots but it's probably lucky I've never got in trouble for it.

Otherwise I've got about 50ft down the side of the house.

I'm fairly fortunate, as I have just over 150 feet from my back fence to the gutter out the front of the house. It's a strip about 6m wide, and is pefect for testing everything except the air blaster's.

I test my stuff im my backyard. I got about 150ft before the end of my property.

Wasnt the best its ever done, its done better.

- Brad

TheBradl3s wrote:

Wasnt the best its ever done, its done better.

- Brad

Lolz, Looks like my hallway, aka the dart storage area.

Improving that seal would make some difference but still not too shabby at all my fuzzy haired friend

Gooni.

Can You Please Do A How To Build Thanks
- Quinnbo

On the subject of legality (and sorry for the off-topic post)...

What is the law with regards to springers? Due to their method of operation, I'm pretty sure that it's legal to make and use a homemade springer, although the cops would probably confiscate it on principle if it were used inappropriately (i.e. walking around in the streets and using it to shoot at random people). Fortunately, I live out in the country, so I don't think that anyone will call the cops (then again, this is Victoria, Australia's resident police state, so I'm still nervous).

The reason I ask is because my in-progress homemade, at this stage, is somewhat similar in function to a +Bow, albeit most likely with a stronger spring because of its role as more of a designated marksman's rifle than an all-round weapon.

Oh, and on a similar note: Bradl3s, what's the plunger volume on that thing?