I am using this pistol since one year now and during the last one year, one of my shooter friends had graciously lent it to me for shooting the 50m free pistol discipline(we had agreed upon that I would buy the same once I will have my license). And yesterday, it became mine officially after it was transferred in my name by the local police station. YESSSSS! I got my first license in France yesterday only.
For the license part, it was butter smooth. I applied on the 3rd of January 2013. A cordial welcome by the officer in our local police station, no interrogation, no interview, no phone calls in between and the license was granted in February by the Police Commissioners office of our district (prefecture de police) when I was in India. A covert enquiry was surely done but I did not know anything of it. But the funny part is that I learnt yesterday only that while applying, I could have asked for 3 weapons at one go. But being a submissive Indian, I had asked for one only
For your information, long guns (except for semi automatic and automatic guns) do not need any license in France; the membership card of either the French Shooting Federation or the Hunting Federation suffices to buy as many long guns as one may wish
. However, all types of historical replica muzzleloaders are sold freely across the counter against age, identity and address proof. Now, here is my Hämmerli FP60, made in Switzerland before Walther took over the company. It has a 32cm long barrel with 6 grooves (a jewel!!! the original Hämmerli barrels were of superlative quality). The barrel is 14mm in diameter. The overall weight is below 1.1kg which makes it the lightest free pistol in the market. The trigger weight is adjustable from 10g to 100g. There is a Rink grip fitted to it. It was overworked by the seller. Hence, I had to also work a lot on it with the Opinel
and ready made quick fixing wood paste. It is, alas, no more beautiful as it was earlier but who cares .
