G'day Folks,

While officiating at the CLAS Nationals at Raton this year a few of you asked what was involved in coming "down-under" to shoot.
I hadn't forgotten about it Jim, John, Mike and others that asked, just had a fair bit on my plate.
My state, New South Wales, has just updated our firearms laws and while reading through them I found the following information.
You can click on the link if you want to go through the whole thing or just read the International Visitor info I cut and pasted.
There is also requirements for "safe storage" that must be followed, so perhaps a read of that section would be in order. ( Just the travelling with firearms section. )

There is more involved than just this, e.g. import permits etc. but I suppose this is a start. There would also be, I assume, an export permit required by your mob. (BATFE)

Cheers
Daniel

https://legislation.nsw.gov.au/~pdf/vie ... /442/whole

61 International visitors competition permit
(1) The Commissioner may, on application by or on behalf of a person:
(a) who is not a resident of Australia, and
(b) who is visiting, or who is intending to visit, New South Wales for the purpose of competing in a
competition involving firearms,
issue a permit (an international visitors competition permit) authorising the person to possess and use a
firearm for that purpose.
(2) An international visitors competition permit may be issued to a person before the person arrives in New
South Wales.
(3) An application for an international visitors competition permit must contain the following details:
(a) the applicant’s name, date of birth and home address in the country in which the applicant ordinarily
resides,
(b) the applicant’s passport number, country of issue and date of expiry,
(c) the number of the applicant’s visa (if any) and date of expiry,
(d) the number of the applicant’s firearms licence (if any), its country of issue and date of expiry,
(e) if the applicant is not the holder of a firearms licence—a certificate signed by a competent authority in
the applicant’s country of residence to the effect that the applicant is lawfully entitled to possess, carry
and use in that country the type of firearm for which the permit is sought,
(f) the make, model, calibre, action and serial number of the firearm for which the permit is sought,
(g) if the applicant intends to import more than one firearm into Australia—details of the special need for
any additional firearm,
(h) the dates and locations of the competitions in Australia in which the permit holder intends to participate,
(i) the intended period of the applicant’s stay in Australia.
Firearms Regulation 2017 [NSW]
Current version for 25 August 2017 to date (accessed 8 September 2017 at 08:48). Page 33 of 77
(4) An international visitors competition permit cannot authorise the possession or use of any prohibited firearm
(other than a paint-ball gun, or a self-loading or pump action shotgun used in clay target shooting
competitions).
(5) An international visitors competition permit authorises the holder of the permit to possess and use the firearm
to which it relates only for the purposes of competing in the competition and for related purposes that are
connected with the competition.
(6) An international visitors competition permit continues in force (unless it is sooner surrendered or revoked)
from the date on which it is issued for a period of 3 months or such shorter period as may be determined by
the Commissioner.

Oh it's "fun" trying to take a gun to AU! The permits (that's plural) are state by state, so if you want to visit NSW and the go to South Australia, you can double the "fun"

And after all that, you must get 2 more permits to allow you to "export" your rifle back home. 3 wk and I get to find out if I did it right...

I never said it was easy!
To be honest, if any of you fella's were ever interested in coming down to shoot our CLAS Nationals, I'm sure we could furnish you with rifles and ammo. It would be a pleasure just to have y'all here visiting.

That maybe an offer I- we can't refuse.
Are you folks planning on our CLA Nationals?When are yours or a major match.
Hoping it's not November or December.
Thank you for that offer.

This years Nationals are on In Tasmania, our southern island state, October 6,7,8 & 9.
I believe this will be a selection shoot for a team to travel to the U.S.A for your Nationals next year.
I was told that our Nationals for 2018 will be held at Little River, just south of Melbourne, Victoria in the month of May.

We appreciate you Danial. Some folks here have no idea how good we have it concerning firearm ownership and usage.

We even had folks complain at the Nationals about only getting half of an inspection sticker !

Maybe we could send some of the grumps your way and after jumping through all those hoops they just might come back to the states and never complain again at a rifle match.

Stay safe.

Yeah Glen, I heard a couple of disgruntled remarks when I did some scrutineering as well. People need to have a go at running a big match and see just what goes on behind the scenes. Things do go wrong, ( like supplies of stickers from NRA not arriving in time, scoring software failures, etc. ) and mistakes are made, it is how you manage these and get on with the match that matters.

Hermit5, been trying to think of a "larger" match as you requested, there is a 2 day, 240 shot match called True Grit that is on at the end of February. It is small-bore and pistol caliber only, 3 x 40 shots of each. It is held at a range about an hour and a half from Sydney, NSW.
There are also various 3-gun State titles on, I could try to put together a calendar if people are interested.

Cheers
Daniel

Hey Taps I'm in Queensland and I can't get information on what's going on here, I'd love it if you would put a Calender together for us here in Australia. Are you shooting in Tasmania this year? If so I'll guess we'll finally get to have Face to face.
Looking forward to seeing you there
Cheers Westy

Yeah mate, I'll be in Tassie. Competing at the silhouette, BPCR and CLAS.