Boomer, our seven year old duck dog. He likes to read when he's not in the blind.

Sweet and intelligent dog! He looks to be also guarding the packages under the Christmas tree.

Got that same LL Bean catalog recently. Great looking dogs both on the cover and yours.

Thanks Warren (and Sphinx), I was in my chair reading that catalog and he kept sniffing at it so I gave it up.

Lol, yeah they know.

I just read your post Wayne, I missed him apparently. Your friend is wright! Most people here love dogs, but are not gun friendly.

You can own guns in our country, including handguns (it isn't as bad as England where they have a handgun ban). You can have them in your house, but you have to have the ammunition separated from the firearms. Ammunition and guns need to be in a vault that is attached to the wall, or weighs more then 200 kilograms. You have to drive the shortest route to the shooting range, when you have weapons/munition with you. Ones every year you get an unannounced visit from the police, to look if you store your guns and ammunition in the proper way. You can own 5 guns per person (more when you are also a hunter) but no fully automatic firearms, only semi auto. So owning a Sig P226 or a AR-15 rifle for example is legal.

You have to go a minimum of 18 times a year to the shooting range. This is to "prove" that you have your guns, for the only reason a civilian can own a gun in the Netherlands, and that is for competition shooting. This way the government is trying to make it difficult for people who want a gun for home defense. They are probably less likely, to go true al the trouble for a nightstand gun.

You have to be a member of a shooting range and can obtain your first gun, after a membership period of 18 months. After another year you can own 4 more. You need the approval of the membership board that you are safe when handling firearms. You have to take part in 5 shooting competitions a year. Every time you shoot gets registered. You can't have a criminal record or have people living with you that do. Every year you have to go to the police and get your permit renewed. You can reload your own ammunition, but you have to be registered as such.

I hope I can keep enjoying the hobby in the future, because a lot of civilians like I said, think guns need to be owned exclusively by the military and police. We have a lot more shootings in the big cities the last decade or so. They are all done with illegally obtained firearms, but that doesn't seem to matter to some people... We had one incident 7 years ago, that a schizophrenic man killed 6 people and himself with legally obtained guns. After that one time terrible event, we were all afraid that the government would forbid owning guns. They didn't do that but made more rules. It was a close call for us and I think if something like that ever happens again (knock on wood) there is a good possibility that one of my favorite hobby's comes to an end...

Yep,LEO from 68-08 before that,66-68 guarded the President (not Secret Service,and from 64-66 was in 'Nam.


I guess I kind of gotten around some.

Wow, that is an impressive list of jobs!!!

Wayne[/quote]

Sphinx,
That is interesting about the 18 times a year range sessions. I pretty much do that in less than two months.

Are Shotguns such as the Mossberg Shock-Wave allowed in your country or do they have to be "standard" type??

Wayne

Good Question! As I only shoot clay pigeon every ones in a while, with a borrowed shotgun just for fun, I am not that knowledgeable about this subject. I know that shooting clay pigeons is only allowed with a double barreled shotgun, over and under or a side x side. Almost everybody here uses an over and under. For hunting you can own a double barreled, pump action or a semi auto shotgun, like a Browning Auto-five, but they are adjusted to only load two cartridges as a maximum. The exact reason for this is unknown to me, but I believe it has to do with shooting to much animals at ones.

We are allowed to shoot all of the the IPSC disciplines here.So the guns needed for that are also legal to own.There is a IPSC shotgun competition, where you can use pump action /semi auto shotguns, so we can own them. Then you are allowed to have a shotgun that can shoot more then two shots without a maximum. So if you hunt you can't own a pump action shotgun, but when you shoot IPSC you can.

The rules here are all build around the guns that are needed for approved "regular" competitions, like IPSC. Those guns are all allowed.

I just looked it up and read that shotguns, do need to have a shoulder stock, so we can't own the Shock-Wave. The length wasn't a problem, because everything above the minimum length of 23,6 inch is legal.

When you type IPSC Dutch, you get a lot of hits on YouTube, also for IPSC rifle. I couldn't find Dutch IPSC shotgun video's, but I know for sure that it is an allowed shooting match. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ovv-ZHA62DM

Sphinx,
That is interesting about the shotguns.

Funny thing,in Canada where gun laws are pretty much draconian,you can own pretty much a sawed off shotgun that would be a class 3 item here but there as long as it is a lever action...no sweat.


Getting back to dogs,I have found that in a lot of Europ[ean countries,dogs are allowed in resturants,is that true in the Netherlands??

Wayne