True freedom includes the freedom to make mistakes or do foolish things and bear the consequences.
TANSTAAFL
Glad your inspection went well and you will be receiving your explosive certificate soon. FAC renewals times vary from force to force but you should receive a reminder 12-16 weeks before the certificate expires. I would respond immediately as most applications are taking at least 12 weeks with some longer delays due to the necessity of getting your GP to provide the required medical letter in a timely manner. My explosive certificate application was made at the same time as my FAC came up for renewal, so future renewals will be at the same time. As there will be at least a 4 month gap between your certificates, you will probably need to apply for them separately.
I'm not a purist and having tried BP substitutes as well as traditional BP, I eventually settled on 777 for a number of reasons, but much prefer 777 to Pyrodex which is why I needed to apply for an explosive certificate in the first place.
Brian
Last edited by Abasmajor; 14-02-2022 at 05:40 PM.
Some GPs refuse to provide medical letters and those that do can charge whatever fee they like. If the worst comes to the worst, you could consider the site linked below who can provide this service at a comparable price to many GPs. I haven't had cause to use them myself but know of some who have due to their GP practice refusing to provide the necessary letter.
https://www.medcert.co.uk/
Brian
I would find another GP. I used medcert. For several weeks I heard nothing from them and they did not answer e-mails. I found the address of their London office where they are registered and I wrote to them. I stated that if I do not receive the completed medical form I will be taking action to recover the £50 paid.
A few days later I received the said completed from. It was wrong. It had a non-existent address on it and would not have been accepted by the police. It was returned and one with the correct address was sent. However, their information on my medical history was wrong and they would not correct it.
When it was beginning to look like I would not receive the medical report from medcert I applied to my GP again and got one from him. (He was busy because of Covid the first time I requested it). This arrived from my GP a couple of days after the medcert one. The information on the one from my GP was correct.
To avoid any confusion I sent both medical reports to the police with a covering letter.
When the Government made it law to provide a medical report they should have made it law for the GP to do it. I think they knew it would cause problems that is why they did not.
I think you are correct, if 'they' can make it as difficult as possible for people to shoot then 'they' are hoping people pack it in, same goes for the proposed lead ban, If you can't legislate against it maybe you can stop it in other ways? Sounds a bit like a conspiracy theory I know....
By the way, there are 2 surgeries in the village where I live and enquiries have shown that both are much the same regarding medical letters. At the moment I am between a rock and a hard place due to an ongoing medical condition but hopefully this will change sooner rather than later.
My explosives licence came today after 3 months since I applied.
I’ve got half a tub of 777 left, now to get some black powder for my 45-70👍
CZ455 American .22LR, Marlin 1894 .357 and 1935 8mm Mauser K98k S42/G (RC), Remy .308 AICS, RPR 6.5 creedmoor, no4 1* LB 1943, NRA RCO