Loading for some friends – is it legal?

A: There is nothing in law that says you may not reload cartridges for other people as a favour. The only proviso is that you must have a firearm certificate that authorises you to possess the cartridge types your friends want you to reload. You must also ensure that the quantity that you intend to reload does not take you over the quantity that your own firearm certificate authorises you to possess.

When you give the reloaded cartridges to your friend, you must complete Table 2 (calibre, quantity and so on) on his certificate. There is no need to inform anyone from the Firearms Licensing Department that you are doing this. It is none of their business.

Be aware that the same load may perform differently in different rifles. It is always worth loading small batches to start with until you find a bullet/powder weight combination that gives optimum accuracy. Groups need to be a minimum of five rounds to assess this. Once you have the “recipe” for a particular rifle, make a note of it and you can then load larger numbers from that data.