Getting Licensed To Hunt With Firearms In NSW

Both firearm ownership and hunting are thoroughly regulated in Australia. As much as you may be excited to get into the field, your journey into hunting with firearms is going to start with some basic courses, tests and behind a computer completing forms.

The process isn’t complicated once it’s understood what you have to do. Figuring out the correct steps and which order to do them in can be though, so we often find ourselves helping new members wade through this topic.
So, to help anyone out who is curious, here are the exact steps to follow with the end goal of: A NSW firearms license for the genuine purpose of recreational hunting, demonstrated by your membership to a Department of Primary Industries (DPI) Approved Hunting Organisation (AHO) and Restricted Hunting Permit that allows you to hunt on both public and private land.

Ok here goes:

  1. Join the Hunting Club of Australia.
    We are an AHO, so the first step is to join the club as that opens you up to getting your hunting permits. We’ll send you the documents you needed to complete subsequent steps, your membership number and the club ID number.

  2. Complete your R-License Accreditation Course with the DPI
    Here are the details of the course.
    We offer this course both in person and remotely over Zoom. Use this form to register your interest.
    Here you have two decisions to make. One is whether you get your General (G) or Restricted (R) hunting permit. G allows you to hunt on private land only, while R allows both public and private land. At the time of writing there are hundreds of state forests that are open to hunting in NSW, all of which require an R license, so to maximise choices we recommend you do this. The second decision is deciding which types of hunting you’ll be licensed to do. These are: firearms, bow, black powder and with dogs. Most of our members are either firearm or bow hunters, but the test is so similar to do all of them we generally recommend getting licensed for all.

  3. Get your Restricted Hunting Permit from the DPI
    After completing the test you’ll be issued your DPI Hunting Permit. Congrats, milestone 1 is done! From this point on you’re done dealing with the Department of Primary Industries and turn your attention to your actual firearms license and working with the NSW Firearms Registry.

  4. Complete a Firearm Safety Training Course
    One easy way to do this is to swing by Safari Firearms (Google maps link) who run this course on demand between 10am-5pm, Monday to Friday.

  5. Apply For Your Firearms License
    At last, you can apply for your firearms license via the NSW Police Firearms website. Generally we advise getting both category a (air rifle, rimfire and shotgun) as well as category b (centre fire), but this is entirely up to you.

  6. Wait to receive your Photographic Advice
    You’ll eventually receive a photographic advice letter in the mail. This is essentially all the hard stuff done, now you just need to get issued the actual license.

  7. Go to the RMS
    Get your photo taken and get issued your firearms license.

  8. Reflect on how glad you are that’s all done
    Congratulations, that’s it. You’re now licensed for recreational hunting with firearms.

Important to note:

  • The steps above give you the maximum capabilities and minimal ongoing obligations, so this is what we advise people do. An alternative to getting your R hunting permit from the DPI is to provide written authorisations from at least 3 private land holders that you have permission to hunting on their land - This is simply not possible for some people, so that DPI route is the way to go.

  • The rules and process change. The steps above are correct as of the time of writing (April 2021), but the laws, websites & forms are prone to changing.

  • Lastly - The people at both the Department of Primary Industries (DPI) and the NSW Firearms Registry (NSWFAR) are great people and they’re here to help you (just remember, they don’t write the rules). Use the links above and you’ll get through the process, but if you’re ever stuck you can reach the DPI or NSWFAR and ask for help.