Excluded Weapons from Shooting Sports

The following weapons are excluded from competitive shooting according to § 6 - General Weapons Law Ordinance (AWaffV) (but not necessarily for hunters!)

(1) The following are excluded from competitive shooting sports:

1. Handguns with a barrel length of less than 7.62 centimeters

2. Semi-automatic firearms that, in their external form, evoke the appearance of a fully automatic military weapon, which is a military weapon in the sense of the law on the control of military weapons, if:

• The barrel length is less than 42 cm
• The magazine is located behind the trigger unit (so-called Bull-Pup weapons)
• The case length of the ammunition used for long guns is less than 40 mm

3. Semi-automatic long guns with a magazine capacity of more than ten rounds. 

(2) The prohibition of shooting sports with firearms and ammunition listed in Annex 2 Section 1 of the Weapons Act remains unaffected.

(3) The Federal Administrative Office can allow exceptions to the prohibitions of paragraph 1 upon request from a recognized shooting sports association, especially if it concerns firearms used in nationally or internationally significant shooting competitions.

(4) The competent authority for the assessment of firearms according to paragraph 1 is the Federal Criminal Police Office.

For dealers, collectors, and shooters, it is important that semi-automatic firearms that evoke the appearance of a fully automatic military weapon are only excluded from competitive shooting if the fully automatic counterpart was introduced into a military force after September 2, 1945. World War replicas are therefore not affected by the prohibition.

Example Application 1:

Semi-automatic replicas of the iconic AK-47 (