Purchase Eligibility by Weapon Type

You want to sell your firearm(s):

Which purchase authorization entitles you to buy which firearm can easily be found online. To provide clarity, this article lists the various weapon types once more — i.e., purchase authorizations sorted by firearm type. This article does not cover the firearms dealer license — it is only about private-to-private sales.

Note: A purchase authorization only entitles you to acquire a firearm, not to carry it — for that, you need e.g. a Waffenschein or a Kleiner Waffenschein.

This category includes SRS weapons (blank-firing, irritant gas, and signal weapons) and air-powered weapons with a muzzle energy of no more than 7.5 joules.
Compressed air, spring-powered weapons, and weapons that use cold propellant gases to propel projectiles, which were manufactured before January 1, 1970 or in the territory referred to in Article 3 of the Unification Treaty before April 2, 1991 and placed on the market in accordance with the regulations in force at that time.
However, these are very rare cases.

Markings:

• SRS weapon: "PTB" in a circle

• Air-powered weapons up to 7.5 joules: "F" in a pentagon

Purchase authorization: No purchase authorization is required. However, the buyer must prove that they are of legal age.

This includes

• single-barrel shotguns

• multi-barrel shotguns

• single-barrel rifles: i.e., not repeaters or semi-automatics, but e.g. block-action or break-action rifles

• multi-barrel rifles: i.e., double rifles, combination guns

• Bergstutzen

• Drillings

Purchase authorizations (various combinations possible):

• Yellow WBK

• Green WBK with Voreintrag

• Jagdschein without WBK for first firearm

• Jagdschein + green WBK without Voreintrag if the buyer already owns firearms.

• Red WBK with the relevant collecting category

• This includes single-shot pistols, i.e., those without a magazine for cartridge ammunition

Purchase authorizations (various combinations possible):

• Yellow WBK

• Green WBK with Voreintrag

• Red WBK with the relevant collecting category

• multi-barrel percussion pistols

• revolvers with percussion cap ignition

Purchase authorizations (various combinations possible):

• Yellow WBK

• Green WBK with Voreintrag

• Red WBK with the relevant collecting category

• multi-barrel percussion rifles

• revolver rifles with percussion cap ignition

Purchase authorizations (various combinations possible):

• Yellow WBK

• Green WBK with Voreintrag

• Red WBK with the relevant collecting category

This includes all bolt-action rifles such as straight-pull and classic bolt-action models.

Purchase authorizations (various combinations possible):

• Yellow WBK

• Jagdschein without WBK for first firearm

• Jagdschein + green WBK without Voreintrag if the buyer already owns firearms.

• Red WBK with the relevant collecting category

Counterintuitive but true — while multi-shot handguns with percussion cap ignition do not require a Voreintrag, this type of action does:

Purchase authorization: green WBK with Voreintrag only

Semi-automatic rifles for range and hunting use

Purchase authorization (various combinations possible):

• Jagdschein without WBK for first firearm

• Jagdschein + green WBK without Voreintrag if the buyer already owns firearms.

• Green WBK with Voreintrag

• Red WBK with the relevant collecting category

Semi-automatic shotguns, which are very popular in sport shooting or for example in crow hunting, fall under this category.

Purchase authorization (various combinations possible):

• Jagdschein without WBK for first firearm

• Jagdschein + green WBK without Voreintrag if the buyer already owns firearms.

• Green WBK with Voreintrag

• Red WBK with the relevant collecting category

Pump-action shotguns are particularly common in IPSC sport shooting; in hunting they are rarely used in Germany.

Purchase authorization (various combinations possible):

• Jagdschein without WBK for first firearm

• Jagdschein + green WBK without Voreintrag if the buyer already owns firearms.

• Green WBK with Voreintrag

• Red WBK with the relevant collecting category

Purchase authorization:

• Green WBK with Voreintrag

• Red WBK with the relevant collecting category.

Signal weapons are generally single-shot and subject to WBK requirements, unless they are marked as type-approved — the corresponding marking would be the PTB-in-a-circle symbol.

Purchase authorization:

• Green WBK with Voreintrag

This list makes no claim to be exhaustive. Feel free to get in touch with any comments.