Some facts about firearms in South Korea (for those who are interested only).

M

MC_MuHyeon

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Hi. I'm from South Korea and I would like to share some information on firearms in my country.

I'm 24 and I enjoy shooting a lot. The guns I've shot are:

S&W 686
Beretta 92FS
Pardini SP
Px4 Storm
Glock (don't remember the model but was chambered in 9mm.)
Walther P22
Desert Eagle .357
Browning & Miroku shotguns.

Of course, gun laws of my country are very strict compared to those of the USA. So in order to do some shooting in South Korea as a civilian, you have to visit a shooting facility and pay money to use guns & ammo stored in it.

I will start by labeling some facts about price & gun ownership in S.Korea.



-It's quite expensive to enjoy shooting in South Korea.

Unlike in the US, where you prepare your own ammo and just pay for using the chosen range and shoot no matter how long you want, the amount of money you pay to a shooting facility is linear to how many cartridges you are gonna shoot, and the price per shot is pretty high. The cheapest shooting range I've visited (it is located in Changwon and 2018 ISSF World Championship was held there) charges you as follows:

14000 Won (11.55 USD) for 10 rounds of 9mm
16000 Won (13.2 USD) for 10 rounds of .357 Magnum or .38 Special
20000 Won (16.49 USD) for 10 rounds of .45 ACP
10000 Won (8.25 USD) for 10 rounds of 12 gauge clay trap
22000 Won (18.14 USD) for 25 rounds of 12 gauge clay trap.

But the range is neat and firearms there are pretty well maintained.

In Seoul, there are many shooting facilities and they all charge you much more. One of the ranges was the worst I've ever visited. People there charges you like 40000 Won (32.98 USD) for 10 rounds of 9mm/.357 Mag/.38 Special/.22 LR if you are not a member if the range. Even if you pay some money to become a member, it's still 20000 Won (16.49 USD) for 10 rounds of pistol ammo. It's too expensive, yet people there don't care about maintaining their firearms properly; when I had a chance to shoot Pardini SP in .22 LR, the pistol grip was not tightly attached and was literally dangling to the mainframe. The gun failed to fire/eject/feed like 6~7 times for every 10 trigger pulls. I've never went there again.



-To legally own a gun, you have to be registered as a hunter or a professional shooter.

Police officers will do some background checks and will determine if a person who wants to register oneself as a hunter or a shooter is qualified. If you are qualified, then you can order your gun by paying domestic importers the price of the gun + some fees and letting them import the gun.

Asking for firearms ownership for self-defense is formally possible, but in reality, the request is almost always rejected.



-You cannot keep your gun at home unless it's powered by compressed air.

If your gun is for hunting, then it should be kept at a local police station. If it's for competition shooting, it should be kept at a local competition shooting range.



-Hunting guns can only be taken out from a police station only during hunting seasons. You may also not check the status of your gun and maintain it when it's not a hunting season. Because of this, many guns degrade due to rust, etc.

-Only air rifles and shotguns are allowed for hunting; no pistols or rifles powered by gunpowder are allowed.

-Spent cases must be sent to a local police station after shooting at ranges (not sure if this rule is valid for hunting). Losing/keeping spent cases is illegal.

-A scope with a reticle and zeroing/windage features is considered as a part of a gun and can only be legally owned/used for hunting with air rifles. Even if you don't have a gun, it's still illegal to own such scopes.
 
My South Korean friend, you should save your money, and vacation in America. We will get you to the range, and let you shoot to your hearts content.
 
"Only air rifles and shotguns are allowed for hunting"

What can you hunt with an air rifle? What type of air rifles are used? Airguns that I am familiar with would not be useful for any game bigger than a squirrel, but there is a lot that I don't know.
 
MC welcome to the forum. It sounds pretty restrictive in your home land. I went to the range yesterday. I took 6 guns with me 4 were for shooting and 2 stayed in my pocket for concealed carry. I took only 22's with me for shooting. A friend of mine went with me and he brought his 357 mag and 9mm. We shot a bunch of ammo. It cost $12 an hour at the range. I do wish you could come over to do some shooting. But that would be an expensive range trip for you. :-)
 
cjwils
Not all air gun are Daisy's. As an example AirForce Texan SS, Demolition Ranch Combo is a 30 cal single shot air rifle for just over $1800. There are serious air gunners out there and they can take some serious game.
 
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I need to move to South Korea and open a shooting range... Those rices are crazy!

Do those cost include the gun rental?
 
What can you hunt with an air rifle? What type of air rifles are used? Airguns that I am familiar with would not be useful for any game bigger than a squirrel, but there is a lot that I don't know.
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Air rifles in my country are usually used for pest control or hunting very small game, such as pheasants. But I don't know whether large caliber air rifles (.30 or .50) are legal here.
 
I need to move to South Korea and open a shooting range... Those rices are crazy!

Do those cost include the gun rental?
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Yes the prices include the gun rental + range rental. But I think owners of the shooting range in Seoul have deliberately set the prices high exploiting the fact that gun laws are very strict.
 
More facts:

-Pistols whose bore diameter exceed .38" cannot be imported anymore, which means no more brand new .44 mag, .45 ACP pistols can be seen in ranges. Previously imported ones can still be used though.

-The only range where you can enjoy shooting rifles (not ones powered by compressed air; ones like AR-15) is in Jeju Island. All the other ranges only have shotguns/pistols.

-Even airsoft guns are heavily restricted. The max muzzle energy of an airsoft gun should not exceed 0.2 joules.

-Media in South Korea is not friendly towards guns, including airsoft guns, and the logic they use when bashing guns is so stupid. They know nothing about guns. They do some stuff like saying "airsoft guns can be converted to real ones" or putting steel balls (instead of plastic ones) in an airsoft and breaking glass, and then telling people that it's "lethal". This is ridiculous.

-What's more ridiculous is that while the media and police focus heavily on bashing non-lethal airsoft guns using dumb logic, the safety of police officers is not ensured due to restrictive rules for officers to use their guns for self-defense. There was a guy who shot and killed an officer with his homemade gun in October 2016. The officer was unable to properly defend himself due to weird rules; he had to shout "Surrender!" 3 times before shooting, he had to remove safety behind the trigger, he had to aim the guy's leg instead of head/center of the body, the first chamber of his revolver had to be empty, the second one with blank, and then live rounds from the third one. The criminal managed to heavily injure the officer with 10 shots while the officer could only make 4 trigger pulls. He later died in a hospital. Gun accidents are extremely rare in South Korea due to heavy restrictions on guns, but I say this kind of rule should be fixed.
 
MC_MuHyeon said:
More facts:

the safety of police officers is not ensured due to restrictive rules for officers to use their guns for self-defense. There was a guy who shot and killed an officer with his homemade gun in October 2016. The officer was unable to properly defend himself due to weird rules; he had to shout "Surrender!" 3 times before shooting, he had to remove safety behind the trigger, he had to aim the guy's leg instead of head/center of the body, the first chamber of his revolver had to be empty, the second one with blank, and then live rounds from the third one. The criminal managed to heavily injure the officer with 10 shots while the officer could only make 4 trigger pulls. He later died in a hospital. Gun accidents are extremely rare in South Korea due to heavy restrictions on guns, but I say this kind of rule should be fixed.
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This is insane.
 
Can you judge how violent crime rates compare to the USA? I don’t think it’s as bad here as the media lets on and violent crime rates have been dropping since the 1990s
 
Hey MC,
we used to live in Seoul, but went to China for shooting instead of Korea. We found it much less expensive to go to the Norinco test range outside Beijing and blast away all day for a few hundred US dollar equivalent than the ranges in SK.
We shot pistols, full auto AK's, squad automatic weapons and the coup de gras was the 37mm AAA gun. That was a very serious blast. My only regret was they were out of RPG's which you could shoot for less than $200 each.
Welcome to the forum!
 
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