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

(1) Excluded from sport shooting are:

1. handguns with a barrel length of less than 7.62 centimeters in length

2. semi-automatic firearms, which in their external form give the appearance of a fully automatic weapon of war, which is a weapon of war within the meaning of the Law on the Control of Weapons of War, if:

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

3. semi-automatic long guns with a magazine with a capacity of more than ten cartridges.

(2) The prohibition of shooting sports with firearms and ammunition of Annex 2, Section 1 of the Weapons Act shall remain unaffected.

(3) The Federal Office of Administration may, at the request of a recognized shooting sports association, allow exceptions to the prohibitions of paragraph 1, especially if the firearms are used in nationally or internationally important shooting sports competitions.

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

It is important for dealers, collectors and shooters that semi-automatic firearms, which by their external form give the appearance of a fully automatic war weapon, are only excluded from sport shooting if the fully automatic counterpart was introduced to a military force after September 02, 1945. World War II replicas are accordingly not affected by the ban.

Application example 1:

Semi-automatic replicas of the iconic AK-47 ("Kalashnikov"), which have been introduced into various armed forces worldwide since 1947, are affected by the ban if the barrel is less than 42 cm long, more than 10 cartridges fit in the magazine, or the original 7.62 x 39 caliber is fired because the required minimum case length is not met.

However, a semi-automatic replica with a magazine capacity of up to 10 rounds, a different caliber such as .308 Win and a barrel that is at least 42 cm long is not affected by the ban. If the replica were a bolt action rifle, however, none of the restrictions would apply.

Application example 2:

A revolver with a length of 5.08 cm (2 inches) may be purchased for the purpose of hunting, provided that a valid pre-entry has been made. However, this weapon would be excluded from sport shooting, since the minimum length of 7.62 cm is not reached.

(all data without guarantee)