Bitburg - F stamps for markers

[bozza]

Those choosing to go via Luxembourg should also be careful, if my memory serves me correctly they take a very very dim view of paintballers and there guns, believe a few years back an US team having big problems.!!

If you speak to Smart parts, kee or Powerball they should all be able to enlighten you as to exactly what is required regarding F stamps, it certainly used to be that it had to be on the body of the gun.

 

[Potter Loki]

the ones that we got done were by KEE and were stamped into the rear of the grip frame, im sure ive seen the f mark on egos and geos though, correct me if im wrong

 

[alicethegoon]

It's not only the F stamp you should be worried about. To be legal in Germany a marker needs an F stamp, a cal .68 stamp(to show what caliber "bullet" it's firing) and a dealer stamp from an authorised dealer of that specific brand of marker in Germany. I'm pretty sure most places won't care that much about the dealer stamp but the cal .68 is as important as the F stamp.

dead on there.

All the above information is needed so don't go getting a dremel out and making your own "f". The F and additional info needs to be on the body of the gun or the same part as the "firing chamber" breech I guess ? and clearly visable.

 

[Kitty]

Most markers do not come with it.

The F stampof Free Weapon stamp means the guns regulator / velocity scres (for tippmans) has been sealed so that they cant shoot over 214 FPS and they will have the boards glued shut with dip switches so you can not change firing mode from semi-auto. If they cant shut off the boards from going only Semi-auto they will replace it with a D-board (deutsh) which is semi-auto only. They can charge you about 250 euro for this.

In total there are 4 stamps needed.

1 - The serial number
2- The caliber which is stamped near the barrel
3 - The F / pentagon - means this gun is available to those over 18 and doesnt requie a firearms license. F means free weapon.
4 - Stamp of who did all the stamps, so either a dealer or official institution of inspection.

Hope that all helps.

 

[Robbie_O]

At the moment there is a movement in Germany to have paintball banned.

http://www.paintballer.ie/chit-chat/4294-europe-germany-wants-ban-paintball.html
http://www.spirit-of-paint.com/forum/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=48878

so this could cause alot more problems when it comes to markers, and F Stamps

 

[TalieBun]

ok 2 things that have been said already again:
1)you need the stamp - contact the manufacturer and ask who the german distributor is. prolly they will help
2) Paintball is illegal in Luxemburg so better go to Frankfurt instead.

 

[Chicago]

Polish team Ranger were stopped by the german police a couple years back while on their way to a Millennium event in France - Most of their markers were confiscated to be never seen again and the owners received charges.

That's a major suck. In the US there is federal law that prevents states from doing such things. Don't recall how federalist the EU is, but maybe time for some top-down legislation to smack Germany into line!

CDU/SPD is ruining my 2nd country!

 

[Fisz]

I think it is important to say that in the current political climate, attendants should avoid any situations which might be used against the paintball community in Germany. It is quite probable that the event itself will be highly publicised and covered by major media, and it wouldn't be good to see coverage on the news about paintballers having their markers confiscated for whatever reasons.

 

[jayj]

ok 2 things that have been said already again:
1)you need the stamp - contact the manufacturer and ask who the german distributor is. prolly they will help
2) Paintball is illegal in Luxemburg so better go to Frankfurt instead.

can you confirm item 2?
when I search the web, I see paintball clubs in Luxembourg, you mean they are illegal?

Also I contacted Millennium and they said, Luxembourg would be a better idea since in Germany they definitely check the markers at the airport and in Luxembourg they do not.
The only problem will be to pass the Lux- Ger border by car the first time we go there, once we are there the dealers will put the stamp on the markers.

 

[gadge]

When i lived over there all markers needed the stamp the prob is all markers needed to be sent to German equivilant of the home office to get checked tested and stamped. The problem is its not realistic for all players at Bitburg to send off all of there gat to be stamped and sent back. Many teams back then made up there own stamps to avoid all the bother.

The other problem with sending them away was if they recieved a type of marker that had not already been seen and tested by them then they kept it to keep one of each type on record as a form of reference, not good if your shooting somthing a little rare! as you wont see it again.

I am a british national and was simply working over there for a few years but i still required the stamp on my markers at the time. I only had it checked once when travelling by air back to Germany and they were fine once the Fstamp was seen and the inside of the bottle was checked.

Cant see an easy way around this with the current climate in Germany perhaps Millienium could offer a little more upto date advice to advise players about the stamp.