Members of the amateur and professional shooting community in the Western Plains worry recently proposed changes to gunpowder storage regulations may have a long-term adverse impact on the firearms industry.

Earlier this year, the government released the draft Explosives Regulation 2021 document, which aims to serve as a replacement to the current Explosives Regulation 2013 legislation.

Among the proposed changes in the new documents was the reduction of the 12 kilogram per licence holder limit of propellant powder down to 12kg per household.

This has not been well received by the Shooters, Fishers and Farmers (SFF) Party with MLCs Robert Borsak and Mark Banasiak paying a visit to the Minister for Better Regulations Kevin Anderson to discuss their issues in early August.

Mr Borsak said the majority of propellant powder in NSW was currently sourced from Victoria and is used by shooters and farmers as a cost-effective way to reload their ammunition rather than regularly purchasing new ones.

"It is already very difficult to get your hands on the different powders and have them delivered - if you put more limits on the amount you can have at one time, you can't order enough to make it worthwhile," Mr Borsak said.

According to Mr Borsak, the SFF were particularly concerned about the lack of evidence motivating the decision to reduce the storage limits and demanded some from Minister Anderson’s office.

"They told us they didn't have any, so from our perspective, they're just doing it because they can, which ends up being a big unnecessary inconvenience to licensed shooters," he said.

Mr Borsak said one thing the SFF did clarify with the government was that the storage limits only affected powder that wasn't already loaded into a cartridge, but felt this still wasn't clear in the drafted document in its current form and the party would continue to oppose it until the necessary changes were made, including moving to have the new regulations disallowed if necessary.

Professional kangaroo shooter and operator of Gulargambone Chillers Ben Robson was equally concerned about the government's lack of evidence behind its proposed changes.

"If you ask me, I don't see the need for the changes to the current regulations - why try and fix a system that's not currently broken," Mr Robson said.

"It also comes during a time where it feels like average gun owners are being crucified - I don't understand why we are getting attacked when we go through that many background checks to even have a gun license."

Mr Robson, who has been in the industry for about ten years, said he goes out shooting kangaroos about 200 nights a year and uses about 30kg of powder to refill his ammunition during that time.

"That's pretty standard if you're doing it full-time - when you're buying shells off the shelf, you don't know what you're going to get so you usually end up tailoring them to work with your own rifle," he said.

"I'll typically buy up to 8-10 kilos at a time, which is fine for me under the current regulations, but may not work for everyone.

"At the end of the day, businesses want to be prepared and organised - you don't want to run out of powder partway through a night," he said.

Another proposed change which was unopposed by the SFF was a reduction of the limits to storage of propellant powder by licenced dealers from 300kg down to 200kg.

According to Mr Borsak across the Western Plains, many gun clubs prefer to reload their own ammunition and will therefore rely on local dealers to provide this.

Captain of the Gilgandra Amateur Pistol Club Noel Fitzpatrick said this includes a few members of their club and, if there was a reduction in the limit of gunpowder licensed dealers are allowed to hold, it would likely leave them unable to keep up with demand.

"If they have to reduce their stock by a third, I think it would definitely impact their sales ability - if a store only had about 200kg at maximum, that could sell out in a few days to a week quite easily," Mr Fitzpatrick said.

"So if it takes a week to get their new stock powder in, how are they going to have any standby stock for people who come in the meantime?"

According to Mr Borsak, he believed the government had made the changes based on emotionally-driven misconceptions about the danger of propellant powder, which Mr Fitzpatrick said is not really explosive when stored outside ammunition.

"I wouldn't say it's dangerous in terms of being explosive - when you've got it in a tin and there's an accident with it, it wouldn't really explode as such," he said.

"It would definitely flare-up and burn but it's only when it's in a fully-sealed container - like a cartridge - that you'd actually have any problems with it."