LAWS AND SAFE HANDLING

Ammunition laws in Canada: Calibres, types, buying, storage

Last reviewed July 15, 2026

Canada doesn’t ban ammunition by calibre - it bans it by type. Any calibre you can lawfully chamber is lawful to buy with a PAL; what’s prohibited is ammunition designed to do prohibited things: tracer, incendiary, and armour-piercing rounds sit in the prohibited-ammunition class regardless of calibre. The persistent “.25 and .32 are banned” rumour is a garbled memory of the handgun rules - pistols in those calibres are prohibited firearms; the cartridges themselves are ordinary.

Here’s the whole ammunition picture: what’s prohibited, what the counter requires, the storage numbers, and enough cartridge literacy to shop without a translator.

Prohibited ammunition: type, not calibre

The Criminal Code’s prohibited-ammunition class covers, in plain terms:

• tracer cartridges - the fire-starting risk is the handbook’s own example;
• incendiary and explosive projectiles;
• armour-piercing handgun ammunition - designed to defeat body armour.

Possessing or acquiring these is an offence at any licence level, the same footing as over-capacity magazines and suppressors. Everything on a Canadian gun-store shelf is outside this class; the risk zone is surplus crates, estate lots, and imports - military-marked surplus with painted tips deserves a call to the Canadian Firearms Program (1-800-731-4000) before money changes hands.

Bullet construction otherwise is your choice legally - full metal jacket, soft point, hollow point are all lawful to own. Where construction rules bite is provincial hunting law: most provinces mandate expanding bullets for big game and several restrict FMJ in the field. That’s the provincial half of the usual split; check the wildlife regs where you hunt.

Buying: the PAL at the counter

Two laws meet at the ammunition counter and the stricter one wins:

• the Explosives Regulations (NRCan’s side) set no minimum age for small-arms cartridges;
• the Firearms Act requires the seller to see a valid firearms licence.

So the practical rule is simple: PAL required, card in hand - same as buying the firearm. There’s no logging of what you buy federally, no quantity limit at purchase, and any-calibre-to-any-licence: a PAL holder may buy handgun cartridges without an RPAL (owning the handgun is the licensed act, not owning its ammunition).

Storing: generous limits, real rules

The Explosives Regulations allow up to 225 kg net explosive mass of ammunition in a dwelling - counting only powder and primer weight, not brass and bullets, so the ceiling is far above any hobbyist’s stockpile. Within it:

• keep ammunition away from flammables and ignition sources - and not in sealed unvented containers, the fire-hazard point the storage guide flags;
• keep it inaccessible to unauthorized people;
• honour the firearms-side rule: not readily accessible together with firearms unless locked appropriately.

Transporting ammunition in a vehicle has no special federal permit - secured, sensible, separate from the firearm is the standard the course teaches.

Cartridge literacy in five lines

The CFSC module 5 version, compressed: rim-fire cartridges (.22 LR family) have primer in the rim, are cheap, and their magazines escape the capacity caps; centre-fire cartridges (most everything else) have a replaceable central primer - which is what makes reloading them possible; shotshells carry shot or slugs. The one safety-critical rule: match the cartridge to the data stamp on the barrel exactly - “it fits” is not “it’s safe,” and wrong-ammunition incidents are a fixture of the course’s hazards table.

Ammunition questions are reliable written-test material - data stamps, misfires and hangfires, prohibited types. The classroom handles them with dummy rounds on the table: find a CFSC course near you and the counter will make sense before you ever stand at one.