Betty Concanen is 81, has six grandchildren and is a proud gun owner.

After watching her husband shoot for 16 years she decided she would give it a go, and now even her grandchildren are impressed by her shooting prowess.

Visits to the rifle range are a weekly affair for the couple who, along with some lifelong friends, enjoy attending gun events around the country.

Mrs Concanen said gun owners were often misunderstood.

"Unless you know somebody that's doing it or you talk about it when you're in a group, not everybody knows about it," she said.

"And a lot of people if you say shooting and they say 'oh that's such-and-such' but they're actually talking about something totally different to what we do."

Ivor Knight owns 30 guns, 15 that he shoots with and 15 collectors' items. ( ABC News: James Carmody )

Yesterday was the final day of a national gun amnesty that on average has seen Australians surrender more than 400 guns to police stations each day.

In light of an increased terror threat and a rise in illegal guns, police have been urging the public to hand in unlicensed and unwanted firearms with no penalty.

But there are thousands of Australians who own and use their firearms under strict regulations and will be hanging onto them.

Gun enthusiast Ivor Knight has been using firearms since he was a teenager and has now started a pistol club. ( ABC News: James Carmody )

Perth man Ivor Knight has 30 guns in his home collection, ranging from modern pistols, miniature 'garter-guns' and a number of replica antique revolvers.

The 83-year-old retiree first became familiar with firearms as a teenager hunting feral animals and selling skins in WA's north-west.

It was nearly two decades later when Mr Knight found himself looking down a barrel for work again when he became a prison officer.

Mr Knight said he spent many long cold nights in the watch towers of Fremantle Prison.

"You were expected to carry a rifle and use it if people were trying to escape or attacking one another or anything like that," he said.

The Prison Officers at Fremantle started a pistol club to maintain their skills and shooting became a hobby for Mr Knight.

He continued shooting after he retired and started collecting pistols and revolvers.

Mr Knight said he enjoyed the connection to history he felt when he used old weapons.

"When you look at how people used them in the old days, particularly under battle conditions and sleet and rain and snow, even from horse back, it was a great challenge," he said.

Clay target shooting no barrier for amputee

Duncan Burnett took up clay target shooting after losing his leg in an accident. ( ABC News: James Carmody )

Duncan Burnett had his right leg amputated from below the knee after a work accident in his 20s.

Not one to shy away from a challenge, Mr Burnett continued to play football and ride motorbikes for a number of years, but said it was not quite the same.

Mr Burnett discovered clay target shooting in his 30s and can now be found at the range almost every weekend with his shotgun.

"I was at a friend's place one afternoon on a Sunday and we thought what are we going to do today and we saw an advert in the paper 'Whiteman Park Shotgun Clay Target Shooting', so we decided to go down and have a go and had a ball and have been shooting ever since," he said.

"I think we hit about 16 targets out of 25 and were hooked from then on.

"It's quite fierce competition but it doesn't matter if you win or lose, everyone's mates and you just have such a good time. Really there's no barriers to age or disability because it's not that physical of a sport.

"Shooting is more about concentration and technique so physical fitness is not a barrier," he said.

Mr Burnett recently returned from Italy where he represented Australia shooting in the Para-World Cup.

Shooting takes teen's 'mind off everything'

Eighteen-year-old Bridgette Millentis using the shooting range to forget the stresses of Year 12. ( ABC News: Jacqueline Lynch )

Like most of her friends, Year 12 student Bridgette Millentis looks to the weekends to blow off some steam, only she does it at the end of .308 calibre rifle.

She said when she shoots a rifle she is so focused on each shot that she can forget the stresses of life.

"It's sort of like a place I go on weekends to get away from all the stress from school and work," she said.

"It really takes your mind off everything because you have to focus on that rather than everything else in your life" she said.

Having grown up on the family farm in Manjimup, Ms Millentis said she had been shooting with her father for as long as she could remember.

She moved to Bunbury to finish high school but still made the drive to Manjimup every Sunday to go shooting with her dad.

The 18-year-old said her school friends were shocked when they heard how she spent her weekends.