The common *ten*.
Ten firearms keep turning up in Canadian safes, in the quiet racks at Canadian Tire and Cabela's, and in the classifieds. Non-restricted only. The list is editorial. The reasoning is on the page.
There is no clean national register of what Canadians own. The Firearms Reference Table lists makes and models; it does not count them. The RCMP's Canadian Firearms Program publishes licensees, not inventory. What we have instead is the cumulative record of what dealers stock, what manufacturers ship north, what lives in the classifieds on CGN and GunPost, and what the shops at Bass Pro and Wholesale Sports move every hunting season. Ten names come up, again and again.
The list below is that set. It is non-restricted - rifles and shotguns you can buy on a PAL and walk out of a store with - because that's where the real volume is. It is ordinal, not a census: there is no way to rank numerically the true order of ownership in this country, and anyone who claims otherwise is selling something. What the list does show, once you lay it end to end, is a distinct shape. A country of bolt-action hunters, rimfire plinkers, and rural shotgun owners. A country whose most popular firearm, almost certainly, is a rifle that fires a cartridge the size of a thumbnail.
The ten, from ten down to one. Scroll, or filter below.
Common non-restricted firearms in Canada
The Common Ten is a sortable Holdover reference for ten non-restricted firearms that keep showing up in Canadian safes, shops, ranges, and classifieds. It is an editorial ownership-context tool, not a census or legal classification lookup.
Use it to compare the familiar Canadian rack: rimfire rifles, pump shotguns, bolt-action hunting rifles, lever guns, and the non-restricted models that explain what lawful ownership usually looks like outside the political shorthand.
What the ten tell you together.
A note on the method
The list is argued, not surveyed. It was assembled by comparing three things: first, the set of firearms that appear, consistently, in the top inventory reported by the three largest Canadian retailers (Bass Pro / Cabela's, Canadian Tire, Wanstalls) across 2023-2025; second, the models that constitute the top listings by volume on CGN and GunPost over the same period; third, twenty-five years of running conversation with owners, instructors, and gunsmiths from Chilliwack to St. John's. It leans toward non-restricted because that's where the volume is - roughly 80 percent of the estimated civilian inventory in Canada, per the RCMP's 2022 CFP report, sits in the non-restricted class.
If you want to argue that the Browning Auto-5 belongs here, or that the AR-15 would have ranked in a pre-May 2020 world, or that the list undercounts handguns because handguns are functionally frozen: you have a case on all three. Write to the Dispatch and we'll print the best of it.
Related Holdover Tools
Useful calculators and references from the same corner of the Holdover bench.
- Holdover tools
- Ban-Risk Index
- Canadian PAL Pathway
- Storage and Transport Source Map
- Canadian Firearms Buyback Tracker
Sources · editorial note
- RCMP, Canadian Firearms Program, Commissioner of Firearms 2022 Report
- Statistics Canada, Table 35-10-0196-01 (firearms licences, PAL/RPAL holders, 2024)
- Firearms Reference Table (FRT), accessed via licensed dealer terminal, 2025-11-14
- Retailer shelf surveys: Bass Pro Canada, Cabela's Canada, Canadian Tire, Wanstalls Hunting & Shooting, Q1 2023 - Q4 2025
- CGN classifieds, listing frequency analysis, Jan 2023 - Dec 2025 (n = 41,220 listings)
- Manufacturer MSRP data as of April 2026, CAD, excluding PST/GST
- All ranking is editorial. Price ranges are street-observed, not MSRP unless noted. Caveats are real. Argue with us in The Dispatch.
Keep the source trail in one place.
If this piece sent you back to government pages, keep the official links, page dates, and follow-up notes together.
Use the Holdover Canadian Firearms Policy Source Tracker to record the current Public Safety, RCMP, Canada Gazette, and Justice source pages behind buyback, OIC, classification, compensation, and amnesty claims.
Safety note: the tracker is a worksheet for source hygiene, not legal advice or a substitute for current official guidance.
Get the tracker through The Dispatch
Check the source before relying on memory.
If this page has you thinking about storage, transport, display, an unattended vehicle, an ATT, or shipping by post, keep the source trail beside the question.
Use the Holdover Canadian Firearms Storage And Transport Checklist to record firearm class, activity, official source URL, page date, regulation section, checked date, and the open question you still need to verify.
Safety note: the checklist is a source-check worksheet, not legal advice, storage instruction, transport permission, or a substitute for current RCMP/CFP/CFO guidance, Justice Laws, or qualified advice.
