Northern Tasmanian firearms amnesty hailed a success

More than 50 firearms were dropped off at police stations at Newnham, Carrick, Pipers River and St Helens - with another 10 firearms organised to be collected during the week.

It comes after police seized 19 illegal firearms across a two week period as part of an ongoing operations.

Inspector Scott Flude said the police were happy with the results of the weekend's amnesty.

"For us, the foresights we had, the information we put out and the response from the public has been really pleasing," he said.

"The amnesty does run 365 days a year, but we've found that when we do specific advertising around events such as these we get a really good uptake, and as a result of the uptake over the weekend we've taken 50 firearms out of the street and out of the community that don't need to be there, it's really good."

Inspector Flude said police try and hold an amnesty in each region every year - unable to be held last year, he said police are hoping for a similar result in upcoming drives in the North West and South.

Some of the more unique firearms dropped off hold historical value.

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"People that have them and have had them for a long time, they haven't bothered to register them many years ago, and when they jog their memory they realise it's not worth having them in the house, it's best to hand them into police - and that's what's happened," Inspector Flude said.

"Each time we do these, we get three or four firearms that are of interest."

Inspector Flude said it surprised him than 25 years after firearm laws came into effect that people were still handing in guns.

"A lot of people held their guns and thought they would register them later, as the years have gone by this hasn't occurred," he said.

The guns will be destroyed by the end of the week.