The first province-wide gun amnesty is being hailed a success.

The Saskatchewan Association of Chiefs of Police organized the program to collect firearms between March 29 and April 27.

Residents were encouraged to surrender their unwanted weapons in the hopes they wouldn’t fall into the hands of criminals or be altered in order to conceal them.

In that time period, 336 rifles, handguns, prohibited weapons and even an antique weapon, were handed in by owners who no longer wanted them.

As well, 32 pellet guns and even one starter pistol were surrendered, along with several pounds of ammunition.

Moose Jaw Chief of Police Rick Bourassa; "I'm not sure what any of us expected, we really didn't know, but its comforting to know that we've had 369 firearms across the province that might have fallen into hands of people who meant to do harm, that now we're no longer in that position".

The Moose Jaw Police Service was joined by Regina, Prince Albert, Estevan and Weyburn along with the RCMP and the Saskatchewan Environment Resource Management to encourage owners to give up their guns.

RCMP Inspector Maureen Wilkie said they were “extremely pleased” with the effort to take unwanted forearms off the streets and out of the hands of potential criminals.

While most of the weapons will be destroyed, a few may end up being displayed at the RCMP museum in Ottawa and to collectors in the United States.

Two of the rifles collected by RPS date back to the pre-WW1 era and are worth several thousand dollars. It will be up to the families to decide whether they wish to sell them or keep them as heirlooms.

"We had across the province very similar experiences with people where they had guns that had been sitting in a basement or in a shed or in a garage for years and weren't wanted any longer" Bourassa said, "People never really thought of them or didn't know what to do with them. So this project gave people the opportunity to dispose of those safely".

It hasn’t been decided whether the province-wide gun amnesty will be repeated in the future.