Mercer & NRA Against Reloading

[Sim G]

What are the effective options:

The only one that will change their mind should Mercer/NRA impose a hand loaded ammunition ban, tell them to "eff off".

Cancel your membership and stop shooting at Bisley.

They'd soon repeal. If, it was ever implemented....

[Chapuis]

Sim I doubt that it will ever come to that, even the NRA in the bad old days were not that silly. It would be like turkeys voting for Christmas even the NRA don't have those sort of suicidal tendancies, because that it what it would be for the organisation- suicide.

No doubt all of this has come about because of the MOD and many shooters reliance upon using their ranges. They seem to keep coming up with one problem after another that will either deter civilian use of their ranges or at least seriously inconvenience them. The matter will only really be solved by more civilian owned ranges and less reliance on MOD ranges. The poor old NRA just keep bending over backwards in an attempt to placate or tolerate them in an effort to come to a workable solution. Inevitably the time will come when workable solutions will no longer be possible.

[Maggot]

As an organisation, we dont do ourselves any favours.

We hear of the odd incident, but to date (as an RO) I have never had anything rammed down my throat in terms off accident/incident reports.

Why is this?

IF we are so high and mighty, and are the all knowing, then why dont we have any bloody common sense and allow others to learn from our mistakes?

One of our members was nearly killed some years back. To this day no one knows exactly what happened. There was a very likely cause, but it involved somone connected and that was the last of it.

This was well before my time in civvy shooting, but I cannot help remembering flight safety articles, Pilot officer prune, Anymouse, and all the different ways there were of learning from someone elses mistakes.

"I learned about flying from that" was a classic example of underpants being modified, and the owner living to not only tell the tale, but let others learn from it.

Now, its the NRA, not the CIA (Or the IRA...although you do wonder) and a smart person learns from others mistakes.

Now why have I (or any other RO) or club sec, not been sent details of all these "incidents" in a form that does not name and shame, but does allow us to try and ensure none of our members suffer from them again.

We used to have RTAs, but since most accidents are actually "Caused and have contributors", they are now RTIs....

This implies that they might have been avoided had actions been different. There are a lot less people shooting in the UK, so its mutch easier these days to disseminate info. This would cut out heresay, and introduce fact.

Perhaps a passworded ROs/RFDs portal on the website....when they get the current one smoothed out of course.

[Maggot]

Sim I doubt that it will ever come to that, even the NRA in the bad old days were not that silly. It would be like turkeys voting for Christmas even the NRA don't have those sort of suicidal tendancies, because that it what it would be for the organisation- suicide.

No doubt all of this has come about because of the MOD and many shooters reliance upon using their ranges. They seem to keep coming up with one problem after another that will either deter civilian use of their ranges or at least seriously inconvenience them. The matter will only really be solved by more civilian owned ranges and less reliance on MOD ranges. The poor old NRA just keep bending over backwards in an attempt to placate or tolerate them in an effort to come to a workable solution. Inevitably the time will come when workable solutions will no longer be possible.

It is probably less to do with the MOD and more to do with the companies running the ranges for them, there never used to be this much hassle when it was a locally employed range warden.

[jmc67]

Having read this thread with interest, I for one would not be able to shoot one of my rifles any more at Bisley if reloading were ever banned - the 45-70. Only commerically available ammunition is Leverevolution with a plastic tip, which I've been told by my FEO that I cannot use it there. So the only way I can use this rifle there is with hand loaded ammunition. I've no doubt there are others also in the same boat.

[the running man]

About time the NRA clarified this situation now,as we are getting rumblings across other forums and from club level....

[Chapuis]

Having read this thread with interest, I for one would not be able to shoot one of my rifles any more at Bisley if reloading were ever banned - the 45-70. Only commerically available ammunition is Leverevolution with a plastic tip, which I've been told by my FEO that I cannot use it there. So the only way I can use this rifle there is with hand loaded ammunition. I've no doubt there are others also in the same boat.

I think that you are mistaken there jmc67, or is it the way that I am reading it and what you mean is that the only factory ammunition that you can locate is Leverevolution?
Have you looked in the guidance to police document as regards expanding ammunition and rifles with tubular magazines. What is your FEO's take on that?

[Steve E]

Having read the current journal and Mr Mercers dialogue several times, where does it state that the NRA is looking at banning hand loads?
The only reference is a statement that says that hand loads have been the cause of the majority of safety incidents in recent years. There is NO reference to the banning of hand loads.
Seems like too many people trying to gather momentum on a non statement.

And for the record I know of one forum member who successfully blew up a No4 using hand loaded ammunition and cast lead bullets at Bisley whilst shooting on Short Siberia. Perhaps at times there are reasons to be concerned over some peoples ability to load ammunition safely.

[jmc67]

Having read this thread with interest, I for one would not be able to shoot one of my rifles any more at Bisley if reloading were ever banned - the 45-70. Only commerically available ammunition is Leverevolution with a plastic tip, which I've been told by my FEO that I cannot use it there. So the only way I can use this rifle there is with hand loaded ammunition. I've no doubt there are others also in the same boat.

I think that you are mistaken there jmc67, or is it the way that I am reading it and what you mean is that the only factory ammunition that you can locate is Leverevolution?
Have you looked in the guidance to police document as regards expanding ammunition and rifles with tubular magazines. What is your FEO's take on that?

Yes, the only factory ammo I can locate is the leverevolution stuff (if there is any standard lead flatnosed factory ammo available please let me know as my local RFD could not locate any). Yep went back to them with that info about expanding ammo and tubular mags, and was told by the FEO that they had spoken with someone at Bisley to get clarification, who said that the plastic tipped ammo could not be used on the ranges there.

[IainWR]

Yep went back to them with that info about expanding ammo and tubular mags, and was told by the FEO that they had spoken with someone at Bisley to get clarification, who said that the plastic tipped ammo could not be used on the ranges there.

Hi

Can you email me full details of the statement from your FEO please? I can tell you explicitly that there is no safety or range regulatory reason preventing the use of expanding ammo on Bisley ranges. It may be that the Conditions on your FAC prevent you using expanding ammo for target shooting (which is generally the case) but that's a very different thing.

If the issue is that these are pointy bullets and stacking them nose to tail in a tube mag is perceived to be a hazard, there may be an issue - remember you are responsible for the safety of the firearm / ammunition combination you use.