Switzerland with the British Alpine rifles

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kennyc
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Switzerland with the British Alpine rifles

#1 Post by kennyc »

the British Alpine rifles hold a couple of competition weeks a year in the beautiful Swiss countryside around Interlaken in the Bernese Oberland.
During these weeks the members partake in many pistol and rifle competitions, with differring courses of fire and with a large array of firearms, many of which are now sadly beyond easy use in this country, hence the original formation of the club.
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[url=https://www.britishalpinerifles.org.uk/]
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the Swiss ranges were very well equiped with a superb electronic scoring system that accepts various courses of fire and gives instant feedback of sighters.
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kennyc
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Re: Switzerland with the British Alpine rifles

#2 Post by kennyc »

Even a long course of fire holds no terrors for the bad boys cheers
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the club rifle was the Stgw57 an awesome beast in its oown right, and yet surprisingly gentle to shoot, and very accurate at the standard Swiss range of 300m
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kennyc
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Re: Switzerland with the British Alpine rifles

#3 Post by kennyc »

the pistol ranges were equally well equipped and offered ranges of 25-50m both of which were fully utilised in competition and for the last afternoon an underground range was used for more dynamic comps such as the advancing burglar (turns out I shoot better in the dark ) :p
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even Mrs C got in on the action
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kennyc
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Re: Switzerland with the British Alpine rifles

#4 Post by kennyc »

not quite sure why some pictures are turned sideways although I know others have experienced it ?

on the Saturday we went up into the mountains to shoot at [urlhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gSsb00ZnIVo]"the most beautiful range in the world "[/url]
its a small historic range that originally served the local villages for their military training, almost uniquely in Switzerland it still has manually marked targets, something which the demands of the enviromentalists is going to be a real problem for a small club in a village of around 100 souls (the expectation is that the earth backstop should be replaced with steel and this would pretty much mean that electronic targets would need to be added due to safety concerns) this may sadly mean that the range will have to close in 2020 ****
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to get to and from the range involves a cable car ride and a half hour hike, the Chinese tourists in the cable car were
somewhat bemused at the array of iron on show in typical Swiss fashion :D
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kennyc
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Re: Switzerland with the British Alpine rifles

#5 Post by kennyc »

all in all it was a great experience, made better by the friendly and helpfull attitude of the club members and Swiss locals, without whom none of this would have been possible, the area is stunning and this year the weather ran from 20C and bright sun to 3C and overcast and sleet/snow whilst up the mountain, but the welcome everywhere was outstanding ! lollol
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shugie
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Re: Switzerland with the British Alpine rifles

#6 Post by shugie »

Anyone still using the trusty K31?
Careful now/that sort of thing
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kennyc
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Re: Switzerland with the British Alpine rifles

#7 Post by kennyc »

shugie wrote:Anyone still using the trusty K31?
only the younger set, the club still use a 96/11 langgewehr (and its still damn accurate ) bangbang
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Re: Switzerland with the British Alpine rifles

#8 Post by shugie »

Quite liked the idea of shooting in Switzerland, not somewhere I've ever been. Was reading through the membership info on the website and was amused by the assessment on it for languages,

(a) Fluent;
(b) Competent;
(c) Survive with the aid of sign language;
(d) Communicate when abroad by repeating yourself loudly in English

Somehow having Prince Phil as patron seems so appropriate.
Careful now/that sort of thing
dave_303
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Re: Switzerland with the British Alpine rifles

#9 Post by dave_303 »

StG 57 are so pleasant to shoot as they are so bloody heavy. I remember a range trip with a considerable uphill walk from the car. After a minute I understood why my friend’s back suddenly ‘played up’ and why it would be so kind of me to carry the damn thing. Was worth it, as you say a true delight to shoot.
Laurie
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Re: Switzerland with the British Alpine rifles

#10 Post by Laurie »

Ha! Lucky you Dave 303.

I always fancied having a go with the StG57, the Rolls Royce of 30-calibre assault rifles IMO (just as the SIG P210 was of service 9mm semi-autos). ...... and chambered for such a nice cartridge too!

I was able to examine and handle one in an S5 dealership many years ago. This was one of a pair and a whole load of other semi/full-auto military rifles and pistols from a company that supplied blank firers for film and TV work and gone into receivership. The barrels had been internally restricted and there may have been a few other mods to make them operate with blanks, but were still legally S5 of course. I presume they're now de-act wallhangers.

The two things that struck me were the build and machining quality - the rearsight assembly alone must have cost a small fortune to make out of beautifully milled parts. The other thing was the weight. Gawd, I thought, these young Swiss national service conscripts must be FIT carrying this beast up and down mountains.
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