General Shooting help, and would the NRA benefit me?

[Tower75]

Hello, all.

How is everyone? I haven’t posted for a while, I’m mainly just been lurking and reading stuff.

I was wondering if I can kindly ask the NRA’ers here for some advice, or indeed those that are older and wiser then I.

Currently I’m in a funk with my shooting hobby. I haven’t done it in quite a while due to transport issues and/or finance issues and/or general life issues. Tis not a whinge, but just the cold facts unfortunately.

Now that my transport issues are fixed-ish, I’ve been thinking about the current system that my club currently operates. At present the club holds a “my style” of shooting (precision, gallery full-bore) one every-other month. The range is a half an hour’s drive away from home. The range fee is £20.00, and currently the system is work an hour and a half working the butts, then you get an hour and a half shooting, three or four to a target, so you’re lucky if you get through 30 rounds. Then it’s home time. The annual fee for my club is about £96.

I’m thinking there’s got to be more then that, surely? So I got thinking about the NRA, but in the cold light of day I’ll be honest and say; I know nothing about it.

I’m trying to weigh up the pros and cons, hassle, shooting and cost wise over my current club.

I know for a fact that the NRA’s annual fee is cheaper then my club, but Bisley is also about 3-4 hours’ drive from me. Obviously more travel costs here, but my idea being that I could make trip once every three months or so, sort of stock pile ammo and petrol, etc and go for the day.

However, what I really need to know is; how does it work? I don’t know how much a lane is at Bisley, I don’t know how much ammo I’d get through, how long I’d be there for.

It’s a really open-ended question, I know, but I’m trying to figure out if I’m better off where I am, or if moving my “shooting time”, as it were, to Bisley and the NRA would benefit me at all.

I really don’t want to give up my shooting, but at the moment I’m just in a proper rut where I have no desire to go to my range, spend four hours and get through 30 rounds. Surely it’s not like this nationwide.

I want to reignite that shooting spark inside me. So any help on the above would be highly appreciative.

[Sim G]

I'm not surprised you're in a "funk" with you're shooting, you're not doing any!!! Look North into Suffolk or Norfolk, I'm sure you'll be better served. They charge you £96 a year and 20 quid green fees every shoot?!

Nah, time to get rid of that one.

[Tower75]

They charge you £96 a year and 20 quid green fees every shoot?!

Nah, time to get rid of that one.

Yup. £20.00 every time. It's an MoD range, and we were told the civvie clubs are being charged more to use government ranges.

[Tomo]

My club (Bedford Pistol & Rifle) attend Bisley 10 times a year; the first of this years visits is at the end of April. It costs just £15.00 for the day and you'll generally shoot for a bit in the morning then do a turn in the butts, then do it all again in the afternoon. We usually shoot 600 yards on Century or 100 yards on Short Siberia. If you don't want to attend Bisley that often then maybe you might do better to find a (cheaper) club thats closer to you, yet has club days arranged at Bisley every now and then?

I enjoy the club visits so much that this year I joined the NRA and have started to attend Bisley as an individual member. It's about a 2hr drive for me (damn rush hour traffic on M25!) but well worth it. Booking couldn't be easier, you can email them your request (best option I've found) or use the online booking system on the website. I've called the range office to book as well, although they can get very busy in there so don't expect the phone to be picked up straight away. I've always found the staff to be extremely helpful and polite; they showed me the ropes when I first went in, how to book in, how to log my rifles etc on the computer and they make the whole process very easy.

I get through about 150-200 rounds of .308 in a day (morning and afternoon session) if that helps?

[Sim G]

Yup. £20.00 every time. It's an MoD range, and we were told the civvie clubs are being charged more to use government ranges.

Wow! It makes my club seem cheap! 100 quid a year, 12 shoots on MoD ranges, NO green fees!

And just for entertainment, pe4king and myself don't pay our subs till around August! Drives the secretary nuts, but makes us laugh!!

[Sandgroper]

Yup. £20.00 every time. It's an MoD range, and we were told the civvie clubs are being charged more to use government ranges.

Wow! It makes my club seem cheap! 100 quid a year, 12 shoots on MoD ranges, NO green fees!

And just for entertainment, pe4king and myself don't pay our subs till around August! Drives the secretary nuts, but makes us laugh!!

Ouch! £45 - family membership with Strathpeffer. £5 for Cawdor shoots, plus members can use use the club 25m range when the urge strikes! :shakeshout:

[Tower75]

Oh, that £96 covers you for other shoots. Like our 25 metre range, which can be used whenever, our scheduled shotgun shoots, our scheduled airgun shoots, LBRs shoots, etc. They have a few ranges dotted across Essex. But the type of shooting I actually want to do is only done once every-other month. Just seems a pain I'm paying for a whole club's XYZ when I only want to shoot X.

[Blackstuff]

Oh, that £96 covers you for other shoots. Like our 25 metre range, which can be used whenever, our scheduled shotgun shoots, our scheduled airgun shoots, LBRs shoots, etc. They have a few ranges dotted across Essex. But the type of shooting I actually want to do is only done once every-other month. Just seems a pain I'm paying for a whole club's XYZ when I only want to shoot X.

I was going to say! My outdoor club has raised its fee (for the first time since i've been a member) to the princely sum of £60 - no range fee for members. Plus no butts duty, you put up your target(s) and shoot in details. At the end of each detail everyone goes down (if they need to) and patches their targets. 5-6 details per meeting, about 20mins per detail. 1 meeting per month

[kennyc]

BBS NRPC yearly membership £20 (£30 first year I think) then a share of the range fees at Bisley, once a month, we normally shoot SS 100 m AM and whatever people vote for in the PM often, 300 falling back to 600 with a marker, occasionally 1000, and once a year as far as you can fling 'em at WMS wales :shakeshout: cost for AM is usually about £2.50 and PM depending on numbers £4-10

[Old Chap]

Tower.75 a group of us from this forum from as far apart as Southampton, Hatfield and Ramsgate shoot together regularly at Bisley. If you are an NRA member with a Safe Shooting Cert. you could always join in with us. Hauptman is currently planning a full day (600yds am and 1000yds pm) rather than our normal half-day so if you are interested then PM him. We just share the range fees - no marking.
Regards
Old Chap