The UK's Finest Independent Forum for Shooters and Gun Owners. Est 2010.

It might take 2-3 years to sell but would release funds to buy 3-4 regional ex MoD ranges and create an all new shooting infrastructure for the NRA and it's mebership, thsi in turn would attract more members and possibly give rise to a more varied competition format....Assuming it is not mortgaged up to the hilt already.

Now that could be an impressive shooting legacy for the future.

The NRA owns the centre of Bisley Camp. All the main ranges, are on MOD land,leased by the NRA for 999years, the danger area being shared with Pirbright. The main camp is a conservation area and could never be the subject of a major re-development.
In any time of crisis, the lunatics appear and advocate throwing away what we already have.
Fred

The idea is about outreach, a Bisley centric mentality is why the NRA only have circa 6000 members. Remember think outside of the box, and what at Bisley is actually worth conserving, most of it is falling down.

I am an ex-pistol shooter, de-franchised in 1977. Since then, the NRA has done a lot for us, with the promoting of Gallery Rifle and growing the Historic Arms and Trafalgar meetings. People like me never understood target rifle shooting. It uses expensive ammunition and limits the type of equipment you can use: hence, we were not surprised to see the growth in "F" Class (classes?--I don't really understand this either!). Many of the current moans are cost related: cost of travel, cost of very basic accomodation and cost of ammunition. "F" class shooters reload, but don't save money as they use expensive bullets in expensive rifles with very limited barrel life.
So my suggestion is that the NRA turns its attention to promoting events that use more lead bullets. At the moment, this is largely the Historic Arms movement, but there is further opportunity to grow this and to introduce more modern rifles that shoot cheaper, easily reloaded ammunition based on lead bullets with or without gas checks. Range may be limited, but the main thing is to encourage participation in what could be lower cost shooting.
Finally, since many Target Rifle shooters do not reload, why doesn't the NRA reload? The sale of empty cases raises a little money, the sale of reloads could raise a lot more. It gives the customer the choice of expensive or cheaper bullets and the accuracy may even compete with that of the suppliers of new ammunition.
Fred

I can understand why they dont re load making and selling re loaded ammo could lead to all sorts of problems if they got it wrong.

FredB - we're doing it and we intend to do it!

Very good points and watch this space!

love

karen

I have to say I'm in 2 minds,on one side it is the national shooting center,and one must have a central premeir venue,on the other hand ure right the state of bisley is just awful,and I've seen little improvement since the pistol days!!!! If u invite commercialism ie a holiday inn,a mcdonalds, spar etc onto the site will that ruin the place? I dunno wat the answer is, I've ideas but it all costs money ,our money! The place needs new hard rules,a tidy up. Ie new numbers on all targets,and the caravans that are sat their rusting removed if not used at least 4 times a year,all the abloutions blocks want bringing out of the stone age,and one rule for all not one for some a diffrent rule for others........

Something that regularly crops up on another website that I frequent are enquiries from sporting shooters looking for somewhere in the south east to zero their sporting rifles. Other website members often very generously offer the use of their own zeroing “ranges” or direct the person to a club that may be able to help them out, and occasionally direct them to commercial ranges that charge in the region of £10 - £15 per hour. The general perception being that it is far too complex to consider using Bisley as there are too any hoops to jump through first. I wonder if there is any way that Bisley could easily accommodate such requests and if operating a zeroing facility for sporting rifles under controlled conditions would be profitable to the NRA and beneficial to shooting in general.

Such an operation could possibly be run by appointment only using a 100 or 200 yard range perhaps baffled or even a tube range????

That is a good idea. We have Kynamco over near Thetford who offer a 100m tunnel facility for around GBP35/hr for zero and load development which is ideal offereing bench facilities with zero wind in a well served range however it only really serves the East Anglia area. Something similar at Bisley would be very handy.

Chapuis wrote:Something that regularly crops up on another website that I frequent are enquiries from sporting shooters looking for somewhere in the south east to zero their sporting rifles. Other website members often very generously offer the use of their own zeroing “ranges” or direct the person to a club that may be able to help them out, and occasionally direct them to commercial ranges that charge in the region of £10 - £15 per hour. The general perception being that it is far too complex to consider using Bisley as there are too any hoops to jump through first. I wonder if there is any way that Bisley could easily accommodate such requests and if operating a zeroing facility for sporting rifles under controlled conditions would be profitable to the NRA and beneficial to shooting in general.

Such an operation could possibly be run by appointment only using a 100 or 200 yard range perhaps baffled or even a tube range????

What about the, er, "Zero Range" that exists at Bisley specifically for zeroing? Is there some sort of impediment to people using that? As far as I recall it is as cheap as chips!