The National Rifle Association of the United Kingdom
- Thread starter doodah
- Start date
Soldato
Was a member of a club years back but that lapsed over time - mainly shot our air rifles indoors there personally but could also buy .22lr ammo and use a club 10/22 rifle when we wanted to after the safety talks etc.
Did enjoy blasting through a banana mag a few times - very loud in there though as it was only about 20m long and 4 or 6 shooters wide at the dugout.
Not an NRA member but do have a BASC air rifle sub to cover me when I do shoot on an estate I have permissions at.
Did enjoy blasting through a banana mag a few times - very loud in there though as it was only about 20m long and 4 or 6 shooters wide at the dugout.
Not an NRA member but do have a BASC air rifle sub to cover me when I do shoot on an estate I have permissions at.
Associate
Anyone know of a good range in the South East, preferably Kent? How does it work with licences, NRA membership etc?
Associate
Find one and call / email one.
https://nra.org.uk/clubs/southeastclubs/
You don’t have to be a member of the NRA to shoot or get a FAC. But you need to be a member of home office approved club to do either (with the exception of .22 shooting)
Soldato
I go shooting most Mondays, for a few years.
Actually applied for a FAC today funnily enough.
Actually applied for a FAC today funnily enough.
Associate
Thanks, will take a look.
Or as Jim Jeffries (kinda) says, 'Muskets, muskets give a man a lot of time to calm down.'
Soldato
Would have liked to have tried this on a casual basis. I was into airguns for a while, used to go to field target groups. There was however too many hurdles to owning a proper rifle.
In the US you can just take your rifle out to the desert and have a few pop shots. Can't do that here so its a difficult hobby.
In the US you can just take your rifle out to the desert and have a few pop shots. Can't do that here so its a difficult hobby.
If you have a club nearby it's pretty easy, if you're not too bothered about actually owning your own but using club guns. Mine is £10 a month, and only cost I have on top of that is ammunition and targets, can go as many times as I want, only just applied for my FAC this week so I can get my own.
Indeed they do.
Soldato
Yeah so for me, the interest is just as much about the hardware as the shooting. With air rifles, I enjoyed owning them too. So with firearms obviously there is little flexibility in what you can do (rightly so I guess) so it removes an aspect of what would be interesting about it.
Soldato
I am not sure what you know about the guns laws or what you think. Before I got into it I assumed you couldnt really own much, but you can.
.22 calibre rifle you have have semi auto, but anything over that you have to manually load per shot, bolt action level action, stright pull etc.
But there is no real limit on calibre after that, you can own an AK-47 (all be it straight pull) or any similar military rifle, German K98 from WWII for example if perfectly legal.
You can also own pistols, black powder pistols, regular pistols you can have they just have to be of a minimum length, so either a long barrel, or have a stock on (or a mix of both) and they cant be semi auto either above .22.
The only thing you need is a legitamte reason for owning them, so if you are a member of a shooting range that is a good reason. If you have a lot of land and go hunting that is a reason.
So really, there isnt THAT much you legally cannot own in the UK, its just automatic weapons and proper pistols they dont like.
Soldato
I think if I lived in the US I would have a collection for sure but it feels like a lot of hassle here really. There isn't much call for the hobby in the urban West Midlands. Can't display your collection on the wall. Can't take them places except to and from a gun club. Can't own any of the more modern handguns either I don't think.
Yeah ideally I'd have a 10000 acre ranch in the Arizona desert but unfortunately I don't.
Yeah ideally I'd have a 10000 acre ranch in the Arizona desert but unfortunately I don't.
They are basically tools of death, with a sport element tacked on to make them more palatable.
Since I have no desire to kill anything large enough that it can't be squashed with a boot or a fly swatter, guns don't seem very awesome to me.
In case you're wondering, slugs. **** slugs.
Oh and the people who massively obsess over guns, well you can't escape the feeling that guns are somehow linked to arousal, and that's just weird. It's an instrument of death, not your hot cousin.
Some people just have an interest in firearms and the hardware like some people have about cars, trains or gaming related paraphernalia, etc. etc.
Personally I have a passing interesting in long range rifle shooting, there is something rewarding about landing a shot on target at 100s or 1000s of feet with minimum data or zeroing, but overall I just find the hardware interesting. I have zero interest in hunting animals or people :s
Associate
lol.
Sure, but I don't really see how you can completely detach your interest in the hardware from the underlying purpose of the hardware.
Which is to kill things. There really is no other use for guns, is there? Even a lot of target practice is simulating hitting the outline of a person in the chest or the head!
Ultimately it's single-purpose hardware that exists and came into being to kill people and animals. I don't see there being any getting away from that.
If you reduce things down to that level the same can be said for a lot of things, any kind of club, bow and arrow, javelin, etc.
Associate
Lots of firearms would be completely useless for the purpose you indicated. These firearms are for shooting targets as accurately as possible and there is significant skill and training that is required to do this at a high level.
Forgot to report back on module 1. Ended up getting a train early doors and walked 1.5 miles through a very dark Bisley village, almost lost my shoes to a mud pit 
.
We spent the first 2 hours in a classroom environment learning the basics and fundamentals. This included the type of rifles we would be shooting that day (a .22 and Marlin), plus things like bullet speed and trajectories. As there's a village behind one of the ranges, a stray and high shot could go over the 'danger zone' and land in said village. Fortunately there haven't been any accidents yet. The site was a little weird, 3.5k hectares so huge. It contained all sorts like pavilions, club houses, multiple ranges, B&Bs, caravan parks and some MoD property. Also a special force pub nearby, might have pop my head in one day.
Safety and proper use was paramount. They hammer it into you and rightly so; 1) always prove a gun/rifle is unloaded if it's handed to you/you pick it up/left for a certain amount of time, 2) only put your finger on the trigger when you're ready to fire, 3) never point a gun/rifle at any one, 4) only aim at your target.
The .22 was..........cute. It sounds like it could barely pierce an apple but obviously still quite dangerous if you got hit by one. I was OK with the steps involved (I was a bit naff with the mechanism/order to open and close the chamber). The Marlin was much more satisfying, especially with the lever reload action. Fortunately my aim was pretty decent for the most part, definitely better with the Marlin. My grouping (spread of your shots) went a bit off with the .22 at one point, landing further and further up from the centre. It was a little difficult, as whilst the targets were only 20-25m away, I couldn't really see where my shots were landing with the .22. After a few rounds with both guns, we then got to try the .22 with a scope - good fun! Need to improve on my stance a little, leant black slightly and stay more still between shots. Overall though I really enjoyed it. Next up is an Enfield and AR15.
Two rounds with the .22 and a scope.
My grouping with the .22 and Marlin (as you can see, I went a bit north with the .22).
.We spent the first 2 hours in a classroom environment learning the basics and fundamentals. This included the type of rifles we would be shooting that day (a .22 and Marlin), plus things like bullet speed and trajectories. As there's a village behind one of the ranges, a stray and high shot could go over the 'danger zone' and land in said village. Fortunately there haven't been any accidents yet. The site was a little weird, 3.5k hectares so huge. It contained all sorts like pavilions, club houses, multiple ranges, B&Bs, caravan parks and some MoD property. Also a special force pub nearby, might have pop my head in one day.
Safety and proper use was paramount. They hammer it into you and rightly so; 1) always prove a gun/rifle is unloaded if it's handed to you/you pick it up/left for a certain amount of time, 2) only put your finger on the trigger when you're ready to fire, 3) never point a gun/rifle at any one, 4) only aim at your target.
The .22 was..........cute. It sounds like it could barely pierce an apple but obviously still quite dangerous if you got hit by one. I was OK with the steps involved (I was a bit naff with the mechanism/order to open and close the chamber). The Marlin was much more satisfying, especially with the lever reload action. Fortunately my aim was pretty decent for the most part, definitely better with the Marlin. My grouping (spread of your shots) went a bit off with the .22 at one point, landing further and further up from the centre. It was a little difficult, as whilst the targets were only 20-25m away, I couldn't really see where my shots were landing with the .22. After a few rounds with both guns, we then got to try the .22 with a scope - good fun! Need to improve on my stance a little, leant black slightly and stay more still between shots. Overall though I really enjoyed it. Next up is an Enfield and AR15.
Two rounds with the .22 and a scope.
My grouping with the .22 and Marlin (as you can see, I went a bit north with the .22).