HOW TO START AND RUN A RIFLE CLUB

Organisers should first select a site. A successful indoor site is one that is in proximity to a comfortable smoking room or canteen. Avoid, if at all possible, dark, cold corridors, but if necessity compels you to use such places, use as much ingenuity as possible to make them comfortable. Discomfort and the opposite is the chief reason why rifle clubs fail and billiard rooms flourish.

The best example of an outdoor range is the Ham and Petersham Rifle Club near Richmond, Surrey. The stop butts are of concrete with grassy slopes in front to receive the bullets. 25, 50 and 100 yards butts are in echelon, whilst the firing point is one long line covered by a wide penthouse which makes shooting possible in almost any weather. The firing point is laid with concrete over which are laid cocoanut mats with stout felt pads for elbow mats. A flat concrete surface about 18-in wide, just in front of the firing slope, keeps the firers in alignment and forms a base for telescope stands

Immediately at the back of the firing point is the Club House, which contains a fine Billiard Room, Refreshments Room, Armoury with lockers, Offices etc. There is also a fine Bowling Green, Tennis Courts and, last but not least, a Pistol Range. The place, the range and the management are well-nigh perfect, and will repay a visit.

Club Ranges have to be passed by the War Office before it is safe for the organisers to allow a shot to be fired. It is possible to select and prepare a site in most localities which will meet War Office requirements.

These details settled, the club should affiliate to the National Small Bore Rifle Association, Codrington House, 113, Southwark Street, London S E 1 who will apply to the War Office for the passing of rifle ranges, of which full procedure details will be supplied.

When the range has been passed, the parent body will issue on behalf of H M Customs and Excise a Certificate of Exemption under the Gun Licence Act of 1870. This alone saves the club and its members 10s per annum per rifle, and in itself is a valuable return for the annual subscription fee.

The N.S.R.A. will also obtain by application to the Home Office, approval of the Club under theFirearms Act 1937, which permits it to purchase .22 cal rifles and .22 calibre Cartridges for the communal use of the members. (Members who buy rifles for their personal use can readily obtain a Firearms Certificate on application to the Police, who cannot refuse to issue one to a person of good character who is a Rifle Club Member