Was over in Bisley this weekend and got some photos, so here they are. There's got to be a person or two out there that's not seen the place yet
(and for those who don't know, Bisley Camp is the site of the UK's National Rifle Association and National Smallbore Rifle Association's headquarters and main ranges. It hosts a lot of competitions, most famously Bisley Week in August - a full week of fullbore and smallbore rifle competitions).

Bunhill Lodge. Most of the accomodations in the camp are like this - small chalet-type accomodations, military in nature, usually somewhat basic but clean and relatively comfortable. There's a lot of caravans on site as well, and when it gets really busy, the tents make an appearance in force as well!



One of the smaller outdoor ranges (the 600yd century range). This was taken from the outdoor picnic table at the Artists Rifle Club lodge, which is next door to the Bunhill lodge above. So you could sit there eating your breakfast watching a hundred or so shooters blasting away with fullbores



This is the Lord Roberts Center from the back as you approach it. The concrete wall encloses the 50m ISSF range (80 firing points, all suis ascor electronic targets).



And from the front:



The air rifle range upstairs in the Lord Roberts, with suis ascor targets. There are three of these rooms, but it's really just one long room with partition walls. There is a problem with the floor, alas, between girders it vibrates up and down by up to 5mm in each direction



There are partitions up and electric target changers for training purposes - for ISSF training you don't always shoot at a normal target, sometimes it's a vertical line, sometimes a horizontal one, sometimes a blank target, etc.



However, to pay bills, some of the air rifle range has been temporarily converted to be an indoor roller hockey rink!



And the NSRA headquarters main offices. Beats our setup - the NTSA gets run from people's kitchens, bedrooms, home offices, whereever we can find space, and we sure don't have all that much in the way of office equipment!




And one of the new stiffness gauges being used to check a shooting jacket in the judges' course I was on. The new 2005 ISSF rules are coming down hard on Equipment Control for competitions, because the rules were being pushed rather hard by some shooters up to the Athens Games, so the rules and their enforcement is being pushed harder back to keep the playing field even.

And what's a photos thread without photos of rifles? Two Walthers for you, firstly the current top-of-the-line air rifle:



And the top-of-the-line smallbore rifle:

Zakalwe wrote:

Lovely Feinwerkbau 700 ALU in the first two pictures there Sparks.

Yup. Not mine, sadly
This one's mine:

Zakalwe wrote:

What's wrong with your 2002 CA? If you don't want it........

Nothing wrong with it, but the 700's got a cantable foreend which would make for a more stable position for me. Plus it's newer and shinier

Fun from a few years ago (2000 if I remember correctly) in East Antrim Rifle Club, shooting air pistol. (Not very well, I might add, but 'twas fun nonetheless).

And .22 pistol as well:

One of DURC's ex-Captains doing some 100 yard shooting at Comber:



The target, zoomed in a bit (you can't quite tell, but it was raining and the card was flapping in the breeze, and the sod shooting still won the match...)

original_psycho wrote:

sorry sparks - their gear is way cooler then yours

It's definitely cooler, the poor ladies look like they're freezing

Daniel trying out his new custom raiser blocks at the Wilkinstown open. Just barely within the rules, but they seem to work quite well. (Must see if I can get a set for .22 standing actually )



Preparing for the third detail on the saturday. An entire line full of air pistols for that detail.



Steven trying out air pistol for the first time (odd, since he's Manx and they've had pistols forever, but some people just don't shoot some disciplines I guess). Happily, we've now found something we can finally beat him at



Of course not everything went according to plan. Nicola waiting here during a ceasefire while Matt fixed a problem with a target changer downrange. (It's a bit hard to see from this angle, but if you look at the windage dial on her rearsight you can see the cocking lever of the air rifle up, indicating that the rifle's action is open and the rifle is safe).

The DURC Colours team at the post-Intervarsity celebrations, celebrating their victory over the UCD Colours team. Now this is the fun side of shooting

Oi, there'll be no slagging of Mark Knopfler, thankyouverymuch! The headbands both keep out sweat (anyone who thinks that shooting standing for an hour and forty-five minutes isn't a tough job hasn't ever tried it ) and provide a means to attach blinders over the non-aiming eye.

I'm sure Sparks will correct me if I'm wrong, but I would have thought that they were a convenient place to leave the rifle down close to hand, close to the shooter's 'shooting position'.

In air rifle, yup - in smallbore rifle when standing, it also means you can load the rifle a lot more safely because the barrel's always pointed downrange.