Courtlough Centrefire range addition.

cosieman

Apparently Courtlough is getting a centrefire range next year or in the upcoming future.
Rifles need to be sound moderated for it though.

bobbie78

Thats good news closer to home for me! Im a member in the midlands and sometimes in can be a pain in the ass driving down from dublin if your not in the mood of driving. Do you know what distance the centrefire range is going to be?

cosieman

I do not know what the distance was be i was just talking to the lads in the shop about it. Shame they did not make their pistol range suitable for centrefire be handy for people to be able to use their centrefire handguns without going to midlands.

robertpatterson

Id say they lost revenue when they brought in their policy of having to be a member to shoot on the range
Also there's a centrefire range not too far away from there already in the Naul

cosieman

You do not need to be a member to use the shotgun range.

Cass

Because shotgun ranges are not authorised the same as rifle ranges as clay pigeon shooting is not classed as target shooting. So while a shotgun range may have members, legally speaking there is nothing to stop anyone shooting clays, anywhere. Once it's safe.

Gorgeousgeorge

cosieman wrote: »

I do not know what the distance was be i was just talking to the lads in the shop about it. Shame they did not make their pistol range suitable for centrefire be handy for people to be able to use their centrefire handguns without going to midlands.

Does harbour house allow cf pistol?

Captainaxiom

Gorgeousgeorge wrote: »

Does harbour house allow cf pistol?

Yes and so does the new place at Atlantic shooting outside Carlow

cosieman

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/107384969#Comment_107384969

Seen members with centrefire pistols at the courtlough range.

Know its a old thread

Was curious about any news about the centerfire rifle range

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/107378840#Comment_107378840

courtlough pistol range is centerfire

tonysopprano

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121393280#Comment_121393280

Please clarify, as no mention on website,

https://courtlough.ie/shooting-grounds/

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121393675#Comment_121393675

I am a member there and have seen certerfire pistols being used there . Think there was a ISSP ? pistol competition there last month

freddieot

That's great to hear. I think the question though was whether they now have a 100 y rifle range. If so is it centrefire ?

I understand that this has been on the drawing board, for years, but it never seems to happen.

Anyone any news on that?

cosieman

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121396575#Comment_121396575

They do have a 100 yard rimfire range apparently it is not 100 yard i is like 95 or 90 or something but that could just be one bloke with a dodgy range finder.

garrettod

There has been talk of a cf rifle range there for a good few years...kinda wonder if it'll ever happen, at this stage.

I didn't think the pistol range (which in itself, is quite limited) was open to cf tbh, but delboythedub is correct, there was an IPA competition there recently.

Hack12

It's dead from what I can see. The Adventure Park was built beside where the two 100M ranges were going to be.

slipperyox

The rimfire range is .22lr ONLY. IIRC,

cosieman

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121440294#Comment_121440294

Your correct but there was talks years ago for a centerfire range

freddieot

I've been hearing rumours about a new centrefire range opening next year. Unfortunately it's the same rumours since about 2011 or so and probably even earlier.

It's a shame. Courtlough has great facilities already and it would be a brilliant addition in the greater Dublin area. I assume it's down to planning, noise, neighbours or something like that.

Maybe someone from there could comment. I'd imagine that a 100 centrefire rifle and a 25 centrefire handgun range would have a huge impact on membership.

Cass

The range SIs (622/2011) have plenty of laws and rules regarding ranges but also specifics regarding HME rifles.

Now there are not a huge amount of rifles that fall into that category but more than you would think. High muzzle energy rifles conjure up notions of a 338 or even 50 cal but a 300 win mag with factory ammo and some 308s could reach or exceed the threshold of 4500j.

This means they cannot be shot at distance of less than 300 metres

There is also the issue (and I haven't read the SI in years so I'll paraphrase and am open to correction) of baffles, overhead baffles, danger area behind the range, zeroing area, etc

It's not a huge job to create such a range but in the case of Courtlough, and someone can let me know the details, it could be limited by location. Empty and available land may be scarce and/or expensive.

Then there are the usual suspects of increased noise in the area, complaints from residences in the area, objections, etc

I have never been to Courtlough and don't know the range or area so the above is guess work but the red tap would be worse than the building of such a range so the range operator's must weigh up cost versus benefit.

Rifter

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121444997#Comment_121444997

Cass just reference HME rifles

Where exactly is the logic in the 300m coming from?

otmmyboy2

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121445335#Comment_121445335

Presumably giving the bullets 300m of distance to bleed off some of the energy down to a more manageable level.

JP22

As Cass says, it’s all about energy and distance (don’t forget Irish politics) plus add in shooting area required plus safety area on top of this and then the issue of noise/locals/planning/etc……

Just look at the recommended safe zone for 12G shotguns, in olden days it was never an issue -  12g safe zone is about 300m.

One of our club members was suspended for shooting too close to farm building’s, he was shooting 200m from cattle sheds but 12g was landing on the roof, no damage but landowner was in buildings at time and complained.

Cass

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121445335#Comment_121445335

Short answer, I don't know.

Slightly longer answer is it may be to do with HME rifles being apt for long range stuff and people applying for them for such so why would you go for one and plink at 100 yards with one? IOW it ti s in with the good reason when applying for one and it's a, albeit weak, way to ensure the rifle is used for the purpose it was applied for.

I'm sure safety concerns were an issue but tests show nothing goes through a baffle filled with 17inches of sand, nothing. Even into bare (compacted) sand the deepest penetrations, iirc, was about 12 inches.

I also believe that for ranges with a limited danger zone they don't want rifles to be able to have a much longer range so if you build a 300mtr+ range the danger zone is most likely to be be such that it covers the max range of the HME rifles range.

Again this is guess work.

Rifter

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121448504#Comment_121448504

Thats fair enough but my thought process was in relation to what you said about the sand, regardless of the muzzle energy of the caliber it is not magically passing through a sand backstop/berm so, to me, a min distance seems irrelevant

Cass

As said above its a guess as I was not involved in the thought process of why there are minimum distances.

The other thing to note is that this affects only a few calibers and even within those calibers with the right ammo combo.

4,500 joules is a huge "target" to hit. A 308 with a hot load, some 30-06 and 300 wm may reach it but again with hot loaded ammo. Nothing below this will. That leaves only 8mm, 338 and larger calibers of which there are few in the entire country.

You'd have to run a 300wm with 180gr bullet at over 3500fps to achieve these limits. Not impossible but hard done with factory ammo. Superformance might make it, so for the majority of ammo you'd be safe enough.