Im not a member in the Midlands, but in order to use target shooting as a valid reason for licenceing your centre fire rifle you'll need proof of full membership at the time of application.
AFAIK with the exception of open days and corporate day packages and competitions etc casual membership is prohibited.

What kind of classic/vintage rifle had you in mind? Apart from a couple of .308Win rifles, that's all I shoot apart from a couple of handguns.

1874 wrote: »

Well, Id a few ideas in mind, but something unrestricted preferably, is reasonably accurate, has parts accessible and ammunition that is affordable for centre fire relatively speaking, by that I mean accessible, not something hard to come by.
My preferences were a Swiss k31, Swedish Mauser, not really thinking of an Enfield, maybe a Mosin nagant. Id a notion of a Garand, but someone mentioned they arent that accurate and Im thinking restricted.

'kaaaaaaay. Let's run through them in order -

K31 - hard to find 7.5x55 Swiss GP11 [surplus] and the PPU stuff is also thin on the ground, so I'd nix that one. Stupidly accurate, though, with GP11 - probably THE most accurate near-match-grade ammunition ever made.

Swedish Mauser - KA-Ching!!! Easy to find 6.5x55 ammunition, so I'm told. Mine is 120 years old and hasn't needed any spares yet... Low recoil and VERY accurate, particularly if you get the longer m/96 rifle made by Carl Gustaf, and not the later m/38 made by Husqvarna. The 1938 conversions are OK, and if you get lucky, the m/41a or 41b sniping rifles are very nice, but expect to pay around eu3000, depending what scope they have. Parts from Numrich in USA or from a couple of places in Germany.

Lee-Enfield - PPU 174gr ammunition is the knees of the bee. Finding it is the problem nowadays.

M1 Garand - .30-06 - BUT it uses 'special for Garand loads' NOT standard bolt-action rifle fodder else you risk bending the op rod. Accuracy? It's a military surplus semi-automatic rifle, not a target rifle - expect 3" five-shot groups @100 and you ought to be very happy. And yes, they are semi-auto, so restricted.

I know a lot about the Swiss schtuff, having been shooting it since school days in the '60s, and also the Swedish stuff, but not so much about the other two. I used to have a Garand M1A match rifle, but my grateful government took it away back in 1987, so my memories are a mite hazy on that one. Ammunition was never a problem since I had access to the Lake City Arsenal sniping stuff...them was the days, eh?

I started shooting Swiss back in 1962 when I was out there as a schoolboy. The others in the group went to see a dairy farm, and I went shooting - seemed the natural thing to do when every village has a 300m rifle range and 25m pistol range. I've had my two Swiss rifles since 1989. I can highly recommend them these days only to folks who can reload, as a recent price hike by the sole importer left the GP11 more expensive than the Prvi Partizan [PPU] factory stuff. I can reload here in UK, and that's what I've been doing for years now.

Fingal Outdoor sports used to have a few K31 or K11 from time to time, and ammunition as well, but it seems that those times are gone. It's a real shame, as a K31 with GP11 on a good day will shoot better than any other bolt-action military rifle on earth.

But the Swedish Mauser - early examples of which were made by the Mauser factory in Oberndorf using Swedish steel - are an outstanding rifle, especially if you can find one with the after-market precision sights from Elit or Soderin. The target versions are called the CG63 [Carl Gustaf 1963] or CG80, and are full-fat target shooters with spiffy diopter sights. They are not a lot of money, and were the rifle of choice for the Winter sport of Biathlon. They prefer the 120gr ammunition, though. I reload for my three-digit m/96 using the original 139/140gr bullet. Five shot groups of around an inch are common, although I have to admit that I have one of the ultra-rare Wehrmann dopter peep-sights fitted that gives me something of an advantage over open sights.

Finding a m/96 with all-matching parts is unusual, although finding one with all the GUN bits matching is easier. So long as action, barrel and bolt all match, the rest of it is a meh. Many were threaded on the muzzle for the issue blank-fring attachment, and the cleaning rods and backsight units NEVER matched. You might just luck in to one with a threaded muzzle cap - rare, though. The stocks were never shiny, and often show the rasp marks. The rough finish is intentional, so that the shooter can hold it at -35C. Wood is usually beech and VERY rarely, mahogany. The red hue will give the game awy, as will the eu5000 hanger tag. The wood will be proud of the metalwork so that there is plenty of 'meat' for the armourer to refurbish the stock as 'badly' as needed. Linseed oil was the approved finish.

IF you find one in Ireland, please give me a call before you put your money on it, and I can talk you through it.

I've just had a memory jolt. All Swedish rifles and carbines have a little brass disc set into the right-hand side of the butt, giving details of the state of the barrel and its diameter and, if a conversion, a 'torped strik' mark, advising the shooter of the amount to hold over at 100m to compensate for the 'new bullet'. 'Torped' means Spitzer, not torpedo, and 'strik' is a common Swedish obsolete measurement of around 3/4". The foresight will also be stamped with a 'T' and the rear sight, if fitted, will be set in three steps. Be advised that the disc can lie like a Sears catalogue, and even be a replacement to make the rifle look good, notably if it has a steel screw - the real thing was brass.

Good luck.