West Atholl Rifle Club

WARC v Cawdor Crosses Shoot
Results

Electronic Target Update

Over the close season, we have carried out a total target and heat shield refurbishment, many thanks are due to all those involved in this work.

All targets now have the latest circuit boards and sensors, both acoustic and temperature. The sensor cabling is now located in trunking to protect them from damage by rodents.

Our targets are now fully compliant with the original Kongsberg specifications.

Work is ongoing in the Butts to re-route the target cables in conduit to eliminate the risk of standing on cables when targets are raised.

We had an Engineer from KTS on the range and he has reprogrammed all the circuit boards to the latest revision. The targets were tested and all are performing as they should.

The following changes will be made to the way we work on shooting days. These changes are necessary to allow us to better determine whether we have a shooter problem or a system problem, this in turn will help build confidence in the system and may also help control damage.

1. The target faces will be kept free from bullet holes by patching all holes on the white surface on a daily basis. At the start of the day the faces must be checked and any holes patched. At the end of the day all new holes will be patched. White patches will be kept in the target shed for this purpose. Please return them to the plastic box to keep them dry. By adopting this practice we will be in a position to verify whether very wide shots are real or system related. Wide shots should have a corresponding hole in the target face.

2. At set up, the top channels will be checked for holes, all holes will be patched and channels will be re-checked at the end of the day and the result recorded. A photographic record may also be kept.

External organisations using the range may be charged for any damage caused.

3. At the firing point, when switching on the power to the monitors, the monitors will be left to set themselves, they will do this up to the point where the target size for the distance has to be selected. Till that point, no one will press buttons to confirm any part of the set up process. This takes a few minutes, but not overlong.

All monitors are currently set identically, members should restrict button pressing to the zoom, new series and next ten shots buttons, unless you know (for certain) what you are doing.

4. We have fitted heavy duty tarpaulins in the butts, these are much heavier than the old tarps. and need to be handled with care. They must be removed from the top of the mantlet then either rolled up and lowered onto the target steady bars or left unrolled and lowered carefully into the gallery. If the second option is used the loose ends must be secured with the ropes provided.

5. The yellow aiming marks for checking sight settings MUST be used by anyone not certain of their zero or elevation settings. Everyone should have a card or notebook listing their elevations for each distance and ammunition type. Dymo tape showing the elevations stuck on the stock is also worth doing.

Everything has been done to ensure a trouble free year ahead. Please all do your bit to minimise damage by double checking sight settings against known records, especially ensure that adjustable foresights are properly set, telescope settings not a full turn out, and that everything is tightened and not hanging loose.

Good Shooting

John Potter

RCO Instruction Manual (Edition Seven)

Latest NRA RCO Instruction Manual is now available from the NRA web site.

Another Successful Work Day - Sunday 19th February 2017

Ten volunteers turned out on Sunday and the following work was completed

Holes in back stop filled in.
New sighting disc erected.
New Siberian larch top rails fitted.
New tarpaulins fitted.
Damaged centre rubber on target 2 replaced and top channel fitted.
Wiring work progressed, now almost complete.
Two broken target shed windows repaired.

All in all, a good days work by our volunteers and thanks are due to the 25 members who have helped over the 103 man days spent on this work since the season ended.

To those fit and able members who have kept their heads down, look forward to Duty Member duties at this years shoots.

John Potter

Successful Work Day - Sunday 12th February 2017

Sunday's work day went well, all sixteen who said they would help, turned up together with two others.

Eighteen is a very good effort, I received apologies from eleven members who had previous commitments or were in Africa! At least another dozen were not able to help for health reasons and others live an unreasonable distance from the range to expect them to help. There were very few probably around ten who presumably have heart and kidney problems, heart lazy or kidnae be bothered. They know who they are!

We have completely cleared our workshop ready for the new tenant and all club targets are in their frames and covered from the weather. All target faces are in the shed and all spares and materials are in the back shed, where there is now a distinct lack of space.

Richard Scott has some minor wiring work still to be completed and he is due many thanks for re-wiring all targets and enclosing the cables in trunking to make them rodent proof. We also have six superb Siberian Larch tarp support rails to fit, these thanks to the good work of Alan Manson. Downside is that we now need additional counterweights to re-balance the frames, all offers of suitable weights are welcome.

Thanks are also due to all those who brought trailers yesterday, these made a tremendous difference and saved us a lot of time.

Fingers crossed that all systems work as expected, when we start the system.

John Potter

Home Office Approved Club - New Fees Proposals

The Home Office has published a consultation which seeks views on the implementation of new fees for firearms licences that are issued by the Home Office including fees for Approval of shooting clubs.

The proposals are based on setting the level of fees at rates that allow full cost recovery; the view of the NRA is that the rates quoted are wholly disproportionate to the actual work required and are either incorrectly calculated or represent a fundamentally inefficient processes.

NRA Range Conducting Officer - Status

NRA RCO qualification lasts for 6 years after last renewal/successful course completion.

If you have a NRA RCO card then please check it to ensure it is still valid. There is only a certain amount of grace period for renewal. Otherwise the full course will have to be completed again.

The relevant NRA web page is here for course details. The RCO renewal form (2017) is here.