School Rifle Ranges

[nic]

some schools still have ranges. i worked for a little while at Cheltenham College and that has a 'modern' range which a local club can use as well. I didnt have one at my school in NW London but with the air cadets we used to go to RAF Uxbridge and use a 25m range there.
I recall hearing of one pub in London that had a 'pipe' range for small bore that was from one side of the bar to the other through a pipe!
Also the civil service had ranges (and dojo's and gyms) in the basements of offices in central London.

My current club in Glos was where the Yanks planned their landing at Dday with a sand model on the floor of what is now our range

[Blighty]

Dollar Academy, Clackmannanshire, early eighties. There was an indoor range (actually a really long wriggly tin shed) in the grounds of the school that pupils were allowed to use on Sunday nights. Mostly used by the schools CCF but Sundays were run by a miserable bugger who had to do it so that his civvy club could use it on another night. We used a random selection of .22 Martinis.

Sod all to do at the weekends if rugby wasn’t your thing so we went exploring. Somewhere along Upper Hillfoot Road we found an abandoned full-bore range with all sorts of metal target raising gubbins at the butts. Later found out from one of the teachers that it had to close as the hill behind it wasn’t high enough.

Mate of mine brought in a handful of .387 rounds which happened to be on my desk when he looked up.

[Blighty]

He = teacher!

[Graham M]

.387????

[Blighty]

Damn g&t! .375 magnum.

[Shpagin]

My school had a .22 range. We'd each be issued a Lee Enfield No.4 rifle, which was sleeved for .22, and we'd feel very grand as we carried them from the armoury under the school to the range, which was several roads away, behind the squash courts. We also had a CCF and would be taken somewhere else to shoot .303, which of course had a heck of a kick. Those experiences were my introduction to shooting, 40-something years ago. We had a master who was in charge of the Bisley team (which I was not on) and also the school's Mk1 Bren, which I did get to fire at least once.

My current club in Glos was where the Yanks planned their landing at Dday with a sand model on the floor of what is now our range

Interesting that you say that. My own prep school in Bristol was where Omar Bradley had his HQ and the yanks played baseball on The Close, the school's main cricket field, next to which is Collins' Pitch, where AEJ Collins scored 628 not out, a record which held for 117 years

[paul mercer]

We had a rifle range at my prep school back in the mid 1950's. I learnt to shoot there when I was around 7-8 years old, we had Martini actioned BSA 12/15's ( I think) plus one re-barrelled or sleeved Lee Enfield, the winner of the shooting championships at the end of term were give the opportunity to go out in the grounds to help get rid of some of the Rooks! It wouldn't happen today!

[Pete]

My first "proper" rifle was a 12/15.........£15 from an ad in Exchange & Mart. Followed by a Finnish Lion, and a 9mm Browning Hi-Power.

Dear dead days...

Pete

[38Super]

My current school has an active 25m range on site attached to the CCF building. Only a prone range but still handy.