The UK's Finest Independent Forum for Shooters and Gun Owners. Est 2010.

Hello all. I am new to this forum and this sport too. I am from the Nottingham area and am currently looking for a good club in the area. I have contacted a few, but nothing solid yet. Can any of you recommend a good club in the Nottingham area?

I suppose I have been progressing through different sports and hobbies, which have ultimately lead me to this sport. I have been through the whole paint balling scene when I was younger, currently in the archery and crossbow scene (target and field) and I now fancy trying something new - so here I am. I have a good idea of what is required to get an FAC from reading all of the posts on this forum already (which have been very helpful by the way). The only question that I have relates to the actual mounting of the gun and ammunition safes in your property. Do these safes "have" to be mounted to a brick type wall? Or can they be mounted to stud type walls (out of sight)? Do they "have" to be mounted to both the floor and a wall at the same time too? What are the regs? In terms of the ammunition safe, does this have to be mounted at a different location to the gun safe? Can it be mounted inside the gun safe or on top of it? The first thing I need to do is join a club and go from there, however, I have been thinking and planning ahead. I have been doing some research on the firearms available in the UK and which calibres and disciplines I would be most interested in working with and I have narrowed it down to a couple of options. First ideas are as follows: -

.22 rifle - semi-auto + moderator - not sure yet
.308 rifle - bolt-action + moderator - Steyr Scout, Steyr Elite or Ruger Gunsite Scout (target)
S1 Shotgun - Benelli M3 Super 90 (target or practical)

Are most ammunition allowances on the above granted for Buy 500, Keep 600? I kbnow I could apply for more cailibres and setups, however, do you think you could get granted with a higher ammunition allowance of say Buy 1000, Keep 1500 if you have a lower number of calibre / setup authorisations on your FAC? The priorities for me are the .308 and the S1 Shotgun I think. I think I would enjoy working with those areas the most.

Thanks in advance! sign92

Yes cabinets do need to be fixed to brick preferably external walls, as to floor and wall that will depend on your licensing authority interpretation, ammunition cabinets do not need to be located separate and can be internal to the gun cabinet.

As different licensing authorities have their own take on the guidelines it always best to seek their advice before doing anything so that you will get no surprises when the come to inspect.

For increased ammunition needs you would need to demonstrate good reason for having more than the recommended 500/600. For example competitive target shooters buy by the batch for a season to get consistency.

BTW why not say hello as well in the New Members forum?

Thanks Dromia - appreciated and good advice. When I get settled into a club I will invite the local authority round for some advice and a chat about suitable safe location in my property.

I will pop over to the new members forum to say hi there too.

Regarding the purchase of firearms shoot as much as you can before submitting your FAC application so that you have a good idea of what type of shooting you want to do as that will then help you decide on calibre and rifle.

I would always recommend looking at second hand guns first as their is a lot more choice than what we have newly manufactured, in over 40 years of shooting fur, feather and target I cannot recall ever having bought a new gun, pistol or rifle.

You can save a lot of money buying second hand without loosing accuracy or quality, to be honest if you want quality the second hand guns are the way to go as many modern mainstream manufacturers leave a lot to be desired in that department. The savings you can make on a rifle can go towards good glass, never cheap, and quality ammunition and/or components.

The only new gun I would consider buying would be a bespoke one by one of our quality rifle makers/assemblers.

I think Dromia has covered most of what you've asked. What i would say is do a LOT of research into the Benelli M3 before buying one. They're are designed as a combat shotgun i.e. in semi-auto mode they prefer 3" magnum cartridges and the ones i've seen have had to have a lot of work, time and money spent on them to get them to work reliably with normal PSG loads. They also come with a limited capacity magazine (7+1 IIRC), which needs the attention of a gunsmith to be increased, you can't just buy an extension and screw it on yourself, for PSG you want at least 9+1. Plus they are heavier than either an M1/M2 and a Nova/Supernova.

In conclusion they are a jack-of-all-trades / master-of-none gun - Don't buy unless you're in love with it! tongueout

Hello Blackstuff - thank you for your reply, some very interesting feedback in there. I am not in love with the Benelli M3 so to speak, however, I do prefer the look of the tactical type shotguns - hence my interest in one. I will take a look at the M1, M2, Nova and Supernova models. Are there any other decent makes of a tactical type shotgun that are legal in the UK under the S1 category that is also worth a look at in terms of reliability and "straight out of the box" decent performance vs cost?

Thanks!

Hi,

There's a club in Swadlincote, don't know if that works for you. I've never been, I've just seen their website.http://www.swadlincoterifleandpistolclub.org.uk/ I think that there's another one out that way but I can't remember what it's called, it's got numbers in the name.

Found the other club, it's in Derby which may be a bit far. Again can't recommend but only because I haven't been personally http://www.drpc1999.com/

Hi Charlotte the flyer... I have been talking to the Swadlincote club as one of the possible options - I am just seeing whether they will cater for what I want. I also saw the one in Derby, however, that one currently has maximum member capacity at this point in time and is a little too far away for a regular club.

Has anyone heard of this club: -

http://www.nottingham-rifleclub.co.uk/

This one sounds ideal to me, however, I am having a hard time getting in touch with the members there. Have sent a message, but have not heard anything back. No phone number either... however, the website still looks like it is under development? Does anyone know the gent mentioned on the website (Sean Betts) or the club itself - is it an active one?

Thanks.