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Just had my first day shooting to get my membership to the NRA at Bisley on Saturday. What a great day out :) Really enjoyed myself and met some very nice people as well. Got every other week booked in to shoot in April and can't wait to get on with it. Hopefully I will pass the probationary period and be able to get out shooting with some of you at the range some time. Taking the scoped and TR modules next. Not looking forward to applying for the FAC though sign85 ...

party2

Cheers,


C

Excellent news, im pleased to hear you're enjoying yourself.. :goodjob:

FAC appliacation is fairly painless, get someone to go through it with you except for the wait

Alan

Really pleased to hear that you had a good day out.
Should you be interested in seeing lots of different disciplines, the Spring in to action weekend on the 24th & 25th March and the Phoenix running from the 01st to 03rd of June will give you a good example of what can be shot at Bisley.
If you can make it don't be afraid to ask questions, we all want more shooters taking part in our particular areas and given the chance most will bore you to death talking about what they are doing,

DM

Glad you had a great time :shakeshout: :shakeshout:

Do your groundwork first, have your FEO round for a cuppa and to discuss your proposed set up and list of guns you want to apply for and it will go fine. They are a decent bunch of folk.

Well done for getting the first day out of the way, now you have a far better idea of what to expect and I am sure you will be able to meet up with some of the forum members once you have your SCC in place.

Can you tell us a bit more about what you did first day as it will be handy for future shooters to have a new shooters take on it.

Tanks for the support guys :) Always appreciated! I am actually having a visit next week from the FLO as I have applied for my SGC which has been very quick so far... touch wood! Do you think its a good idea to let him know of my intention of applying for a FAC at that time? Could do with asking allot of questions when he's at the house!

The day at Bisley was great actually. We were 16 people on the course so that meant a bit of waiting around. This was ok since it gave us an opportunity to get to know each other.

For anyone that is thinking of going down the NRA route I would say that so far it has been a very positive experience for me. From the application to the start of the probationary courses, I have always found the people there very helpful.

The idea behind the first part of the probationary course is basically to get people who have never handled a rifle used to the idea of it. As you can imagine, the bulk of this day is about fire arms safety and muzzle awareness, which all makes sense. The start of the day goes through what a rifle does and what parts do what, how to load a rifle, and how to chamber a round safely on the range. We were also provided with some pretty good reading material and safety instructions to take away. The morning was all about gallery rifle shooting as well as rimfire. I guess they start with the less powerful stuff to ease people into it. At the end of this classroom based theory and practical work we had the opportunity to go to the range and shoot both an under lever type rifle and a rimfire semi automatic which was allot of fun :)

After lunch we moved on to a bit more advanced theory and practical back in the classroom. This was mainly about procedures on the longer ranges and especially on the correct procedure for misfires. We went through a bit of ballistics and scope adjusting for elevation and windage. To be honest, the classroom based theory and practical goes very quick as its all pretty interesting stuff. At the end of this session we once again moved on to the range to do some shooting. This time we got to try the .303 Enfield, a scoped rifle and a target rifle, all in the prone position at 100 yards.

Thats pretty much it for the day. It gave an idea of whats possible at Bisley. We should have had a go with black powder rifles as well, but the instructor for that discipline was not available on the day.

Interestingly for myself, it turned out that I actually really enjoyed the target rifle allot more than I thought I would. My intention had always been to simply do the scoped rifle courses after the intro day. Having done the intro I have now also added the taget rifle course to my diary, and am looking at a couple of others in time.

As I said before, it was a very pleasant day out and anyone thinking about doing it should go for it. Far less hassle than I thought it would be and people were genuinely very nice and helpful at the place sign92


C

Sounds like you are having a great time. I take it there is a cost involved in this probationary course? Can I ask how much?

Mike

Yeah thats the 'not so much fun part'! Its £160 for module 1 which is the 'Introductory'. Then it is £300 each for the Scoped, TR and Service Rifle Modules. These consist of 3 full days over three weekends. If you pay for Scoped Rifle, then you can choose to pay £145 to add an extra day to get TR or Service Rifle etc as the courses cover allot of common ground. Fees include all materials, ammunition and range fees etc... oh and coffee! No lunch though...

Its basically the same as shooting 100 rounds of clay with instruction where I shoot... this is my only way to compare it :roll: Its not the cheapest hobby to be sure!


C

Ouch!

Our club runs the NRA probationary course - using their book - it is free (Or £10 if you want a copy of the book) and you sit the same exam at the end.

I know the NRA have to pay staff etc, but that is an awful lot of pennies for a probationary course!

Mike

Oh and where do you shoot clays? - I pay £20/£25 per hundred!

Yes it is certainly worth mentioning your future FAC application to the FEO when he comes to visit you. It sounds like a great first day and I am sure you will enjoy those that follow, I am all for such introduction/probationary courses as it gives a good grounding to the sport in a safe and pleasant environment.

Please do keep us informed as the course progresses.