For those not fully aware the club now has a small number of NRA trained RCO’s and First Aiders. We also have a license from Landmarc to use the Military range complex at Strensall near York. Sadly that license is now due for renewal but cannot be completed till we are again Home Office approved.

We have attended a few shoots at Strensall as the club is affiliated to the Yorkshire Rifle Association – this allowed us to get the lay of the land for taking club members with us.

Aside from the Home Office approval and License renewal we have a number of other issues to solve.

Shooters must be in posession of an NRA Safe Shooter Card for the category of firearms they wish to shoot, members without must be one to one supervised.

Shooters must complete an NRA approved probationary course to be issued with a card, ordinarily this course is an NRA run course in Bisley but by accrediting a course locally –  clubs can run their own courses and issue cards locally signed by the clubs chairman.

To that end we are in discussion with the NRA to have our own course accredited to remove the need for members to travel to Bisley.

Those club members already in possession of a Safe Shooter card can be reauthorised by the club chairman upon expiry (will need to see evidence of use of the categories for which he/she is seeking re-authorisation) – this ought not to be onerous, for eg results from competitions shot will suffice entirely.

When we have the following in place we can shoot Strensall again:

  • Home Office approval
  • Range Licence

This will allow us to take 2 shooters without Safe Shooters Cards per RCO to be 1-2-1 supervised.

When we have the training course approved, we can start authorising SCC’s for members without and open up Strensall to more and more members.

Strensall can be shot upto .30 calibre as long as Muzzle Energy is under 4500J – in practice this means .308, .30-06 and 7.62x54R are absolutley fine. Distances shot are routinely 600, 500 and 300 metres.

Keep an eye on the website or Facebook for further announcements, Strensall shoot dates can be found on the Events calendar on the club website.