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I live just outside canterbury and regularly help out with the local university shooting club.

Obviously Covid has thrown a spanner in the works but regardless I have been trying to find more ranges to use myself but also ranges where we can bring new young shooters.

I mainly shoot at Deal and district 25m indoor who also do monthly fullbore shoots at Hythe/Lydd (range currently closed due to Covid)-new shooters must book into a safety course and pay £20 before beginning probation.

Greenfields is the local clay ground just outside town who run a "have a go" stand which we usually use, but for normal shooting all shooters must have a SGC (currently they are doing max groups of 3 for the have a go due to Covid)

I've shot clays at Martin gourse near Dover which is a nice range.

Ideally i'm looking for ranges that can be accessed by public transport (there are only so many students i can fit in my clio).
i once visited an outdoor range nearby that had a gallery range, 100m range and 100m range for black powder as well as some air pistol ranges but cant seem to find out where that was.

Generally at the start of the year you get a large number of new people who just want to try eg several years back we would get 60 or so people come out for a taster session and about 10-20 might start coming regularly with maybe 5 or so becoming shooters long term-problem is the ranges we have used have become a bit more restrictive so now tastes are more difficult to book and new shooters spend a hour in a safety course and geet to shoot 5 with a bolt action .22-not exactly exciting for most people.

So if anyone has recommendations for other ranges they know of or have shot at nearby i would love to hear about them.

Give Stuart at "Powder Monkey" in Canterbury a call - I know he shoots on a range near there.
https://www.powder-monkey.co.uk/

1066 wrote:Give Stuart at "Powder Monkey" in Canterbury a call - I know he shoots on a range near there.
https://www.powder-monkey.co.uk/

Stuart became my local RFD last year, hoep to be popping in for said chat shortly once my variation gets back from the plod.

poll007 wrote:

1066 wrote:Give Stuart at "Powder Monkey" in Canterbury a call - I know he shoots on a range near there.
https://www.powder-monkey.co.uk/

Stuart became my local RFD last year, hoep to be popping in for said chat shortly once my variation gets back from the plod.

Nice chap - I shoot with him about once a month at Bisley.

I first shot with UKC shooting club in 1980, as I recall we used the range at St Edmunds, which still appears to be there on Google maps. Used some sort of Martini-Henry action rifle.

I know the society looked at asking St Edmunds about there range back around 2012 but didn't get far.

though the building seems to still be there there is nothing about it in any of their literature.

But if you have any info on the society from before i would love to hear it-the current version was started in about 2011 but we were never able to find much info on the on that preceded it.

So really, you're looking for a commercial range that's "pay and play"? I'm not aware of any locally.

The outdoor 100m gallery/BP is Faversham. Currently there's a closed membership list limited to 100. There's a waiting list for membership and it's only operating on an appointment basis for members. The secretary may be willing to host a guest day, I imagine as he did a wee while ago for another club, but that would be well into the future once regulations do actually get back to some normality.

Ashford have a 25m gallery/small bore indoor range and are in the process of building an outdoor 50m small bore range. Can't see a guest day being offered fir some time as shooting has completely stopped for the foreseeable. Ashford are always open to new members, but again, all of this has ceased for the moment.

poll007 wrote:I know the society looked at asking St Edmunds about there range back around 2012 but didn't get far.

though the building seems to still be there there is nothing about it in any of their literature.

But if you have any info on the society from before i would love to hear it-the current version was started in about 2011 but we were never able to find much info on the on that preceded it.

No literature I'm afraid, not even sure there ever was much, it was run by some nutter from Rutherford who had a fondness for waving a baseball bat around in the bar when he'd had a little too much ale. I wouldn't be surprised to find the society ceased after he left, it was very small and didn't shoot that often. I think the guns belonged to St Edmunds, and it was one of their staff who instructed us.

Sim G wrote:So really, you're looking for a commercial range that's "pay and play"? I'm not aware of any locally.

The outdoor 100m gallery/BP is Faversham. Currently there's a closed membership list limited to 100. There's a waiting list for membership and it's only operating on an appointment basis for members. The secretary may be willing to host a guest day, I imagine as he did a wee while ago for another club, but that would be well into the future once regulations do actually get back to some normality.
.

For the students-yes a pay and play would work best for freshers events with people wanting to return then going down the normal club probation routes- though i think this year wont have a freshers shoot anyway with everything going on so I'm looking ahead for next year now.

I managed to find out it was Faversham i had been to but thanks for the confirmation-just need to get contact details for them now. even if i cant take the students i would want to get on the waiting list as its only a 20 minute drive for me.

I’ll get some contact details for you.