Building a new 1000m Range

[Dr G]

G'Day all

The Andamooka shotgun and pistol club have approval to build a rifle range up to 1000m. At the moment they are looking for interested people to champion the project and get it done. Another site member (elmer fudd) and I are thinking of taking this on but neither of us have any range shooting experience or competition experience.

Can you guys please take some time to give me an idea of what is needed for this sort of shooting range top be effectice as a range as well as compliant with safety.

Also I will be in Canberra from the 23rd to the 26th of November and if possible I would like to check out the range there to get ideas, take photos and listen to what works and what dosent. If any local members are available I would happily shout you a meal in exchange for a bit of your time. I am also in and out of Adelaide a bit with work so would appreciate doing the same thing at the Para range.

We have the opportunity to build a pretty good set up or to totally bollock it up. I would prefer to do the former so any feedback would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks

Dr G

[trevort]

is that the 24th to 26th Sept? Kerriet and I will be shooting with missed and Mrs Missed (if they arent having rifle swap sex ) 24th and 25th and attending the 500m fly Canberra range 26th. Catch up required!

[trevort]

at 500m a good high power scope can see holes without mirage. At 1000yd you cant so the range needs a target crew working the butts. Thats a lot of concrete so you would want to be having a few shooters having comps to justify it.

Anyway, come have a look.

[MISSED]

Drg you mean November don`t you.

If it is this month there will most definately will be a spare seat in the truck (Treevort can stay home).Anyway it would be good to catch up.

[Dr G]

Yes sorry everyone I do mean November. I have fixed that now

Thanks for the offer Andrew If I can fit it in I will.

Trev, the feedback they are getting is if you build it they will come. That is why I want to seriously look at what others are doing as we kind of guessed that butts would need to be constructed.

When I am ready to prepare the full project scope it will be with two options one at 1000m the other at 5-600m. In this region (opal mining) access to earthmoving equipment is pretty easy the only thing that might stuff it up was if they found some colour while digging the butts.

Thanks

Dr G

[Tony Z]

DrG, the best piece of advise i could give you after seeing what has gone on with our range here in Townsville, is to completely disconnect with the SSAA or NRAA and anyone else in every possible way. Go straight to your Firearms branch and get what they require in writing. List every shoot you can ever think of that may be shot on your range, both NRAA and SSAA and IBS if you are thinking of running 1K BR or the like and ask for approval for them all as it is far easier to get it now before the legislation changes. Connect as many disciplines as you can with international rules. Keep the discipline choices and the range set up and organisation with people that actually know what they are talking about.
The reason i say to disconnect with any State or National body is that you will have people making decisions on your future that have little or no knowledge of your club, range or even the disciplines you will be shooting, and all this will be done at an AGM that you will have absolutely no control over. Keep it very much in house and represent your members and not have have it become a football for those with power aspirations.
There is much more and i would suggest that you either contact myself, aJR or albow from this forum as we have seen first hand how this machine works.
If you think i have an axe to grind, you are absolutely right. If you want to see how a club can get into disarray over such things, call any of the Townsville SSAA club executive and they will give you a long answer.

Jethro Bodine, Loose Cannon.

[Dr G]

Thanks TonyZ

This is great advice and I will get onto our state firearms branch while I am down in Adelaide.

I am pretty sure that the Andamooka club separated some time ago from the SSAA for the reasons you described. No bad blood but they felt they wanted more direct control over their destiny.

Once we have a clear picture of what we can and cant do I would very much appreciate the Townsville crews input and experiences. I will pm you my contact details and feel free to pass them round to the others you mentioned in your post. If you would prefer I can ring you guys (save you the cost of a call).

Also I will cast around for a clearer picture of what the local shooters want and what comps they want to shoot.

Thanks again

Dr G

[ogre6br]

Will you be catering for pistol shooters as well??

might give the club another avenue of competition and/or range approval

met-sil pistol can be shot on the rifle range

but a 100m ampitheater can accomidate heaps of pistol disciplines

there is or used to be online from NSW a range outline overlay for safety zones and backstop zones etc it used to be on the NSW coppers site

P

[trevort]

run a 500m fly and see how many of us make it!!! Or toss out the idea for a 300m that varmint rifles can be competitive in and see if you can get the "great AV Trek" to Andammoka happening

[Dr G]

Pat the pistols and shotguns are allready well catered for. Mainly IPSC for pistols and regular sporting clays for the shotties. The pistol range is great.

Trev I would like to have a go at a Fly event

[malcolm]

I know this comment is going to throw the cat among the pigeons, but have you considered target cams instead of butts. Working the target butts is very hands on, and if it is anything like a range here near Sydney, not even the boy scouts want to pull target frames up and down, and they get paid for it. Wireless technology is getting cheaper whilst human labour is getting dearer. Best of luck with the new range whatever path you decide on.
Cheers Malcolm
PS, I can just see a "Fly " convoy heading your way.

[Dr G]

I can see the t-shirt Andamooka Fly shoot: Shoot the Flys off the Fly.

Might be worth looking into

The other factor is the extreme heat of summer they would have to be pretty tough.

Townsville looked into target cameras didnt they?

Malcom do you know if any other ranges are using them at the moment?

Dr G

[trevort]

Trav they avoid summer shoots as the mirage is impossible.

I think it would be a bloody good adventure to go to Andamooka for a fly. I would hope I could catch up with an old mate who could introduce to some camels again!!!!

[WhiteMeat]

Dr G - The shooting centre thingo at Cecil Park in NSW (was used during the 2000 olympics) uses the accoustic targets I think - I haven't been there, but a couple of mates have and they both said that the targets are electronic of some sort (sorry I cant be of any more help than that though )

[Sam Walker]

Have a look on Oz Fclass forums - there's some discussion of Aussies developing electronic targets. There's a system made in Sweden or Finland that's about $14000 per target ! The locally built versions will be cheaper...