Well, I certainly whinged & moaned & complained a lot about the fact that we aren't allowed to shoot hi-powered centrefire on our range.
So I guess I should show you some pics of the range so you can understand why it was such a good facility for those.
Every 4th Sunday of the month we have an afternoon shoot from 1pm until 4pm, unless we knock of for a cold one earlier.
For those who weren't around when I was really venting about the narrow-mindedness of the powers that be, we are allowed to use:

- Rimfire Rifles up to .22 cal(yep, no fun old .25RF....if you can pin down ammo!)
- Air Rifles up to .22 cal
- Blackpowder(muzzle loader or cartridge) up to .70 cal(which admittedly does allow cannons ;) )
- Rifles chambered for pistol cartridges up to but not exceeding a MV of 1250fps.

As a result a huge number of members who used to turn up don't, because they can't even sight in their .222s, .223s or .22-250s, let alone let loose with the big cals.
But nonetheless a small core who like nothing better than to punch paper on a nice day(or a horrible day for that matter :rolleyes: ) have continued to turn up.
This is the SSAA facilities at Goulburn Range in NSW so feast your eyes.
It was heading up for 40 degrees C today but it was not humid in the slightest and the light breeze knocked the temps down, as a contrast to the gale from the Antartic that usually howls across the range's hallowed grounds! :(
First up is a shot looking across the firing line.
My mate shooting offhand in the foreground is using a Stevens Favourite in .22lr.
At the bottom of the pic you can see my Remington Mod 6 .22lr.
http://www.geocities.com/kombicat/SSAAGoulburnRange_Shoot22-1-06_01.jpg

This 2nd shot is taken behind the benches.
As you can see everyone was using rimfires, mostly with open sights.
Well, except for a friend's Sharps rifle, but I'll get to that....
http://www.geocities.com/kombicat/SSAAGoulburnRange_Shoot22-1-06_02.jpg

The 3rd photo is taken looking up the range.
The first target mound on the right hand side of the road is our 50m mound, the 2nd our 100m mound and the main butts are at the top centre of the pic.
These are for the NRA Fullbore Rifle(Palma Match for you Americans) which is shot from 100yds to 900yds, and Military Service Rifle which is shot at 100, 200 & 300 yards on the left hand side of the road.
If you look carefully their you can see the 100 & 200 yard mounds in the pic.
Our benches are in line with the 300yd mound.
http://www.geocities.com/kombicat/SSAAGoulburnRange_Shoot22-1-06_03.jpg

For those getting excited about the Sharps, here it is.
It's a Shiloh Sharps 45-90 with double set triggers and tang mounted peep sight and front apperture sight.
It performed well last time it made an appearance but the guy who owns it disassembled it and restored it recently.
As such it was shooting minute of elephant today and he'll be spending some time in the shed ironing out niggly things before it makes another outing.
Here it is ready to let fly:
http://www.geocities.com/kombicat/SSAAGoulburnRange_KensShilohSharps45-90.jpg

I spent most of the day shooting groups using my Anschütz 1400 .22lr with Tasco 6x40 scope.
It shot a .75" 5 shot group and thats fine with me considering how well I can't shoot! :p :rolleyes: :D
Now, having seen what nice little setup we have, I'm sure you can understand why we were so annoyed with the restrictions.

Seems to be a waste of a good range ! Why the restrictions ? Politics ? Up at the Quorn range we have 2 25mtr pistol ranges ,200mtr rifle ,pistol range ,Field shot gun, Cowboy action ! PLus there's my range out the back door 200 to 1000mtrs (If I can con the Kids into taking the target right out )

Dave

It's called a range template......that's the problem.
The template includes the firing line, point-of-impact and ricochet range for thousands of metres around, but mostly behind.
Allegedly, on a freak chance, a bullet fired at the main butts could ricochet, sail over that hill and hit something 2 kms away. :rolleyes:
It'd need supernatural abilities and a bloody high tailwind to do it but since it's possible(not probable mind you) they set the template this way without figuring the hill in much at all. :mad:
Just 50 yards inside the far border of the template lies a house.
There are also roads on the map....you know the type that were surveyed in the dim dark past and marked and never built and never will be? :confused:
So we can't fire high powered stuff.
The NRA club can, up to 8mm, because their range licence was established with the Federal Government decades ago before it shifted the responsibility of rifle ranges onto the various state registries in the late 90s.
There is a pistol club with full bays and mounds behind and to the right of our bench position and there is a trap club that shoots across the range further back again.
The only centrefire discipline not allowed is benchrest and it's because our range licence does not fit within the NRA licence specifically.
Mind you, if the NRA club lost their licence ALL of the other clubs would lose their's too and the range, which has operated since before 1900 would be permanently closed.
For obvious reasons we're trying to avoid this.

Politics ! You've got to love it !!!!!!! I'm off work in the next days I'll get on line & we'll disscuss this t lenght ! I have a couple of ideas that might get your regs changed !

Dave

Looks like a nice range, too bad about the draconian restrictions. The 6 months I spent in Oz where the longest period in my life, after age 8, that I went without shooting a gun of some kind.