Jim DiGriz

On 11/27/2022 at 12:34 PM, Popsbengo said:

Offas' is still "trading" according to their website but not accepting new members.  I do hope that the 'unpleasantness' has been resolved for the member's sake.

Having been speaking to DIO/Landmarc in Wales, they never want to see ODRC again, a huge shame as they were such a good club.

Due to Landmarc making a complete balls of Lydd for the rest of the year, the Op Interflex training has had to be moved to other ranges in the UK, thus reducing availablity for non military users.

6 hours ago, Popsbengo said:

cheers and lets hope the planning sails through this time 

Thanks, the application has finally gone live and the adverts go in the local paper next week.

FCSA HQ at Over Cassock

Unfortunately since Frank Compton retired there is no longer anyone within the NRA who could be deemed to be competent (using the MoD definition of competent contained within PAM 21) to assess a range that is not a gallery range.

This is why we ran a huge amount of ballistic simulation followed by practical testing with witness screens to prove the safety of our range.

 

Hythe is back open and taking bookings from October onwards.

Lydd will be open from January onwards, RCO's need to attend the range briefing in December to operate ranges.

2 hours ago, Re-Pete said:

I've read bits of this story over the last couple of years, but I'm not completely clear on what happened.....am I correct in thinking that the construction went ahead despite no formal planning permission being granted?

Pete

That is correct.

Having been slandered and liabled by some of the parties involved since September 2019 this is glorious,

https://dpea.scotland.gov.uk/CaseDetails.aspx?ID=122215

There was some specialised stuff coming up at an action of interest to our club, we bid for it but were out bid by a dealer, said dealer has now approached the club and tried to sell said stuff at a stupid mark up, we have told them were to insert it. Don't know where they are going to sell it now.

Regularly, doing target testing at Over Cassock (perks of the job) also shooting the 1000yd target from 50ft to calibrate the sensors.

I'm up there now doing all of the stakeholder visits for the planning application, drink may be taken.

On 12/10/2021 at 8:58 AM, Ralpharama said:

I was invited to rejoin ODRC by Simon Wheeler who has selflessly come out of retirement to help out the club. I thought long and hard and decided that I would not renew and sent a civil email to Mr Wheeler formally declining the offer.

He replied promptly, unusually, explaining that I had “saved him the job” of recommending to the committee the refusal of my continued membership of this club. He suggests that discussing ODRC on here is in contravention of the club rules.

I neither know nor care, at this point, whether he has invented this rule as he has proved himself to be disingenuous on numerous occasions. I did reply to his email, but he hadn’t to manners to acknowledge it in the same manner as he has ignored so many of my previous communications in the past.

I look forward to shooting my CZ rim fire tonight at MNTSC and tomorrow with a centre fire at Monmouth & District, both of which are well run, friendly clubs as Offas Dyke was previously.

Seriously, the creature that ran ODRC into the ground has come back to finish the job? ODRC was a phenomenal club and founded FCSA (UK) to fight for the silly stuff. It is really depressing to see it head this way.

You should have asked it the names of the committee members and what official roles they filled.

Suffice to say he will not be shooting at any of our range bookings ever and neither would he ever be accepted for membership.

3 hours ago, Popsbengo said:

Ah-Ha !   I suspected there was a reason.  These T/R types have strange rituals indeed.

Better not try that at Eskdalemuir in the winter,  the immediate frostbite and loss of toes would put a crimp in one's day 😁

H'mm I'll take the quad out to put out more target positions, 30 seconds later, nope, I'll lurk in the warm and do networking stuff.

On 10/30/2021 at 12:00 PM, Micky_Finn said:

As jim Digriz  states the suspension from the field firing areas was probably because of one of the members of ODRC  (if not the one i know of, it certainly didn't help)    and by the way who do you think that was  Ralpharama but your good chum J .

  If you disagree with how the RCO acted or barks out orders why don't you take the RSO and then the RCO course and help whichever club you join, rather than just criticising in the background.

 But there were others "UP NORTH"  and  'jim digiz' should know who they were ,who upset the range staff    and the repercussions  that followed     ( see you at  Warcop  with a bacon butty when it gets sorted) . 

It was the idiot oop norf, that lead to the suspension. of civilian use of field firing area's, the same one that had a screaming match with the TSO at Warcop.

Unfortunately I tend to have to cook the bacon butties at Warcop as everyone turns up in my kitchen.

12 hours ago, JDT said:

What is up with this club? I'm from up North so never really came into contact with it but I've never seen another club talked about nearly as much as this one on this forum (mostly negative at that...).

ODRC was a phenomenal club, their members founded FCSA (UK) in 2004 as a vehicle to fight for the right to shoot HME target rifles in the UK after Mark Groothius tried to have them banned.

Unfortunately some of their members have managed to cause grief at most of the MoD ranges in the UK, one of their members was the cause of the suspension of civilian use of Field Firing Areas. Which is now just getting sorted.

Having spoken to some of the range bods, they never want to see ODRC again.

The thing is that if the people at a shoot mostly have braked rifles, no one complains. Also if people join a club of antisocialites (FCSA (UK)) they don't really have a leg to stand on as they know what they are letting themselves in for.

However the club sawn off below, a .50BMG Fortmeier with a 20" barrel to keep it below 10,000ft/lbs so we can have it as a club rifle, is possibly the most unpleasant rifle to shoot on the planet, due to the very short barrel the cone of clear air behind the rifle is tiny, so you feel the pressure wave go straight through you.

21 hours ago, Popsbengo said:

Agreed, I'd add though that a civi range operator is under no obligation to use an RCO/RSO of any qualification. However, it makes good sense to in my opinion, should an incident occur it would be difficult to explain away a failure to apply "best practice"

When we submitted the Range Document Package for our new range to our insurers, the fact that all of those running the range would be NRA RSO's at a minimum was reassuring to them.

The RSO/RCO standards for each discipline are written by the appropriate NGB for that discipline.

The only approved NGB's are

NRA - Fullbore
NSRA - Smallbore
UKPSA - Practical Shooting
MLAGB - Blackpowder.

Lantra are not a NGB.

I am at Warminster next week having a chat with the mob that deals with such things regarding civilian club access to LFTTA's and will raise this issue.

 

On 9/25/2021 at 2:17 PM, DaveT said:

Adam...DEFO talk to Chris Stevenson!

To late, Adam has already spoken to me, I'm happy to point FCSA members at MDRC bookings when DIO relax the covid rules, this will reduce comptition for bookings and keep the numbers attending up and help keep the bookings viable.

That has always been the case, MoD safety templates have never been designed for monolithic projectiles and their simulation system has no monolithic projectiles in its database.

I am currently in discussions with Cranfield University (who manage the system for the MoD) about access to/updating the simulation system database as FCSA (UK) has a large body of information regarding the behaviour of non lead projectiles.

The riccochet/clumping behaviour of monolithic projectiles in backstops is different as well, which may lead to different material selection for backstops/riccochet traps and an increased cleaning regime.

No planning for Clerkhill has been submitted.

The previous planning application was withdrawn on Wed 28 Apr 2021.

Police Scotland are entitled to ask for an independent assessment of range safety but it is not new, the guidance has been in place since 2006 and can be found here.

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/firearms
 

On 7/22/2021 at 1:58 PM, DaveT said:

Ralph

Agree all you say.... no way John was a scammer.

I attended many ODRC shoots firstly as a member then as a reciprocal arrangement via FCSA.

FCSA are willing to book Warminster etc but lack local RCOs.

With the loss of Salisbury Plain I was very much hoping to shoot ar IR2 , Rogiet Moor , Sennybridge etc with ODRC.

If there are RCOs within former ODRC ranks then it would seem sensible to talk with FCSA (Chris Stevenson) about combining efforts in the South, Wales and Midlands.

FCSA is likely to become very North-centric so this could be a very good fit for all concerned.

I don't know details about ODRC falling foul of the MOD nor do I want to rake over the politics and personalities in the fight but clearly any joint effort with FCSA would need to exclude anyone involveddirectly in the fracas.

Your thougnts and perhaps any trustworthy ODRC contacts that might be interested?

If we can get the RCO's and there is the demand we will book IR2, however we do not wish to poach members from local clubs that use IR2 or occupy the limited available bookings.

Salisbury Plain is a big loss, it was our most popular shoot, targets as far as the eye could see, all put out by a worryingly keen team, reasonable distance for a lot of our club members and great fun.

FCSA (UK) is and allways be national, we are booking Hythe on a monthly basis whilst the sea wall at Lydd is being rebuilt, when that is rebuilt we shall book Serial 45 as usual, we will also still book Hythe now and again for some fun stuff.

Chris has just been on a range recce elsewhere, however this is a longer term possiblity and would happen after Wacop and Senny have come back into use.

Darren

Secretary FCSA (UK)

Short answer is yes.

After a lot of wrangling the MoD/DIO are creating virtual gallery ranges within the LFTTA's the templates have now gone back to TISS for aproval,

As per normal FCSA are going to be the guinea pigs for the new system

Warcop C10 will be the first template under the new system followed by Sennybridge F range.

Lydd serial 45 will come back on line as soon as they have finished rebuilding the sea wall, until then we are booking Hythe H10/H16

The PoAN for the FCSA (UK) range at Over Cassock was submitted on the 18th of May, it was validated on the 21st of June by the Planning department, the consultation phase is due to end on the 10th of August, but may be delayed if planning are their usual selves. the Preliminary Environmental Assessment is due to happen next week. As I'm bored I keep putting more targets out.

1.000m to 2,000m targets after painting, just drying before going out.

7 minutes ago, gazzarM1 said:

Wondered what went awry...Been a member of FCSA 6 years and remember the joint venture

 

The anti's don't need to try to ban shooting, they can just sit back with their vegan popcorn and watch it self destruct.

2 hours ago, gazzarM1 said:

You should get in touch...Don’t quote me but pretty certain Sennybridge is on the menu