Bideford Target Shooting Club
Dedicated to the Peaceful Pursuit of Marksmanship
Melbury Indoor Ranges Project
Help us complete our dream
We've done it once and we need your help to do it again. We've tripled in size with just our outdoor ranges, now aiming for the next level by providing indoor facilities including setup area, club room and permanent indoor ranges.
Simon Dafforn and Dave Walls opening Phase 1
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A little History
​First references to Bideford Rifle Club are found in 1906 in a newspaper article, and over the years the Club has used many different rented ranges, including our final home at Grenville College from just after WW2. This, like many rifle clubs at the time, was pretty basic – a single skin concrete building with very limited facilities. Nevertheless, it was devastating when the College closed and the site was sold for development, and we were under notice to quit. The last winter of using the range was pretty grim - the electricity and water had already been cut off, so we operated using a generator for the lights and with no heating at all. Frequently the generator would fail halfway through a detail and we were plunged into darkness until it could be re-started, and it was often colder inside the range than it was outside (some members even used sleeping-bags to keep warm while shooting !) In two subsequent winters, we travelled to Okehampton Club twice a week – a round trip of close to 100 miles for many members. For summer shooting, we travelled to the north of the region, and into Cornwall, but we stayed together and survived.
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In the words of our Chairman, “closure is not an option”.
Our New Home
We were determined to keep the Club alive, and began to look for somewhere suitable - a process which took many frustrating hours of our time. Eventually, we heard of a derelict South West Water site just outside Bideford, went to view it and could see possibilities there; the only problem was that it was being sold by auction in just two weeks’ time. With very little in the club kitty, we asked Club members what they could give or lend; within a matter of days we had promises of enough money to be able to go to the auction with a mandate to bid; we took a real “leap of faith” and were successful in acquiring the 2 ½ acre site.
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Then the hard work began !
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The Build
It took over a year to get planning permission and then many more months to get a grant from Sport England, but by the end of 2014 we were able to start developing the site. The amount of effort, both physical and mental, which club members put into the work cannot be over-estimated, suffice it to say that it took over our lives for a long time. While the main development was being done, we converted the stone barn into a small (very cold) 10m air gun range, and even attracted a good number of potential new members that way, many of whom are still with us today.
By the end of 2016, we had the range safety certificate granted and we officially opened in May 2017
Growth & Covid
Since opening Melbury Ranges, we have continued to grow the Club through a program of instruction courses in all disciplines and the membership is now treble what it was when we bought the site.
In 2020, Covid-19 hit and we weren’t exempt from its effects, but with most of our ranges being outdoors we were able to start shooting again rather earlier than many clubs, albeit in a restricted way, We had time to think hard about the way forward as well, and in 2022 took a really radical side-ways step when we built two polytunnel ranges which gave us some protection from winter weather. As far as we are aware, these are the only such ranges In England, and have attracted a lot of interest, particularly in our use of rubber crumb in the bullet-catcher which is a very innovative idea. Again, this project was successful largely because of the deep commitment and hard work of our members.
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The next project is to convert the stone barn into a clubroom and social space, which we hope will be complete by the end of 2025.
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WHAT WE DO
We shoot .22 prone rifle, .22 bench rest rifle, air rifle bench rest, air pistol and standing air rifle. Air pistol and standing air rifle are shot at 10 metres and 20 yards, air rifle bench rest at 20 or 25 yards, and the .22 disciplines at 25 yards, 50 metres and 100 yards.
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We run instruction courses in all disciplines every year, and always have a waiting list for these. Many of our members are qualified instructors in all the disciplines, including the relatively new qualification for bench rest instruction being one of the few clubs in the country to have these instructors. All our instructors give their time and experience completely free of charge, and we have a wide range of club equipment for beginners to use for as long as they wish. The quality of our instruction courses is shown in the high retention rate of beginners, and in the progress they make.
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We are a competitive club, entering many leagues and competitions throughout the year, and also run several well-attended Open Meeting in which other clubs take part as well. These are also social occasions, when old friendships are renewed and new ones made, and are a very important part of our Club life. We try to make sure that members can achieve the level of shooting and enjoyment that they want - whether that is just at Club level, or at county level and beyond.
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A high proportion of our members are fully-qualified instructors, range conducting officers and scorers, and give many hours of unpaid work to the Club.
We also host outside groups, such as the Rotary Club, Round Table, the local Stroke Club and on one occasion gave a day’s shooting experience to a group of young carers, all of which are very worthwhile. It is very important to us as a Club that we are as inclusive as possible, and our fully disabled-friendly facilities contribute to this, as does the willingness of our members to be involved in these sessions.
Club Life
It’s not all about the shooting of course !
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The social side of the Club is important to us too, and our bi-annual Club Dinners are lovely occasions, not only to present trophies and awards but to get together as friends.
We are welcomed within the local community, who have been very supportive of us since the day we bought the site; we enter their village Quiz Nights (and even run some ourselves, which is a good fund-raiser for the Club) and try hard to use the local pubs as well !
The final phase
But we don’t want to stop there !
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Although the polytunnel ranges are adequate and have made winter shooting more comfortable, they are still a compromise, and of course are almost impossible to use during the summer months. Our instruction programme is also limited because this has to be carried out on the open outdoor ranges, and so is restricted to spring and summer when we have daylight hours; as a result, some people interested in joining the Club have to wait up to a year for an instruction programme to start and we are undoubtedly losing potential members because of this. Because of the constraints of the outdoor range, we are also not able to offer other disciplines, such as standing and kneeling, or lightweight sport rifle, which there is a definite interest in. We also need to connect all the different areas of the site, which is especially important for older and less-able folk, and to serve the community better, and this can only be done with the appropriate buildings and the comfort this would provide.
The big dream is, and always has been, to have full indoor facilities - a 25-yard range, a 10-metre range, set up areas and armoury, club room and social areas, and additional toilet and office space. We have full planning permission already in place and so much hope and enthusiasm, but this isn’t enough. We are not a rich club; we need to raise a large amount of money and so we are beginning a fund-raising campaign.
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Would you and/or your Club be willing to help us ?
It's difficult to say exactly how much our target figure is, but we estimate between £250,000 and £500,000 depending on the final design. We are not asking for contributions at this stage, but are appealing for pledges to be made which could be called in as and when the project gets fully under way. Please register your pledge below, you can also see the incentives that we are offering for contributions, ranging from pin badges to free competition entries to self-catering holidays.
