Clachnacuddin Small-Bore Rifle Club

c/o Wester Blackfold

Docgharroch

Inverness

IV3 8LB

14/11/08

A J Ballie - Dochfour Estate

Dochfour Estate Office

Dochgarroch

Inverness

IV3 8GY

Status Update - Outdoor Range at Dochgarroch

Dear Sir,

Since it is some time since I have communicated on this matter I though it polite to bring you up to date. 

Matters are progressing well - if slowly and in this note I will update you on what is happening on our side, and look at how we may proceed.

The wheels grind slowly.  To show that we can safety and legally use .22 rimfire on your range for 50m and 100yard target shooting we required to locate the safety certificate for the range.  With this we can get the blessing of the NSRA - who provide insurance to our members when they are using the range - this also helps ensures that we are compliant with the law.

A few years ago the MOD stopped taking responsibility for range certification, and this has made it hard for us to track down the old range documentation.  However after much of a struggle we have discovered that the range inspection documentation was moved from an Army base in Perth to be stored at HQ in Edinburgh.

Geoff Doe (NRSA) now has this documentation and as of last night *APPEARED* to agree that the range is safe for our class of shooting.  I probably have a few more days of "to-ing" and "fro-ing" for him to be convinced the range documents he has really are for that range.  The Army appear to have some mixed up some documents with a "Loch Laggan" range which was refused a certificate but is/was also on your estate in 1976!  Geoff (London based) was having trouble understanding that both ranges could be on the south side of the A82 but 40 miles apart!  Long story .. but he is almost happy.

Today I took a walk down the range (first time ever) with a view to looking at the work the club would need to undertake to have the range ready for shooting next spring. 

Firstly I thank you for having the tree branches removed from the cover at the firing point.  I am glad to see the cover has not been damaged

I see three different classes of work that we need to undertake: tidy-up/reinstate, safety and access.

1. A general tidy up of the range area - whins to be cut back etc
2. To reinstate target holder posts at 50m and 100yards
3. For safety we may have to place sand behind or inside the stop butts
4. Safety check of fences and to ensure signage is in place
5. The one worry that the club members who have used the range in the past have raised with me is the access off the main road into the site. 
   
   At our expense would you agree to us having the access gate moved back off the road a little - I was thinking of something like an "inverted U" that could hold 1 car while the access gate is opened.  I think this U could be made up with a few strainers and three large metal gates.  I appreciate stock are around so the job would have to be undertake and maintaned to a professional standard.  What it would allow is arrivals to get completely off the road before opening the gate and for departers to shut the gate without being on the road.

Would any of these activities give you problems?

So where are we now? 

I am confident we will get the necessary documentation to shoot safety and legally on the site, and I guess I am wondering what we need to do (if anything) to formalise our use of your range?  I have no idea if there was any documentation to cover our use of the range in the past or if was just a matter of you raising an annual invoice?

I, or one of the committee members, will contact you to discuss the way forward when we are sure that we can once-again shoot on your range.

Is mise le meas,