The way the military assess the safety of ranges is to feed the relevant data into a computer which then fires millions of rounds on a virtual reality range, which then estimates how many rounds could leave the range. A decision is then made as to whether the appropriate safety criteria are met or not. Initial predictions led the military to limit the use of all ammunition whose ME exceeded 3800J. Effectively, they had banned the majority of civilian shooters from using MoD ranges.

The NRA only became aware of the MoD concerns when we were informed that there were some difficulties at Altcar in the last week of October. The National Rifle Association immediately began to negotiate with the MoD as a matter of urgency, pointing out that the revised ME limit effectively banned all cadets and military snipers as well as most civilians.

A series of meetings took place between the Association and the MoD with the aim of keeping civilians shooting on military ranges. Initially the authorities were intransigent about allowing civilian shooters to shoot ammunition that exceeded 3800J muzzle energy. They were insisting that a series of measures be put in place to ensure that whatever was fired there was no chance that a bullet would either miss the stop butt and leave the range in free flight or, even worse, ricochet off the range floor and leave the range danger area in a totally unpredictable direction.

The Association argued against the muzzle energy reduction and the necessity to change on the basis that there was no proven problem based upon accident statistics.

At this point one has to realise, as the NRA did, that the MoD are managed not by the military but by Civil Servants, who are 'risk averse'. They have been brought up in a culture of Service Level Agreements, Risk Assessments, Health and Safety and have an adversity to any chance of Civil Litigation.

The view that strongly came across was that unless civilians were willing to meet the same or similar conditions as placed upon the military to use MoD ranges there would be a general restriction put in place which would effectively put an end to most fullbore shooting.

The discussions between the NRA and the MoD were lengthy and complex, with them setting the problems and us having to offer solutions. As a result of our determination to meet their needs, they gradually became more comfortable with our proposals and accepted most, if not all, of our opinions on key issues.

The most important matter was to get the MoD to reconsider raising the ME to a level that would allow most shooters to continue using MoD ranges.

In early December, having re-examined the problem, the MoD agreed to an ME of 4500J, thus allowing most shooters to continue to use military ranges without the need for special safety procedures. In particular Black Powder and Muzzle Loaders were excluded through negotiation from the whole Muzzle Energy issue.

However the MoD is still insistent upon general conditions being in place to guarantee the safety and competency of all people shooting on their ranges, the details of which will be released in the near future.

To meet the MoD requirements (with little notice) we have had to create the procedures, and write or re-write course material, to ensure that by the beginning of the new season you will all be in a position to shoot as usual, albeit possibly with revised zeroing procedures.

The National Rifle