Rugeley Rifle Club - The Wall

Aim

To replace our 51-year-old, 110 yard long, range wall. The wall safely protects our boundary with Wharf Road and our neighbours.

Who are we?

We are a voluntary members club providing facilities for members to take part in precision target shooting. Yes, we spend a lot of time and effort to put little holes in paper, but we do it with precision! 

Our Ranges - We are lucky to have 4 ranges 

• a 25-yard indoor smallbore range  
• an outdoor smallbore range for 50m and 100yd prone. 
• our 3rd range is used for 6yd/10m airguns on paper targets and also 50m electronic targets for smallbore. 
• The final range is our 10m electronic target range for airguns.

Our members range from 9 yrs. to 88 yrs. and cover all abilities. We pride ourselves on being able to support less able shooters to continue the sport when they are no longer able to assume the prone shooting position. In fact, we are a disability hub club with members shooting locally, nationally, internationally and at the Paralympics.

Pictured are a promising future Olympian hopefull air pistol shooter Pippa, Ryan Cockbill our Paralympic rifle shooter, and Olivia Beech one of our junior medal winners this year.

Shooting Success
In this Summer’s National Smallbore Rifle Association (NSRA) Team Leagues Rugeley had 2 Teams in the National Prone League (Dewar), 2 Teams in both 10m Air Rifle and 10m Air Pistol Leagues and 4 Teams in the 50m Prone League. In all but the Dewar our ‘A’ Teams were shooting in Division 1.

We managed to win with our National League ‘B’ Team and our 50m ‘C’ Team. 

In last Winter competitions our major success was winning the 10m Air Rifle League – Division 1 this was our 5th 10m Air rifle successes (all in Division 1) in the last 5 shot competitions since Summer (2018). No competitions during Summer (2020) and Winter (2021-22) due to Covid 19.

Training
We train existing and new shooters all the time in order to keep the performance improvement momentum going.

We pride ourselves in offering young people the opportunity to try shooting and to instil safe shooting skills. We are a member of SCVYS (Staffordshire Council of Voluntary Youth Services) and all our instructors are DBS checked. We partner with the local youth group VYSIONS to provide activities for young people.

Each year we run a number of weekend sessions for young people to have-a-go at air rifle and air pistol precision shooting. Last year and this year, in collaboration with Visions youth group, we also ran a 7-day youth camp based at Burntwood target sprint range and at Rugeley RC where we also trained the young people in shooting .22 rimfire rifles and ran competitions in all disciplines to which parents were invited. Pictured are this year's shooters.

Community impact

We like to play our part in the local community and raised £1000 towards our Public Access Defibrillator on our outside wall. We also invited the Rugeley and District Community First Responders (RADCFR) to run a number of first aid courses including how to use the defibrillator. We have since raised a further £1000 towards the running costs of RADCFR. Seen here presenting the latest cheque to their representative.

We also reach out to various other groups in our community to invite them to see how we can help others to enjoy our sport. This year we built an airgun range in the tennis court at Ravenhill Park as part of the Brereton Carnival and encouraged the public to come and have a go at the same time as raising funds for our charities. High on our agenda is encouraging members of the community to whom other sports are beyond their physical ability.

How our project will be United by Birmingham 2022 Commonwealth Games

I was lucky enough to be selected as a volunteer at the B2022 games and saw at first-hand how inspiring the games were to the public. Precision target shooting is a great, low impact, accessible way to enjoy a challenging sport, and we hope that following the Commonwealth Games in Birmingham many more people of all ages and abilities will be inspired to take up a sport and rise to the challenge of target shooting. With our Crowdfunder kicking off in October we hope that Rugeley Rifle Club can be part of the legacy of the games, especially in inspiring younger people with less disposable income and our older members to take up precision target shooting.

Why are we crowdfunding?

Following on from our original Crowdfunding Project, 'Rugeley Rifle Club - Targeting Success for 2021', we were able to retain most of our members and remain financially secure. 

So our strong finances along with some government covid grants and dipping into our reserves, we were able to build a well needed lounge extension to our clubroom, replace all our radiators and piping, and move and improve our kitchen area. As per the pictures below.

The Wall

Our range boundary wall is now 51 years old and is showing its age. Also, the roots of the trees on the roadside of the wall are undermining the wall and causing damage as can be seen in the photos.
The wall is 110 yards long and estimates show it will cost around £11,000 to replace.
As the wall provides a safe barrier to the road users and houses beyond, it is important that it is replaced soon. If it were to fall down, shooting on the outdoor range would have to cease. The outdoor range is used multi days per week in the summer and at least 1 day a week in winter, with the hardier members shooting in all conditions even during a thunderstorm. Losing this facility would be a big blow to our members and their competitions which mainly use this range.

How we’ll spend the money raised

All the £11,000 will be spent on replacing the wall and making good the range surface and the pathway on the roadside. If we reach a stretch target of £15,000, we could also replace part of our side pathway and entrance to improve security and accessibility for wheelchairs.

How you can play your part

There are four simple ways to help us reach our target and make this project a reality.

1. Make a pledge. Don’t delay if you’re going to support us because momentum is key to our success!

2. Spread the word. Share our project on your social media pages and tell the world to get behind us! The more people we reach, the more support we will get.

3. Offer rewards. Get involved if you are a local business by donating things we can offer to our supporters. We will give you a shout out!

4. Create a fundraiser of your own. Use the button on our page to get started. Setting up your own page only takes a few minutes, and you won’t need any bank details. Just a fun idea!

This project successfully funded on 11th November 2022