Germany

A quote from a colleague in the business in Germany.

".....  it looks like the regulations may be getting stricter over here where the ground will need to apply for permits for each trap showing where it is and the angle, height and distance it throws. This can then not be changed without changing the permit."

Pretty much a horror story for us hedge monkeys! Being limited to one or two fixed layouts sounds totally ridiculous to me. Let's hope it doesn't get absorbed into EU law just in time for us to adopt it before we pull out! 

Must admit that it sounds completely nuts. Next they'll be saying that live targets must be trained to take a predetermined path before being shot!

Wow that sounds horrific what would be the reason for that? Just a way of ensuring that the NIMBY's can control the gun clubs? I do know that things are getting bad even in France. There are great pressures being out on clubs mostly due to noise issues. Though why people should be allowed to knowingly build a house next to an established shooting ground is beyond me. If you are going to build then you have to live with the known noise issues planning should be allowed only with the caveat that objections to noise from the gun club cannot be raised as the situation was known before building commenced and was taken account when the planning application was granted!

@shootkle - is this something that you've heard of in Germany?   I know that beaurocracy is tight in Germany, but this seems like a very heavy overhead for the grounds there. 

No, not yet.

@Nimbusgb your colleague has an information source for that?

I think there are a couple of uk shooting grounds that already adhere to this law ???

i call that BS .... .

how can you take this as "serious piece of information"?

shootkle said:

No, not yet.

@Nimbusgb your colleague has an information source for that?

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He is a sales manager for a major manufacturer and based in Germany, not generally given to BS.

I´ve also not heard anything, i´ll ask at the weekend when i go shooting.

That's quite possible. There was just an Initiative in the German Parlament from the Green Party for tightening gun laws. 

Such a change would be crazy for Sporting or Fitasc shooting and another attempt to destroy the interest in sport shooting.

Next weekend I will shoot Fitasc and ask the ground manager. 

I am pretty sure this issue came up a few years ago. It was a couple of years after the World FITASC at Dornsberg in 2002, and the ground was going to put on a big (Kreigoff ?) sponsored shoot. it was mooted that the ground would be unable to move its traps around and that cast a doubt to UK shooters whether it would be worth going over. I think in the end the restrictions were not applied and the shoot ran OK.

Leigh H

On further investigation this appears to be a lot more than conjecture. Seems there are at least 3 grounds currently being subjected to very strict controls.

Unfortunately it's true. According to my information the permit for a clay shooting range is related to specific machines and their specific trajectories. There is a certain variation possible. So in the application you can define potential places for machines and potential trajectories in addition to the current trajectories -  if the government employee is cooperative. But in general the permit is related to specific machines and specific trajectories. If you change the trajectories of the machines defined in the permit you lose the permit.

What next...where exactly you have to shoot the target through its travel and ensure the shot lands within a specific area!

how on earth could this law / rule  be policed ?    sounds pathetic to me .!  

dr. lecter said:

how on earth could this law / rule  be policed ?    sounds pathetic to me .!  

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It does sound crazy but it is now taking hold. 

brexit may save us from following this idea, sounds just another nail in the shooters coffin.

I used to travel to cologn through the neatherlands  on a regular basis about once every  2 months or so,,this was about 20 years ago and was amazed sitting in a traffic que outside a large city to se a man with shotgun shooting rabbits on the verge at the side of the road not once but many times. guess things must have changed somewhat

danq