From: nick royall, [EMAIL PROTECTED] I have done some calculations on the chances of a vehicle being struck by a stray bullet from Pirbright on the road to Stickledown butts Assuming that 1000rnds/day are fired at the relevant targets and a miss rate similar to a poor shot of my acquaintance then there will be 730 misses/yr 12.5% are assumed to be in the relevant quadrant then 92 rnds/yr will endanger the road to Stickledown. The road will be used "under fire" 8 times/day and the speed of the vehicle is 10m/s with a bullet flight time of 1s endangering the vehicle throughout its flight (not true I know, it is far less). With the size of the vehicle needed then this gives a probable hit rate of 0.0000778 which equates to one hit every 35 years assuming that a bullet passing over, under or at the vehicle are equally valid. If one ignores the misses overhead and assumes that all bullets striking the ground go on to hit the vehicle then this gives a strike rate of once every 122 years. Given the surface area of the vehicle, a ricochet will head back to the entire Stickledown range once every 325 years (assuming elastic collision which is impossible) To put this into perspective if I was to cycle next to or behind the said vehicle the army would have to fire 22 million rounds to stand a chance of hitting me. If that was measured against (not me riding my bike) against a costed increase in the use of the Bisley ranges as a whole on an hourly basis then the vehicle could cost about 17.5k/yr to run and still make money without getting anywhere near a 1 in a million risk to the vehicle let alone any occupant. If such a scheme was possible and proved popular, more people would spend more money at a time more convenient to them on range hire so the benefit would be even greater. I remember about 20 years ago putting money into a fund for purchasing childrens' playground equipment for Bisley. More recently I made suggestions about using redundant space for archery, field target air rifle, clay pigeon shooting and various other "non core" activities. All were rubbished at the time but I am pleased to say that most of these now happen thanks to the enthusiasm of other individuals. We need facilities and amenities that reflect what people want, having stinking portaloos for 6 months on Short siberia and now other ranges does not encourage people to shoot there regularly as they indirectly discriminate against over 50% of the population. I once offered to build a petanque piste so people had something to do on a balmy evening but was told that Bisley was for shooting and nothing else, with a comparison between Bisley and Wimbledon being only for tennis. I pointed out that the All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club held its first tennis championships to pay for a new roller for the croquet lawn! I hope that those who think me completely mad for even contemplating strange schemes are happy with what they get and that they divorce their shooting from the rest of their family life. I am not happy, I am pleased that the NRA is slowly improving its facilities and I am aware that money is very much a limiting factor. Many camp clubs have good facilities built over the years to cater for their members but there is precious little for the "ordinary" member outside of the Imperial Meeting fortnight and this needs to be addressed. When the new Commonwealth Games/CPSA facilities are finished there will be a lot more people scrutinising what we have, from toilets and showers to catering and entertainment for non-shooters or non-shooting times. I was told that maple acre used to be a bowling green, if this is true how about giving a groundswell of opinion to our Council members to reinstate part of it for a similar purpose? I would certainly subscribe to a fund for good works of this kind as an addition to my annual subscription and would suggest that many camp based club members might be amenable to do the same. Nick Why me? -------[Cybershooters contacts]-------- Editor: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Website & subscription info: www.cybershooters.org
