VA_XTC_Shooter
Silver $$ Contributor
Curious which European countries are the most gun friendly in terms of having competitive rifle shooting?
Most gun-friendly, rifle competitions European country?
- Thread starter VA_XTC_Shooter
- Start date
Dusty Stevens
Shiner
I'd have said Switzerland because of the sheer numbers of people in the country (in relation to the size of the population) who own firearms, the complete integration between military and civilian shooters even if weaker now than it once was, and the widespread use of service weapons - old and modern - in competition. The Swiss set up is so good we have a British society called the 'British Alpine Rifles' whose members spend some weeks there every year and shoot things like the Sig P210, K31, Stg57 and StG90 in competition with the natives. Outside of the major cities, some of whose inhabitants are anti-gun, shooters ride around on buses, trams and trains to competitions openly carrying their comp rifles including both their militia issued and privately owned models of the current Swiss service StG90 assault rifle without raising an eyebrow among other passengers. (This would cause mass public hysteria and panic in the UK these days with vehicles surrounded by MP-5 toting special armed police squads in no time flat.)
Britain does well with its access to long-range rifle competition shooting on both private and military ranges with 1,200 yards available on a couple of sites (Bisley and Blair Atholl) and 1,000 on several and a strong tradition of taking part in international competition in the fullbore disciplines both at home and through touring teams shooting around the world. The links to the former empire, now Commonwealth, countries - especially Canada, New Zealand and Australia, maybe South Africa too see a lot of competition shooting with our teams and people going there and theirs coming here. The still large (but not as vast as it once was) 'Imperial' at Bisley every year is the jewel in this crown with sling shooters entering from around the world. There are a lot of such service matches too where serving members of the armed forces shoot against each other both internally and internationally. The overt linkage between our forces and civilians that the Swiss have and the USA has with the Camp Perry and CMP matches with troops in uniform shooting alongside civilians has virtually gone here - we're (ie civvies) barred from entering their comps and while they can enter ours, can only do so as private competitors in their own time, out of uniform and with sporting club or private rifles of the same types are allowed to the public legally, ie manually operated.
Despite semi-auto rifles and all modern pistols being banned for civilian use we've retained and develop a lot of skills in quasi-service sniper etc comps too with several of our people doing well in international comps in Europe. We even have our 50-cal boys and a few girls at Raton every year for the 1,000 yard comps and the King of 2 Miles afterwards.
Germany is very big in club target shooting of all types - I'd think much bigger than us - and there are lots of collector-shooters of military weapons of all ages and types as well as a good number of F-Classers who travel to the UK for major matches with us, especially the annual F-Class European Championships which our Mik Maksimovic and his wife Tina have built up into a week long shooting festival held at Bisley every September with 200 + entries from all over Europe from Finland and Norway to Russia and Ukraine. (We see the occasional American at the F-Euros too - Biff Conlon over a few years back for those who know him.) Germany, like many European countries is both helped and hindered by its ranges for competition - helped in that there are many modern superb 300 metre ranges; hindered in that there is little available for longer distances except military facilities with the limited access to them becoming ever harder and rarer. One result of that is that many of our neighbours specialise in 300M 3-position shooting, CISM / ISSF and in Biathlon type events especially skiing Winter Biathlon, neither type big in the UK.
Britain does well with its access to long-range rifle competition shooting on both private and military ranges with 1,200 yards available on a couple of sites (Bisley and Blair Atholl) and 1,000 on several and a strong tradition of taking part in international competition in the fullbore disciplines both at home and through touring teams shooting around the world. The links to the former empire, now Commonwealth, countries - especially Canada, New Zealand and Australia, maybe South Africa too see a lot of competition shooting with our teams and people going there and theirs coming here. The still large (but not as vast as it once was) 'Imperial' at Bisley every year is the jewel in this crown with sling shooters entering from around the world. There are a lot of such service matches too where serving members of the armed forces shoot against each other both internally and internationally. The overt linkage between our forces and civilians that the Swiss have and the USA has with the Camp Perry and CMP matches with troops in uniform shooting alongside civilians has virtually gone here - we're (ie civvies) barred from entering their comps and while they can enter ours, can only do so as private competitors in their own time, out of uniform and with sporting club or private rifles of the same types are allowed to the public legally, ie manually operated.
Despite semi-auto rifles and all modern pistols being banned for civilian use we've retained and develop a lot of skills in quasi-service sniper etc comps too with several of our people doing well in international comps in Europe. We even have our 50-cal boys and a few girls at Raton every year for the 1,000 yard comps and the King of 2 Miles afterwards.
Germany is very big in club target shooting of all types - I'd think much bigger than us - and there are lots of collector-shooters of military weapons of all ages and types as well as a good number of F-Classers who travel to the UK for major matches with us, especially the annual F-Class European Championships which our Mik Maksimovic and his wife Tina have built up into a week long shooting festival held at Bisley every September with 200 + entries from all over Europe from Finland and Norway to Russia and Ukraine. (We see the occasional American at the F-Euros too - Biff Conlon over a few years back for those who know him.) Germany, like many European countries is both helped and hindered by its ranges for competition - helped in that there are many modern superb 300 metre ranges; hindered in that there is little available for longer distances except military facilities with the limited access to them becoming ever harder and rarer. One result of that is that many of our neighbours specialise in 300M 3-position shooting, CISM / ISSF and in Biathlon type events especially skiing Winter Biathlon, neither type big in the UK.
There are these two characters (Brit ex-Pats) running around in Switzerland and they moved there to have more shooting.
https://m.youtube.com/channel/UC9k2WzcJ1kUMl4KIwNQwrFA
https://m.youtube.com/channel/UC9k2WzcJ1kUMl4KIwNQwrFA
VA_XTC_Shooter
Silver $$ Contributor
Laurie thanks for that thorough summary!
Thoughts on Italy or Spain?
Thoughts on Italy or Spain?
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I don't know much about them except that Spanish shooters have opened a number of new privately owned rifle ranges in the last few years. We used to see a lot of Spanish F-Class competitors in the UK, not so many recently, probably as they have greater opportunities at home. The annual Bisley European Championships always see some turn up. Great guys.
The Italians have really got into F-Class in recent years and have been putting up very strong teams in international matches and winning a lot of individuals match medals. The F Europeans used to be Germany v UK shooters at the top with everybody else running behind. Now it's UK, Germany, Ukraine and Italy and on recent form, the Italians may become the dominant country. Like the Spanish competitors I've met, they're lovely people. Very organised and apparently well funded. As well as lovely rifles and kit they come to Bisley each year in a convoy of identical camper vans and make sure they line up behind the firing points together in a long row! I assume they must have good national ranges given how strong they've become. They were in Ireland in force a couple of weeks ago for the annual Emerald Matches and Team BCM (an Italian precision manufacturing company that makes high-grade presses and shooting accessories among other things) did really well taking the team prizes and lots of individual medals, pretty well dominating the event in fact. That was despite some really hairy wind conditions according to match reports.
I'm not sure about the current position, but these two countries' shooters were hamstrung for years by national legislation that barred so-called 'military calibres' to civilians so many F/TR shooters kept their 308s outside of their own countries and 222 Rem was adopted instead of 223. Unlike us, pistol ownership is very high and there is a great deal of competitive handgun shooting.
dickn52 mentions Norway, and we shouldn't forget the Scandinavians who have lots of their own disciplines and have stuck to their traditional cartridges much more than we have in the UK. I believe their shooting has a lot of 300M too and longer ranges are restricted to 600 or so. 6.5X55 is very much still viable with Nordic inter-country matches and their own regional target rifle, the Sauer 200STR available only in the participating countries and with replacement (DIY switch job) barrels at prices that make us Brits green with envy. The Finns used to be like the Swiss with a near 100% inclusive citizen army and very high firearms ownership use, every little town with its own rifle range, but a friend from Vihtavuori told me some years back that the movement has been run right down since the USSR collapsed, most ranges closed partly on cost but also because the very eco-aware Finns have classified them all as suffering 'toxic pollution' (lead and copper presumably) and they've become fenced-off no trespass zones on health & safety grounds. The Finns like a lot of governments and city-dwellers everywhere in Europe have become increasingly unhappy with civilians having access to 'assault weapons' so civilian rifle movements and military forces links have been weakened if not destroyed as in the UK.
I don't know much about them except that Spanish shooters have opened a number of new privately owned rifle ranges in the last few years. We used to see a lot of Spanish F-Class competitors in the UK, not so many recently, probably as they have greater opportunities at home. The annual Bisley European Championships always see some turn up. Great guys.
The Italians have really got into F-Class in recent years and have been putting up very strong teams in international matches and winning a lot of individuals match medals. The F Europeans used to be Germany v UK shooters at the top with everybody else running behind. Now it's UK, Germany, Ukraine and Italy and on recent form, the Italians may become the dominant country. Like the Spanish competitors I've met, they're lovely people. Very organised and apparently well funded. As well as lovely rifles and kit they come to Bisley each year in a convoy of identical camper vans and make sure they line up behind the firing points together in a long row! I assume they must have good national ranges given how strong they've become. They were in Ireland in force a couple of weeks ago for the annual Emerald Matches and Team BCM (an Italian precision manufacturing company that makes high-grade presses and shooting accessories among other things) did really well taking the team prizes and lots of individual medals, pretty well dominating the event in fact. That was despite some really hairy wind conditions according to match reports.
I'm not sure about the current position, but these two countries' shooters were hamstrung for years by national legislation that barred so-called 'military calibres' to civilians so many F/TR shooters kept their 308s outside of their own countries and 222 Rem was adopted instead of 223. Unlike us, pistol ownership is very high and there is a great deal of competitive handgun shooting.
dickn52 mentions Norway, and we shouldn't forget the Scandinavians who have lots of their own disciplines and have stuck to their traditional cartridges much more than we have in the UK. I believe their shooting has a lot of 300M too and longer ranges are restricted to 600 or so. 6.5X55 is very much still viable with Nordic inter-country matches and their own regional target rifle, the Sauer 200STR available only in the participating countries and with replacement (DIY switch job) barrels at prices that make us Brits green with envy. The Finns used to be like the Swiss with a near 100% inclusive citizen army and very high firearms ownership use, every little town with its own rifle range, but a friend from Vihtavuori told me some years back that the movement has been run right down since the USSR collapsed, most ranges closed partly on cost but also because the very eco-aware Finns have classified them all as suffering 'toxic pollution' (lead and copper presumably) and they've become fenced-off no trespass zones on health & safety grounds. The Finns like a lot of governments and city-dwellers everywhere in Europe have become increasingly unhappy with civilians having access to 'assault weapons' so civilian rifle movements and military forces links have been weakened if not destroyed as in the UK.
dc.fireman
Sling & Irons!
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