Target shooting. I was a member of a gun club.
EDIT:
I believe some people use them for shooting wildlife pests, but that has always been anathema to me.
Did this club operate events cross multiple sites?
Am just trying to ascertain why youâd need to actually own a firearm and why it was deemed appropriate/necessary for you to take home with you?
No. We used a single shooting range.
We all kept our own rifles at our own homes (presumably) as there were no specific safe places to keep them at the range. I seem to remember that the chap in charge kept a small number which he brought for those who didnât have their own.
I think most people preferred to have their own anyway as they are something you become accustomed to.
Thanks. Given that info, there is surely no need for anyone to actually take their rifle home and it would be better all round to have firearms held in extremely well protected, secure and highly monitored places.
By all means book in your specific preferred weapon and pay for the privilege of nobody else using it while you remain a member (or indeed gain a bit of income by renting it out). Absolutely no need whatsoever for ownership though IMHO.
Yes, well as I said, things have changed.
I take your point, though. These days there seem to be far many more nutters about than wen ah wer a lad.
Having just watched a film about yobboes in Salford - âStrangeways Here We Comeâ - I believe that even air weapons should now be controlled and licensed. They might be less likely to kill, but can do serious damage nonetheless.
I recall a relatively recent case and related discussion on here regarding someone firing air guns/rifles at school children.
I missed that.
Firing air rifles at anyone, or even animals is something that I despise. Inanimate targets are fine and it can be just as exciting when you hit the target dead centre.
I remember it was once suggested at the gun club that we could occasionally replace the paper targets with something more animate: swinging pendulums, even burning candles, for example. Unfortunately we never âgot around to itâ. Similarly, I donât remember us having competitions either.
Thereâs a lot of enjoyment in shooting without the need to actually shoot at any living creature.
Given you inclination for such matters, perhaps shooting at inanimate dinghyâs on the south coast might be an enjoyable pastime. 
Or, better still, shooting useless, self pitying fat bast@rds who think itâs OK to murder young children during their suicidal rampages would please us all.
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If I thought I could get away with it, I would!
However, I seem to have contradicted my previous comment, donât I? 
Not necessarily. After all, the boats themselves are inanimate
True, but fat bastards arenât!
Tw@ts like those who this thread refers to are classified (IMHO) accordingly. Dead people walking, hence dead.
I live near Dartmoor. A friend, who has stables and several horses and ponies, lives there. She frequently witnesses cattle, sheep and wild ponies being mown down by the morons who donât think it important to drive carefully when these animals roam freely. Only the other day she posted a pitiful account on Facebook of a cow being hit by a speeding car in dense fog. The car hit the poor animal so hard it rolled over the roof of the car and trashed it. Its leg was broken, a horn came off, its face was pouring with blood, covered in cuts all over, and with a burst stomach. And it was still trying to walk up the road to its friends.
Can you imagine in this situation a farmer having to drive to the police station to get his gun to put the poor creature out of its misery? No, sorry, but that idea is untenable.
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Absolutely. You make a very good point. There should indeed be exceptions for people like farmers who have a good reason for keeping a gun.
He should have shot the moron who drove into his animal too. Just my opinion, you understand.
@Bathsheba Hi Bathsheba we get the same problem around here because we are surrounded by ancient common land grazed mainly by sheep and cattle . I understand when animals are injured a vet is called to dispatch them humanly because they are usually on public land and random shooting by farmers would be a danger to the public.
Perhaps, then, farmers might be allowed to possess captive bold despatchers like the vets use?
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Sorry Meg, what I didnât include in the account was that the Livestock Protection Officer attended the incident as well as the farmer. I canât imagine the farmer would have been shooting randomly. Iâm quite sure he would have treated the incident with extreme care.
Oh dear. My apologies. I meant captive BOLT, not BOLD.
And hopefully you meant âdefinitelyâ, as I wasnât being intentionally defiant! 