Did clay shooting on a stag do once. Did okay as I hit 29 out of 30 clays. Have never felt the compulsion to have another go. Archery however, I do fancy trying.

davyK wrote:

Maybe ammo storage is a better solution? Maybe you should only be allowed to have so many rounds at any one time?  Maybe there is a rule for that already? Wouldn't mind giving clay shooting a go actually.

I don't know about that, I'll ask the FAO when I see them but I am planning on buying them in batches of 1,000 as that is the quantity my friends buy them in.

That could be to do with the fact that shotgun cartridges on their own aren't really dangerous whereas if you hit a bullet with a nail and a hammer it does go bang with some considerable velocity behind it.

Thank god I said "could be"!

As i said did before your average burglary here in the UK is some smackhead looking for jewellery and some cash. They usually last 20mins or less. 

The safe is a steel box, bolted to a wall. It will withstand 20 mins of attack WITH tools. Minimum. 
You typical burglar doesn't have angle grinders and tungsten carbide drills with him.

Yes, it's a possibility. I don't want to sound churlish but, you can't eliminate possibility only make it unlikely. 

The police weigh several factors, like the crime rate in your area, the structural integrity of the property and the security i.e. Double glazing, alarms, occupancy level (how many hours per day someone is in the  house) before deciding whether it's appropriate to have the guns stored at home. After that the safe has to be built to a British Safety standard applicable to gun cabinets. It has to have five points of contact to the fabric of the building. I.e. A concrete floor, brick wall, joists etc...
It had to be out of sight and preferably somewhere not normally accessed on a day to day basis, like a loft. But that last one seems to be a preference and not a law/guideline.

Edit
And the police will come and check all of these things.

I have six expanding bolts fixing mine to the wall and i cut a hole in the plasterboard to make it harder for a crowbar to get behind it.

The mental thing is so tiring. And it's the reason nearly everyone who owns them won't mention the hobby to friends or colleagues etc...

I'm not going to try and convince you that you are wrong that you can't understand the appeal. But it's not all a gun in each hand braying like a jacked up redkneck at the sky while emptying 5000 rounds at the moon. 

The rifle shooting is probably one of the most zen things I've ever done. If you are flighty or a skittish personality you won't hit Jack. To shoot well you have to exclude all outside stimulus and go into an almost meditative state, relaxed breathing, relaxed heart rate etc... Total calm. 

The clay is much different, if you've ever played Duck Hunt or CoD and enjoyed yourself then the appeal is immediately apparent. It's fast, dynamic, you get a thrill - a little endorphin reward. It's great fun.

Another thing that might put you a bit more at ease is the police really, really don't want you to have these things. They have the ability and will absolutely use it to take the guns away or insist they be stored elsewhere if you show any signs of not complying with the rules our if the situation changes. 
You are basically 'allowed' to own these things, after establishing a compelling argument, it's not a right within British law. 
Again though shotguns are a different matter It's similar but not quite as far as i can tell a right to own. The onus is on the police to find a reason not to let you.

If anyone knows North West London, then they have probably driven past my club several times without knowing. 
I shoot at the Welsh Harp right next to Brent Cross, you wouldn't know it's there. Not even from the noise. It produces less noise than a building site. 
One of the things that you might or might not find interesting is it's a little rural there. We get lots of wildlife wandering onto the range. One day a squirrel wandered across the grass while 10 people were standing there banging away with all kinds of different guns. Not a single person took a pot shot at this squirrel. It did it's business, completely unaffected by the racket, and wandered off. 
Nobody took a shot at it because they don't want to kill anything, we shoot paper targets. Shooting at the squirrel would be seen as showing some questionable judgement.

I always enjoyed shooting, haven't in years now though. The "you must be mental to use a weapon" argument is unbelievably flawed. I'd make an argument that all children should be taught to shoot at various times in their school career, a range day every other year or annually. But then I'd also argue that they should also be taught at similarly spaced times how to catch, despatch and prepare poultry and fish, even if they're a vegetarian

My thinking behind it is that I firmly believe that many deaths are caused because people are unaware of the actual amount of damage you can do or simply not realising a round was chambered, playing with a weapon. Exposure to weapons helps to breed a respect for them, the same logic to preparing meat

@cocko
Yeh, but you are a bit mental.

Exposure breeds respect. Knowing where your food comes from is a fundamental step towards making decent informed decisions about what you eat. Same way as watching a safety demonstration teaches you that maybe you only want to pull that trigger when you really need to

I have taken a few mates with me and I really enjoy going through the safety aspects of using the gun with them as much as I enjoy the shooting itself.

It is nice knowing that you are teaching somebody something and if they enjoy it as much as most people seem to then that is an added bonus.

OK, I misused the term as a catchall for anyone not an omnivore. I was implying that dietary or religious choice would not be an acceptable reason to skip these events

Hell I remember even when I was at school (class of 96) we had kids who would swerve dissections with notes from mother

A little video of my mate from Good Friday.

Also I was quite pleased as I hit 68 which isn't that impressive until you consider that another fella who was with us who can hit in the 90's only hit 71 which shows how difficult the traps were set-up.

I don't need to watch a video to know that guns should not be readily available outwith the military/very carefully controlled situations.