Nottingham City Rifle Club has been going over 90 years.
In May 1930, a few interested shooters met at the The Nottingham United Services Club and under a Captain Lindsay resolved to form a ‘The City Rifle Club’ for rifle shooters in the City of Nottingham.
Shooting at the Derby Road Drill Hall under newly adopted NRA rules ten members trained under Captain Lindsay shooting smallbore rifles and adding ‘Nottingham’ to the club name became officially approved on 13th June 1930.
Later that year the club joined the Notts Rifle Association and records show members at the time paid an annual club subscription of 7 shillings and sixpence! Which included weekly shooting at the Derby Road Drill Hall and two nights a month full bore shooting at Trent Ranges during the summer. Ammunition at the time cost 1d (0.5p) per round for military .303 and 4d (2p) for 10 rounds of .22LR ammunition. 1933 saw the addition of pistols.
At the 1936 N.R.A. Imperial Meeting, Major D.M. Lindsay M.C., the then Chairman of Nottingham City Rifle Club, won the prestigious Kings Medal. This being the champion shot of the Territorial Army.
After the war the 1950s saw the club small-bore shooting at the Nottingham University range, with full-bore shooting was taking place at Trent ranges until 1956 with the loss of the Nottingham University range due to building works. The Club then moved to the Triumph Road drill hall. Also that year, the club opened its doors to the first lady members.
The 1960s saw various range changes, from Triumph Road drill hall the club moved to Beeston drill hall and then onto Wigman Road drill hall.
With the rise of the troubles in Northern Ireland civilian clubs were restricted from using military sites in 1972, due to the need to control access to military sites after some tragic bombings of barracks. After a year in limbo, with other Nottingham clubs taking the club in to shoot shoulder to shoulder, the club secured access to Nottingham castle’s underground 25 yard rifle range shooting in its twin lane sandstone tunnels for many years.
In the summer of 2013 we moved to a new indoor range not far from the Queen’s Medical Centre where we are currently based.