Aberdeen Full Bore Gun Club (AFBGC), nestling amongst coastal sand dunes to the north of Aberdeen, is one of the largest of the full bore gun clubs within the Grampian region and is currently celebrating its 30th anniversary. The club caters for a myriad of target shooting disciplines, as well as providing a home for stalkers and game shooters to practice their marksmanship.
The AFBGC premises consist of a 50m and a 100m outdoor range
,
the former with a 10 point electronic turning target system and the latter with
a covered firing point and to which, as part of an ongoing development plan,
electronic targetry is shortly to be added. The club also regularly uses the
local MOD range (Blackdog), which offers facilities for shooting full bore rifle
from 100-600m.
The member's interests encompass an eclectic mix of shooting disciplines for which the club caters through a highly varied competition calendar in which an annual Club Championship, consisting of five individual championships, is supplemented with an intra-club league system and also regular fun and open competitions. The most well known of the club's roles is its organisation of the civilian component of the Aberdeen Wapinschaw, which is one of the oldest surviving shooting competitions within the UK.
Gallery rifle is very much at the heart of the club's activities and, despite the distances involved, a number of members make the annual pilgrimage to The Phoenix and attend shoots elsewhere in the country. For gallery rifle, .22 and centre-fire take equal prominence but long barrel revolver is also starting to make a welcome appearance. Though timed and precision 1 (PP1) and multi target (Service B) are the most frequent events, the club also runs a mix of plate matches, timed and precision 2, 1500, service A etc. style matches.
AFBGC also participates in North East Scotland Shooting Club Competition (NESSCC). This involves home and away matches between five of the region's full bore clubs. Each match comprises a team competition for full bore and an individual competition for small bore gallery rifle respectively. The NESSCC encourages everyone to take part, no matter what their level of skill or experience, as a team may enter as many shooters as it wishes with the top four scores counting towards the final team totals and so it is very much a case of the more the merrier!
AFBGC is committed to promoting target shooting and has seen its membership grow steadily year on year from a low of around 40 in the immediate aftermath of the pistol ban to just under 100 members at present. Encouragingly, many recent members are either new to target shooting or completely new to the shooting sports. The club is affiliated to the NRA, MLAGB, SPA and Aberdeenshire Sports Council and may be contacted via the Club Secretary, Lara Bestwick, or by email to info@afbgc.co.uk