MoD Rifle Range Competency

It is a requirement of Defence Estates that any civilian shooting on a Ministry of Defence (MoD) owned rifle range must hold a Certificate of Competence signed by the Chairman of their National Rifle Association (NRA) affiliated Gun Club. A Certificate of Competence is valid for one year from 1 January or any part of a year up to 31 December and requires to be re-taken annually thereafter. The National Rifle Association (NRA) has been tasked with administering this function on behalf of all NRA affiliated gun clubs.

All gun clubs and organisations using military ranges must decide on the individual criteria that they will use for the certification of their members and those procedures must be submitted and approved by the NRA. The British Deer Society through its Training Committee has submitted its scheme for training and testing competence which was approved by the NRA and Army on 5 June 2008.

Certificates of Competency will be given to members who have attended a course of instruction and have passed a multiple choice question paper. The course of instruction need not take place on a rifle range as there are no shooting elements required. Members will be given a standard PowerPoint presentation followed by a question paper with multiple choice answers. There will be 20 questions asked taken from a bank of 48 and all must be answered correctly. Anyone not achieving a 100% pass will be required to take the full course of instruction and questions again. The whole process should not take more than 2 hours.

So that members can prepare in advance, linked to this page is the full list of 48 questions from which 20 will be drawn to form the test. As this scheme is about safety, BDS feels that it is appropriate to detail the correct answer required for each question and this has been done by highlighting in blue. The NRA fully supports this as an additional learning process. The test however, will be a closed book.

To cover the cost of BDS administration and the NRA Certificate, a charge will be made by Fordingbridge of £10 per person successfully achieving their first annual Competence Certificate. Individual branches may, impose, an additional charge to cover the cost of training and venue used.

Training and testing will be delivered at branch level by BDS branch Range Conducting Officers (RCO) who have themselves been briefed and tested by RCO members of the BDS Training Committee.

For members already with a BDS issued Certificate of Competence, renewal from the 1 January 2010 will be a simple matter of returning their current certificate to Cheryl Seymour at Fordingbridge together with a £5 fee, a self addressed envelope and a new certificate for that year will issued. (Cheques payable to the British Deer Society please).

Those needing or wishing to have a Certificate of Competence allowing them to shoot on a MoD range should contact their local BDS branch to find out what arrangements are in place locally to enable them to achieve this. Individuals may of course take competency by arrangement with any BDS branch running such events. Members who already have a current Certificate of Competence issued by any other NRA affiliated gun club will be covered for shooting on a MoD range and need take no further action.

Anyone arriving on a MoD range to shoot must have with them and produce their Certificate of Competence for inspection and recording by the range officials. Those arriving without will not be permitted to shoot unless they are under direct one-to-one supervision.

Click here to link to question bank

BDS Training Committee

February 2010