Perth City & County Small Bore Rifle Club

Rifles Club’s Grand Do-It-Yourself Effort on New Premises.

Fifty-two years ago, Major Herbert Pullar formed Perth City & County Miniature Rifle Club. Their range was in the stables of the Salutation Hotel.

It was a small range, only 15 yards long. It was gas lit, and to reach it one had to climb the long, slopping horse ramp. 

The dimly-lit stable is a fry-cry from the magnificent new premises just off the Dunkeld Road, which are to be declared open on Saturday, October 25th, by Lord Provost John Buchan.

The new premises, alongside the club’s outdoor range, house the most up-to-date indoor small bore range in the country.

Behind it’s creation lies a great deal of hard work and enthusiasm, Apart from the actual building, this has been a do-it-yourself enterprise on a big scale (Still is to these days, especially all the hard work both Neil and Andrew McCormack put into keeping the range going)

It began 4 years ago. The club had moved house three times since the old stable days. For 20 years they shot on an outdoor range at Viewlands. They went to Craigie Mills and later in James Street.

Pools of Water.

When they acquired their present site, it was an old Army 35-yard range. Two large pools of water, 30 feet by 10 feet lay in front of the butts. Club members rolled up their sleeves and dug drains. They sweated with picks and shovels to enlarge the range. They moved tonnes of earth by hand.

There was a sigh of relief when someone offered a bull-dosser to help with the work. The firing point was laid and the disused railway stones were used to create the drystone dyke at the back. (Which I’m guessing is gone now’ it’s just new flats and a new fence) 

Bridge built.

It was done by voluntary labour under the direction of engineer Mr Goerge L. Brown. 

A bridge was needed to cross the lade. They built one from a chassis off a pantechnicon, decked it with railway sleepers, fitted handrails and a gate, it can take a 14 tonne load.

They raised money by various means. They ran motor-cycle racing at Errol Aerodrome. A firm of builders erected the walls of the new indoor range clubrooms. 

Mr Brown and his helpers have done the rest. They bought and collected timber when they could.

“In our premises” said Mr Brown “there’s a bit of every building in Perth that has been knocked down or altered over the last four years.”

They roffed it themselves. They dressed the old timber and converted it into trusses, joists and flooring.

Now they have a first class range. A novel feature is the double tiered firing point allowing up to 16 to fire at once.

Bulletproof Glass.

The range opens on to spacious clubrooms which will be used for social functions. Seven bulletproof glass windows along one side look out on the open-air range alongside. (This is no longer now) 

There is a gun room, committee-room and an all-electric kitchen. The modern kitchen unit was built from salvaged materials.

The wall of the committee-room are tastefully decorated with two different kinds of wallpaper “We got them at a Bob a roll” said Mr Brown “there wasn’t enough of one kind to do the job so we worked out a way to use both”

He did all the plumbing and electric wiring, to date the work has cost over £2000. The finished product worth over £5000. In the old days at the Salutation Hotel Stables ammunition cost a penny for seven rounds. It is now 15s 6d for 100. (I’m guessing that last part in red is money I think, no idea. All I can say it’s £13 for 50 rounds now) Club rifles are still free for club members to use.

This was a snip-it I took from a newspaper printed back in 1958, so if the club has been around for 52 years that makes it 118 years old, founded in 1906.