Organised rifle shooting has taken place in the Falkland Islands for over 100 years. The club was in operation as early as the 1885/86 season. Our records extend from the 1892 season. In 1894 the club was almagmated with the Falkland Islands Defence Force, and became the Falkland Islands Defence Force Rifle Club. This arrangement continued until the year 2000 when for technical and legal reasons the club once again separated from the Defence Force and became the "Falkland Islands Rifle Association"; although the club and the defence force continue to share range facilities.
We hold fairly complete records of the club's history, but during the Falklands war in 1982 the records for the period 1955 to 1973 were lost. However after a public appeal in 1991 many people were able to supply information to fill in the gaps, although the three year period 1955 to 57 is still missing. If anybody reading this can help with these records we would be grateful.
After the 1982 war no shooting was possible until a new range was built, at Rookery Bay, in 1990. The new range was opened by His Exellency W.H. Fullerton on 28th October 1990, and christened by Mr A.H. Ford, the eldest active member of the club.
From 1888 until 1979 rifle shooting matches against visiting British warships were a fairly regular occurance, the last being held agains H.M.S. Ashanti. There are a couple of gaps in our records for the 1950's, but during the period 1888 to 1955 forty four matches were shot against visiting ships, of these forty were won the club and four by the ships.
Over the years the club has sent many teams overseas to compete. The oldest traditional overseas competition that the club takes part in is the "Imperial Meeting" at Bisley Camp in England. However since 1982 the club has sent a team to represent the islands at the Commonwealth Games, and more recently have competed regularly at the Small Island Games with some success. More details of these events can be found in the relevant detailed pages on this site.
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