The British Young Shooters’ Association is a multi-discipline organisation whose sole purpose is to increase the number of young people participating in the sport of shooting, across all disciplines, whatever their ability level.
The Association was formed in April 2016 and, in the last 4 years, our membership has increased to over 300 – over 90% of which are under 25. There are also 11 affiliated clubs, all of which are either university rifle clubs or university alumni clubs.
The Association currently supports 6 of the shooting disciplines: Target Rifle, Smallbore Target Rifle, Civilian Service Rifle, Historic, Black Powder and Gallery Rifle & Pistol, and we are also in the process of setting up the infrastructure to support Match Rifle and F-Class. It is our intention to support all disciplines so that young shooters, no matter their background or circumstances, have easy access to try all forms of shooting, no matter what that is, and thereby facilitate an increased participation in all shooting sports.
What we do
BYSA run 3 ‘flagship’ multi-discipline shooting events at the National Shooting Centre Bisley, every year. Our last ‘flagship’ event, in November 2019, had over 130 participants – with approximately 50% of these from 11 university rifle clubs and the remainder from universities, colleges and schools with no rifle club.
We also run single-discipline events throughout the year (held at various locations nationwide); basic firearms safety and competency training; and discipline specific training for novices and more advanced shooters. This is supported by a network of experienced shooters such as the GB Gallery Rifle Team and Lee Enfield Rifle Association.
The BYSA also supports university rifle clubs by running training on shooting specific skills, such as how to deliver basic competency training and how to coach, alongside other key skills such as: how to manage a rifle club; firearms licensing law; how to apply for an FAC; and fundraising. Most recently, we have been running targeted training on how to set up a new university rifle club