The TransContinental Rifle Association
The home of UK Desert tech owners
The Transcontinental Rifle Association is one of the country’s few nomadic long-range target rifle clubs in the UK.
We have created a series of remarkably long range competitions which we hold at ranges around the country. These long-range competitions start at 800 yards and work their way out to 1 mile.
It is a little-known fact that the United Kingdom is home to some of the most majestic long ranges in the world.
The NRA’s Chobham Ridge Range in Surrey stretches out to 1200 yards. Orion Firearms Range in the beautiful Cambrian mountains can accommodate shooters to a mile, and the legendary Sealgair Range in Scotland offers dramatic high angle shooting and targets at 2 kilometres. (2200 yards).
Most of our shooters use the Desert Tech system, which we have found to be the toughest, most versatile, and most accurate in the United Kingdom. Some of our members use super high-quality barrels made by Barrels and Ballistics in Kent.
Competitions are open to all long-range shooters, and we welcome interested long range shooters to join us.
We also provide long-range ballistic training courses for our members who wish to shoot at these ranges.
Desert Tech. Why it works for us.
Most of our members who shoot remarkably long-range (RLR) now use the Desert Tech system of rifles. It did not used to be. This way.
It all started when John, the owner of Orion Firearms Training, showed us this rather odd American Bullpup rifle in .338 caliber. We all thought it was nice, but being conventional people , we stuck to our original rifles. Andy, our chairman, was the only one who took the bizarre step of buying one.
Buying one was in itself an adventure. At the time, there was no gun shop that stocked the SRS rifle and the importation took time. He waited patiently for the rifle and then started shooting with it. We all quietly ignored him until his scores started overtaking everyone else’s. This was of course due to his dedication to ballistic theory, mathematical calculation, and his background as aircrew, which made him absolutely professional in everything he did. But we thought it might also be the rifle. Encouraged to try the platform, a couple of club members were taken by the compact nature and supreme accuracy of the desert tech. As time went by, we ended up with around five Desert Tech rifles in the club.
At this time most of the club were using a famous British rifle for our long-range platform, as it was universally available. The game changer was when Charles Cooper of Barrels and Ballistics started making extremely accurate British-made barrels for the SRS system.
“I only bought a Desert Tech because I had so many quality issues with my other rifle.” He admitted ruefully.
This was a familiar story, as the main contender for a long-range platform was going through some serious quality control issues. Charles was able to provide the club members with backup, technical know-how, and the most accurate barrels we had ever come across. One by one, the long-range club members switched from a wide array of other rifles to Desert Tech.
At a recent shoot, Andy looked at the lineup of Desert Tech Rifles behind the firing point and said to the Raf,
“We are looking more and more like the UK Desert Tech club.”
And so the journey continues.