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Report - - Totley Rifle Range, Sheffield July 2017 | Military Sites | 28DaysLater.co.uk

Report - Totley Rifle Range, Sheffield July 2017

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Torchlight

28DL Full Member
28DL Full Member
INTRODUCTION
Totley Rifle range, now disused is located West of Sheffield near the suburb of Totley. The range closed in 1997 and is overgrown but with the aid of the attached map and a couple of hours spare you can walk round the site and locate many of the firing points and target areas. I once spent a afternoon there with a metal detector and found dozens of spent cartridges and bullets uo to 20mm caliber.

HISTORY

Colonel Hughes of the Hallamshire Rifle Volunteer corp acquired the land at Totley and it opened as a rifle range on 15 September 1900. In order for a man of a rifle battalion to receive a grant of 35 shillings a year he had to pass a course of rifle training and practice regularly. as the rifle they were using was a Lee Enfield .303 rifle with a range of over a 1000 yards they needed a suitable site and this was the only area available in Sheffield. Once the land was acquired the range and out building were constructed and the range was used by the military and then public for nearly a hundred years.
The Hallamshires fought in the 1914-1918 war at Ypres, somme Messine and Passendale losing 45 officers and 1325 NCO and men all these men probably practiced there rifle training at Totley range. The range finally closed in 1997.

MY EXPLORE
The site is quite overgrown and well hidden, although the range in disussed expect to loose some blood as there are the most massive lethal brambles all over the place. Its not until you see a warning sign of Danger Steep Drop that you know you are in the right area, a walk over some raised ground and you jump down into a concrete area which is the protected area for the target markers. having explored this area and photographed the various graffiti covered areas I wandered further up the range to find the massive bullet stop, a wall of loose sand, a quick few handfuls soon rewarded me with some flattened spent bullets of various calibers.
I then walked back down to the concrete area and found the target channels in the concrete and a store area which had seen better days but all interesting features. Walking down the range I soon found the raised areas which were the different firing points starting at 100 yard and then every 100 yards, I also found some communication plug sockets on wooden posts, probably connected to the target marker areas. Continuing further down the range I came to a road and followed that up to the 700, 800 and 900 yard firing points, never mind seeing a target at this range I could only just make out the massive bullet back stop, they must of been great shots in those days.

PHOTOGRAPHS
I have mixed some photographs I took and included some original photographs of the range in use

A Couple of hours with a Metal Detector
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Map of the Area
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First Sign Your Near
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Start of Safe Area
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Target Marker 1908
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The Graffiti Starts
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Somewhere to Sit
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More Graffiti
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Seen Better Days
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Looking for Spent Bullets
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1939 Cartridge, One of Many
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300 Yard firing point 1932
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Old Communications Socket at 500 yards
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700 Yard Firing Point
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900 Yard firing point, X marks The Targets
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900 Yard point 1936, Machine Gun Practice, Must of Sounded Awesome
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Lewis Gun Practice 1929
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Expect to Loose Some Blood on This explore
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^Qwerty^

28DL Full Member
28DL Full Member
Nice to see that place again. That was the first range I fired a large calibre rifle; whilst it was many years ago, I recall saying, "F'me" after I'd pulled the trigger. We are laid prone at 500 yards, albeit at the time, I thought it was further, but I don't remember the 800 & 900 yards being offset as your diagram shows. We had to have a person on each end of the public footpath which runs North-South at the back of the range which frequently stopped play due to hikers. "I'm entitled to walk here, so I will" attitude.

I have a very vague memory of a irate farmer turning up one day with a dead sheep which had been shot, but that could be codswallop.
 

Torchlight

28DL Full Member
28DL Full Member
Hi and thanks for interesting comments, great that you actually fired at the range, you would not recognize it today very overgrown as photos show. The 900 yard firing point is right next to the main road, think this were closed a while back, must of been impressive to see 3 or 4 machine guns firing from there.
 

Urbex13

28DL Full Member
28DL Full Member
Good stuff pal, coincidentally I was looking at this on a map the other day whilst planning a walk and wondering if it was still in use.
 

ZerO81

28DL Full Member
28DL Full Member
Not the most epic of places, but I quite like the look of it, nice place for a sunny sunday stroll i'd say!
 

Torchlight

28DL Full Member
28DL Full Member
Good stuff pal, coincidentally I was looking at this on a map the other day whilst planning a walk and wondering if it was still in use.
Hi as you can see from photos very overgrown and not been used for 20 years, there are some paths that are regularly used crossing the site and it is a nice area to walk heading up onto the moors, thanks for your comments.
 

stevie126

28DL Member
28DL Member
I remember shooting here in the late 1980's. Shame the place has fallen into such disrepair. I remember the butts and the canopy which protected the markers. The targets were elevated on the mechanism, then lowered to mark the fall of shot with coloured paper and glue. Different colours depending where the new hole was, to matchthe background. 4/500 yards was the preferred distance. Just a point, the empty cases in the first picture above are blanks......
 
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