Ruisseau Noir, Terrebonne, Quebec, Canada

[Countryman]

Knowing that I was going to be outside Montreal for a couple of weeks set me an interesting teaser as to whether I could get my hands on some more interesting kit to play with than the UK will allow.

My first effort in writing to a Montreal based club in English didn't go well. I found the club at Ruisseau Noir (Black Creek) after this and wrote in schoolboy French. They were terrifically helpful and put together a morning for I and my family that we will remember for a long while.

The range is set back from a B Road about a mile in a wooded area with the Black Creek running down one side.

The club had allocated us a fluent English speaker as an Instructor. We needed this supervision to be able to shoot. I have a rifle with me for this trip and a temporary Canadian Firearms permit but this had no bearing.

The main range consists of about 20 covered firing positions shooting from a bench with various target frames going out to 200 yards.

There is also a side range with maybe a dozen positions going out to 50 yards that can be shot from a standing position.

The range conduct is somewhat different to the UK. The Officer De Tir calls last shots every now and again and then clears the range so that shooters can go forward and reface etc. during which everybody must step back and away from their guns.

Behind the firing position is a bench running the length of the range. Here guns were unbagged and bolts were in rifles and closed etc. which frankly I didn't enjoy. However when in Canada. Showing clear seems to consist of clearing the gun in the usual way then dry firing it several times down range. Hmm.

The first thing I noticed was the load of interesting calibre brass on the deck. 30-30, 7mm Mag, 270, 30-06 and even a couple of .300 Win Mag that came home with me.

Anyway, moving on.

We had selected to shoot a range of pistols .44 Magnum, .357 Magnum, .45 ACP, 9mm and .22lr. Because there was an age restriction of 18 on the "restricted" Pistols I booked a .243 rifle and .17HMR rifle for the kids and they even laid on this tiny little .22 bolt action that even my youngest could shoot.

We had an excellent time and our Instructor and the club officials could not be more helpful. One of the club members was also kind enough to let me have a go with his TAR-21 Tavor.

I'm going to pop back today as our instructor has ransacked his and a buddy's collection of more interesting guns! Shooters are shooters the world over!

Canadian Gun Law is a mixed bag but one I would be happy to settle upon given a choice.

Sound Moderators and night shooting are illegal.

Pistols are restricted. If you pass a background check you can own them for shooting at a range only.

Rifles under 18" barrel length are restricted.

So an AR15 with a standard carbine barrel would be restricted. That bull pup TAR-21 is over 18" so it's unrestricted.

Magazines on SA centrefire rifles are restricted to 5 rounds unless there is a 10 round version. So the standard 30 round mags are simply pinned to limit capacity. I'm so glad psychopaths in Canada cannot own drills!

All told I think the Canucks have it good but their laws like ours clearly have idiosyncrasies.

Nice club, I would recommend it to anyone passing this way.

[Browning_grrl]

Rifles under 18" barrel length are restricted.

Not quite. Only if it's CF and semi-auto. Otherwise, it can be shorter (as long as the barrel wasn't cut-down after leaving the factory) subject to the OAL rules. So lots of guns are barrelled much shorter than 18".

Glad you enjoyed your trip. This is a neat country (which is why I'm an ex-pat!) You should know, though, that Quebec is probably the worst place in the country to be a gun-owner. They have a ton of rules that the rest of us don't have as to Ranges etc etc. They're even trying to set up their own Long Gun registry, even though Firearms are in Federal jurisdiction, and the Feds abolished the Registry some years ago.

Come back & see some of the rest of the place sometime. :)

[Countryman]

Well on Monday I head to Ontario but will mainly be shooting my own rifle.