Healthy lifestyle and development of physical culture and sports are the most important priorities at SUSU. The university has a shooting range available for all of those who wish to gain skills of shooting from small-caliber and sport weapons. It is one of the best in the Chelyabinsk Region, since the range allows for training on almost every kind of weapon. The Head of the range, Nikolay Maksimov, tells us more about the South Ural State University Shooting Range.
– Nikolay Anatolyeich, please tell us about the SUSU’s Marksmanship Center.
– The SUSU’s Shooting Range is truly unique in Chelyabinsk. Shooting a firearm is a feeling that cannot be compared to anything else, giving the shooter a lot of satisfaction, and removing stress which accumulates in daily life. In our range, you can shoot pistols and rifles, as well as your own personal firearms. We have three qualified instructors who have completed training and are happy to teach the basic skills of safe firearm handling.
– What makes this range unique?
– The SUSU’s Shooting Range has a number of advantages in terms of service and equipment. You can do sports shooting, practical shooting, Airsoft, and there is a unique interactive shooting range. The length of the range is 50 meters. The range is built to all of the norms and requirements of the Ministry of Internal Affairs. We even have a bulletproof locking door. People enter this zone, the door is locked behind them, and the exit opens only after the security guard checks that the client is not taking weapon from the range, what ensures complete safety.
– What weapons does the SUSU range have?
– We have a wide range of firearms. In our range, you can shoot from any kind of weapon: pistols, rifles, carbines, and others. The SUSU range also has: ТОЗ-12 sport threaded barrel rifles (5.6 mm rifle), СМ-2 (5.6 mm rifle), МЦМ (Margolin pistol) 5.6 mm, Saiga-9-02 9*19 mm civilian long-barrel threaded barrel rifles, С- ПМА 9*18 mm sport pistols with threaded barrel, CZ SHADOW 2 9*19 mm, and a GLOCK 17 GEN4 9*19 mm.
– At what age is it possible to start training in sport shooting?
– School children practice sport shooting in our range with pneumatic rifles. Starting from the age of 12 they can move to small-caliber firearms or to pneumatic Airsoft weapons. Training is offered by a highly qualified instructor, Andrey Znichenko, and the lessons are entertaining and completely safe. We regularly offer lessons for students of the Chelyabinsk Legal College. In theoretical lessons, they learn all of the tactical and technical moments of firearms: how firearms are assembled and disassembled, they take a test on safety measures, and then they move to practical lessons. From them we require discipline and ability to follow commands. Having mastered shooting from a pneumatic weapon, students of the Legal College move to shooting the Margolin pistol and small-caliber rifles.
– What can the Shooting Range offer to students of SUSU?
– First of all, students of the SUSU Institute of Law in the Law Enforcement field also complete theoretical lessons. We have a Makarov training pistol and Kalashnikov rifle, with which students complete tests: assembly and disassembly of a pistol, automatic rifle, and magazine. After this they come to us to gain the skills of real shooting. They begin shooting with the Margolin pistol. Second, by the agreement with the Institute of Sport, Tourism, and Service, 20 students can come to our range for additional training, and if they pass the standard tests successfully, they can earn their credit for Physical Culture course.
– Anyone willing can come to the SUSU Shooting Range?
– Yes, absolutely. Students and staff of SUSU train at our range, as well as any other Russian citizen, no matter their level of training – professional or beginner. They must have their passports and some backup document. Some come to gain basic skills or improve existing skills in how to handle a firearm, some come to gain excellent psychological and physical training in general, and some come just to add some variety through an active hobby and gain a rush of adrenaline and positive emotions. You can rent a lane in the range for shooting with your own firearm, or for your firearm calibration.
The SUSU Shooting Range is located in the East Wing of the main academic building, in the basement level. The teachers and instructors are already waiting for students hungry to earn new skills of handling firearms, so hurry and register for a sport shooting group, it will be interesting.