Trent Shooting Range

Trent Shooting Range

Where trees and shrubs now grow in the forests of Trent, there used to be a shooting range. A plain with a sand hill at the end to catch the bullets. This 'bullet trap' is still visible in the forest. There used to be a number of buildings, including an instruction room with a gas mask, control room and a carpentry workshop where, among other things, the targets were made.

This 'fencing shooting range' was built in 1947 for the marines of (at the time) Naval Camp Volkel and came under the management of the Royal Netherlands Air Force in 1953.

The screens are intended to absorb the dismissals. At the beginning of the shooting range was a covered shooting point with placed brits. The shooter lay on it when he had to shoot 200 meters. Just in front of the bullet trap was the fencing pit. It contained the disc team that placed the discs and counted the number of hits and passed them on to the 200 meter shooting point by field telephone.

The shooting range on the Trentse dijk was only allowed to be used from 08.00-14.00 hours. This is to give the farmers the opportunity to work the underlying agricultural land safely. Occasionally, stray bullets flew over the bullet trap. It is known that this led to the death of a cow on at least one occasion. Because the farmland could only be cultivated for a limited part of the day, a financial compensation was paid to the farmers concerned. The shooting range was in use until 1991. In that year, a modern firing range was opened at the airbase for staff training.

Avontuurlijke Wandelingen