Description of the shooting range surroundings
The shooting range is located in a town called Březová u Karlových Varů and is approximately 8.5 km away from the Carlsbad city centre. Březová is surrounded by beautiful nature and criss-crossed by many tourist trails.
History
The history of this shooting range begins in the year 1898, when the local Carlsbad Shooting association bought a mill from the 18th century and also exchanged the property of the former shooting range for the properties of the current shooting range. The reconstruction work for the mill took place from 1898 to 1899. The mill was reconstructed to be like a real (and to this day still standing) half-timbered mill Gahmühle from the 17th century in the villiage Salajna (Konradsgrün) near Cheb.
On the 23rd of October 1898, in honour of the fifty year anniversary of Franz Josef the first’s reign, there was a celebratory opening of a new shooting range for the shooting association near the Schwarzenberg bridge. The hallway of the new shooting range had many historical and valuable hand-painted targets from the celebratory shootings from the 18th, but mainly the 19th century. This shooting range was also visited by archduke Carl, who later became the last Austrian- Hungarian emperor. After the year 1945 this shooting range became the property of the government.
In 1951, the communist government established an Association for cooperating with the army (Svazarm), which gradually obtained most shooting associations in the then ČSSR. Towards the end of the nineties the shooting range was expanded with a rooming house, a training room, a clubhouse and a 25 meter shoting range, thanks to the financial help from Svazarm. In 1988 the Czech Republic Championship in sport shooting took place here. After November of 1989, after the Velvet revolution, the Sport Shooting Association of Carlsbad- Březová obtained the entirity of the property, and still own it to this day.
The construction of the air pistol range was finished in 2009. In the winter of 2016 the shooting range was hit by a fire, which had destroyed the roof of the restaurant and parts of the main building. After the fire the shooting range was rebuilt and is still fully functional to this day.
The facilities of the shooting range
There are 36 shooting stands for 50 meter distance and 20 for the 25 meter distance. Since 2009, there is also an air pistol shooting range with 20 shooting stands. Currently there is also an environment for shooters.