The Welsh Open: Held at Pembrokeshire’s finest shooting ground, – at Haverfordwest.

After a modest but very enjoyable inaugural event in 2012 the Welsh Gallery Rifle Club, Haverfordwest Target Shooting Club and the Welsh RA invite all competitive Gallery Rifle shooters back to this beautiful corner of South West Wales to cement this event into the calendar.

Entry forms available to download now

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So – there is an EU Consultation Document on a common approach to reducing the harm caused by  the criminal use of firearms in the EU. No doubt a fair few of us have received such information via email. What’s this got to do with shooting? Well – I agree – not much – its politics – so OK, lets do politics in this post.

A questionnaire can be completed and opinions are being sought from all EU citizens (yes even us in the UK who will be leaving next year!). Apparently the questionnaire is ‘fixed’, biassed, rigged!

It is apparently essential that shooting organisations  and their individual members complete and submit responses to the questionnaire by clicking on option “1″ for all the questions – no need to answer any additional questions or offer any opinion or even read the questionnaire – just blindly click option “1″!

Here’s a better idea. Ignore the stuffed shirts at the likes of BASC , BSSC, Countryside Alliance and anybody else just passing this stuff on and just go shooting.

Respond to the questionnaire if you want (but read the bloody questions and make your own mind up – please!!!!) However in reality its all probably about as relevant as an on-line petition lobbying to bring back pre-decimal coinage or reducing the Imperial Entry fees.

Shoot one more meeting in the year.

Get one more member of your club to come to any of our meetings.

Start with the Phoenix next weekend. Or the Derby open  at the end of June, or The IHAM or Imperial P&R (and enter online). One more shooter entering any one of those meetings is worth a hundred people filling in on-line petitions and 10,000 people blindly following the stuffed shirts at the BSSC et al.

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6

NJS

Derby 2013

Wentworth Sporting

Rude Fat Dog

Moving into High Summer the Derby Open 1500 and Shorts meeting offers one of the season’s finest shoots to challenge the competitive Gallery Rifle shooter. This is an event which should be well and truly cemented into the season’s calendar. All the usual competitions catered for – 1500, shorts, T&P3 and more

A fantastic prize table, fantastic venue and range complex, a BBQ, mini beer festival, free camping and some local traders also putting in a welcome appearance. Check out some of the sponsors above and see them at Derby.

See you there.

Entry forms are out now.

The Derby Open – Enter now

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 Why do people attend the Phoenix Meeting? More to the point – why don’t people attend the Phoenix meeting? In the lead up to the Summer season, the Phoenix offers a diverse programme of competitions, having something for everyone. Whether the competitor’s interests lie in the pure Gallery Rifle (GR) disciplines, rifle events shot back to 1000 yards, pistol events shot to the same distances (yes – thats a pistol at 1000 yards), black powder, target shotgun or even air pistol the phoenix will have an event ready and waiting. – so there is no excuse to not have this as a must in anybody’s shooting calendar.

In many ways, and for many people, the Phoenix is just another Gallery Rifle Action Weekend (GRAW). Four of these are held every season at Bisley. The Spring and Autumn action weekends take place as the country adjusts its collective time pieces to take advantage of the daylight saving protocols we know and love so well. The last bank holiday of the Summer – the August Bank Holiday – pays homage to the Gallery Rifle National Championships. The Phoenix meeting sits squarely in the middle of all this and offers not only the natural plethora of gallery rifle and pistol events but a whole lot more.

Understandably some events are popular, very popular, however some are surprisingly under represented. There are so many competitions at the Phoenix it’s inevitable some slip under the radar. T&P1 Air Pistol for example, a lot of the Long Barrelled Pistol (LBP) events, some of the longer range events and a handful of classic and open events are all crying out for more competitive input.

Condensed into a long weekend the Phoenix has a more intense look and feel about it than the likes of the NRA Imperial meeting which is held over a 2-3 week period in high Summer. A major part of this is probably due to the long standing trade fair which dates way back to pre-Phoenix days. A lot of people back then used to travel to just visit the trade show and I’m told this is still the case. Each to their own of course, but I think people are missing out if they choose to overlook the main reason the ranges exist in the first place.

For the last few years the bank holiday Monday has been used to host the IGRF International Gallery Rifle Match. This sees teams from Great Britain, Ireland, Germany and South Africa compete head to head  with centrefire and smallbore calibres in a 1500 match. This year, 28th May 2013, Bisley will be running this event as the inaugural Gallery Rifle World Cup, which will mean one of these countries will be officially crowned World Champions.

The IGRF

As an overall event the Phoenix is billed as an annual celebration of shooting sports. So – the most puzzling misnomer any Phoenix regulars, indeed any competition shooters in general, ponder often revolves around why more people don’t come along and enjoy the whole experience. Many theories are proffered around the bars, clubs (and campfires) which all play excellent hosts to the influx of visitors who attend the long weekend of events. Theories proliferate, which range from the financial thru to the “not good enough” route and eventually terminate at the often cited intimidatory factor of the whole experience.

The latter is particularly worrying (if correct) and we all need to spend time reflecting on the perception of this element of our sport. For whatever reason if your fellow club members are not shooting any of our meetings we all need to work out why. It can’t stop there though – we then need to work out how to overcome such perceived obstacles and work around them.

Not being good enough needs to be condemned at conception. We promote the sporting and competitive side of shooting as being open to everyone and this is an absolute truth.  The most popular GR events are shot in classes. This means everyone is shooting against their peers. With the current classification rules and regulations everyone has as much chance of achieving a place and medal shooting first time around as their hundredth – in fact more so!  This year we are awarding a newcomers trophy first time Phoenix competitors.

Team events have also been introduced in recent years to attempt to encourage members of  local clubs to partake. As with all events these are open to any members of any local club to put together a 2 or 4 person team. So have a think about taking part and get your club’s name into the historical records!

Irrespective of all the above we do need to get a sense of perspective.  After all – are we not all simply shooting against ourselves? Aiming to beat our last outing or personal best? Its great to traipse back to our local clubs and ranges, banter with our shooting colleagues about who bettered who, who outshot who, more likely who messed up the least – that’s all part of why we do it.

In 2012 an online database of classified and highest scores was created so people can keep track of their achievements. In 2013 we plan to enhance this to run a season wide league table and ranking system for active Gallery Rifle competitors. In this way we aim to keep an ongoing interest in competing on the national circuit.

Numerous other GR events are organised and hosted both at Bisley and throughout the country by local clubs. The flyers illustrated in this article can be found at full resolution elsewhere on the website These can be printed and displayed in local clubs.  A full calendar of events can also be found here.

Keep an open bookmark here and to our our facebook page and twitter feed for all this information and a bunch more.

[Majority of this text originally published in the Spring 2013 NRA Journal]

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British Shooting has published its latest strategic plan for the period 2013 to 2018.

The plan is the summary of the objectives and targets set-out by the sport to deliver shooting throughout Great Britain.

Feedback and and constructive suggestions are requested. Please email admin@britishshooting.org.uk.

VIEW THE BRITISH SHOOTING STRATEGY 2013-2020.

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Results and scores from recent competitions (Basildon, JSPC, Mattersey) over on the results page.

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As  a fairly recent newcomer to shooting I was amazed by the opportunities that are available for regional Gallery Rifle shooting, and this was my first experience of  the Basildon Open.

In this present economic climate its fantastic that such a well run and professional competition can be held where shooters can improve their  average scores and rankings by taking part in short competitions such as T +P1 and Multi-Target for basically half price. This encouraged me to enter for other competitions that I had either never before tried such as the Grand, or had only ever  had one go at and felt I needed more practice before trying again, such as T&P2 and Phoenix A. At £5.00  a comp it was well worth it ( 1500 was £10 only) !

The 50 metre and 25 metre ranges were both good to shoot on, with turning targets, plenty of spaces and although well attended there was room for some flexibility and I think everyone enjoyed the safe, efficient but stress-free and relaxed atmosphere. This was due to great organisation and special thanks should go to the CROs Mike Chinnery, Keith Edwards,  Dave Hackett, Andy Jarman,  John Robinson and to everyone who helped and supported. There was no lack of extra ROs or people to clear, set targets, give advice and generally ensure that everyone had a good time.

The social side of the event was superb, with teas coffees drinks and snacks available throughout the 3 days,  lunches (thanks Kazz) and BarbQ on Friday and again on Saturday night in the Club house and outside around the oil drum, a party atmosphere which made the whole event really fun, the hospitality was excellent (Burn those pants and pallets, Peter Cooper!)  For those considering next year, there are hotels a few minutes way on the Festival Park with prices to suit all pockets and camping available on site at the range too. This competition was  exceptionally good value for money and a great way to join in with the shooting fraternity and improve personal scores.

Enjoy the photos and sideshow of the weekend below.

Rachel

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