.22 practical

[IsleShoot]

As I said its the first time I have shot a practical comp. I used a borrowed semi auto not been familiar with the rifle and sights slowed me down. Mag changes did not go as well as they could have and I suffered with stoppages jams. So if you are serious you really need your own firearm. The physical side of it got to me as well shooting on the ground through holes in lumps of wood then having to go to a crouch position before quickly moving to another shooting position to kneel down and shoot got to me very quickly. I had fun but its a demanding discipline.
The Club has a cracking indoor 30 meter range as well as archery and air gun facilities it has its own outdoor range and books Ministry of Defense ranges every month. Its open every night and week ends. Its very well organised and run.The people are great and its ten minutes from my front door. The probationary membership is very thorough and well organised. I'm having fun.

Practical is my main dicipline and I love hearing about new people experiencing it and most of all enjoying it no matter what their age, ability or shooting background.

I hope you keep having a go Alpha1, some CoFs will test you physically but the dicipline isn't about athletic ability, a good course of fire should test your shooting in terms of you finding the right balance between accuracy & speed (power too if your club shoots centrefire LBRs and scores major/minor).

Kudos to our cousins in the North for putting on the match, keep growing the dicipline where you can and hopefully we can keep growing particiption in Shooting generally, cross pollination of diciplines does the sport a tremendous service.

Both UKPSA & NRA have great matches for anybody interested and don't be afraid, nobody expects you to be Eric Grauffel, just be sensible and safe!

DVC

[Kungfugerbil]

Kudos to our cousins in the North for putting on the match, keep growing the dicipline where you can

As Alpha1 said, the club is run by incredibly enthusiastic folks who put on a cracking range of disciplines and events. Practical minirifle, practical shotgun, western action, airsoft, practical archery, underlever, LBR, precision rifle, bell target, clays, MOD shoots, black powder... with a competition every weekend and most midweeks.

The minirifle comp the other week attracted 20 entries but I suspect next time it will be more!

[swotty]

I've just discovered practical mini rifle myself and really like it. Need to get some practice in though!

[GeeRam]

There are a couple of clubs organising practical rifle/lbp matches at Bisley throughout the year and I'd recommend anyone to have a go but please make sure you are very familiar with whatever guns you intend to use, as there is a lot more scope for things to go wrong when you're reloading, shooting and changing position etc. against the clock.

The NRA has been persuaded to allow a certain degree of fire and movement (not at the same time!) and we don't want to spoil things by someone having an accident. Practicing the different start conditions, reloading, manipulating the safety, how to clear jams etc. is recommended if you haven't done any practical shooting before.

If you want to do well, not only do you need to shoot fast and not miss but also have a reliable gun. The trouble with the .22 round is that there's just not a lot of oomph there to cycle a semi-auto action and even using ammo such as mini-mag we see a lot of malfunctions.

The next practical pistol match at Bisley organised by the NRA will be on August 27th (part of the GR Nationals) and there's a mini-rifle match scheduled on September 3rd.

Am shooting 600yrds on Century on the 3rd, might have to have a looksee at the Mini-Rifle to have a closer look....a couple of us in our club fancy having a go one day and have been brushing up on handling etc as you suggest when we can. As you say, not easy on the reliability stakes though. My GSG Stg.44 was faultless for the first 500 or so rounds through it, but now, sometimes its a struggle to get through a mag without a stoppage.

[Alpha1]

You just reminded me the other club I belong to has a GSG stg.44 as a club gun. I will give it a try next range day.

[JSC]

My GSG Stg.44 was faultless for the first 500 or so rounds through it, but now, sometimes its a struggle to get through a mag without a stoppage.

If it has been reliable at some point, you just have to analyse carefully what might have changed and eliminate each possibility one by one until you find the reason.

Are you using different ammo? Have you been cleaning it as regularly? Did you add anything or change anything on the rifle? Was the weather different when you first used it? Are you using more/less oil on it now or different oil? are the mags the same? Have you tried different mags? etc etc.etc.

It can take a long time and a lot of rounds to cure these problems mind you!

It can be very difficult to see exactly what's going wrong when a malfunction occurs, but if it is happening regularly, get someone to video you shooting and you may see something when you play it back which helps diagnose the problem.

[Alpha1]

So what make model of .22 are people using for practical comps. Whats your favourite set up and why.

[fenix]

So what make model of .22 are people using for practical comps. Whats your favourite set up and why.

Just about to ask the same question, looking at joining Maidstone Pistol club, they are mainly shooting practical disciplines.

[Mattnall]

When I started shooting mini rifle back in the '90s it was all 10/22s in about as many different guises as there were competitors (and some of them were fugly to be nice to them).

Now there are many more AR derived rifles and other semis based on military full-bores. It seems that if you have something available to you go have fun with it.

The biggest thing holding you back would be reliability, doesn't matter what rifle it is if it fails to fire or feed every time it's an issue - and 22semi-autos are like that, some are just pigs. Get a jam and it could make life harder and really impact your scores and eventually spoil your fun of the discipline.

I have many 22 semis, from the ubiquitous 10/22 to a few types based on the AR/M4gery that have the necessary magazine capacity to be half competitive, but if it came down to just one rifle for this comp it's be my 10/22. Mine has had over 750,00 rounds through it and it is still the best 22 practical rifle I have (ie most reliable and with half decent accuracy). Ask someone else and no doubt you'll get a different answer.

[JSC]

Most popular from what I see are M&P 15-22s and 10/22s.

Both are capable. The Ruger is maybe a bit more fiddly to do mag changes with but makes up for it by being lighter/shorter/more pointy (depending on how it's been built).
Both are capable of winning matches and there are probably other rifles which are as well if the person behind the trigger is capable.

Best thing to do is try as many as you can before you buy and see what suits you.