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This section is for people who shoot or want to shoot in competitions and includes future events, how to get started, choice of rifle and calibres including wildcats, how to prepare for your competition, and of course how you did!
Watcher wrote:Once upon a time the main Bisley calibre was supposed to mirror the service calibre. Hence .303 then the move to 7.62 NATO. However the move over to 5.56 was clearly a step too far. Perhaps the NRA should have created a set of comps for the .223 and thereby a) promoted the development of service shooting and b) supported the development of the service calibre?
I agree with that - I'd go further and use the (current service rifle) SA80 straight-pull. Could have provided an economical 'level playingfield' class with some relevance. Cadets already use this rifle and it would have been a natural progression for them. Hopefully the SA80 would have developed in the same way as the M16/AR15.
About eight years ago, when I was working in the Range Office, I put forward a paper proposing the inclusion of 'other calibres' (.303, .223) in use by the forces of the worl (It started as an Army thing a hundred years ago but 'they' seem to have forgotten that) into the Imperial, At that time, entries were thought to be declining.
I did a sort of business plan with projected income and possible increased participation by non T/R oriented shooters.
My suggestion was marked ' no thanks, no room for it, no requirement.'
it went into my POTH file (Pat On The Head) which reached about 20MB in a portable memory stick.
In a fit of pique one day when one of my ideas was pinched and I was then asked if I had any more ideas (by an idiot no longer with the NRA) I deleted the whole lot and told him to shove it.
As I walked around the camp this morning, I see a number of projects, started since I left, which were in the POTH file. So, although I can't say 'I thought of that' and prove it; it does give me an enormous satisfaction to see something being done and some of 'my' ideas being implemented.
Sorry for the rant my point is:-
Is it now time for the membership to get together and push this for The Imperial and other big meetings?
That said, when I tried to introduce 'Service Rifle' into the City Open Meeting, there were no takers!
I know how you feel only my file is called 'Too F.........Difficult'. However I've learnt to keep it because there are those occassions where you want to shout "I bloody suggested that!"
Although I rarely visit Bisley and have never shot the Imperial I always thought it a shame that the NRA seemed to depart from its 'Volunteer - national defence' roots. This happened when someone decided that 5.56 wasn't a good enough long range target round and decided to stay with 7.62. Now that's no longer even the sniper round so we have only the most tenuous connection with national defence.
Presumably the driver was the long range shooting on Stickledown. In military terms this is now only really sniper/specialist territory. 'Normal' military shooting is 3-600 yards (I think?).
The problem is that to practice at 8, 9 and 1000 yards you need ready access to those ranges. I have my calendar for Altcar in front of me and there are maybe four 1,000 yard shoots this year and they are all question marked because of the difficulty of using the 1,000 yard range at Altcar.
If the Imperial wants to be inclusive of all shooters then I think it needs to think about developing the less than 600 yard area. I realise that that would have many implications in terms of ammunition etc. but its something I think the NRA needs to give serious thought to.
There are some other factors to throw in to those considerations: a) .223 is cheaper and b) its easier to shoot. As I'm keen on developing shooting with the young (Scouts) these are significant aspects.
A bit more than plain TR as it is multi-positional. Ideal for Ar15 iron sighted rifles, in fact its the rifle of choice.
Believe they meet at Bisley regularly.
A bit more than plain TR as it is multi-positional. Ideal for Ar15 iron sighted rifles, in fact its the rifle of choice.
Believe they meet at Bisley regularly.
Yep. Done before and plan to do more. I preferred it to TR. More variety.
The TR question was more for the sake of interest/possibility.
Ken