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As I've said seeing the discipline shot and having as go is worth thousands of words. That would be a great motivator at club level.

mr smith wrote:Yeah I've only seen it shot at Bisley so far and some of the usual suspects who go are keen to get it started up here. 50m ranges are a bit thin on the ground but i think we're hoping to get started for next season.

Access to 50m ranges in some areas are an issue - The 1022 is the 25m equivalent of the 1500 - it excludes the 50m elements. That's a problem if you want to practice 50m of course but to get timings sorted for the other stages its a way to go.

dromia wrote:As I've said seeing the discipline shot and having as go is worth thousands of words. That would be a great motivator at club level.

You should have a think about popping along to one of the meetings next season. Mattersey and Derby host meetings in May and June respectively. The JSPC run two meetings a year in April and September up at their ranges near Galashiels. I know neither of these locations are exactly next door to Durham but its currently as close as the circuit gets I'm afraid.

Can easily organise local contacts for you in the North East to get you going. What facilities does your club range have?

Neil, I think people are scared to shoot in competitions, especially at Bisley. When I started shooting in local competitions the thought of going up against guys that consistently hit 300s in TP1 was daunting.
But I decided to jump in with both feet and went to The Phoenix in 2012 and I have to say, even although I am still off the mark, I love to compete. Bisley, JSPC ETC are huge fun and I've made some good friends. Standing having drinks with the Welsh team after The Nationals was great. There is good camaraderie amongst shooters at national level.
Go to your National Team squad training days. I learn so much being in the Scotland Squad as there is no decent training regime at my local club.
I'm keen to get down to Derby next year and would love to go to Ireland next year funds permitting.

Mike357 wrote:Neil, I think people are scared to shoot in competitions, especially at Bisley.

Hmm - interesting....

What can be done to alleviate this do you think? We split many of the events into classes so people don't have to worry about hitting 300s in T&P1 etc - you just compete against the same people in your class.

Someone else mentioned more events in local clubs. Is this the way forward do you reckon?

There's not one easy answer to lack of participation at club level indeed Bisley as well.As has been mentioned more than once on galleryrifle.com money crops up more than most.Often people mention shooting far more often in the pistol days than now,this at club level and up.Have things gotten that much more expensive,money tighter i'm not sure but as has been said more than once it appears to be a major stumbling block.

Not every body can afford to travel to meetings out side there local area or have the money to be competitive.
I would not even contemplate traveling to Bisley to shoot any thing never mind gallery rifle because of the cost involved.
If it was a discipline in my local club I might think about it but my local club is restricted to 25 yards. So its a none runner.
I am not familiar with the course of fire and as I said earlier I did not even know we had a national team.

The classification system works well although the idea of only going up classes rather than your class being adjusted annually seems a bit weird. I a great first SB shoot at my first Phoenix and am now stuck in X class but I can live with that.

There needs to be more regional shoots that count for national rankings. Once a shooter is comfortable competing locally they are more likely to travel once or twice a year to Bisley. In Scotland, ranking matches have stumbled a bit with Aberdeen falling by the wayside and only one of the JSPC matches counting this year.
Range size isn't an issue for us. We have a 25 yd range as does JSPC. 25yds will easily allow you to practice and compete in recognised courses of fire.

Mike357 wrote:The classification system works well although the idea of only going up classes rather than your class being adjusted annually seems a bit weird. I a great first SB shoot at my first Phoenix and am now stuck in X class but I can live with that.

None of this is set in stone. Its currently how it is but it could be changed if the community dictate as such

Mike357 wrote:There needs to be more regional shoots that count for national rankings. Once a shooter is comfortable competing locally they are more likely to travel once or twice a year to Bisley. In Scotland, ranking matches have stumbled a bit with Aberdeen falling by the wayside and only one of the JSPC matches counting this year.

Aberdeen Wapinshaw ran this year and is now back on the circuit. Both JSPC meetings were fully classified this year. Scores and data should be coming in for the final results of the year (to include the last JSPC shoot in September) in the rankings within the next week or so.

More classified regional shoots - yes - we do. We do need clubs and ranges to run such shoots though. Do you knwo any who would be prepared to do this?

Alpha1 wrote:Not every body can afford to travel to meetings out side there local area or have the money to be competitive.
I would not even contemplate traveling to Bisley to shoot any thing never mind gallery rifle because of the cost involved.
If it was a discipline in my local club I might think about it but my local club is restricted to 25 yards. So its a none runner.
I am not familiar with the course of fire and as I said earlier I did not even know we had a national team.

Most GR&P is shot at 25. OK its officially meters but yards is fine to do all the shorts disciplines. Most GR events are shot 25 meters or less.

Courses of fire, rules, regulation and more - its all in the GR&P handbook. Latest here -

http://galleryrifle.com/handbook/handbook-2013/

We produce ~2000 of these to give away every year. Send me your address - I'll post you one or just download from the above URL.

Where in the UK are you based?