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I think there is a difficulty in the perception of the expectations of attendees at the open day. I've been to 3 or 4, always had a great time, and people I've taken have had a great time. The F-class has always used ammo equivalent to the GGG used this year. I presume that NRA rifles have always been used. The coaches have always been great. I've always managed v-bulls and gone away wanting more as have the people I've taken. I don't think any of the people attending are looking for 25.5 its 'I hit the target at 1000 yards and it was satisfying, how do I do it again' :shakeshout:

This year the queues seemed slower but there were more events - McQueens, target shotgun and Sharps - great. Variety in the service rifle seemed less - didn't see a Mosin for instance.

There is always room for improvement but still a great day out for the non-shooter to get a taste, of so much which would otherwise be unavailable, to whet the appetite. All credit to the NRA for doing it at all and to all the volunteers who worked to promote their sport.

Thanks

Perhaps then it is enough to shoot on the TR targets.

however, this year on F class targets, we annoyed people. Plenty of people, too. I agree the NRA is doing their best and the overall organization of the day was fantastic - plain and simple.

we can, however, do a much better job than we did without too much effort. Hell, so long as we shoot sensible ammo then I will personally take the preceding weekend and zero and prepare all those guns, if that is what it takes.

we had plenty of people asking why they were nor getting closer to the middle and the answer, despite what we said, was often that the ammo is too random to do any better. Is that really fair to our customers?

(just up killing Monster Moth - not watching thread in sleep honest!!)

My comment on the "army ammo" was simply repeating what I was told by the bloke I was shooting with. My off-shot wasn't ammo anyway. When I lay down, the score from the previous shooter was still showing; when I shot my last one, the target didn't go down, after a shout of "4" the target went down and was scored in exactly the spot of the previous shooter's original hole. My suspicion is that my shot went through one of my existing holes, but was scored as the previous shooter's hole if that's possible.

Not sure how these things work so I could be wrong.

NB This didn't spoil it for me at all. The queue problem seemed to affect the newbies most and my colleague gave up when the rifle for which he was waiting went out of zero after a scope kiss moment. The consequent wiping up of blood and wringing of hands caused delays whilst another rifle was sought etc.

An open thanks to everyone who helped - it was an enjoyable day for all and I suspect both people I went with will be joing a club.

How would things work insurance wise if private rifles were leant for the event?

Hi Ovenpaa

There is no problem at all in legal / insurance terms using private rifles belonging to members, and in the early days that is exactly how we did MR. Legally and in insurance terms the open day operates on the same basis as a club guest day. The problem with private rifles is that we have been doing this for quite a few years now, the volunteers tend to be the same people year in year out, and they are understandably reluctant to be giving away 200 rounds worth of barrel life every 6 months. Also, for the more exotic disciplines (MR / F-class), private rifles tend to be set up for ammo that will hold a competitive group. Put Mil spec or even TR ammo in such a gun and it really isn't happy. The NRA does not carry stocks of the sort of ammo these guns use, and it is hugely expensive to buy, so to get any gain you find the volunteers having to bring the ammo as well. We can pay for the material cost (though even that is a bit eye-watering with some of the heavy bullets) , but recompense for the time and effort is more difficult, and entirely understandably, our volunteers have asked us to provide.

Iain

Iain, I asked because I have an Accuracy International that has seen a lot of service on Stickledown at 1000 with everything from reloads to AMA Milsurp and always shoots well, a fact a few forum members can certainly vouch for. It is the sort of rifle that just gets down and does it and is probably one of the most suited rifles to guest days and newbies as it is accurate and looks the part to most people.

We had wanted to attend this years meeting however life conspired against us, hopefully we will be there for the next one and the mighty AI can be brought into play.

Mr_Logic wrote:Perhaps then it is enough to shoot on the TR targets.

Use a TR long range target and paste an F-Class bull/v-bull in the centre. This is what we often do in practice as it means we don't need to get an F-class target organised specially (which often doesn't happen anyway) and TR and F-Class shooters can share a target and still plot their respective shots accurately.

You can then call the F-Class V-bull a 'Super V-bull' or whatever and the punter will get an idea of just how precise we have to be in F-Class but not be too discouraged if they can't get it in the middle every time. Also compensates for ammo not up to the task.

If you go to Silverstone and drive one of their 'racing cars' around the circuit, you don't expect to be able to lap as fast as the instructor or an experienced racing driver. The idea is, you get a taste of what it's like and learn some of the techniques involved. The objective of these open days should be similar. You can't expect everyone to be hitting F-Class V-bulls. Just give them a taste of the experience and they will want to come back for more.

Wasn't at the open day myself (was absorbing the sun on Siberia instead) but apparently the black powder pistol stand wasn't running this year? Shame if so - I loved that last year.

The Cupcake Kid wrote:

Mr_Logic wrote:Perhaps then it is enough to shoot on the TR targets.

Use a TR long range target and paste an F-Class bull/v-bull in the centre. This is what we often do in practice as it means we don't need to get an F-class target organised specially (which often doesn't happen anyway) and TR and F-Class shooters can share a target and still plot their respective shots accurately.

You can then call the F-Class V-bull a 'Super V-bull' or whatever and the punter will get an idea of just how precise we have to be in F-Class but not be too discouraged if they can't get it in the middle every time. Also compensates for ammo not up to the task.

If you go to Silverstone and drive one of their 'racing cars' around the circuit, you don't expect to be able to lap as fast as the instructor or an experienced racing driver. The idea is, you get a taste of what it's like and learn some of the techniques involved. The objective of these open days should be similar. You can't expect everyone to be hitting F-Class V-bulls. Just give them a taste of the experience and they will want to come back for more.

I agree that a taster doesn't need to be the same as the actual event - was basically my point before anyway.

TBH I don't even think we need an F-class V-bull on there. Just having an F-Class and TR target at the entrance should be enough.

morph007 wrote:Afternoon everybody,

I thought I'd add my tuppence worth.

I took two non shooting friends along and we had a great time. We worked ourselves around all the shooting disciplines, met some great people and had
a lot of fun. The only down side for me was a little rain and the waiting time for the F class, but to me a lot of the time wasted was down to the constant
"No 4" calls to the markers. Now as somebody who up to yesterday had only shot out to 600 yards, an opportunity to shoot out to 1000 yards was great, even
better was that Tom my instructor let me use his own Savage Arms model 12 F/TR and 5 of his hand loads. It's a wonderful rifle and one I've been looking at
upgrading to for a while so to actually use one on a 1000 yard range, absolutely priceless. Tom many thanks.

As for my friends? The good news is that they are both now hooked, two more for the dark side... :shakeshout:

Mark

Very glad you enjoyed it, you're very welcome.