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2 Target Shooter
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Target Shooter 3
 Welcome to the March Issue

.......of Target Shooter
Sections
14 Review of the British
Shooting Show by 6 Shooting Sport News
Vince Bottomley
11 Shooters Calendar
and Andy Dubreuil
13 Shooting Forum Review by
27 Schmidt and Andy Dubreuil
Bender FT Scope
23 Support your Local Gun
by Tim Finley
Shop

34 Shooting Black Powder

Pistol by Chris Risebrook

41 The Trouble with 32 Firearms Multimedia Guide

Barrels review by Carl Boswell
by Vince Bottomley
47 Handloading ‘Old Faithful’
the .308 by Laurie Holland

51 New Technologies -
Reading Digital Media by
67 World War 1 Carl Boswell
Sniper Rifles by
61 Mini Rifle - the Conclusion
Nigel Greenaway by Vince Bottomley

75 Int. Rifle Training Camp

by James Huckle
80 This Smallbore 81 Profile on Michael and
Business Andrew Ozmond
by Don Brook by Hayley Platts

91 Gun of the Month

98 Club Feature
110 Letters
92 Shooting the
1500 by Gwyn 111 Advertisers Index
Roberts

4 Target Shooter
 Association Pages
100 UKBRA

102 UKBR22
Editor(s).
104 F- Class Carl Boswell and Vince Bottomley
Advertising and Office Manager
105 Quigley Association Andy Dubreuil. email; admin@targetshooter.co.uk
Contributors
107 Gallery Rifle Vince Bottomley Andy Dubreuil Tim Finley
Laurie Holland Chris Risebrook Carl Boswell
108 UKPSA Don Brook Chris Farr Nigel Greenaway
Gwyn Roberts Ken Hall Les Holgate
Hayley Platts James Huckle
Webitorial - March 2010
Did you visit the Shooting Show? I hope so. Here was a good selection of the UK gun-trade, paying dearly to put on
a show for the public who, in turn, paid to see that show. You can read our impressions elsewhere but for a moment,
let’s consider the relationship between the gun-trade and the punter.
In fact – is their a relationship? Or do we merely suffer each other? In other words, every time you buy a tub of
powder or a box of bullets, do you begrudgingly part with your ‘hard-earned’, knowing that our American cousins
are paying a fraction of what we do?

If you are a dealer, are you heartily sick of customers walking into your shop with a print-out from the internet
showing the latest Nikko Bender scope selling for about half the cost of the one in your window?
Somehow, I think we have lost respect for each other. The punter feels ripped-off and the dealer struggles to make
an honest living as we merrily order direct, via the world wide web. New dealers are setting up virtual shops with
none of the overheads of the high street shop. We can buy cheaper from them, they cut out the overheads and so
make a decent profit. Is this the future? The last time I visited a gunshop, the owner made me a cuppa and we had
a natter (thanks Aaron) you don’t get that off the internet!

Yes, it’s a changing world, it’s a shrinking world thanks to the web but where will it end?

Can we learn anything from America - where the shooting market is massive but then again, there are many times
more dealers competing for a slice of the action. However, I get the feeling that the punter/dealer relationship is
much better on the other side of the pond.
Look at the big national shoots over there. The prize list from trade donations is massive – scopes, barrels, even
rifles will populate the list. Manufacturers and dealers want to be involved with their customers and in turn, the
shooters will support the dealers who support them. There is a much closer tie-up – a proper relationship.
If you look through a publication like Gun Mart you will see advertising costing thousands of pounds from members
of the trade yet, when ever do you see any of the trade at a large shooting event? Could the trade target their market
in another way – occasionally?
Last July, the World F Class Championships took place at Bisley for the first time. Hundreds of shooters and
spectators from all over the world were there for a couple of weeks. I would estimate that about 100,000 rounds went
downrange and, with the restrictions on importing ammunition into the UK, I would guess that the components for
most of it were bought from UK dealers. Couldn’t we have managed a teeny little prize? To quote an old maxim “The
trade was conspicuous - by its absence!”
To my knowledge, only one UK company and one American company put up any prizes and I’m proud to be able
to say - well done Aimfield Sports and Sightron scopes – you deserve the support of UK shooters but where in
heaven’s name were the rest of you?
Until next month. Vince, Carl & Andy
Carl Boswell - carl@targetshooter.co.uk and Vince Bottomley - vinceb@targetshooter.co.uk and
Andy Dubreuil - admin@targetshooter.co.uk Copyright © Trinity Digital Publishing Ltd
Disclaimer
The website www.targetshooter.co.uk is part of Target Shooter magazine with all contents of both electronic media copyrighted. No reproduction is permitted unless
written authorisation is provided.
Information, prices and data is believed to be correct at the time of posting on the internet which is on or around the 1st of each month. Advertisements that are firearm
related are from companies or individuals that Target Shooter magazine believes are licensed to hold such firearms and accepts no responsibility if companies or
individuals are not so licensed.
Letters and photographs submitted by members of the public to Target Shooter magazine will be accepted on the basis that the writer has agreed to publication unless
otherwise stated. Target Shooter magazine has no control over the content or ownership of photographs submitted.
The views expressed in this magazine are not necessarily the views of the publishers and relate to specific circumstances within each article. These are the opinions
and experiences of writers using specific equipment, firearms, components and data under controlled conditions. Information contained in the online magazine or on the
website is intended to be used as a guide only and in specific circumstances caution should be used. Target Shooter Magazine does not except any responsibility for
individuals attempting to recreate such testing using any information, data or other materials in its electronic pages.Publishers of Target Shooter magazine.
 Shooting Sport News
Sightron SIII SS 10-50x60 LR TD
Riflescope - Launched 2010

All scopes in the SIII series feature

a 30 mm one-piece main tube made
from high quality aircraft aluminium.
Tube thickness is more than twice as
thick as one inch models to provide
maximum rigidity. The scope
features the ultimate in all weather
construction. It is waterproof,
nitrogen filled and provides a
lifetime of internal fog protection
against inclement weather.
Designed for ease of use in prone
and bench shooting the side
focus will focus from 10 yards to
infinity. It has large target knobs
with 1/8 inch adjustments that
are re-settable to zero. All
target knobs are protected
by large heavy windage and
elevation caps. The scope
features Sightron’s unique ExacTrack
windage and elevation system. It has
ZACT-7 seven layer multi-coating with
precision ground glass. These lenses
provide superior light transmission and
resolution for the ultimate performance.
A European-style fast focus eyeball
accompanies all SIII SS Long Range
models. A quick turn of the eyeball
allows the user to focus in a matter
of seconds. Tweaking the eye focus
is just a small adjustment. Weighing
in at just 29 oz, this will be a huge
asset when weight is a critical factor.
All Sightron products carry a Lifetime
Warranty. This scope will be on
the market at just £ 960. Aim Field
Sports, the sole importer of Sightron
products in the UK, will be
launching this scope at the British
Shooting Show on 27/28 February
- we hope to see you there!

6 Target Shooter
The ATSC are investigating the possibility of Meeting. Should you have any questions, it may
allowing competitors with long barrelled pistols well be quicker to get an immediate response
to compete alongside the air pistols in the ISSF from me by calling me on either of the phone
events at our Open Meeting. The competition numbers at the head of this letter. Please feel
would be the same course of fire, shot in the free to do so at any time.
spirit of the ISSF events. I look forward to hearing from you all in the near
future with your Open Meeting entries and to
Most of the current slots for the ISSF competitions seeing you all at Bisley.
are organised for Melville Range, which will A White
therefore require that you are in possession of Chairman ATSC(TP)
a Shooter Certification Card from the NRA. The awhite576@yahoo.co.uk
Saturday morning events however, are
planned for the Lord Roberts Centre 25 metre
range, which does not require the Certification
Cards. Should there be sufficient interest
in the event, it may be possible to amend
our range bookings at the Lord Roberts
Centre.
For this to happen, we need to gauge the level
of potential interest from you, the shooters. We
would therefore ask you to respond, to myself at
the email address provided, with your potential
intent to enter the ISSF events at the Open
Meeting. Of course, we cannot hold you to your
intent to enter, but it might go a long way to
influencing us to amend our plans for the
Target Shooter 7
Picatinny Scope Rails from Fox & SYSS
I’ve always favoured the Weaver scope-mounting
system but with several manufacturers making their
own version, dimensions and slot spacing could vary
– which was frustrating as it made scope swapping
from rifle to rifle more complicated than it need be.
The US Army obviously though the same and they
laid down exact measurements for the Weaver rail
and it became known as the Picatinny – after the US
Military research and manufacturing arsenal in New
Jersey.
at least three separate UK companies offering their
own. We featured the North West Custom Parts rail
for the Savage action a few issues ago, now I have
rails from South Yorkshire Shooting
Supplies and Fox Firearms, both of which are
Remington short-action fit. The last one I got from
the States cost me over £100 – these will cost you
considerably less and are available with built-in
taper if you shoot long-range. Check out www.rim-
firemagic.co.uk and www.foxfireamsuk.com

Thanks to the Picatinny Arsenal,

it’s now feasible to fit these rails
to all your rifles and have just one
scope, knowing that the scope will
swap from rifle to rifle with total
precision.

A couple of years ago, you would

have to send to America for a
Picatinny rail but now I know of

A new moderator from SYSS

A few years ago, the moderator the moderator must be made to very high standards
was the preserve of the field shooter and stalker. as the hole must be only marginally larger than the
This was the only ‘good reason’ for having a calibre for maximum effect. Once you start to make
moderator / silencer on your FAC – a requirement a strippable mod, the standard of manufacture
not to disturb game. must be very high and this of course translates in
Our Health & Safety nanny-state for once did to high cost. In addition, your muzzle will need to be
shooters a favour – now, consideration for the accurately threaded and proofed.
hearing of yourself and fellow shooters is rightly Now, the advent of CNC machinery can keep
considered to be good reason for owning one. It costs reasonable whilst machining to a very high
wasn’t long before target shooters realised that standard and the South Yorkshire Shooting Supplies
the sound-moderator did exactly the same job as a moderator is a product of this. Each of the
muzzle-brake but in addition to taming recoil it made removable stainless-steel baffles is an absolute
a lot less noise! work of art. It would take me a whole day just to
make one, so when you consider that SYSS will sell
Having said that, some of us didn’t like the idea of you this mod. and fit and proof it for £225 it’s quite
hanging a great lump of metal off the end of the mind-blowing. Might try one myself! If you just want
barrel so Peter Jackson of Jackson Rifles the mod. it’s £175 – dealer enquiries welcome www.
www.jacksonrifles.com introduced us to the rimfiremagic.co.uk
Scandinavian ‘reflex’ suppressor which fitted
over the barrel and only increased the
overall length of the rifle by two or three
inches. If you are looking for more
information on moderators, Peter’s website is
a mine of information.
Peter’s moderators are welded up from
high tensile steel and cannot be dismantled
for cleaning and in spite of the fact that the
mods will run for thousands of rounds without
attention, some shooters don’t like the idea of
having something that can’t be stripped.
Over the last few years therefore, we have
had a number of moderators offered which
can also be taken apart for cleaning. However,
8 Target Shooter
Bags www.equifixshootingbags.co.uk and I was
quite amazed at the variety of bags on offer.
We have a feature coming up in the next issue Diane, who is responsible for making these
on shooting bags – the type you fill with sand and bags, has kindly sent me some samples and as
rest your rifle on. Originally, these bags were the soon as I can get them stuffed with sand we’ll
preserve of the serious benchrest shooter but have a go. Meanwhile, have a look at Diane’s
of late, website.
F Classers and even plinkers are using bags.
I came across an interesting site the other day

Bolt Knob

Once you get that CNC machine running you just can’t stop and
here’s another goody from SYSS – a badger-style tactical bolt-knob –
essential for putting the finishing touch to your new tactical rifle. They
are beautifully made and come with an 8mm thread for just £25 - or
£75 fitted. www.rimfiremagic.co.uk

Shooting at the 2012 London Olympics

If we want this
By now, we are all aware that the long-standing redundant equipment, we
‘Olympic Charter’ requiring a lasting legacy for will be expected to pay £400,000 for it!
a particular sport after the games are over, has
been shamelessly broken by the organisers. One can only speculate what this equipment
will be and who would buy it and where will
Not only will the brand new Olympic shooting they put it! Personally, I can see it being sold by
facility at Woolwich be demolished following auction at a knock-down price as much of the
the Games at a cost of several million pounds equipment was following the Commonwealth
but even the salvageable equipment will not be Games in Manchester. Sacrilege!
handed down to British shooters.
Target Shooter 9
 With FL lens.

Without FL lens.

The Ultimate
Visual Experience

Victory FL Diavari 4-16x50 T* – the most compact long-range
riflescope of its class – tailored to demanding stalking at home
or abroad.
Cutting-Edge Long-Range
Hunting Optics
The new reference class by Carl Zeiss provides demanding hun-
ters with the perfect optical base for accurate shooting over long
distances. Thanks to the unique FL concept, the Victory FL Diavari
riflescopes offer razor-sharp details and bright images which
are free of chromatic aberrations even with high magnifications.
The innovative ballistic concepts ASV and RAPID-Z® allow for
defined and accurate aiming via holdover point or indexed hol-
dover lines.

New: Victory FL Diavari 4 –16 x 50 T*

www.zeiss.de/sportsoptics

10 Target Shooter
Calendar of events over the next few months
If your club or association has events you want to publicise here then email us.
7 Mar European Airgun Championships
The Championships run from 7th to 14th March.
Location: Meraker, NOR
8 Mar NRA Shooting Club Day (National
Shooting Centre (NSC), Bisley)
Multi-discipline NRA Shooting Club Day. Targets
have been booked on Melville and at 100, 200,
500 and 1000 yards. All disciplines welcome.
Contact(s): Heather Webb via NRA website
15 Mar to 16 Mar Match Rifle Seminar (National
Shooting Centre (NSC), Bisley)
A seminar on Match Rifle shooting will be held
on 15 and 16 March. Anyone who is thinking of
taking up the sport, or who would like to know
more about it, is welcome to attend. Places
are limited so early application is encouraged.
Contact(s): Nick Tremlett via NRA website
15 Mar Highpower Rifle Association Match
(National Shooting Centre (NSC), Bisley)
80 round XTC. Details can be found by clicking
on the links below.
http://www.highpowerrifle.co.uk
Contact(s): Highpower Rifle Match Entries
16 Mar HBSA Open Rook & Rabbit Rifle
Championships (National Shooting Centre
(NSC), Bisley) - Classes for Vintage, Classic,
Veteran and Rimfire rifles max weight 6.75lbs,
max ME 450 ft lb. http://www.hbsa.fsnet.co.uk
Contact(s): Allan Kirk
27 Mar to 28 Mar Gallery Rifle - Spring Action
Weekend (National Shooting Centre (NSC),
Bisley). Contact(s): Brian Thomas via NRA
website
25 Apr Somerset SBSA – Open Shoot. (Rifle)
Long Ashton Ranges. Tel. 01275 836442. Email.
julian.withey@btinternet.com
22/23 May Cumberland News Rifle Club - Carlisle
Air Guns Open Championship - 2x 60 shot
details at: www.cnrc.org.uk/open.htm
contact: David Erskine: “urkers@aol.com”
26 Sep Somerset SBSA – Open Shoot. (Rifle)
Long Ashton Ranges.
Tel. 01275 836442. Email. julian.withey@btinter-
net.com
13 Mar Civilian Service Rifle competition (National
Shooting Centre (NSC), Bisley) Civilian Service
Rifle competitions are held throughout the year.
Upcoming dates are 16 January, 14 February and
13 March.Contact Mark Bradleyvia NRA website
3 Apr to 05 Apr Bisley Clubs Easter Meeting
(National Shooting Centre (NSC), Bisley)
This year the Easter Meeting will be run by the
City Rifle Club Contact(s): Pat Drummy
10 Apr HBSA Northern St George’s Open Charity
Shoot (National Shooting Centre (NSC), Bisley)
AM 300, PM 600: classes for Vintage (BP),
Classic (pre-1919) and Veteran (pre-1946) rifles.
Contact(s): Mark Hodgins
11 Apr National 200yd Free & Enfield Rifle
Championship, Bisley
15 Apr World Cup, Beijing
The competition runs from 15th to 25th April.
Location: Beijing, CHN
17 Apr Ibis Rifle Club Open Meeting (National
Shooting Centre (NSC), Bisley)
Short Range (Queens II) in the morning. Long
Range (2+10 at 1000 and 1100) in the afternoon.
Download Entry Form from NRA website
Contact(s): Bill Rowland
22 Apr NRA Shooting Club Day (National
Shooting Centre (NSC), Bisley)
Multi-discipline NRA Shooting Club Day. Targets
have been booked on Melville and at 100, 200,
300 and 600 yards. All disciplines welcome. If
you would like to attend you must book in at least
a week in advance by contacting Charles Perry.
Contact(s): Charles Perry NRA website
24 Apr Clubs Mini Palma Match (National
Shooting Centre (NSC), Bisley)
A Mini Palma Match will be held on Saturday 24
April 2010 for teams of eight from any club, school
or county affiliated to the NRA.
Due to the huge interest last year we have booked
the whole of Stickledown for the day so we can
accept 25 teams. The Purples Match will be held
on the following day which will hopefully give many
teams a great weekend’s shooting.
If your club, school or county would be interested
in competing in this match please contact Karen
Robertson via the NRA website
25 Apr North of England Muzzle Loading
Championships, nr. Skipton, Yorks.
Target Shooter 11
 Welcome to GT Shooting.
The premier shooting sports shop in Surrey

Fullbore & .22LR Optics

Black Power Ammunition
Air Rifles and Pistols Reloading equipment
Used rifles and Pistols and more...

Our premises are located at

53 Chipstead Valley Road, Coulsdon, Surrey, CR5 2RB
www.gtshooting.co.uk

Tel: 020 8660 6843

Fax: 020 8660 6843

12 TargetWe are conveniently situated near the M23 & M25.

Shooter
Opening times: Tuesday to Saturday 10.00am - 5.30pm
 Forum Review on
UK Long Range Shooting Forum
When you hit the internet search-engine to find
a shooting forum there are quite a few to choose
from but not so many that are dedicated to one type
of shooting and this one is also run by custom rifle
builder - Chris from UK Gunworks.
I admit to knowing nothing about long-range shooting,
so this was a good site for me to see if it would be
easy to find information on how to get started and see
what the sport has to offer.
Firstly, you have to register to get access to any of
the information on the forum. Forums do get the odd
idiot who comes onto a site to promote something that
has nothing to do with the forum and puts up threads
all over the site that the administrator has to waste
time removing, so the Long Range Forum has wisely
protected itself by monitoring those that wish to join.
This may delay access whilst your registration being
processed but you will find that it’s worth the short
wait.
Once you have access, there is a ‘Just say hello’
section where you can introduce yourself. Looking
through some of the posts in this section it’s obviously
friendly and everyone welcomes you to the forum.
The General Chat section is open to any topic and
really anything goes and members can pass on
stories and just talk about day to day stuff rather than
serious shooting. I don’t think this detracts from what
the forum is about but, like all forums, the idea is share
views and information and then talk about it.
The forum does have sponsorship and has a section
about the sponsors which gives information on
any special offers that might be available with that
particular company. Reaching the right audience
is a difficult one and when a forum has a company
onboard, then members can find the latest deals
without having to search for them via the company’s
own website.
The main section of the forum is of course related to
long-range shooting and the kind of gear that is used
and is broken down into easy to navigate sections.
In the Rifle section I found a nice thread about the
procedure for cleaning a rifle and how often to do it.
Also, there is a Technical section that covers stuff like
pillar-bedding, trigger assembly and a lot more but the
best part I found was within the hand-loading section.
A lot of time and effort has been put into explanations
of different loads and they have a section that is
dedicated to hand-loading data. There about twenty
threads on different calibres, all laid out so that you
can ask questions to other members about this side of
long-range shooting.
Other parts of the hand-loading section covers
powder burn rates, bullet-making procedures,
reloading safety, primers and a lot more.
In the Optics section there is loads of information on
how to setup your scope and the kind of scope best
suited to this kind of shooting. Again, a lot of time is
devoted to giving new shooters all the information
they will need to get started.
The site is a great introduction to long-range shooting
and also has information on clubs that you can join
from 300 yard to 1000 yard shooting. Everything is
there from the equipment, ballistics studies, reloading
data plus a friendly group of members who will help
you get started in the sport.
The site has a lot of other sections like classifieds,
target shooting and stalking. The one thing I would like
to see is a few more pictures – maybe a photo gallery
of rifles and gear. Most owners of rifles are very glad to
show off their custom rifles and this would give other
members an idea of what you could do to the rifle you
already have or might like to have built.
With webmaster Chris being a custom rifle builder, he
has obviously put a lot of thought into what he wanted
on the forum so that it would be useful to beginners
and old hands. The site is easy to navigate and full
of the right kind of information that you would expect
to find on a forum devoted to long-range shooting.
Members interact in the way that you would expect by
giving new members a warm welcome and a helpful
hand in getting started.
Visit www.uklongrange.co.uk to register and be ready
to be hit with a forum that will keep you up into the
early hours if you are looking for this kind of
information and data.
Target Shooter 13
 Exclusive Special Review
Trinity Digital Publishing’s trio of Andy, Carl and I confess, I didn’t attend the first Newark
Vince decided that the Newark Show was a Shooting Show, held in 2009 and I heard mixed
‘must’ and all planned to go along for the week- reports but, when I saw that the Show was to be
end but, best laid plans and all that – in the end repeated this year and it was to be even larger
only two of us made it. Here’s what we thought than last year, we at Target Shooter decided to
of the Show and, as throw the full weight of the magazine behind the
always, we would be pleased to hear your venture and pay a visit.
comments.
The organisers have chosen well with the Newark
Vince’s view Showground - an excellent venue, equally
I’ve done theAmerican Shot Show, IWAin Germany accessible from north or south. The February
and of course, like many of you, I remember the date was also spot-on – we are all gearing up to
Bisley Anno Domini meetings with great fond- the new season so a good opportunity to check
ness. We also tried UK shows at the NEC and out new kit and pick up a few essentials.
Trentham Gardens if I remember correctly.
For a show to be
successful, the organisers
must get plenty of us
through the turnstiles and
we will only do that if we can
see and handle the stuff
we can’t see in our local
gunshop. So, what caught
my eye at Newark?

Fox Firearms promised

to have the latest SEB
rest on display – they
did and it was a cracker!
I predict that Sightron’s
new 10-50 scope will be
a huge hit with serious
target shooters. Quality
Japanese optics, super-
fine crosshair/dot reticle,
no-quibble guarantee and
price-tag below £1000!

14 Target Shooter
Top – one of Osprey’s custom rifles built on the Savage ‘target’ action. Bottom – their F
Class stock in ‘ice wood’
I want one and so will an awful lot of
F Class and benchrest shooters. Seb
Lambang has really done the business here
and well done Foxy for getting the very first
one. I hope to use it very shortly in a 600
yard BR comp. but you can see some pics
in my From the Bench column and we are
hoping to bring you one of Andy’s videos
comparing the new and the old rest .
My other scoop was the 10-50 Sightron scope.
I’m a Sightron fan and I like the way they get
involved with the sport and having Aimfield
Sports as UK importer is really good. The scope
on Aimfield’s stand was the very first one in the
UK and I’m hoping to blag it for a first test for
Target Shooter readers so don’t miss the next
issue out on April 1st.

Lovatt Society’s stand – 100 years of sniper rifles, raising money for ‘Help for heros’
Target Shooter 15
 building rifles on the Savage target
action that has been properly ‘timed’
– this significantly improves bolt-
lift. Combine this with a tricked-out
bolt and you have the basis of
a very nice custom gun at a
realistic price. Osprey were also
exhibiting the most incredible
laminate stock I have ever seen
– made from something they call
‘ice-wood’ – unfortunately, my pics
doesn’t do it justice.
My favourite stand was one set up by
the Lovatt Society – a group of guys
who collect sniper rifles from WW1
to the present day. They must have
had around 50 rifles on display all
beautifully presented and labelled
and they were also raising money
for ‘Help for heroes’ – just about
the most worthy charity around in
my opinion. Well done guys. www.
helpforheroes.org.uk

With more and more high street

gunshops closing, the Show was
The innovative Peter Jackson holding McMillan’s folding a great opportunity for shooters to
stock based on his prototype below stock up on a few essentials. I tried
Other good stuff? Osprey Rifles had some to say hello to Norman Clark all
interesting Savage kit on show. They are now weekend but his stall was literally three-deep
every time I passed!
Most stall-holders
appeared to be doing
a roaring trade and
I can see the Show
growing year on year.
Shotguns and air-
guns were in
abundance but there
were more firearms
than I had anticipated
and Riflecraft also
had a very interesting
stand, as did Jackson
Where else could
you see a collection
of punt-guns and
cartridges like this.
The Show had some
very interesting
antique stuff on
display

16 Target Shooter
 Wayne at North West Custom Parts making a bit
of an impact at the show

rifles who had a brand-new McMillan folding
stock on display which was developed from a
Jackson prototype. There were also some very
interesting stands selling antique firearms and
although I’m not a collector it’s quite special to
handle an original Colt revolver or lever-action
Winchester from the 1870’s.
The major ‘institutions’
like BASC, NRA, NSRA, Muzzle Loaders

Brian Fox being his usual friendly self

Target Shooter 17
 The new and the old - SEB Rests
etc. were represented and Bonhams the
auctioneers had some fine guns on display with
price-tags that we are most used to seeing on
upper-end automobiles!
In summation, a very good show. If you didn’t
go this year, make a date for next year when
I’m sure it will be even bigger. Critisms? None
really, though next year, I’d like to see the
organisers try and attract more ‘club’ stands
but clearly space is at a premium. Catering was
good with plenty of variety on offer from a sit-
down meal in the restaurant or a burger ‘on the
hoof’ and prices were reasonable. There was
something for everyone, no matter what your
shooting interest and most stall-holders had come
to do some serious selling and there were plenty
of bargains to be had. I didn’t manage to catch the
outdoor displays save for a black-powder demo
which was very well staged.
We deserve a good shooting show and we certainly
have the makings of one here. Let’s give it our
support and it will grow year on year.
18 Target Shooter
Andy’s view
Shooting enthusiasts from all over the country
descended on Newark the last weekend in
February. They came in their thousands to visit
one of the biggest guns shows this year in the
UK.
The British Shooting Show was packed solid
with stands offering visitors a vast array of
products to view, pickup, try on and buy. It was
almost like an alladins cave, there was so much
there. The British weather was true to form with
heavy rains the day before, but the organisers
had done a fantastic job with laying down
special flooring in each of the huge tents and
tried to make the paths to each section of show
easy under foot. The ground was horrendous in
some places with thick mud.
The show in the past had been more known
for being mostly shot gun related and country
wear, but this year that all changed as the
promoters invited companies and dealers from
the world of air rifle, small bore, full bore and
black powder. Having everything on one site, I
think brings shooters and enthusiasts together,
allowing them to see rifles and equipment that
maybe they have never seen before. I am sure
 A case of shop until you drop - there was so
much there to to see and buy

that there have been visitors this weekend that it’s one of the only rest I have seen that will
may be attracted to a different types of shooting fold up to make it easier to transport. However,
by talking to others about what they shoot and there is a lot more to it and in the coming days
looking at what is available, not just at the high you will be able to see Vince Bottomley doing a
end market but also for beginners. comparison between the old style and new in a
The show gave the chance for some companies video on our website. The rest is so new that I
to show off for the very first sight of some new don’t think that SEB have even come up for a
products. AIM Field Sports, who are the UK name for it and Brian couldn’t even tell us how
distributors for Sightron scopes, were able to much it will retail for. Vince will be taking the
show off their latest addition that is
the new 10x50x60mm scope, which The many people trying to get in - half mile tail
drew a lot of attention. The scope backs were common
follows the line of side parallax
scopes but without the large side
wheels that some other scopes
have. Target Shooter Magazine will
be providing a full review in coming
months, so that you will be able to
get the full load down.
Centre fire shooters have something
to watch out for as Fox Firearms
showed off for the very first time the
brand new SEB rest that has been
totally redesigned and is nothing like
what you have seen before. To give
you a little taste of why it’s different,
Target Shooter 19

new rest to the range to see how it performs up
against the old style SEB rest.
Keeping on the theme of Benchrest, I am
currently having a custom rifle built which I will
be reviewing in the coming months, but I had
a chance to catch up with Stephen Parker of
Parmoor Stocks who is making a custom stock
for me. I had already decided on the type of wood
that Stephen was going to use, but he came to
the show with an amazing laminate stock that
has been made out of what is called ice wood
laminate. It looks amazing and I do not think
the picture does it justice but it has fantastic
colouring that I have never seen before - which
almost looks like the skin of a snow leopard.
20 Target Shooter
The Taurus BP Revolver Conversion
After a little bit of a confab, I changed my mind
and have now gone with the ice wood and once
the rifle is complete you will be able to see it in
all its glory.
You know we have some great gunsmiths in
this country, and there is no better the Allan
Westlake and he was at the show with his
converted Taurus.357 muzzle-loading revolver
that he is very well known for with black
powder shooters. Allan also had the Browning
Buckmark Long Pistol. The Pistol is made by
converting the Buckmark rifle and has a 6mm
diameter balance rod fitted to it, which makes a
beautiful balance to the pistol. I am not a pistol
shooter but I did love this pistol and could see
myself getting one of them if I ever took up pistol
shooting.
In the tactical rifle section, North West Custom
was having a bumper time at the show, had a
lot of interest in the Smith & Wesson .22lr rifle,
and was taking plenty of orders. It is a great little
rifle, as we have already done a review on and
one of those types of rifles. I would go for if I had
the time shoot it, but there is only so many hours
in the day!
This show I think has been a great success
from the point of view of the visitors that turn
out on the very first day. From the dealers and
gunsmiths that I know where overwhelm with
the amount of people that turn up. I am sure that
air rifle, small bore and full bore, will become a
very big part of this yearly show for its future and
if you have missed it this year then you really
need to put this show in you diary for next year,
as one of the major event to visit.
Target Shooter 21
22 Target Shooter
 ‘Support your local gun shop’
Roedale Precision
Pete Lincoln is a Fully Qualified Master Riflesmith
with over 23 years experience in Firearms Design,
Modification and Manufacture. Originally from East
Yorkshire-England, has been hunting and shooting since
he was big enough to carry a gun. Interested in all things
mechanical from a very young age. Pete was often to
be found in the fitters workshop of his Fathers haulage
business, helping out the mechanics and when no one
was looking, building variouse mechanical devices, most
of which could be loaded and fired.
In 1986, Pete followed the familiy tradition and joined
the British Army. After basic training he embarked on a
technical apprenticeship as a REME Armourer. Qualifying
as a Class 1 Armourer in 1992. Going on to gain the
recognized civilian Engineering Qualifications as a Gun
Smith, gaining the German Equivalent of a HND in
Engineering and Qualifying as a Master Riflesmith.
Pete collected a wealth of experience in firearms repair,
modification and manufacture, especially with Precision
Sniper Rifles, as well as becoming an accumplished
marksman, with many trips to Bisley and some nice
silverwear, during his 10 years Military service.
After leaving the Army in 1996. Pete went on to work full
time as a Field Engineer with a Defence Contractor for the
MOD. From 1999 to November 2007 he worked full time
in the Space Industry. So a varied technical background is
definately in place. So how did this high flying enginneer
end up building Custom Precision Rifles for a living ?
During 1994 Pete began working part time ( If you can call
40+ hours a week part time) as a Gunsmith for a major
German Sporting Firearms Retailer as a side line to the
defence contract employment, on a more or less hobby
basis.
Never satisfied with the reliability or accuracy of mass
produced firearms. Pete started building his own custom
rifles based on factory actions. Hunting partners, friends
and shop customers began to take note of the accuracy
and reliability of his rifles and soon began to ask “ Can
you build me a rifle too ?” Pete lent a hand in the shop
whenever possible, but the move 300 miles south to the
Space Agency restricted the free time available for
general gunsmithing, and priorities had to be set.
Due to increased demand in rifle builds, Pete decided
to start a dedicated custom rifle business on a part time
basis and Roedale Precision Rifles was launced in 2005.
After a good start things didn't go exactly to plan. The
Custom Rifle business was run as a sideline next to a
highly demanding job in the Space Industry, this was
managable to a point. But when firstly Pete's Wife and
then his Father became ill, the increased burden meant
that the rifle business coudn't be dedicated the time it
realy deserved. That coupled with the unreliability of the
component supply industry, mostly based in the USA
meant that time tables got stretched to the limit and Pete
suffered some bad press for a while and made some
customers unhappy.
" I was trying to run the business, work for the Space
Agency, look after 2 kids and care for my Missus, my Dad
and my Mam all at the same time, now if all that had been
in one location, it wouldn't have been so bad, but I was
stretching my self across Europe, between Yorkshire,
Frankfurt and the where my workshop is located in
Hasbergen, thats several hundred miles in any direction,
something had to give and it was the Rifle Business that
suffered. I almost worked my self to a burn out ! "
Pete decided to leave the Space Agency in November
2007 and go full time in the gun trade. "Things didn't
improve much after going full time in January 2008.
We got messed around and ripped of by the building
contractors who where supposed to build the new
Target Shooter 23
workshop, I ended up shoveling concreet and bricklaying
instead of machining barrels and bolts, I was right chuffed
about that I can tell you !!"
However, never one to let a turn of bad luck get him down,
Pete powered on and since mid 2008 has been producing
a constant stream of high quality, one of a kind Target,
Hunting and Tactical Rifles for customers all around the
world.
" I made several mistakes in the early stages and I should
have gone full time much sooner. I should have also taken
on staff sooner, even the most talented of us can'd do it all
on thier own, Things have been comming together nicely
since and with a little help we've are producing some realy
classy kit, and I've actualy been able to put several of my
own designs into production" says Pete.
Roedale Precision has evolved form a part time one man
band into a rapidly expanding and sucessfull business.
Staff include Thomas " Tom" Helmig who is a highly
qualified R&D engineer and Goeff Marshall, an ex Royal
Marine, as well as a nice young lady to take care of the
book keeping. With production support coming from some
highly talented and reliable, localy based Engineering
Companies.
" The biggest pain in the backside we have is un-reliable
component supply, I got so sick of bieng the pig in the
middle that I have spent a small fortune on designing and
manufacturing my own components and accessories, I
intend to give the Yanks a run for their
money"
Putting his money where is mouth is seems to be
paying off for Pete, as Roedale have fielded many own
products and there are many more in
the pipeline.
Roedale currently manufacture the
following own design products:
RCS, Roedale Chassis System, (A
similar item to the AICS, but for Tikka
and Howa rifle actions, with more to
follow)
Roedale Precision build rifles to meet and exceed customer
specifications, Pete has definate ideas on rifle design and
ergonomics, many of which are incorporate into the basic
rifle packages.
"We try to combine traditional Craftsmanship and
Precision Engineering with Experience and Technology
from the Defence and Aerospace Industries. Ive
Specialised in Custom and Semi-Custom one of a
kind rifles, based on accurised factory actions and
custom manufactured actions. But we are in the middle of
expanding to manufacture custom series rifles. These
rifles are made to my own design and specifications and
leave nothing to be desired, but are basicaly available off
the shelf with no waiting about and no dependancy on the
US State departments !"
The key to Rifle Accuracy is Precision Engineering.
Combining Quality Materials with Tight, Consistent
Tollerances and paying Attention To Detail. In the
Custom Rifle Industry there are many "Gun Plumbers"
around these days, screwing a rifle barrel onto an action
and that then into a stock isn't exactly rocket science,
but there are few who are showing the ingenuity and
commitment Pete is so full of.
He looks set to be the John Moses Browning of the 21st
century and Roedale looks to be on the right track for
success.
A Selection of Pete's work and products can be seen on
display at the IWA 2010 in Nürnberg. Hall 3, stand 3-741
or by visiting his webshop and website. www.webshop.
roedale.de or www.roedale.de

RMS,Roedale Magazine System

(Using the AICS magazines and with
a version for remington 700, Howa
1500 and Tikka T3)

Delta Suppressors. (Petes own

design full bore moderator)

Roedale Muzzlebrakes (Both the Delta

Supressors and Roedale
Muzzlebrakes are a design by Pete,
enhanced through a scientific R&D
study with the University of Applied
Science in Osnabrück, Germany)
Roedale Bipods ( for the Sako TRG,
AI AW and Steyr SSG 08) Roedale
Avenger Rifle Actions.

There are also several new products

shortly to be released at the IWA
2010 in Nürnberg.
24 Target Shooter
 Portsmouth Gun Centre Ltd
295 London Road
North End
Portsmouth
PO2 9HF
Opening Times Tel 02392 660574
Mon 9.30 - 5.30 Fax 02392 644666
Tues Closed
Wed Closed E-mail sales@portsmouthguncentre.com
Thur 9.30 - 5.30 Website www.portsmouthguncentre.com
Fri 9.30 - 5.30
Sat 9.30 - 5.30
We stock a full range of Rifles, Pistols, Air Guns, Shotguns, Ammunition,
Reloading Equipment and Accessories. All major brands stocked including BSA,
CZ, Air Arms, Marlin, Ruger, Umarex, Uberti, Cometa, Pedersoli, Berreta, Lincoln,
Webley, Pedersoli, etc.

Target Shooter 25
SCHMIDT AND BENDER FT SCOPE
Field Target has been going for more then
twenty years and we have had to wait this long
for a scope manufacturer to design from scratch
a dedicated Field Target scope. Every other FT
scope used today has started out as either a
full-bore or rimfire scope that has then been
modified/re-specified as an FT scope. With the
huge rise in popularity of FT in Europe and in
FT1 x50 Magnification at 55 yards
by Tim Finley
fact World Wide Schmidt and Bender have taken
on the challenge and have I was lucky enough
to be in at the ground floor of it’s development.
It all started in 2006 when I met the technical
department of S&B at IWA in Nuremberg. They
had given German FT shooters one of their
34mm tubed 5-25 PMII full-bore scopes to
ascertain if it would rangefind. The German shooters
said no, the optical quality was
too good to be able to range-
find accurately
with it, I disagreed with their
statement and asked S&B
if they would be willing to
send me a scope to test it’s
rangefinding capabilities
for myself. This they did
and I found it did rangefind
very well in all the various
conditions I tested it under.
From then on I was in
regular contact with S&B as
their FT scope took shape.
I was very keen to have
an influence on the first
focal plane reticle
development as I shoot
on various magnifications
depending upon prevailing
weather and range
conditions.
A 1st focal plane reticle
with windage dots gives the
advantage to the shooter as
Target Shooter 27
 I came up with the see
FT2 55 yards 12_5 Magnification through dot idea to allow
it to be useful on both
extreme ends of the scope
magnification range, a low
12.5 and a huge 50. The scope
has a 30mm body, sidewheel
parallax for rangefinding, with or
without an illuminated
reticle and a 56mm front
objective lens. In another
departure for the firm it would
be silver in colour. The lighter
colour reflects the suns rays
and does not allow the scope
to heat up as much as a black
scope. Designing a scope
from scratch meant that for
the first time ever some very
clever features could be
incorporated into the scope,
such as the elevation turret.
One common mistake
that all FT shooters make,
including myself in the
past, is to dial out a full
turn on the scope, it can
they can use the windage dots on the horizontal
be hard to spot in the heat of competition, The
crosshair on the scopes full range of magnification.
turret on the S&B has 32MOA in ¼ of an inch
The scope S&B came up with has 12.5 to 50
clicks at 100yard, for less than one full turn of the
times magnification range so the design of a FFP
turret. Which gives it the normal range of adjustment
reticle was always going to be a bit of a compromise.
but with never the chance
FT3 German FT 40 yards with 50 Magnification of dialing a full turn out, a
very impressive feature. The
windage turret can be either
a target type with ¼ inch clicks
or as I specified on mine a
low profile hunter type, this is
the time fitted as standard to
scopes coming into York Guns
the distributor.
The windage adjuster has
a green and red scale
showing how far you are
from optical center. When
I fitted to my Steyr LG-
110 it was only 2 clicks off
optical center (a full 1/8 of an
inch or 3mm at 100yards),
which says a lot for the
precision engineering of both
the S&B and the Steyr. The
overall range of windage
adjustment is +/- 16 MOA,
but you should never need
this range of movement as
you should set any scope up,
especially FT and HFT scopes

28 Target Shooter
as near optical center as possible, i.e. with as
fewer clicks on left or right as possible to get the
pellets on the horizontal crosshair. You can have a
target type windage adjustment knob fitted for an
extra £36 if you so wish.
Initial rangefinding tests were somewhat
disappointing, S&B told me the gearing system in
my scope was their 1st attempt to get large gaps
between the ranges, the reasoning behind it that it
should give rangefinding down to ½ a yard or even
less. Of the 12 scopes initially built the German FT
team had recently had theirs changed to a smaller
gaps as they actually found it difficult to rangefind
with so much distance between each 5 yard range.
It does sound wrong but it is true, the image was
changing too slowly to discern when it was blurred
or clear when looking at the target, unfortunately
it’s this quality when parallaxing which makes
rangefinding with a scope work. My S&B
prototype scope initially gave me a massive 25mm
gap between 50 and 55 yards with the 130mm Dia
wheel, too much for me to with rangefind either. I
could not cope with the mega slow change in the
rangefinding image. S&B told me when I picked it
up at IWA I could send it back to have the gearing
altered and gaps closed up, this I did. It now had a
7.6mm gap between 50 and 55yards. The targets
snap in and out of focus, looking at an intended
target and starting from a shorter range than it, the
sidewheel is turned to increase the range on it until
the paint flecks on the target come into full clarity,
the wheel is then stopped and the range read off,
simple. I can now support the forend of the rifle with
the forward hands palm and reach up to operate the
scope with the same hands fingertips. That is a real
bonus for me moving from a front parallax scope,
it works slightly different for kneeling as the trigger
hand can reach over the scope to turn the sidewheel,
with the forward hand supporting the gun this can be
done in the kneeling position saving precious time
on the stopwatch, with only one minute per target in
FT every second counts.
The reticles available for the scope are a S&B
designed 2nd focal plane with simple dots that
are set to be 40mm apart at 50m called the Sport
FT2 reticle and another second focal plane
reticle designed by the German FT shooters. This
is called the Sport FT3 and has dot’s, line’s and
numbers, it has been designed to be shot on 30
times magnification, after the shooter has range
found on 50 times magnification. They wanted a
reticle they could use holdover with as they were really
struggling with the dialing in of the range concept.
The 1st focal plane reticle I had a hand in
designing is called the Sport FT1 and has 2mm dots
40mm apart at 50m and around then a 25 mm Dia
see though circle. I went for a see through design so
it could be used at 12.5 and 50 times magnification.
It is not a new idea as my NXS 12-42 scope for 1000
yard shooting has a see through Mildot reticle. The
S&B reticle did not need 20mm sized circles as the
central dots are 40mm apart so these can simply be
Target Shooter 29
positioned in the middle of edge of the target disc
for precise full or half disc windage aiming off.
The only part of my design S&B changed was
the gaps between the small 2mm central dots
themselves. I wanted them be 40mm apart at 50
yards as the original Premier reticle designed
reticle are, hundreds of FT scope users, including
me are well used to this ratio, I had the Mildot’s in my
Burris scopes put in at 40mm at 50yards also. But
the German FT team and S&B wanted 50m or 55
yards. S&B did ask Premier reticles to come up with
a FFP reticle but they were not entirely happy with
it and went their/my way. After using the scope I am
more than happy with the reticle, it is useful at 12.5
and 50 times magnification just as we designed it to
be. The reticle is available either illuminated as on
my scope or non-illuminated. After shooting in dark
woods I can see the illumination as a very big help,
so I went for it on my scope. The whole of the reticle
on the FT1 and FT2 is illuminated in a red colour
with eleven brightness settings, run off a CR2032 3v
battery. It also turns itself off after six hours so as not
to flatten the battery if you leave it on. With the FT3
version only the thin center lines and dots illuminate.
The only minor drawback with having the illuminated
version is the space it takes up on the rear body
of the scope, 27mm to be exact. I had no trouble
mounting the scope with a set of Sportsmatch
adjustable 30mm two piece mounts.
York Guns the distributor in the UK are now
getting regular shipments of the FT model and gave
to an example of both of the 2nd focal plane reticles
to test along side my pre-production model. In fact
I picked up the scopes from York Guns myself and
30 Target Shooter
had a choice from over twenty S&B scopes.
I fitted quick release scope rings to the two
second focal plane scopes which fitted my test
bed of a custom stocked Air Arms 400. I only
took one sidewheel from York Guns as I wanted
to see how the two scopes rangefinding marks
varied too. The sidewheel has a slot cut in the
hub of the wheel that locates upon a raised
spigot on the smaller ribbed sidewheel on the left
hand side of the scopes body. I fashioned range
read off markers from plastic sheet that clamped
into the rear scope rings. S&B are bringing out a
dedicated read off marker combined with a spirit
level. It locates in two Allen screw holes in the
left rear of the scope on the same saddle as the
illuminator. I set out metal targets with a measuring
tape to test the rangefinding of the three scopes. I
used white and black targets with both un-shot at
and shot at faceplates, this was to give the scopes
a real work out. The first thing I noticed was the
sidewheels of the two new scopes were stiffer to
operate than mine. Having said that my S&B FT
scope is almost three years old now so it would be
smoother than the two brand new scopes. My zoom
ring for the magnification was stiff initially and I fitted
a fishing coaster to enable me to rotate it quickly in
the heat of competition. The word stiff is probably
the incorrect word to use, it’s the fine tolerances and
good fit of the parts that means there is no wobble
or “play” in the sidewheel and the mag zoom ring.
Other cheaper scopes are packed with grease
to fool their owners into thinking they are better
quality then their bargain price tag would suggest.
Not so with the S&B, you get the quality you pay for.
It was the first time I had the chance to study the two- their own parallax markings as everyone’s eyes are
second focal plane reticles at any length. I was different.
struck by how fine the reticles appeared compared That is why the big side wheel on the S&B comes
to my 1st focal plane reticle. Looking at the blank. Wrap it in white PVC tape or masking tape
specification charts the FT1 reticle has 2mm and once you are happy with the parallaxing marks
thick lines ( As specified by yours truly) at make the read off lines permanent, but do not rush
50m and 50mag, in fact at all ranges and all the process.
magnifications due to it being in the first In all the tests I have carried out so far, from
focal plane. FT2 has ½ millimeter wide lines at rangefinding in pitch dark woods to bright open
50m and 50 mag. The German shooters FT3 fields, all the scopes rangefind to the same level
reticle has 0.4 of an mm wide lines at 30 times of accuracy and repeatability.In a word the S&B
magnification at 50m. I did tend to loose the FT scope is a true masterpiece of engineering,
German reticle on the white targets when the built as an FT scope from the start and to a
sun shone brightly on them. It needed the quality never before seen in an FT scope. There
illumination on to be able to discern the is a reticle available to suit whatever style of FT
reticle. Each dot on the FT3 is 16.7mm apart at 50m on you shoot, big mag all the time go for the FT2,
30 mag. The other second focal plane
reticle has slightly thicker lines but
it has dots at 40mm spacing’s at
50m and hash marks in-between.
This means you can also use it for
increments of disc aiming off in a wind
on 25times magnification too. The
smaller hash marks appear 40mm
apart at 50m on that magnification.
As for actual rangefinding the
distance between 50 and 55 yards
were slightly wider on the two
production scopes compared to my
prototype scope, only by a mm so
that’s not a massive amount and
the image snapped in and out per-
fectly. All top FT shooters mark up

Target Shooter 31
and if you wind up and down the mag range the
FT1 is the one for you. In a nutshell it’s a scope
that’s worth every single penny of the quite
substantial price tag.

SPECIFICATION
Maker Schmidt and Bender
Country of origin Germany
Magnification 12.5 to 50 variable zoom
Objective Dia 56mm
Body Tube 30mm
Parallax adjustment 7-70m
Reticles One First (FT1) or Two
Second focal plane (FT2,
FT3)
Illuminated or Non
illuminated
Elevation adjustment 32 MOA in ¼ inch
clicks
Windage adjustment 16 MOA in 1/4 inch
clicks
Finish Silver
Field of view
@ 100m 3.5 - 0.9m
Eye relief 70mm
Exit pupil 4.55 to 1.18 mm
Weight 1150grams
Overall length 417mm

Price £1937 approx illuminated

£1679 approx non-illuminated
Optional extras
The larger “add on”
elevation turret £23
100mm Sunshade £36
Target elevation turret £50
130mm sidewheel £100
Sprit level/Range indicator
£184
Distributor York Guns 01904 487180
www.yorkguns.com/

32 Target Shooter
 Target Shooter 33
 Shooting the Black Powder Pistol
Part 5
by Chris Risebrook
This month I would like to gloat over a bit of self
indulgence acquired at a recent Arms Fair.
I was surprised to see a number of over/under
percussion pistols at quite reasonable prices. I opted
for condition rather than name and bought the gun
shown in Photo 1 at - I hope- a reasonable price.
The name on the top rib, Williams and Powell of
Liverpool was unknown to me, but a quick search
of the internet showed that the company is still in
existence. Although it no longer makes guns, it
supplies shotguns made primarily in Italy but finished
in Liverpool and marked with its own name.
Williams and Powell 28 bore
34 Target Shooter
This pistol is 28 bore (.550) with 4.5inch barrels. To
me, the most remarkable aspect is its method of
manufacture. It appears to have been made from a
single billet of steel - I can see no join anywhere -
and the gunsmith filed and milled away all the bits he
did not want. Thus, the barrels have been bored, the
action hollowed out to receive the lockwork, and the
top and bottom tangs tapered and presumably bent
to accept the stock. Even the elaborate hammer
fences have been neatly filed and tapered from the
solid. The only attachment is the separate bottom rib
which carries the ramrod.
This seems an extraordinarily complex and
expensive way of making a pistol, since most of the
steel billet would have ended up on the workroom
floor as filings. Whilst labour was relatively cheap,
this would have been highly skilled work, and
presumably steel would not have been cheap.
The quality is excellent, and the overall condition
remarkably good for something made about 150
years ago. There is no bluing left, except on the
bottom rib and the trigger guard and the rest of the
gun may well have been browned and this might
have worn at a different rate.
The engraving is excellent and the walnut stock has
been chequered 26 lines to the inch, which looks
pretty, but gives little grip, although it has worn
down over the years. The barrels are so clean that it
has probably seen little use, and since it is of good
quality, it has been cared for.
Its method of construction is in direct contrast to
the pistol shown in Photo 2 which is a side by side
double made by Joseph Bourne of Birmingham. This
is a top quality product by a known maker and must
have been very expensive but the Damascus steel
barrels have been screwed to the standing breech,
which in turn is bolted to the action. Both top and
bottom ribs are separate, so the whole pistol has
been made up rather than cut from solid.
The end result is the same but by two quite
separate routes. The Bourne retains traces of bluing,
but the Damascus barrels still have their beautiful
brown finish. The barrels of this pistol are four
inches and the bore is 24 (.577 which was the military
size of the day). Bourne would have bought-in these
barrels, together with many other parts of the gun
from the piece-workers in Birmingham, whereas
the only bought in parts on the Williams and Powell
are probably the hammers. Both guns have captive
ramrods which swivel to reach both barrels, and
both have a device to prevent the rods from running
forward under recoil. The Williams and Powell has a
concealed spring which fits round a cannelure on the
end of the rod, and the Bourne has an eccentric rod
which screws into its housing; all very sophisticated
and very expensive to manufacture.
Both pistols can be carried relatively safely on
half-cock but in practice they would probably have
been carried loaded but uncapped. Both have
grip traps to hold the caps. The chequering on the
Bourne is 14 lines per inch which gives a much
better grip. Both guns have somewhat small grips by
today’s standards, but people had smaller hands 150
years ago. Both guns are smooth bored so could use
either ball or shot, or one of each. Either would
have been an excellent ‘life insurance policy’ in that
they would help you to stay alive. By contrast, a life
insurance policy today is a piece of paper which
pays out money after you are dead. I think I prefer
the former.
Target Shooter 35
 Tel/Fax 01722782432
Email; ags.westlake@virgin.net/ Website; www.westlakeengineering.com

The Taurus ML Revolver is converted from a Taurus .357 Magnum Long Barrelled Revolver.
The cylinder is removed and a Yoke extension fitted, this contains the spring loaded
plunger that frees the action when the yoke is closed. As this extension cannot be removed,
it prevents the re-fitting of the original cylinder. The Barrel is shortened to approximately 5
¼ inches and the wristbrace is removed.
A new cylinder is made which has pockets for shotgun primers at the rear with a small
flash hole through into the chamber at the front. The chamber is made to accept .357” lead
wadcutter bullets. The conversion of your pistol costs £330.00. Extra Cylinders are £180.00
each. If you do not have a pistol I can order a new pistol from the Importers.

www.FoxFirearmsUK.com
Tel: 0161 430 8278 or 07941 958464
PUTTING SHOOTING FIRST

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36 Target Shooter WE IMPORT IS BY FAR THE BEST VALUE IN THE UK
EVERYTHING
 The Firearms Multimedia Guide
When I first started target shooting – more years
ago than I care to remember - I used to revel
in those American paper-back books like The
Shooters Bible, Guns, etc. They came out each
year and carried the most up-to-date ‘database’
of all things related to shooting - some of which
were allowed in the UK and others not. Obviously
after the pistol ban, the idea of looking at pistols
only emphasised the ‘slap in the face’ we had all
experienced. Reading about the latest
development in revolvers and the like just did not
have the same appeal.
However after many years interest was re-kindled -
curious to see what was happening in the big
wide world and to support the odd trip to the
continent where pistol shooting could continue,
albeit that I had to give them back at the end of the
day. With certain ‘creative’ developments in the UK
my interest in all things shooting began to
re-surface and again I enjoy a leisurely look
through the vast number of pistol developments
over the last 10 years.
During that time ‘digital mania’ has arrived,
something we rely on with this magazine in fact and
information on anything and everything is now at the
beck and call of anyone - instantly. No more writing
letters and months of waiting for information, we now
have access 24/7. (I hate this expression by the way
and I apologise for using it). However, the shooting
industry has been slow to develop a shooter-
orientated database that is interactive and
interesting to use. At last we now have one on
offer from the USA. Like most ‘find and seek’
by Carl Boswell
databases, the Firearms Mutilmedia Guide offers
a number of features that makes using it quite
simple.
This DVD based product is a searchable database
covering handguns, rifles, shotguns, black-powder,
air guns and the various ammunitions that are
associated with these firearms. From my use of
the product over the last few weeks I’ve found the
database to be pretty well up to date and includes
all the current firearm developments bar the
absolute latest ones - though admittedly some of my
knowledge would be a bit sketchy in areas related
to shotgun or the more specialist rifles.
The interface is simple to use and there are
various search features which allow the user to
select a product by name, manufacturer, calibre,
etc. It then searches to find the specific and
related products. In fact there are fourteen different
search criteria – ‘as it says on the tin’. Fourteen
ways of finding what you want! The pictures on the
database are very high-quality and allow the
firearms to be viewed in fine detail. This, plus the
speed and ease of access are characteristics of
just how this type of digital media is so beneficial.
If you are that way inclined, you can give yourself
a pat on the back for the amount of trees you are
saving by using this type of paperless resource!
When the search is complete, the datasheet for the
selected firearm carries all the basic information
like stock configuration, weight, length, etc. On
most products there is also a featured information
section that describes it in far more detail. You
will notice the Features button at the base of the
Target Shooter 37
screen, if this feature is available for the firearm
you are viewing. Personally, I would like to see the
barrel twist-rate included as for me, this is quite
important.
Ammunition is also covered on the searchable
database or through an ammunition index that
compares European and US ammunition as a chart.
I found this particularly useful as another way of
finding ammunition - without having to know what
I was searching for in the first place – just wanting
to view, click and see. This index is linked to the
main database, so everything is one click of the
button away.
Obviously you can save favourites and print out
selected information. Again, a useful feature as
you could take this information to your local RFD
and show him what you would like. Another facet
of this guide is the share feature. This is where you
can share information with another person via the
internet with e-mails or blog. Useful if you have
queries or require further information from
someone else.
There are a few bonus features on the DVD – like
printable targets of which there a lots to select.
Most of these are fun targets but one set includes a
number of practice and test targets which are very
38 Target Shooter
useful. Again this saves time searching for these
on the internet, although there are some good
sources for these. The other bonus is a video of
bespoke shotgun manufacture via Verney Carron.
I watched this with interest as like learning
something new but it is really related to those that
have the bug for this sport.
The database has the same standard features you
will find on most other successful databases and
anyone with a basic knowledge of using computers
will find the process simple to follow, as it is aimed
at sportsman and not the computer nerd. The
Firearms Multimedia Guide delivers what it
promises - it has a vast array of firearms in one
place, much more than any book could offer
unless it was several volumes thick and taking up
about a yard of shelf space.
The DVD should start automatically - if it does not
on your computer, then you may have to browse
to start the system. The guide offers a fault free
environment that is easy to use and it is up to date
but new firearms come out all the time so how it
will be updated is anyone’s guess at this stage. I
am guessing that you will have to buy a new DVD,
as you would a new book. An idea would be for
the owner to be offered the option of updates at a
A simple to use databse that has most
firesrms on it - specialised actions would
also be nice
 modest fee that can be downloaded.
At the moment, there is no information on the
peripheral equipment that is available – like a
section on optics for example. This would
enhance the database greatly and make it a
bit more exciting to include a whole package of
information related to specific shooting sports like
Mini-rifle, F-Class, etc. Purely on the commercial
side, advertising could be used to supplement
these features which would help the user to know
where to go and get what they are after. Likewise,
information about specific shooting sports could
be included. All these are complex and time-
consuming but the capacity and potential of the
DVD may allow for this in future.
Nonetheless Impressum Media have a winner
here, as it is a very good guide, providing clear well
defined details of a vast array of firearms and
ammunition. At $30 - or around £20 – it’s not
going to break the bank and is far cheaper than a
paperback version. Shame they did not have this
out before Christmas as it would have been an
excellent stocking filler for any shooter. Contact
Impressum Media via their website at: www.fire-
armsmultimediaguide.com.
A very good and inexpensive product

Target Shooter Magazine
can offer your company
the kind of advertising that
a hard copy magazine
cannot offer.
Our readers can, with a
click of the mouse, connect
straight to your website.
An advert with a hard copy magazines can only
say so much about your product. With cost and
limited space, most have to keep it direct.
But with a online magazine the advert takes on
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admin@targetshooter.co.uk Target Shooter 39
Target Shooter Magazine is a publication of Trinity Digital Publishing Ltd
40 Target Shooter
 The trouble with barrels …
by Vince Bottomley
Did you have a look at that Lilja video on our ‘home’
page. We ran it last month as well and when I looked
at it, it reminded me of just how bad factory barrels
can be. I have seen a few similar horror stories
with my borescope but at this stage, I will not name
and shame the worst factory barrel makers. If you
compare the two videos, it’s pretty easy to see the
accuracy advantage of having a match-grade barrel
fitted by a good ‘smith. The video also reminded me
that perhaps we should look more closely at barrels
in general and custom barrels in particular.
When I first started shooting - with a pistol - we never
seemed to have a problem with barrels. Those cast
lead bullets were kind to barrels – provided you could
get all the lead out afterwards! If any lead was left in
the barrel, it quickly attracted more lead.
Even when I started to shoot rifle, no one ever wore
a barrel out. When I bought my first new rifle, a 308
Steyr SSG, the hammer-forged barrel was a press-fit
into the receiver, rather than threaded and screwed.
” What happens when I need a new barrel?” I asked
naively as I handed over my ‘hard-earned’.
“You won’t.” was the dealer’s snappy reply. “And if
you do, Steyr will replace it free of charge.” Another
happy punter! He was right though – I didn’t wear it
out but I still wonder if Steyr did replace any those
press-fit barrels FOC!
Target Rifle shooters (capital T, capital R) shoot the
308 Win cartridge exclusively (OK, a few shoot the
223) and their barrels appear to last for ever – some
claiming 10,000 rounds and still going strong! Mind
you, their ‘bull’ is two MOA across, three minutes
at 800 yards – so, shooting off the elbows with iron
sights, would you really notice……………………?
I recently got hold of a Target Rifle shooter’s old
barrel – a nice stainless-steel 308 Krieger. Our
shooter had meticulously logged every round down
that barrel – 4382. The barrel was still shooting
exceptionally well – I had witnessed it – but it was
taking longer and longer to remove the copper after
a 2 &20 round shoot – like two hours longer! It had
to go.
We can have an actual look inside this barrel as
I have sectioned the ‘thick end’ to a few inches
forward of the chamber. The bore is in remarkable
condition considering the 4000 plus round-count.
The only problem is a very small ‘burnt’ ring
immediately forward of the chamber-mouth. I’ve
seen this before in ‘high mileage’ 308s. You can
clearly see the leade and throat, looking almost
as good as new with just the slightest amount of
blackening but no fire-cracking. The leade still
measures about one tenth of an inch, which is typical
of a new 308 barrel - remarkable. I’ve actually seen
308 barrels where the leade has measured nearer
Target Shooter 41
 Left - The 416R stainless-steel
favoured by barrel-makers is not
a true stainless – I found this
piece of barrel under my lathe
and, as you can see, it’s rusting
nicely. Don’t put your rifle away
without cleaning it!
now opt for the 6.5-284 (1000 – 1200
rounds) or maybe the ‘straight’ 284
(1600 – 2000 rounds).

So when a barrel ‘goes’ (“My barrel’s

gone!” - a familiar bar-room cry
following a poor F Class shoot.) What
has happened? Where has it gone
exactly?

A bore-scope is a great investment for

any serious competition shooter. Why
even start a major competition shoot
if your barrel is about to ‘go’? What’s
the point in spending £1000 to take a
an inch - where the rifling has completely burnt away
rifle abroad to shoot in an international match if your
– in other words, no rifling for the first inch of barrel!
barrel is about to ‘go’? More importantly, can we tell
when a barrel is about to go? Yes we can – with a
That black rough ring at the mouth of the chamber
borescope.
is what was doing the damage – stripping a little
copper off each and every bullet – but not enough to
I would love to have one of those borescope
seriously affect ‘off the elbows’ accuracy.
Meticulous cleaning had allowed the A nicely burnt bore with copper inlay (Photo courtesy
owner to extend barrel-life – until of Gradient Lens Corporation)
de-coppering became too tedious. A
7mmWSM will look worse than this
after about 100 rounds! If we could set
the barrel back – i.e. move the shoulder
forward and run in the reamer another
2 or 3 millimetres we could probably
get another 4000 rounds out of it but
unfortunately, because of the ‘undercut’
just forward of the thread, it’s not
possible.

Since the F Class League was formed

four years ago, we have learned a lot
about barrel-life – or at least some of the
‘effers have - and a steep learning-curve
it was! Benchresters already knew that
a 7mmWSM could burn a barrel out in a
scant 500 rounds and even our little
6PPC is only good for about 1200
rounds. If it wasn’t for barrel-life, surely
every F Class Open shooter would use
the 7mmWSM! Why not – there’s little
to touch it for long-range accuracy. The
more discerning ‘effers however – who
hope to make their barrel last at least
a whole season and preferably two -

42 Target Shooter

attachments which would allow me to take a
photograph of what I can see. But I haven’t so I’m
reproducing a few pictures kindly supplied by the
Gradient Lens Corporation – makers of the famous
Hawkeye borescope.
If you were to look at a 7mmWSM barrel after 500
A highly magnified copper-
filled groove. If you let
copper build up to this
extent it will take many hours
of hard work to get it out
(Photo courtesy of Gradient
Lens Corporation)
rounds, you would see a lengthening of the leade
where the throat has burnt way, which is why you
need to keep pushing the bullet forward to touch the
rifling. But mainly, you would see a lot more burning
of the steel – causing blackening and fire-cracking.
The fire-cracking makes the steel look like a dried-up
river bed or crocodile skin. The cracks then become
Shooters are spoiled by our excellent
barrel-makers. Here we have two 6mm
or 243 barrels. Bartlein (lower right) now
offer a choice bore/groove diameter. This
one is ‘tight’ with a 0.236 bore – 0.237 is
more usual.
Target Shooter 43
 Some shooters believe
that using moly-coated
bullets will improve
barrel-life. Yes, the
moly will reduce friction
and this surely will re-
duce wear on the bar-
rel - it might but it won’t
prevent the steel
burning and fire-
cracking – remember,
barrels don’t wear out –
they burn out!

The damage is usually

confined to the first 25%
of the bore and the rest
of the barrel can look
as good as new. If you
catch it early enough
and you have a heavy
profile barrel with a
couple of inches of
barrel-length to spare,
you can often prolong
its life with a ‘top & tail’
– chop off the tenon
and re-chamber and
re-crown and you could
get another season
Left - Here’s what your brand- filled with out of your barrel.
new barrel looks like just copper - it Unfortunately, the cost of the work is exactly the
forward of the chamber. can look quite same on your old barrel as a new one, so unless you
attractive, if it’s do your own gunsmithing, it’s not really worth it.
Bottom half of the pic is the
not your barrel!
leade, then we see the throat -
Obviously, the more ‘overbore’ cartridges are harder
cut into the For the first on barrels. Overbore? Burning a large quantity of
rifling land. Those cross few inches, powder then shoving the resulting flame through
marks need to be removed the previously a very small hole as with the 6.5 and 7mmWSM
by careful running-in. (Photo smooth lands is what causes the problem. Yes, the 22-250 is
courtesy of Gradient Lens and grooves, also grossly overbore as is the 243 Win. but, they
Corporation) which once do burn a lot less powder than the WSM’s and in
gave a mirror the main, they don’t form the basis of a serious
-finish to the competition gun, so the results are not so noticeable. A
bore are now rough and will mercilessly strip competition shooter is constantly monitoring his
copper from every bullet which passes down the performance – against that of other competitors.
barrel. The heat of combustion will cause the
copper to vaporise and it will be spread down the Barrel wear is undoubtedly responsible for the
whole length of the barrel. Copper begets more migration of F Class Open shooters to the F/TR
copper and, as the build-up of copper increases, the Class which is restricted to the 308Win. cartridge.
barrel characteristics begin to change. Accuracy Having said that, the five-inch V bull is even more
deteriorates, cleaning becomes more difficult. Even challenging for the F/TR guys and we may well start
though you think you have all the copper out – to see 308 barrels being changed more frequently
because your patches aren’t coming out blue than the average TR shooter currently does.
anymore – don’t be fooled, only the borescope will
tell the full story and it doesn’t have a happy ending! What about running-in a new barrel and cleaning the
A good application of JB paste can help but will only barrel after shooting? Can either of these have an
provide a short stay of execution! effect on barrel life? We know that when a barrel

44 Target Shooter
‘goes’, we mean the accuracy goes and usually, you are serious about your shooting, a bore-
that’s how we will judge when a barrel has ‘gone’. scope will pay for itself in a couple of years.
However, if the barrel is not properly cleaned,
At least forty rounds are needed to smooth out the
accuracy will certainly suffer and we may mistakenly
serrations and when we shoot the first few rounds,
think that the barrel has gone. No one likes cleaning
the rough throat will shave copper off the bullet which
barrels and therefore few spend as much time on it
is then distributed down the bore. It is vital that this
as they should. Please, do not neglect your cleaning.
copper is removed after each of the first few bullets
In benchrest, a fouled barrel will begin to show a loss
are fired, otherwise, the build-up will be such that
of accuracy from around 25 to 35 shots. Few will go
removal becomes very difficult and without the use
much longer than that without exhibiting a noticeable
of a borescope, the average shooter would prob-
deterioration in accuracy. In benchrest however, we
ably give up. If it is not removed, more copper will
are looking at a much greater standard of accuracy
build up. Your new barrel will never deliver its best.
than in many shooting disciplines, so even the
A day spent running-in and cleaning is a day well
slightest reduction in accuracy will be obvious.
spent! Typically, I will spend about two hours firing
the first five rounds and thoroughly cleaning and de-
I often hear a shooter say “I never get any copper
coppering after each shot.
out of my barrel.” No you don’t – but maybe you
should try harder! I can guarantee it’s in there - you
So, what are you going to choose for your next F
just need the right copper-solvent and cleaning
Class or benchrest cartridge? It’s a fact of shooting
technique to get it out!
that the most effective cartridges are generally the
worst when it comes to barrel-life but everyone
We also mentioned running-in - another process
wants the most effective cartridge – don’t you? So,
that none of us particularly enjoy. But, like cleaning,
keep shooting those fabulous overbore WSMs –
it’s best to do it properly. Modern match-grade
enjoy their superb accuracy whilst it lasts but buy a
barrels need little or no break-in. What we a doing is
borescope – soon! www.gradientlens.com
smoothing out the throat – that part of the land which
has been cut by the reamer. The rotating reamer
leaves circumferential marks on the land and this
can easily be seen with a borescope (see pic).

Target Shooter 45
 Tel: 01977 681639 TIM HANNAM Fax: 01977 684272
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HANDLOADING ‘OLD FAITHFUL’
THE .308 WINCHESTER (part 5)

By Laurie Holland
Above - Target Rifle (Fullbore Rifle in the USA and some other countries) uses 30-32” barrels
to give a 155gn bullet 2,950-3,050 fps MV, and normally employs a 1-13” rifling twist rate.
I’ll make a start on evaluating 0.308” match bullet 200yd or less and Figures 1a to 1c show relatively
performance this month, but first, let’s put non- little external ballistics performance difference
target shooting to one side, starting with between three very different 180gn Sierra bullet
deerstalkers. Most deer are taken with the .308 at designs at this range – the blunt RNSP # 2170,
SPT Pro-Hunter #2150, and
long-range SBT GameKing
#2160. Only Figure 1c
(wind deflection) sees
significant differences with the
round-nose bullet suffering
2.6” more drift than the
GameKing at 200yd, but at
100yd only moving an extra

Left - Handloaders can

produce ammunition
with more ballistically
efficient bullets to reduce
wind-drift at long ranges
in ‘unrestricted’ matches.
Left to right: the original
Sierra 155gn Palma MK;
185gn Berger Match
BT Long-Range; 200gn
Sierra MK; 208gn Hornady
A-Max. The Berger works
in the common 1-13”
barrel twist rate used
in TR/FR, the other two
heavy bullets need faster
twists.
Target Shooter 47
 600 yards is long-range shooting for many people
as this is a commonly found maximum range in rifle
range complexes as here at Strensall near York. This
range starts to reward ballistically efficient .308W
loads especially in F/TR.

Below- 155s, left to right: the ‘old’ SMK (No.2155); 0.4”. Note too, how little difference there
Lapua Scenar; 155gn Berger VLD. The Scenar is a is between the boat-tail GameKing and
very efficient long-range design flat-base Pro-Hunter even at 200yd. So,
most field shooters don’t need high BCs,
rather good accuracy at an acceptable MV
allied to suitable bullet construction for the
application.

Police use is such that external ballistics

performance, hence bullet BC, is rarely
an issue either. Although British armed
response teams practice on 600yd targets,
an FBI study of American law enforcement
rifle engagements produced an average
range that shots were taken over of
only 57 metres. Shots above 200yd are
exceptional and the usual loading
employed by police departments is factory
match ammunition that gives the 168gn
Sierra MatchKing (SMK) 2,600 fps, an
accurate, but as we’ll see, not particularly
ballistically efficient combination. Then
we have military sniping with tales of
one-shot 1,000yd plus ‘kills’, but in reality
such shots are rare in combat using the
military 7.62mm version of the cartridge.
Open-landscape theatres such as parts of

48 Target Shooter
 Left - Tangent v secant
ogive shapes. 190gn
Sierra MK (tangent) on
the left; 210gn Sierra
MK (secant) on the
right. Not everybody
will use secant form
bullets as they can
prove difficult to get
them to shoot well
hollow-point BT match
(HPBTM) bullet in 7.62mm,
their M118LR round
employing the 175gn
SMK at 2,580 fps. I
can say from personal
experience in F-Class
that there are likely to
be problems at 1,000yd
with this bullet at this
velocity, in cool, dense
air anyway. Others use
FMJs, our 155gn FM-
JBT Radway Green bullet
Afghanistan can allow long shots, but nearly all
typical and loaded in ammunition that produced
are taken with .300 Winchester or .338 Lapua
2,750 fps MV for me from a 24” barrel tactical ri-
Magnum rifles. Almost uniquely, US forces use a
Below - Some of the 0.308” Sierra MatchKing ‘family’. Left to right: 155gn ‘new’ Palma (No.2156),
168gn, 175gn, 180gn, 190gn, and 200gn. All are tangent ogive and use a 7-calibre radius or one
close to that figure except for the 155gn which has been lengthened to 9-calibres.

Long-range F/TR shooter at Bisley. .308 Win has marginal ballistics at 1,000yd and
needs excellent accuracy, small ES values and a high MV-BC combination at this range

Target Shooter 49
 Above - The same collection of bullets’ boat-tail rear ends. Note the short steeply angled
forms on the 168gn (second from left) and 180gn (third from right) compared to the others
especially the 190 and 200gn models on the right.
fle. Lapua employs 150 and 170gn B-series FM- easy answer with a choice of nearly 40 boat-tailed
JBT lock-base bulletsand the 185gn D46 rebated match bullets varying by make, shape, weight,
boat-tail FMJ at nominal MVs of 2,790, 2,820, and even jacket type and thickness. Why don’t we
2,490 fps respectively, only the ‘hot’ 170gn load simply choose the ‘best’, let’s say with the highest
shown as supersonic at 1,000yd. BC? It’s not that simple as we have to decide
Disciplines on the metrics that define bullet performance
What are we looking for in a bullet? There is no and they are determined by discipline, rifle
Below - 168s. Left to right: Sierra MK, Speer Gold Match, Nosler Custom Competition,
Hornady Match, Lapua Scenar. Only the Scenar has a suitable boat-tail form for longer
range shooting, but this is a relatively low BC short-range model. All of these bullets will
perform superbly up to 600yd in a good load and rifle

50 Target Shooter

characteristics and range. There is tangent
versus secant-form ogive shapes, many shooters
disliking VLD designs with the latter because
of their fussiness over cartridge length and the
perceived need to seat them into the rifling for
good accuracy. Many competitors take part in
restricted disciplines that mandate a bullet weight
of ‘less than 156gn’ – Target / Fullbore Rifle and
Palma; F/TR in some countries (not the UK or
USA). This can see competitors adopt two loads
depending on whether the match is shot under
restricted rules or not.
Let’s look at a popular bullet for ‘unrestricted loads’
in TR/FR rifles, the Berger 185gn BT Long-Range,
one of the company’s new long-nosed jump-
tolerant tangent ogive models. It has an average
G7 BC value of 0.287, slightly higher than its 185
VLD stablemate and that compares to 0.229-0.237
for the best of the 155s, 0.214 for the original
Sierra Palma MK (#2155). However, being heavier
it will have a lower MV, let’s say 2,750 fps which
produces the same ME value of 3,100 ft/lbs as
a 155 at 3,000 fps. (I’ve obtained 2,810 fps with
this bullet in my 30” barrel F/TR rifle alongside
excellent accuracy, so 2,750 fps is readily
achievable.) Using Bryan Litz’s experimentally
derived BCs and Berger Bullets’ G7 ballistics
program, a 155gn Scenar at 3,000 fps retains
1,300 fps at 1,000yd and moves 91.7” (8.7-
MOA) in a 10 mph crosswind; the 185 at 2,750
fps steams along at a healthy 1,373 fps and drifts
F/TR competitors shoot at 1,000yd at
Bisley. This distance requires careful
bullet choice and high MVs – the subject
for next month’s installment
nearly a foot less at 79.8” (7.6-MOA). However,
it is wind changes and the misreading of such
by the shooter that puts a bullet out of the target
centre, and we don’t get many 10mph 90° gusts.
Let’s say we have a wind coming from 4 o’clock
and the shooter misreads its strength by the
equivalent of 2mph. The Berger moves 13.8”
compared to the Lapua’s 15.9”, two inches less,
still out of the TR/FR 1-MOA V-Bull, but with less
chance of leaking into the four-ring. Compared to
the original Sierra Palma which is still the most
widely used bullet in British TR, and loaded in
the NRA’s RUAG manufactured ammunition, the
heavy Berger drifts 4.7” less, nearly half-MOA in
this scenario.
The higher retained velocity is valuable too, as in
an ideal world the bullet isn’t just barely supersonic
at the target, but spends as little time as possible
in the transonic speed zone that starts around
1.3 Mach (1,460 fps) and creates an increasingly
turbulent airflow around the projectile as its speed
drops from there to the sound barrier (1,122 fps
under standard conditions). The Berger drops
below 1,470 fps at 920yd, the 155 Scenar at 870yd
and the original Palma MK at 800yd. Finally, the
Berger stabilises in the 1-13” rifling twist rate used
by most TR and Fullbore competitors, although
1-12” may be marginally better. However, not
everybody will want to go down this road as it
requires familiarisation with two sets of
ammunition behaviours, many shooters
Target Shooter 51
 1a
Figures 1a – 1c
Sierra 180gn 0.308” deer bullet performance from .308 Win at 2,600 fps. Round-Nose: Solid
grey line; SPT (Pointed Soft-Point Flat-Base Pro-Hunter): broken yellow line; SBT
(Boat-Tailed Soft Point GameKing): broken black line.
understandably preferring to sacrifice the extra
performance in order to hone their skills and
experience with 155gn bulleted ammunition as
used in major competitions.
Short-Range
Range is a key factor, as every one of our designs
can be happily used at 600yd even in shorter
barrelled rifles with lower MVs, and there are many
.308W users for whom this distance is ‘long-range
shooting’, if nothing else because 200-600yd
facilities are accessible to most British rifle club
members, but there are only four 1,000yd ranges
nationally that provide competitive shooting
opportunities to civilians. So, how important is
external ballistics performance to the TR and F/
TR club shooter at 300-600yd? To answer that, I
took our two factory / military loads with 168 and
175gn Sierra MKs, a typical TR/FR load of 155gn
Lapua Scenar at 3,000 fps and the alternative
‘unrestricted’ recipe of the 185gn Berger at 2,750
fps and ran them through the Sierra Infinity VI PC
ballistics suite to see what they’d do at 300 and
600yd, also for reasons I’ll come to at 1,000yd.
Note that ‘Infinity’ uses G1 reference standard
BCs, and as with the previous 155 v 185 G7
results, I input wind conditions as a 2mph
incorrect wind call from the 4 o’clock direction.
The results are shown in Table 1 and we can see
that the two higher velocity TR/FR examples only
produce a marginal wind drift reduction over the
medium velocity 168/175gn SMK loads at 300yd,
just a couple of tenths of an inch. This supports
my long held view that within reason one should
forget about external ballistics at this range and go
52 Target Shooter
for a really tight-grouping load plus lots of shooting
to improve experience and skills. A load that
consistently puts ‘ballistically inefficient’
bullets into 0.2-MOA groups will outshoot one with
fantastic theoretical wind-bucking ability that
groups into half-MOA, unless the range is on
the top of a storm-lashed seafront or some other
extreme environment. What about 600yd? We
start to see a bit of difference here according to
‘Infinity’, but it’s still a maximum difference of 0.3-
MOA, a couple of inches. That’s still the same
difference as seen in the grouping ability of a good
.308W load and an outstanding one, but one can
argue that it’s worth looking for a combination
that gives outstanding accuracy and ballistics
performance. It will start to make a difference
to F/TR scores with its half-MOA ‘V’ and 1-MOA
five-ring. However, I suspect that if Bryan Litz were
to model scores for these bullets at this range as
he did for 155gn Fullbore bullets (TargetShooter
November 2009 issue), the differences averaged
over 20 ‘hypothetical matches’ would be modest.
Readers who know of my enthusiasm for using G7
BCs are probably wondering why I used ‘Infinity’.
I’ve done so partly because differences between
G1 v G7 results are modest at shorter ranges,
because the G1 form is what most people are
familiar with, but also to make another point, which
we’ll now see by looking at the 1,000yd results.
They correctly show the modest velocity 168gn
SMK load as subsonic at this range and suffering
considerably more wind drift than the others, but
the M118LR copy almost meets our 1,200 fps
retained velocity target, and the TR/FR loads are
 1b
comfortably supersonic at over 1,400 fps and
suffering a modest 1.3-MOA wind drift. Even if I’d
never heard of G7 BCs, I’d smell a rat, as I used
the 175gn SMK at 2,620 fps MV in F/TR in 2008
and found its performance lacking at 1,000yd,
almost certainly because some bullets dropped
into subsonic flight. So, let’s run the 600 and
1,000yd ballistics again using Bryan Litz’s G7
BCs and the Berger Bullets’ program (Table 2). As
expected, there is little difference at 300 and
600yd, but the 175gn SMK is now subsonic at
1,000yd and three of the four bullets see extra
wind drift at this range using the more accurate
reference standard. However, even this doesn’t
tell the whole story. Looking at either version,
many shooters who like the 168gn SMK and are
having their first try at 1,000yd will ask what MV is
needed to get the bullet into the mid 1100s at this
range to ensure it remains supersonic. Running
the Berger program again, we see that 2,950 fps
MV sees 1,161 fps at 1,000yd and 1.8-MOA wind
drift using the same missed wind call parameters
which doesn’t seem too bad. That MV is feasible
with a 30” or longer barrel TR or F/TR rifle, albeit
with a maximum pressure load. If it’s a warm
1c
summer day the 1,000yd velocity is some 20 or 30
fps higher too, so we’ve cracked it!
Sorry – it won’t work, nor for some seven more
designs too! The problem is the boat-tail, to be
specific its angle which ideally should be a shallow
7 to 9 degrees, while the 168gn SMK has 13°. To
explain this issue, I’ll delve briefly into the reason
for having a boat-tail and how it works. High-
velocity bullets suffer from several forms of drag,
the main ones caused by the nose and base.
Unlike nose drag which is velocity-dependant,
base drag remains constant throughout the
bullet’s flight. It is caused by an area of turbulent
low-pressure air forming behind the bullet and
whose strength is directly proportional to the area
of the bullet’s base. Although a smaller component
than nose drag in the early part of a long-range
flight, it is still significant and the bullet designer
will seek to minimise it. The answer is the boat-tail
form, originally invented by Swiss Ordnance
almost 100 years ago to improve machine-gun
long-range ballistics, and which is so effective that
every one of our near 40 long-range 0.308” match
bullets has it. It works is by reducing the area of
Target Shooter 53
the bullet’s base as the airflow around the bullet
follows the boat-tail section’s profile to the now
smaller base where it separates from the bullet.
If you measure HPBTM bullet bases, the norm is
a reduction from 0.308” diameter on the body to
somewhere between 0.255-0.268”. Taking 0.260”
as an average diameter, that equates to a 28.7%
reduction in area over a flat-based bullet, so we’ll
see base drag reduced by getting on for a third.
So far, so good, but a problem arises if the
54 Target Shooter
boat-tail angle is too steep as the airflow won’t
follow the outline of the tail section under some
conditions, particularly at the lower end of the
transonic speed zone as the bullet approaches the
speed of sound. Over-steep walls produce major
air turbulence around the rear of the bullet body
and can even cause it to become unstable – this is
what happens if you use such bullets at .308 Win
velocities at 1,000yd, the shooter more often than
not getting a high percentage of misses and those
that do connect producing oval or even bullet
profile shaped holes in the target showing
they are tumbling. The 168gn MatchKing was
designed half a century ago as the Sierra
‘International’ and its original purpose was as a
200yd / 300M bullet at which ranges it performs
superbly, continuing to do so at 600yd. Just
don’t use it beyond that range, or certainly
800yd. The apparently similar 175gn SMK was
designed from scratch as a long-range bullet
and has a 9.1° angle boat-tail, so no
problem there, but the 180gn SMK is another
short-range model with 12.7°.
Berger uses 8.9° boat-tails on most of its
long-range models and that’s what the new
155.5gn FULLBORE has, the 185gn BT
Long-Range, a slightly shallower 8.8°. The
new Sierra 155gn Palma (#2156) has 9°, the
older model one marginally sharper, while
the ballistically excellent Lapua Scenar is
one of the least sharply angled at only 7.2°,
and it obviously works well at long ranges.
Apart from Lapua’s 167gn Scenar, all 0.308”
168s have sharply angled boat-tails, most
makers having simply copied Sierra’s hugely
successful design, and there are various
other 0.308” match bullets that suffer from
this problem including the entire Hornady
A-Max range apart from the 208gn model
which is a true long-range design. Table 3
lists those bullets whose BT angle exceeds
10°.
Next month, I’ll look at those bullets that are
ideally suited to long-range shooting and use
data and techniques from Bryan Litz’s excellent
ballistics primer Applied Ballistics for Long
Range Shooting to evaluate the many options
that we have and to also revisit the issue of
ideal rifling twists for heavy match bullets.
Target Shooter 55
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56 Target Shooter
Looking at the future - reading online magazines like
Target Shooter The Acer Aspire - by Carl Boswell
This month we are looking at a few things of for other things). The one exception to this is the
electronic nature. In this short essay I would like new Apple I-Pad which exactly fits the specification
to explore the means of using this magazine in a I described above, although rather than an e-book
very portable format. In fact, as I write this article reader, it is in fact a touch-screen mini laptop pad.
I am speeding across the channel inside a silver However, it has a vertical or horizontal screen
tube, looking at the download I put onto this device specification – nice – and uses Mac or Windows
earlier. software. It’s not available in the UK yet but I’m sure
Looking more like a laptop for an eight year old - it will not be that far away. The only price I have
just right for my youngest son – the Acer net book is seen for this product is starting at 300 pounds. If it
very portable, very light and can fit into most things takes off then I am sure that other companies will
- including my jacket pocket, which I have to admit
is wide and deep.
Net books, as you may or may not know, are very
small laptops with the capacity to view the internet
and attempt tasks of basic to medium complexity,
as you would with any other computer. This article
developed in my mind months ago as new e-book
viewers were coming onto the market. (The e-book
is an electronic device that permits the download
of books, magazines and newspapers from online
shops or service providers like Amazon).
Unfortunately, the new e-books have not received
rave reviews – they are still small and have a mono
screen. They can be as expensive as a reasonable
quality laptop, which defeats the object at the end of
the day - you may as well just get the laptop!
The readily available technology is not quite with
us and I was expecting to see something along the
lines of an A4 size tablet that could download any
material, be light, thin and powerful enough to store
up to about 16GB of information with the support Receiving data and information from the web
of flash cards. (Those little thin storage cards that to your phone has been available for some
go into your digital camera - yes they can be used time

Target Shooter 57

be developing their own pads in a very short space
of time.
I coined a phrase with one of our Target Shooter
writers a while ago - the ‘WC factor’. Men
particularly, like to take reading materials to the
potting shed, or the bedroom, or just somewhere
away from the kids to have a quiet read and enjoy a
bit of down-time. To do this, any ‘material’, including
Target Shooter, has to be portable and easy to use.
(You don’t want to be taking your whole desktop to
The Acer Aspire - Screen size is 10.1 inch
58 Target Shooter
The Apple IPad - possibly the wave of the future
- out from March onwards and costing around
the £300 mark for the basic model. This can be
purchased with Apple or Windows 7 software.
(Photo courtesy of apple press release)
another room, just to have a bit of down-time).
Hence the reason this article came about – looking
for ways of viewing Target Shooter wherever
readers want to. As technology develops in the
coming years, the whole process of receiving and
viewing Target Shooter magazine will also develop
and all magazines will be available on-line, though
not necessarily free and many will continue with a
paper alternative.
Acer have kindly sent me one of their Aspire One
Pro netbooks to review and use for this article.
The computer comes with a 10.1 inch screen, 3G
wireless internet access (I will come to this again),
and Bluetooth capabilities (we all know what these
are). It is built with an Atom N270 processor (as
most net books are), 2GB of Ram (most net books
come with 1GB. I think Acer are the only ones
supplying 2GB - this extra memory is very
useful and speeds things up considerably) and with
a 225 GB hard drive. Oh, this one is also running
Windows XP, which I like as I have not transferred
over to Windows 7 and have never been a Vista
fan. More likely than not, a new net book would
probably come loaded with Windows 7. Computer-
speak now out of the way.
I am writing this article, viewing the Target Shooter
website and magazine on the net book I am
reviewing whilst sitting in a well know fast-food
chain, sipping coffee – as they have free wireless
internet access! The epiphany comes to me that
yes, this net book is a nice bit of kit! I can take it with
me in any bag or coat, ready to work in minutes -
when I have a bit of down time. The only sacrilege to
this event is I am in a fast-food restaurant in France
testing this product. My wife reminds me of
this, so the next time we will go to a more
upmarket French eatery – the things we have
to go through to test for this magazine! The
Acer’s 3G wireless modem is fast, just what
you need to access Target Shooter. I tested
the download at home a few weeks ago and
it was only slightly slower than the hard-wired
main computer I use to create the magazine.
It took about 6 to 7 minutes to download the
magazine, which is great. Obviously this may
take longer depending on the host wireless
network! Just big enough to read you favourite shooting
So, the electronic side of things is fine for magazine
such a nifty little appliance – it does what is
expected and I have used it for about a month. computers as something with a mysterious power
It is small, with only a 10.1 inch screen but the over you. They tend work when they want to and
resolution goes to up 1024 x 600 pixels, so it can produce more feelings of confusion and frustration
near enough emulate your home computer. Viewing than satisfaction. Having said that, the
with magazine with the Acer is as easy as on your aforementioned Mac I-Pad has come about via their
own desktop and the magnification tool allows I-Phone Technology.
easy access to pages. When you have been on the There are cheaper Acer models, as there are from
Target Shooter website once or twice, it is enabled other manufacturers of net books but look at few
in your cache memory, so very quick to return pages reviews and shop around - I have seen a difference
that you have already viewed. As I mentioned of £40 on the same model from one shop to another.
earlier, download times are good, backed up by a I like this little computer I have to say – its sheer
good wireless network. Even those I tested away portability is great and developing technologies will
from home and those in France were of comparable make it even better. I have owned several laptops
download speeds. All in all, it does what is expected over the years and they have generally served
and is well worth a look. me very well and most of these have been Acers,
I know a few of you out there are really tooled up funnily enough. However, they are just another thing
in terms of IT equipment, but others are not. Some to carry but I just didn’t feel this with the Aspire Pro,
of you even use your mobile phones to download it just fits in and is ready to use. I hardly noticed that
the magazine which I think is great. Phones for me I was carrying it. Weight is important as I travel to
have never been my cup of tea and I am sad to say many shoots and sometimes these are abroad and
mine remains off more than it is on. I am not in the extra weight costs! (On a personal level I am even
select group that has the latest mobile phone, so thinking about how I can extend this net book into
in this respect I can understand those of you out a portable digital diary - for me, PDAs were always
there that are slightly technophobe and consider too small but this Acer is just about right measuring
21cm x 26cm and I can use it like a book, keeping
all my person notes/documents. Better still, I can
use it in front of the TV.
So there you have it - hopefully short, fast and sweet
- our first official electronic review. I hope there will
be others as the technology gets better. Remember,
with this type of product, the ‘shelf life’ will be about
two to three years – sad I know but it’s the same as
your home computer. It might still be working after
this time but the software and technology will have
moved on and it will be too slow. Those of you who
have used computers for a number of years will
know this already. Net books start around the £220
mark upwards. I have seen the one reviewed for
as little as £230 with 1 GB ram. There are so many
At 21cm x 26cm this net book is ultra portable deals out there that you may get something with
and extemely light - do go for the extra memory better specifications or even cheaper - just make
- 2GB sure you get a windows operating system.
Until next month.
Target Shooter 59
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60 Target Shooter
 Mini Rifle - The Conclusion

by Vince Bottomley
Here I am on my way to a score of - zero! Marshal Tim Finley holds the shot-timer and
makes sure I stay safe. Note my improvised cheek-piece.
This is the final part of our mini-rifle winter series.
We have tested several rifles and I have now shot
my first competition. Of course, 22 semi-auto rifles
may well feature in future issues but not as part of
this series.
If you recall, the whole point of the series was to
get the legions of shooters, who attend indoor and
short-range outdoor clubs, to actually get involved
in competition shooting rather than simply plinking.
Has it worked? Are any of you organising mini-rifle
competitions? Are any of you hoping to run such
competitions? I confess that prior to actually
shooting my first comp. a few weeks ago, I had no
idea of what to expect so I certainly couldn’t have
organised a competition. Now, I am wiser and I hope
to pass this knowledge on to you.
No doubt there will be some of you who are aghast
at the thought of running about with a loaded rifle so
let’s cover the safety side first. Here are a few basic
considerations, which if followed, will ensure a safe
match.
Firstly, every competitor tackles the course of fire
individually – in other words, only one shooter at a
time - all others to stand well back, preferably in a
designated area. The 22 brass flies everywhere, so
safety glasses are mandatory.
Secondly, the competitor is closely monitored by
a ‘marshal’ – who is never more than arm’s length
from the shooter. The marshal will quickly stop any
potential breaches of safety and ensure that, at
all times when not actually aiming/firing, the gun
is pointing downrange and towards the ground at
approx. 45 degrees with the safety applied.

Six steels to finish provided a good spectator element. Barracking, I learned, is all part of
the fun of Mini-rifle.

Target Shooter 61
 The dreaded steels
Dave ‘flash’ Wylde from South Yorkshire Shooting Supplies and John Price with Terry
Mann’s modified Browning Buckmark
Thirdly, the course of fire must be designed so that
all rounds fall safely into the back-stop after passing
through the targets. There must be a margin of error
such that even rounds that miss the target will also
end up in the backstop.
Lastly, the marshal ensures that the gun is unloaded
and proved safe at the conclusion of the stage.
If these common-sense rules are adhered to, a safe
shoot is ensured and, as an additional precaution,
the function of every shooter’s safety-catch should
be checked prior to the competition.
My first Mini-rifle shoot was also a ‘first’ for Diggle
Ranges and we had an enormous entry on the day
and it looked as though the mother of all Mini-rifle
shoots was about to take place. Unfortunately,
My holograph-type red-dot with laser, on loan
from York Guns, is tiny in comparison with the
Aimpoint red-dot (top) and great value at around
£50.00
62 Target Shooter
Diggle’s ‘maid of the mist’ had other ideas and range
visibility was down to a few yards for the whole
morning. By early afternoon the mist cleared but, by
that time, those who had travelled a distance had
already abandoned the day and were on their way
home. That left about a dozen of us to shoot the
competition.
Ross Burrough runs the Mini-rifle shoots at
Thurnscoe but is also a Diggle Range Officer and
had offered to set out the course of fire and act as
RO. Ross had initially planned several stages but
the delayed start meant that we tackled just one
stage in the end. In some ways, this suited me and
a few other Mini-rifle virgins – most of whom were
using unfamiliar tackle and shooting from standing
and kneeling positions, which are somewhat alien to
the prone-rifle shooter.
A couple of guys also turned up from other
clubs to see how a Mini-rifle competition is run
so that they could start the discipline on their
own range – great, that’s just what we want to
happen and it was a pity that the day had ended
prematurely for some as Wayne from North
West Custom Parts, had brought along some of
his rifles so that prospective Mini-rifle shooters
could have a go.
When we eventually made it to the range, Ross
briefed the assembled, emphasising that safety
is paramount when ‘fire with movement’ is
taking place. Experienced Mini-rifle shooter Tim
Finley was appointed as ‘marshal’.
After explaining the course of fire, the RO walked
all competitors round the stage with each of the
(five) firing-positions explained. There were
holes in barricades to shoot through, a kneeling
section, a weak-shoulder bit and six steel-plates
to finish. In all, there were twelve targets, plus
the plates. This would mean a mag. change –
 Here’s my GSG with the 4 power Burris. The GSG stock is intended for use with the
iron-sights, so too low for scope use if you compare it to the AR15’s Magpull stock.
Cheek-weld is essential with off-hand shooting so I taped on a lump of foam which
temporarily solved the problem but I’m currently sourcing a Magpull-type stock.
but when? Two rounds are required on each target (except the
plates) and more rounds can be fired if you like but
The marshal’s commands were also emphasised only the best two count.
and for the benefit of clubs hoping to run their own
competitions, I will list the main commands: There was a good selection of equipment. A handful
of GSG-5’s (including mine), a couple of AR15’s,
1 “Shooter, do you understand the course of a few SYSS tricked-up Ruger 10/22 clones (as
fire?” Tim Finley reviewed last month) a neat looking
2 “Load & make ready.” (Bolt forward on an Browning Buckmark and Dave Wylde’s outrageous
empty chamber, safety on and loaded SYSS Tangerine Dream.
magazine inserted. Finger off the trigger).
3 “Are you ready?” CCI Mini-mag ammunition seemed universally
4 “Stand by.” (followed by the ‘beep’ of the popular but there was no such agreement with
shot-timer to signal the start). sights. At this point, I will move away from the ‘heat
of competition’ for a moment and look more closely
On completion of the stage: at this essential piece of equipment.

1 “Shooter, have you finished?” Sights

2 “Unload and show clear.” (magazine is There appear to be five basic types – open-sights,
removed and the action opened to eject any laser sights, conventional riflescopes, red-dot ‘tube’
chambered round and show the empty and red-dot holographic sights. I use the term ‘red
chamber to the marshal. dot’ as most will know what I mean by this but some
3 “Gun is clear!” red-dots are green! Let’s have a look at the pros and
4 “Range is clear!” (The rifle can then be cons of each.
carried off range - muzzle down, action
locked open - to be placed in the Open sights
competitor’s gun-bag). There are several variations of these and the

Target Shooter 63
Paul Harper (GSG-5) defies the sub-zero temperature as he demonstrates ‘weak-shoulder’
on the barricade. Two shots are required on each of those tiny little brown targets – miss
and you lose 10 points! The five-zone is about the size of a 50 round box of rimfire ammo.
better ones might well employ an aperture on the rear
sight. This tiny aperture acts as a low-power lens and
can be helpful with older shooters like me. The open-
sight set-up on the GSG-5 is quite sophisticated in
that you can rotate the rear sight to alter the aperture
size. One V notch and three different apertures are
available to go with the post front sight. However, I
quickly realised that although these sights may offer
rapid target-acquisition, you are not about to shoot
tiny groups at 25 yards – not with my eyes anyway!
However, don’t dismiss open sights – they have one
great advantage – reliability. No batteries to fail or
lenses to get wet or misted-up. In spite of this, I don’t
think anyone used open sights in the comp.
Holographic sights
These sights are really small and light in weight and
thus ideal for an unsupported firearm. My sight came
ready to mount on the Picatinny rail I bought with the
GSG. Mounting took literally seconds. Sighting-in
is easy but as the sight is non-magnifying you will
struggle to see 22 bullet-holes at 25 yards, so a
decent spotting-scope is useful. Half a dozen shots
maximum and you’re done.
My sight – a Sight-Mark – from York Guns has
four alternative reticle patterns and seven different
levels of intensity. It’s a great system for indoor or
outdoor plinking but I found it impossible to replicate
the groups I was shooting at 25 yards with my
four-power scope. Outdoors, I used the brightest
setting and the simplest reticle – a red dot. The
downside is no magnification, so targets can appear
64 Target Shooter
quite small.
Also, I found target-acquisition to be quite slow at
first. Bring the rifle up to the shoulder, swing it on to
the target whilst looking for the target through the
glass – but then – no dot! Now you have to move
your head to ‘find’ the dot so that it appears on the
screen and you can place it on target. I solved this
problem to some extent by taping a foam-rubber
cheek-piece onto the GSG stock, which put my eye
in more or less the right place so that the dot was
there when I shouldered the rifle.
Red dot ‘tube’ sights
It is possible to get these sights with magnification
but the one I tried hadn’t and I haven’t had the
opportunity to try one with magnification. The tube
diameter can vary – from 25mm to 42mm and I
would say that bigger is better - if the overall size
doesn’t matter.
Personally, I found the red-dot slightly easier to use
than the holographic type – in that looking through
the tube automatically ‘aligns’ the eye - you don’t
have to go looking for the dot. But again, without
magnification, the target is very small at 25 yards
and shooting small groups is not easy.
At 25 yards indoors I found it quite difficult to place
ten shots in a one-inch circle with either red dot sight
but with a low-power conventional scope it’s not too
difficult.
Riflescopes
Some shooters prefer a normal ‘scope so I de-
cided to try my four-power Burris. That little bit of
magnification is essential for me to shoot sub-inch
groups at 25 yards. However, target acquisition is
noticably slower than with the red dot. The field of
view is also tiny - compared to the Sight-Mark’s 25
feet at 25 yards - so it’s easy to be on the wrong
target. Once on target however, the magnification
concentrates the aim and should ensure better
scores. Tim Finley was using a low-power zoom
‘scope and he posted top score, so maybe this is the
way to go. I’m now looking for something around 3
or 4 power with non-critical eye-relief and wide field
of view. Any suggestions?
Laser sights
I’ve left laser sights until last as, although they
are great fun, I don’t think they are suitable for
competition use – in my opinion. Again, if you had
nothing but a laser, I don’t doubt that you could get
very good with it but imagine you are shooting at a
small target 15 yards away - if you don’t get the laser-
dot on the target straight away you will be looking
for the dot……….where? On the backstop - which
could be another 20 yards behind your target ! With
practise, that instinctive aim will come and the laser
may become viable.
On a dull day, on a white target (the best conditions)
the laser is difficult to pick up beyond 25 yards.
I switched mine on for the weak-shoulder bit –
reasoning that it would be difficult to see through
the red-dot with my left eye – I couldn’t pick out the
laser-dot – but everyone else could and gleefully
informed me that I had shot low and missed!
Conclusion
The ‘red dots’ are so cheap that it’s daft not to have
one. However, beware of Ebay ‘Chinese cheap’.
The cheaper examples can have a parallax issue
and, as with most things – you get what you pay
for. If you are serious – get a decent one like the
Aimpoint or Sightron. Genuine military-style CQB
red-dots are also available – Leupold do a cracker
with X3 magnification but the cost is prohibitive. Try
other competitors’ sights if you can and see what the
target looks like through their glass!
The Competition
Without going into a ‘blow by blow’ account, the
competition itself was great fun to shoot and the
bonus is no reloading or barrel-cleaning - though
it is advisable to keep the chamber clean. I would
say that at least half the field had equipment
malfunctions, which really makes a mess of your
score as points are divided by time. Unfortunately,
these little semi-autos are not easy to clean without
a full strip-down.
My own performance was quite abysmal but
superbly enjoyable – I knew speed was important
so went for a quick time, prepared to accept a lower
score on the targets. Winner Tim Finley took 81
seconds and my 97 seconds was third fastest. What
I didn’t know about was the ‘miss’ penalty – minus
10 points for each miss – I efficiently wiped out my
score and ended with a zero! It’s a steep learning-
curve………….
I am certainly looking forward to the next Mini-rifle
competition at my home range. My usual disciplines
of benchrest and F Class shoots are immensely
enjoyable but the competition is quite intense.
Mini-rifle on the other hand has more of a fun
element, though for those who shoot nothing else,
I don’t doubt that the competition is equally fierce at
the top level.
Elsewhere on the website you should be able to view
a video of Tim Finley’s winning run - see by clicking
the link here. The video is at the bottom of the
webpage
New from GSG
I chose the GSG-5 mini-rifle for several reasons. The
cost is reasonable, there are plenty of accessories
available, it functions well and, as it’s based on the
design of a tried and tested ‘real’ gun – the H&K MP5
– it handles well. Unfortunately, this latter element
has brought about the downfall of the GSG-5.
Heckler & Koch have successfully obtained a court
injunction to prevent further sales of the GSG-5 on
the grounds that it is a direct copy of their own MP
5. So that’s it – gone - unless you can find one on
a dealer’s shelf, you can’t have one! (Check out UK
Importers York Guns www.yorkguns.com ).
The GSG-5 is dead – long live the GSG-522! GSG
have re-worked the ‘5’ to make it H&K compliant
and also far more Mini-rifle friendly in the process.
From five-yards away you wouldn’t know it wasn’t
the original GSG-5 but close up it bristles with
subtle modifications which make this gun even
more desirable. GSG have also expanded the
range of accessories to fully ‘trick-out’ you and
your rifle for whatever discipline you shoot. Check
out www.gsg-waffen.de
Finally, if we have inspired you to have a go,
please tell us about it. If you are running a comp.
that’s open to non-members, be sure to advertise
it in our calendar section. If the turn-out at
Diggle is anything to go by, there is certainly a
demand. If you want to know more – just ask me.
vinceb@6ppc.fsnet.co.uk
The official brown cardboard targets and brown
patches are available from Multiplex Internet
Services, 8 Lawrence Mead, Kintbury,
Hungerford, Berkshire. RG17 9XT
E-mail nigel@multiplex.co.uk
Target Shooter 65
66 Target Shooter
 World War One British Sniper Rifles

By Nigel Greenaway

Last month I described the Persiscopic Prism numerous sniper scope was the Aldis with a
Co. sniper scope – the most prolific WW1 British production run of 3,196 and an initial production
sniper scope and the first to receive a 1000+ contract for 200 in January 1915 (delivered by
contract as early as April 1915. The next most June 1915). For collectors there is the added

Close up of the Aldis/Purdey -

Target Shooter 67
 Holland & Holland engraving on Aldis

complication of four different Aldis scope patterns

on to fit over 1,700 Aldis scopes. The bulk of the
and five or six official contractors who all fitted
Aldis contracts were placed in 1916 and other
these scopes differently, mostly in side mounts but
companies such as Atkin, Bartle and even Aldis
also in overhead mounts on the SMLE and P14. were contracted to fit Aldis scopes. To further
The first contracts were placed in September and complicate matters the Periscopic Prism Co. was
October 1915 with the famous firms of J. Purdey contracted to fit a handful of Aldis Pattern No.3 and
& Sons and Holland & Holland who together went No.4 scopes in overhead mounts on the P14 rifle in
1917. The final contract
Typical Aldis markings on the rear stepped occular lens housing, placed with Aldis in
first three patterns, compared to engraving on the Aldis Pattern October 1916 was to
No.4 on the objective lens housing. simply supply but not
fit 2,254 scopes. The
contract dates are
important because
they show that, whilst it
is possible for the early
scopes to have been
fitted to 1915 and 1916
dated Enfield SMLE
No.1 MkIII rifles, the
majority of Aldis scopes
would have been fitted
to plainer SMLE No.1
MkIII* rifles (no long
range sights and no
magazine cut-off). The
purpose of this article
will be to describe the
various Aldis scopes,
their different mounts
and zeroing methods.

The Aldis scopes were

68 Target Shooter
 Zeroing instructions for Aldis pasted on inside of cap from a leather
scope case

generally rated as the best of all the WW1 sniper
scopes. This accolade is certainly backed up
by the fact that the Aldis Pattern No.3 and No.4
scopes were retained for possible future use when
the SMLE sniper rifles were broken up and the
scopes sold off to the trade in August 1921. These
Aldis scopes would emerge again in WW2 when
Alexander Martin were contracted to produce
421 P14 sniper rifles designated as the Rifle No.3
Mk1*T(A). I only mention this because some
previous writers have attributed these sniper rifles
as WW1 weapons - a natural mistake considering
the bulk of the components were produced during
WW1.

Graduations on lens prism of Aldis

Pattern No.4 for windage adjustment,
next to the smaller Model 1918 scope
that used the same system

Target Shooter 69
 and was fixed in a housing that allowed for
windage adjustment by using a special tool.
None of the four different patterns are marked
up as such – hence the lengthy description
above.

Elevation adjustment on all four models was

the same, to quote from Pamphlet SS195:

In this sight the elevation drum is split laterally

the top portion being movable and held on the
drum proper by three small set screws. Shoot
at any known range and adjust the drum until
the shots are hitting at correct elevation.
1. Clamp the drum with the clamping screw.
2. Slacken the three set screws.
3. Turn the scale till the range fired at is
opposite the reading line.
4. Tighten the set screws.

Note: As there are three set screws, one screw

will always be hidden by the saddle. Before
clamping the drum, previous to moving the
saddle, slacken the screw that will be hidden,
Elevation adjustment instructions clamp the drum in correct position and slacken
from Pamphlet SS195 the other screws. When the scale is adjusted,
tighten up the last two set screws slackened.
Generally the Aldis scopes have 3x
magnification, one inch diameter tubes,
graduated from 100-600 yards, a sleeve
for focussing and with objective lenses of
roughly the same diameter as the tube. The
early Aldis scopes Pattern No.1, 2 and 3
scopes are 10.5 inches long with a stepped
arrangement in the rear eyepiece lens
housing whilst the No.4 patterns are just
over 10.75 inches long with a coned
eyepiece housing and different objective lens
assemblies (also many No.3 patterns were
converted to have the same objective lens
lateral adjustment as the No.4 so these
will be a little longer than usual). Aldis did
produce some commercial scopes but
these are easily distinguished because they
are about an inch longer than the military
patterns although, in most other respects,
they look just like the No.4 pattern. The
first three patterns look very similar, the
external differences being the position
of small screws and the elevation drum
clamping screw pointing to the rear on the
first two and forwards on the No.3. The
Pattern No.4 was rated as the best scope Windage adjustment instructions from
with better light gathering because the Pamphlet SS195
objective lens was wider than the tube
70 Target Shooter
 P14(T) with Model 1918 scope - Aldis Pattern No.3
and No.4 scopes were trialled using the same
mounts

The scale will then be held firmly enough so that slot. If the rifle is shooting off then tighten one
the drum can be turned and the hidden screw of these screws towards the error. One complete
tightened up. turn is about 20 inches at 100 yards.

Purdey mounts Holland & Holland mounts

Purdey used a side mounting system with the Holland & Holland also used a side mounted
front mount, incorporating
a dovetailed slide in a slot
for windage adjustment,
sweated on to the barrel Rare experimental
and a roll-over latch to hold or possibly Bartle
a downwards projecting overhead mounts
pin on the forward scope for an Aldis No.4
ring mount. A rear mounted
projecting pin on the side of
the receiver engages with a
corresponding hook on the
rear scope ring. Hence the
Purdey Aldis is fitted by
engaging the rear scope
ring hook first before
pushing the scope down in
to the front mount. Windage
adjustment is achieved by
moving the dovetailed slide
in its slot by opposing flush
screws each side of the

Target Shooter 71
set up but the front mount hooks into a slot of Aldis No. 4 pattern scopes being fitted in the
and around a transverse pin (the block housing same way as the Periscopic Prism Co. scopes
the pin is again sweated on to the barrel). but these must be considered quite rare. Another
The rear mount fixed to the side of the receiver question is what were the Bartle or Atkins mounts?
uses a mortised slot with a roll-over latch. The rear Unfortunately nobody really knows, even the
ring mount on the scope incorporates a dovetailed Pattern Room does not seem to have one of these
slide and a projecting hook. Hence the Holland & mounts currently catalogued as fitted to a WW1
Holland Aldis is fitted by engaging the front scope SMLE, although looking at old records they once
ring hook first before pushing the scope down in to did list a SMLE No.1 MkIII with Aldis No.2 pattern
the rear mount. Windage adjustment is achieved with Atkins fittings (which points to an early design
by moving the dovetailed slide in its slot by with windage adjustment in the mounts). They
opposing flush screws each side of the slot. These also listed a SMLE No.1 MkIII* with Aldis No.4 and
screws are pushing screws, tighten the right Bartle fittings. There were three other SMLE No.1
hand screw and it will push the scope ring to the MkIII* listed with Aldis No.4, two with Experimental
left. If the rifle is shooting off then tighten one of fittings and one with overhead mounts. The Aldis
these screws on the same side as the error. One No.4 would not require windage adjustment in the
complete turn is about 20 inches at 100 yards. mounts and these could have been fitted to later
produced MkIII* rifles with overhead mounts.
You can see that these two windage adjustment
systems were pretty coarse and prone to being Roger Payne, a renowned expert on British
knocked out of zero. In addition, having one of sniping rifles, has communicated with a handful
the mounts fixed to the barrel was probably not a of other collectors around the world who all have
good idea when the barrel heated up – rapid fire overhead mounts of the type illustrated which are
would not normally be encouraged when sniping designed for the SMLE. Might these be Bartle
but it wouldn’t do much for accuracy either as mounts or an experimental type? In essence they
barrel and mount became hot. To add insult to are very similar to those used to fit Aldis No.3
injury both mounting systems were offset to the (modified with the adjustable prism) and No.4
left which caused awkward handling and other patterns to P14 rifles. The first of these were fitted
more serious problems as covered in the previous as early as August 1917 and minutes from a Small
article. Following complaints from the front Arms Committee note that 750 Aldis scopes were
alternative systems were examined and this then on hand awaiting fitting to rifles. A minute
perhaps explains why in August 1917 there were of this Committee recommended that sample P14
750 Aldis scopes waiting to be fitted to rifles. rifles fitted with Aldis scopes be taken to France
at an early date to obtain opinion on the relative
What was needed was a robust overhead merits of the overhead mount fittings. Ultimately
mount and windage adjustment that could be the P14(T) fitted with Model 1918 sight used the
incorporated in the scope. Enter the Aldis Pattern same type of mounts and in WW2 the Australians
No.4 which catered for windage by having a glass used a similar mounting system on SMLE’s to
prism mounted in a circular cell in front of the produce the No.1 MkIII* HT. There is a SMLE
objective lens. You can see in the picture the No.1 MkV in the Pattern Room fitted with an Aldis
divisions marked around the rim of the cell in the same overhead mounts. Obviously the
which is the same system as used in the smaller design showed enough merit to have been used
diameter Model 1918 scope shown alongside. on a number of different rifles but how many were
After removing the protecting cap, loosen three produced during WW1 nobody can say.
small set screws and then turn the cell by lining
up its reading line against the divisions. If the My thanks to fellow sniping enthusiast – Dr Roger
rifle shoots to the right, turn the cell clockwise. Payne for letting me photograph more of his
If shooting to the left, turn counter clockwise. A collection of scopes and rifles. Next month I will
movement of one division makes an adjustment go in to detail about the third most common scope
on target of about 5 inches at 100 yards. Some of – the Winchester A5 along with a few of the rarer
these Pattern No.4’s were even graduated up to scopes.
1000 yards.

The next question is how were these No.4 Pattern

scopes fitted to the SMLE? There are examples

72 Target Shooter
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74 Target Shooter
ISSF ADC International Rifle Training
Camps - Finland
Wouldn’t it be great to have a venue where
dedicated, aspiring elite shooters can train with
the guidance of successful Olympic Athletes
and professional coaches alike? Kuortane High
Performance Training Centre in Finland
presents shooters with this rare opportunity for
Kuortane High Performance Training Centre in Finland
by James Huckle
small-bore shooters in the form of two, one week
training camps in November. The first week was
designed for domestic level shooters who are
on their way towards competing at international
level and the second week aimed at international
level shooters. Coaching is given by two world
Target Shooter 75
 Kuortane High Performance Training Centre in Finland - external view of the shooting
range

class shooters and Olympic medalists; Jozef
Gönci (Slovakia) and Juha Hirvi (Finland).
Performance analysis and technical advice is given
by ISSF Training Academy Rifle Instructor and
experienced professional Olympic coach, Kimmo
Yli-Jaskari (Finland)
Being a young shooter full of enthusiasm but
some what naive to reality, this camp seemed
like a dream. I have attended many international
competitions for GBR admiring the likes of Jozef
and Juha in their pursuit of perfection. At the
time I remember I was practically packing for
the trip whilst envisaging the secrets of shooting
unfolding in front of me. Reality struck home when
I remember all things come with a price - around
850 Euros. Thankfully ELEY - a friendly and very
well established ammunition manufacturer - were
prepared to support my attendance of Kuortane
as part of an ongoing sponsorship arrangement.
With this generosity from ELEY, the trip was a
reality!
The camp had a very structured training
programme- something Kimmo is renowned for. It
briefly consisted of:
Monday - Thursday

Kuortane High Performance Training Centre in Finland - inside the huge complex

76 Target Shooter
.22 Rimfire Precision Barrels - these
come in a variety of configurations
and some are even ‘drop in’

James training and monitoring performance

9.00 - 1200 Lectures & training Lectures were about shooting position
(small-bore/air rifle) techniques which consisted of the
14.00 - 1700 Training (small-bore/air rifle) recommendations and variations of the Prone,
18.00 - 19.00 Physical training and kneeling and standing position along with a bit of
recovery science to explain the recommendations.
Performance analysis which helped in

Target Shooter 77
understanding the readings from Noptel
(electronic shooting analysis system) similar
to SCATT and of course how to improve them.
Training methods which explained about splitting
each aspect of your technique into multiple
segments that you work on individually. This
means doing drills and exercises that hone your
hold, aiming and triggering that come together to
produce a good performance. Among the lectures
where talks about how Jozef and Juha trained
to become champions and a little bit about how
they found the Olympic Games themselves. For
physical training we worked on cardiovascular
fitness predominantly by playing indoor hockey
with some stretching and balance exercises
afterwards. Recovery was the most relaxing bit
of the trip because it meant a hour of so in the
Jacuzzi, the steam room and for those brave
enough the ice bath!
During Juha’s talk he explained that his
success came from “training too much”. He
recommended that dry firing (not using bullets
/pellets) or hold training to be the basis for
training. This is so the result of the shot does
not get in the way of your thought process. He
described spending many hours doing this to
improve his ability to hold the rifle still. In essence
the saying “you get out of life, what you put into
it” expresses his thoughts perfectly. Jozef also
explained that you have to “really want it” if you
James Huckle - a name we will hear in years to come......
78 Target Shooter
want to become Olympic champion and that if you
are get to a competition thinking you haven’t put
100% into you training, you have lost that match
already.
In summery the camp changed my perspective on
a unprecedented level. All of my questions were
answered with ease. It gave me the motivation
to train, and train hard along with the feeling that
these champions are just human having gone
through the same ups and downs every athlete
meets in their quest for success. For them
the hurdles of training and competing were a
small price to pay for what is the ultimate joy of
becoming the best one can be.
My future aspirations are to compete at the
Commonwealth Games in India 2010 and of
course the London 2012 Olympics. However
in preparation to these great events I have the
European championships and a couple of World
Cups I also hope to shoot well at and I am sure
that the things I learnt at the camp will prove to be
invaluable.
Any kind of sponsorship in shooting is to be
treasured indeed so I would like to say a big thank
you to ELEY for supporting me because without
them, I would not have been able to experience
this career opportunity.
James Huckle
☆ 2007 Pan American Games
3x20 Gold Medalist
☆ 2007 WC Milan 3x20 Silver Medalist
☆ 2008 Olympian 3x20 Fifth Place
☆ 5-Time NRA Camp Perry
3x20 Junior National Champion
☆ Multiple Women’s NRA Camp Perry
National Champion
If you want to shoot like
a champion, choose Lilja!
www.riflebarrels.com
Lilja Precision Rifle Barrels, Inc
PO Box 372 • Plains, MT 59859
Tel: 406-826-3084 • Fax: 406-826-3083

Jamie Beyerle

Target Shooter 79
 This Smallbore Business

By Don Brook
For those that load with the rifle in the shoulder. as this in itself is the requirement for learning to
pay attention to detail that is so necessary if you
Following along from the last issue where I want to really get hold of this fascinating game.
discussed the correct butt placement, and There is so much to learn!
repetition attention to detail, I indicated there
was a distinct difference for those that leave However, leaving the rifle in position in the
the rifle in position, and load with the rifle in the shoulder is a valid technique that many good
shoulder. rifle shooters use, and you may well find the
desire to experiment with this as your search for
Let me state before hand, I am firmly of the individual accuracy grows.
opinion that the position should be reassembled
for each shot, particularly in the learning phase, There are two traps that I have found with leaving

When loading from the shoulder make sure the rifle is

still plumb. Right elbow is off the ground and the rifle
stays upright while the round is being inserted. Just
make sure the sling does not move. See text.

80 Target Shooter
Never lay the rifle over to the right to reach the loading port. This creates problems with the sling
altering the tension and positioning on the arm. Eventually this will create serious problems result-
ing in an extremely loose sling. See text.

the rifle in the shoulder, and if the shooter has round into the loading port.
performed the usual position assembly routine
that I have discussed previously, they may well It becomes even more pronounced when they
be quite unaware that these problems even suddenly find that shots number 5, 6, or seven
exist…. are out of the ten ring on a regular basis, and
this is the first tell tale you look for when you are
There is however a very good loading technique, training, and mostly in the letter stages of a ten
and once again it is simply to do with the shot string.
right elbow, and the close placement of the “Why is that out there?” is a common question! The
ammunition. shot can be perfectly aimed, and it becomes quite
You must be able to reach the Tenex, (Eley) a puzzle for good shooters, let alone those just
and the loading port with very little effort. It is of learning….
paramount importance that the rifle is NEVER
leaned over to the right to perform the reloading I recommend, and if you study the photograph
sequence. This is fraught with danger, and (A) you will see that once again the right elbow
even more so if you happen to be shooting full is lifted up off the mat and with the rifle still
bore, or 300m with a centre fire rifle that has upright, the new round is loaded over the top
considerably more recoil factors than your of the loading port. I have stated previously
rimfire .22 !! that the forward position is “fixed” as much as
possible, as this keeps the sling tension correct,
I have seen shooters all over the world that and the butt pressure consistent as the loading
fall foul of this aspect, and often wondering process is performed. Then the trigger hand
just what happened when an otherwise good goes back onto the grip, and the right elbow
score is depleted by errant technique shots. settled into place because it obviously cannot
It becomes so obvious to me that a bad go anywhere else, can it?
shot is going to be the result, because of the
problem areas that are introduced when the I have found this method works well, when
shooter leans over to the right to reach a new suddenly in a competition you may need to

Target Shooter 81
 Rifle in resting position. Note the proximity of the
ammunition. See text

“machine gun” a number of very quick shots to This is where the system falls to bits, as every
take advantage of a possible lull in weather or time you move some part of the forward
wind conditions. If you have taught yourself this position, it alters the “point” (natural aiming) of
process, it just becomes another tool in the tool the rifle on the target. This is a primary cause
box, and can be used when you need it…. of elevation shots, (12 and 6) and in the case
of small bore, quickly expanding groups. You
So what are the major problems associated with may get a run of unexplained nine ring shots or
leaving the butt in the shoulder? worse, and this is caused by the forward hand
Inattention to detail, particularly those of position being inconsistent on the stock placement and
awareness and tensions, because, (and I have usually back from it’s position in the hand stop.
seen this so often) as the shooter leans the rifle to The sling actually ceases to perform the duty of
the right leaving the right elbow on the firing point to locking the position as is required, and you lose
reload, there is always forward position control of the position platform completely.
movement that compounds every time you
reload the rifle. With the bigger recoil of the If you have a look at photograph “B”
300m or full bore rifles, this just happens faster you can see what happens. The forward
down the list of shots. hand is pulled backwards which actually
moves the position forward as well, so
What is the tell tale? Easy, and once again lowering the rifle “point” on the target, causing
I have seen this so often, the shooter finds it the shooter to use muscles to lift the rifle to
necessary to move the forward hand back correct aim. This further loosens the sling, and
towards the face on the stock to effect some so on until your scores are destroyed. In severe
form of tension adjustment because the sling is cases, the shooter says “Oh, stuff this, I am
pretty loose. (A hefty smack on the eye brow going fishing” (or similar)
from the rear sight usually wakes them up with
a rush if you are shooting a .308!) So, what is the remedy?
Once more easy, as you simply become

82 Target Shooter
 aware of the struggle and break the position,
reassemble correctly, and then go on. It is just a
matter of becoming aware that something is not
right and the instant you do become aware, stop
the process BEFORE you fire an errant shot.
Always remember, if the projectile is 2mm or
less through the barrel, you have got what you
shot! Isn’t it better thinking to stop? You still have
control of that Tenex in the chamber eh?
Above, I have mentioned a few times of being
aware. I call these my alarm bells, and once
you start getting into the deeper psychology of
competition, you will understand why I have
stated often that shooting is a mind sport. We
train our butts off all year round, both in snow,
and the heat of Australia to remain perfectly still.
Just the attention to detail within this is very
challenging, So I recommend that the shooters
learn to reposition the rifle every shot in the
learning process, before you bring in the
ability to load without moving the forward
position platform.
Even the slightest movement will alter the natural
aiming point, and I have a shooter here in
Australia that is an incredibly good rifle shot, but
he has spent years working on his shooting but
moves his lower body constantly. He has only
just now developed the attention span to find
much better results.
In photograph “C” showing the rifle at rest, which
is the method to actually restart.
the shooter completely relaxes everything, some
even lowering the rifle across the forward arm.
However there is nothing wrong with leaving the
rifle in position when the occasion demands, but
there are processes necessary for this to work.
It does have a degree of danger. The tell tale,
as I said above, is becoming aware of the need
to lift the rifle with brute strength.
I will leave you with another little gem folks…
No rifle will ever shoot tens while it is standing in
the corner. YOU are the boss!
Think about it,
Brooksie.

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 HPS Target Rifles Limited
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Phone: +44 (0) 1452 729 888
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84 Target Shooter
HPS TARGET MASTER AMMUNITION -
WHEN YOU WANT THE VERY BEST!
CHECK OUT THE CUSTOMER
COMMENTS ON OUR WEBSITE!
The range of Target Master Ammunition
steadily increases.
The stock range currently comprises:
.223 Rem., .308 Win., .303 British, 6mm BR Remington/Norma.
Machine or Hand Loaded all using Sierra as our standard bullet.
Other makes of bullets such as (but not restricted to): Berger, Tubb D-Tac ,
Lapua, Hornady, Speer, Nosler, etc. can be supplied upon request.
Other calibres to special order including: (but not limited to):
22-250, .243 Win, 6.5 x 47, 6.5 x 55, 6.5 x 284, 7mm WSM, 7.62 x 39,
7.62 x 54R, .300 Win Magnum., 300 WSM, and .338 Lap Magnum.
All ammunition available in minimum lots of 50 rounds, 400, 500, 800 or
1000 round containers, depending on calibre.
The NRA Armoury on Bisley Camp stocks our .223 Rem Sierra 69
and 77 grain and our .308 Win Sierra 190 grain ammunition.
The NSRA shop on Bisley Camp stocks our .223 Rem Sierra 69 grain
and our .308 Win Sierra 155 grain and 175 grain ammunition.
System Gemini TR701 and TR702 Fullbore Rifle Stocks, FR703 Smallbore Rifle Stocks,
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Target Shooter 85
ELEY Shooting Rifle advert.indd 1 18/1/10 09:22:56
 PROFILE ON Michael & Andrew
Ozmond
It is always great when you find a sport several
members of the family can enjoy and spend time
together doing, and even more special is when
you find that there is a lot of talent there. In the
case of Michael and Andrew Ozmond they are
both shooting really well and pushing each other
to greater heights.
Michael started shooting with the CCF at
the Glasgow Academy and continued at the
University of Glasgow. He was hooked and by
nature is a perfectionist so shooting was ideal,
especially as he found he was pretty good at it!
Michael - Haig Trophy Forres 2009
86 Target Shooter
By Hayley Platts
Progress in the sport stimulated him further and
an early trip to Bisley turned out to be a memorable
experience. In 1985 Michael became Scottish
Universities Short Range Champion which was
particularly satisfying seeing as at that time some
of the very best shooters in the UK were based at
Edinburgh University. It was in fact the Edinburgh
shooters who were the benchmark, and only when
he looks back to those early days does it dawn on
Michael that he and some of his colleagues were
much better than they credited themselves, and
especially so when Michael tells me they had no
coaches at the University and he coached himself
 Michael Shooting the British 50m championship 2009 (targets are up-
hill from prone)
courtesy of the book ‘Rifle shooting as a sport’ by
Bernd Klingner! Once Michael had graduated he
looked around for a club to continue his shooting
and joined Bearsden & District Pistol Club, next
moving to his local club, Rolls Royce East Kilbride.
Unfortunately that club closed down but Michael
moved to the Larkhall Rifle Club.
Michael continues to enjoy the sport he took
up while at University and his recent shooting
career is where he has made some significant
breakthroughs. 2008 proved to be the start of
some great results and in the autumn he applied
to join their B Squad and with the help of Cyril
De Jonckheere and Jim Cole-Hamilton which set
him up for a fantastic year of competition in 2009.
During the summer of that year Michael gained
his first cap to shoot for Scotland in the Home
Countries International match at the NSRA
meeting at Bisley. In the autumn Michael
became a member of the Scottish Small-Bore Rifle
Association (SSRA) B Squad. A few months
later Michael was 5th in the British 50m
Championship at his first attempt in that
competition. It was also the first time he had
shot on the Malcolm Cooper range where the
Manchester Commonwealth Games took place
and somewhere Michael obviously relished
competing. Enough so that he was second
highest placed Scot by a margin of 0.1 out of
a possible 709 points and 1 point off silver
medal place. This success was followed in the
summer of 2009 when Michael gained his
second and third caps for Scotland where
he shot in the Home Countries International
matches at the NSRA Scottish meeting in
Forres and the NSRA Bisley meeting. In fact
summer 2009 was extremely successful for
Michael. In July he was 3rd in the SSRA Scottish
50m championship, won the SSRA prone Grand
Prix series 2009 and also became the NSRA
Scottish Long Range Champion, winning ‘The
Haig’.
Michael was selected to shoot for Great Britain
in the Dewar Match against the USA, Canada
and South Africa. The team set a new record
score and won the trophy. The only slightly
disappointing result for Michael came in the NSRA
British Long Range Championship where he was
lying 4th after the 20 shots but slipped back
during the remaining 60 shots. Rounding off
the year Michael competed for Scotland at the
Commonwealth Shooting Federation (European
Division) Championships on the Isle of Man in
September. He finished 4th in the 50m prone
individual event and won bronze in the pairs.
Michael has now been promoted to the SSRA A
Squad from which Scotland’s Commonwealth
Games Small-Bore Rifle and Air Rifle shooters are
selected, including those who hope to be selected
for the Commonwealth Games in Delhi in October
2010 and be in the frame so to speak for 2014 in
Glasgow.
As warm up preparation, Michael will be
competing for Scotland in February 2010
(and smugly avoiding the cold wet weather of
Britain in winter!)in Delhi, India and he will be
shooting in the 50m men’s prone match. In
preparation for this Michael has recently attended a
week long training camp as a member of the SSRA
A Squad. Talking about this, Michael says how
proud he is to be a member of the SSRA squads
“we are all there because we want to improve our
shooting and represent Scotland at International
competition” and goes on to say “All five SSRA
Coaches have helped me to become a better
shooter and that has helped me achieve more
each year”.
Not content with his own shooting commitments ,
Target Shooter 87
Michael has been industrious over the last couple
of years and has gained his NSRA Club Instructor
and Club Coach Qualifications which he puts to
good use coaching at Larkhall Rifle Club and also
Glasgow University. His coaching knowledge
will not only help the shooters at the club and
University but will also be helpful in his own quest
to improve.
On the subject of goal setting, Michael says
Scottish Junior Team Forres 2009 Andrew front right with Jen McIntosh, Rory MacAlpine and Coach
Ian Thompson
that whilst he recognises the importance of this
exercise, he has found that at times he has made
much quicker progress than he anticipated
and has had to be flexible in his planning and
readjust to another level. He explained “at times
the Coaches were looking further ahead than I
was and there is absolutely no limit to what any
of us can achieve”. He follows his theory to good
effect that he shoots his best when he
concentrates on what he is doing, eliminating
thoughts about the score or the competition. I
might add that this takes great mental strength so
Michael is certainly showing great promise at top
level shooting.
Michael loves to compete and follows a
pattern of shooting indoor competitions during the
winter and training during the summer at the
Larkhall Rifle Club, where he is also incidentally
the Secretary! To boost his summer shooting
88 Target Shooter
Michael is a member of the Alloa and District Rifle
Club.
Andrew’s shooting story so far……
Andrew follows in his dad’s footsteps and also
shoots Small-Bore prone rifle and has recently
started shooting 10m Air Rifle. At the age of
13 Andrew started shooting at the Larkhall
club and his dad recalls he quickly became a
competent shooter for the Club B team and then the
A team. Each summer father and son travelled and
competed in a few outdoor shoots at Stewarton,
Perth and Alloa and made the decision to try 50m
shooting under ISSF rules and at that point joined
the SSRA. It was in the autumn of 2007 Michael
suggested that Andrew apply to join the SSRA
Under 21 Squad as he felt he had come to the point
where he could no longer provide him with the
coaching that he needed. Michael offered to help
out as Range Officer for Ian Thomson the Coach
and he says that both of them learned a great
deal that year which helped their improvement
in the discipline of 50m shooting. This is a great
example of how a voluntary action can be fruitful
to one’s own shooting development.
He is currently studying Geology at the University
of Glasgow and is a member of the University Rifle
team as well as the Scottish Universities team - in
fact in 2009 at his first attempt he won the Scottish
Universities ISSF Championship!
One his early career results came at the NSRA
Bisley meeting when Andrew was 2nd in the
Under 18 Championship, and from that he was
selected to shoot for the Great Britain Junior Team
in the Drew Match and the Scottish Junior team in
the Home Countries match. For two consecutive
years Andrew has won the team bronze medal at
the NSRA Junior International meeting
representing the Scottish Junior team and is
the reigning NSRA Scottish Short Range Junior
Champion.
During 2009 Andrew represented the Scottish
Junior team for the Home Countries International
match which was his second cap in the year, and
is firmly established as a member of the SSRA
Under 21 Squad. Whilst competing in the
July NSRA Scottish meeting he won B Class
Aggregate and was a finalist in the Scottish Long
Range Championship. The B Class Aggregate
score was just 1 point below the winning score
in A Class. Michael makes the observation that
his son should probably be competing in X class
by now but apparently Andrew says the A class
Trophies are much nicer because they are older!
Nice that sense of history!
Rifle shooting at Blair Atholl but unfortunately do
not manage to shoot this discipline as much as
they would like, and Michael was the Long Range
club champion in 2008.
Andrew does have another interest aside from his
studies and his shooting , he enjoys playing the
Bass Guitar and is good enough to be part of a
Rock Band.
Michael’s final observations on shooting were that
it is a great sport for families as he says
almost anyone can take part and generations can
compete together. He went on to tell me that
“Andrew and I enter the pairs competition at every
opportunity, and one of the greatest challenges in
shooting is to take on Kay Copland and her father
Bill in the pair competition at the NSRA Scottish
Meeting”.
Look out for the Ozmond name as there are two
talented members of the same family vying for
Scotland team places and winning events along
the way!
Pictures copyright of Donald McIntosh.

Both of the shooting Ozmonds enjoy Full-Bore

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7 Manor Road, Wallington, Surrey, SM6 0BW

Tel:020 8647 7742 Fax: 020 8669 9199

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Monday—Saturday 0900 - 1700

Target Shooter 89
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90 Target Shooter
Target Shooter Magazine is a publication of Trinity Digital Publishing Ltd
 Gun of the Month

This month’s gun is a tactical rifle, once again built blown forward and the angle increased from 20 to
on an American Surgeon action. We have extolled 40 degrees and slightly less body taper for a bit
the virtues of the Surgeon on previous occasions more powder-capacity. Although the 260 will handle
but to recap, it is basically a Remington footprint a 140 grain bullet, these bullets are so long that they
but it uses a longer barrel-tenon thread and has a seat very deep in the case if you are loading to mag.
built-in Picatinny rail for increased stiffness and a length. This compromises powder capacity, so the
built-in recoil lug which assists barrel-changing if 120 – 123 grain bullet is the better option.
you have a switch-barrel. Although built to higher
tolerances than the Remington, this is a tactical The rifle has served Steve well and he shoots
action designed to be used in the field and fit ‘n’ everything from F Class to tactical with it and
finish is not quite so tight as with a benchrest action. he will use it to shoot the Civilian Service Rifle
Championship at Bisley in June – an event which
The rifle was put together by KMW in America www. Steve won in 2007.
kmwlrs.com and the fibreglass stock is to their
own design but made by McMillan. They call it the
Sentinel, it features a very low profile The Surgeon action is made of chrome-moly steel, not
fore-end, thumbhole grip, adjustable stainless and comes in the white so a coating of some
cheek-piece and butt, QD sling- sort – like KG Gun Kote - is essential
mounts and utilises bottom-metal
to take the Accuracy International
magazine system. It feels very solid.

Owner Steve Oakland first got the idea

for the rifle from 6mmBR.com’s ‘Gun of
the Week’ feature (see week 46). That
rifle was chambered in 260 Remington
AI but used the Accuracy International
stock. Steve initially spec’d the AI
stock but when KMW developed the
Sentinel he decided to upgrade. The
fluted barrel is a Krieger with a 1 in
8.5 inch twist and will stabilise the 260
Remington’s 6.5mm bullets up to 140
grain. The muzzle brake is a Vais and
a Jewel trigger completes the job.

KMW proprietor and gunsmith Terry

Cross, has an impressive pedigree
in tactical competition shooting in the
US and he loves the 260 Rem. AI
cartridge. The 260 Rem. case is best
formed from necking up a Lapua 243
Win. case to 6.5mm. rather than using
Remington brass. The AI (Ackley
Improved) version has the shoulder
Target Shooter 91

Compared with shooting a Bianchi match, the shots
fired during a 1500 match are generally at a much
slower pace and as well as shooting from the Strong
shoulder, it also requires a fair amount of shooting
to be done from the Kneeling, Sitting and Weak
shoulder positions at both 25 & 50m. How to shoot
from these positions has been covered in GR
Basics 2 & 4 in earlier editions of Target Shooter so
refer back to them for more help. Although you do
have a lot more “shooting time” in each of the 1500
matches, a good proportion of this is eaten up by
the amount of reloading and positional changes that
are required during the course of fire. To complete
a 1500 match you will require 150 rounds of
ammunition and as the name suggests, there is a
possible maximum score of 1500 points and 150 x’s.
Firearm descriptions are as follows:
GRCF – Gallery Rifle Centre Fire (Pistol calibre
Underlevers) GRSB – Gallery Rifle Small Bore
(.22lr) LBR – Long Barrel Revolver (.357. .44 etc)
LBP - Long Barrel Pistol (.22lr).
Range commands:
Before commencing each match, the C.R.O will read
through the distance, shooting positions and timing
allowed. The basic range commands will then be
92 Target Shooter
By Gwyn Roberts
“shooters pick up your rifles and with 6 rounds, load
and make ready.” After a short delay he will then
ask “is the line ready?” If you are not ready to shoot
call out “not ready” and an additional 30 seconds
preparation time will be given. If no “not ready” calls
are heard, the C.R.O will declare “the line is ready,
stand by.” The targets will then edge away for a short
time then turn to face for the shooting to commence.
During certain matches you will be required to move
forwards down range to take up your firing position,
and then return back to the rear of the range once
the individual match has finished. During this time
ALL firearms must be carried with the muzzle up in
the vertical position, and only when everyone has
returned back to the rear of the range and there
is no-one forwards of the firing point, shall the
competitors ground their firearms back down on top
of their bags or cases.
Ready positions:
The “ready position” for rifles is loaded (round in the
chamber with the action closed) held at waist height
with the barrel parallel to the target. LBR’s (cylinder
closed holding 6 rounds) & LBP’s (1 round in the
chamber, action forward, and 5 rounds in the
magazine) must be holstered with the hands held
straight down by the shooter’s side.
 GRCF / GRSB 1500
“ready” position
Reloading:
All movement between shooting positions MUST
be done with an empty gun. GRSB and self-loading
pistols must have an empty chamber, the action
locked open and the magazine removed. Revolvers
must have the cylinder open and GRCF must have
an empty chamber and magazine tube, with the
lever or action open. This rule does not apply when
moving the firearm between shoulders/hands in the
standing position.
A barricade will be provided for each competitor
using an LBP or LBR for the standing supported
position at both 25 and 50 metres. It should be a
wooden post, square or rectangular in section,
fixed on the firing line and sufficiently strong to
remain immobile. It should, ideally, be at least
100mm square and two metres in height.
website.
It’s always a good idea to carry a “check list” with
you to help you prepare the night before, and
double check once you get onto the range. This
will help to calm the nerves and hopefully avoid
your having to run all the way back to the car to
find that small but essential piece of equipment
at the very last minute. A short but obvious list
would be glasses and hearing protection, the
correct firearm carried in a suitable case, 180
rounds of ammunition (30 spare rounds in case
of a re-shoot), a suitable belt/holders to carry it
in, a minimum of 4 magazines or speed loaders
(if required), a holster (if required) your scorecard
(given out on the day), spare pens and a pencil
(in case of rain), a baseball or similar type of cap
(for sun or rain), a jacket (cold or rain), a timer
fitted with good or new batteries, and a box or bag to
carry your equipment and empty cases in. Wearing
sensible clothing and a pair of comfortable boots will
also help to make your shooting a bit easier on the
day!
If possible, always try and turn up early to watch
the detail before you to see how everything works
so that the range commands and practices become
at least a little familiar before it’s your turn to shoot.
It’s also a good idea to let the Range Officers know
before you start shooting that it will be your first
1500 match, and you will find many of them will go

Procedural penalties will be given if a competitor

touches, or crosses the foot fault line with any
part of their body whilst shooting; shoots from
positions out of sequence: moves between
positions with a closed firearm: or allows part of
an LBR or LBP to make contact with the barricade
whilst firing.

As always, before going out to shoot in an

unfamiliar competition you should always practice
to make sure that you are able to adopt and shoot
safely from each of the positions that you will
be required to shoot from on the day. For both
your sake and everyone else’s, don’t just turn up
at the competition and expect to get it right first
time without running through it beforehand, or you
may well end up on the wrong side of the R.O’s,
competitors, or both, regarding safety issues.
For anyone needing to shoot from a wheelchair out of their way to help you along at every stage. If
or who may have other medical issues, modified or possible, they will also help you with the scoring
alternative positions can be used on the day and process and this will definitely help to make it a
these details are available on the GalleryRifle.com more enjoyable and relaxed experience for you.

Target Shooter 93
 Wearing the right gear for the
weather conditions
Asking if you can shoot on an end target may also be
possible, and this should make it easier for you
to pick up your target at the 25 & 50m distances,
where the occasional cross shooting still occurs
sometimes. Failing that, putting a small piece of
fluorescent card on the edge of your target will
enable you to confirm that it is your target that you
are aiming at when looking through your scope.
If you are going to shoot with a GRSB, LBP or LBR,
try and fill as many magazines or speed loaders
with 6 rounds as you can before your detail is due
to start, and if you are going to shoot the match with
an underlever, then make sure that you top up your
ammo belt and put 6 spare rounds in a pocket ready
for your first initial load. One of the most important
points when shooting a 1500 match is the reloads,
so make sure that you place your ammunition where
it can be retrieved quickly and easily, whatever
position you are shooting from!
Once the detail before you has finished and removed
all of their kit from the firing point, ask an R.O if it’s
ok before placing your equipment down in line with
your target number. Do not open your case or touch
your firearm under any circumstances at this point,
simply place your kit on the floor with the muzzle
end of your case pointing down range towards the
backstop, and take this time to clear any debris or
empty cases from around your firing point. Don’t just
sweep it into someone else’s space though or your
first 1500 match won’t get off to a good start. If you
S e p a r a t i n g your ammo into groups of
six will make it easier when reloading!
94 Target Shooter
are going to use a timer, set it
to 90 seconds ready for Match
2 at this point, as again it will
save you a bit of time later on.
When the match is about to
start, the C.R.O (Chief Range
Officer) will call everyone to
the line to un-bag their firearms
and prove them clear. When
doing this you must make sure
that when you start to unzip
the case that the muzzle is
pointing down range, and if it
isn’t, rotate it the right way before unzipping it fully. I
always tend to keep the muzzle inside the case
at this point until the firearm has been cleared by
the R.O and then take it out completely before
placing it on top of the case, with the muzzle pointing
downrange and the action locked open. When
everyone is ready the C.R.O will give the
command to pick up your firearms and
ammunition and, as a line, you will
all dress forward to the 10m line.
At every distance, I first of all line
myself up with my target and
make sure that I adopt a level and
stable stance. Once this position
is achieved, I do not move my feet
for any reason! I then dial in the
correct distance on the scope turret,
adjust the zoom to the correct power
setting, and then finally adjust the
front objective dial until the target is
perfectly clear.
When given the command to do
so you may load with 6 rounds and make ready. I
always load with loose rounds or a spare magazine
from my pocket so that my ammo belt is kept as
full as possible, in case of any mishaps along the
way. Once loaded and whilst waiting for the next
range command, keep your trigger finger outside
the trigger guard and practice drawing the rifle up
into the aiming position on the target for a little extra
practice. Remember the ready position for GRCF
& GRSB is with the butt held at waist height with
the barrel held in the horizontal position pointing at Think about your trigger control…….
the target. The C.R.O will then call out “Is the line
ready?” followed by “Stand by” before the targets are going to lose some shots! If shooting the match
will edge away, and the course of fire is: with a 10/22 I would suggest that you try shooting 5
shots, reload, and then fire 7 shots. Make sure that
Match 1 you place your trigger finger outside the trigger guard
Stage 1 - 10m – 12 shots Standing unsupported, and that the muzzle is kept pointing towards the
target/backstop area during every reload as you will
have a live round in the chamber! Doing it this way
will help save you a little time as you won’t have to
re-rack the action after reloading.

Once you have finished and the firearms have been

grounded at the rear of the range you will all go
forward and score your targets and this is done
in pairs i.e shooters on targets 1&2 together, 3&4
together etc, etc. Due to space restrictions I will
cover how to score in Part 2 next month. Once
you’ve finished scoring, you will need to replenish
your ammo holders and magazines and check that
including reload your timer (if using one) is set to 90 seconds.
Stage 2 - 15m – 12 shots Standing unsupported,
including reload Match 2
Time GRCF – 30sec - All others – 20sec 25m - 90sec (including reloads)
6 shots Kneeling
At both of these distances quite a few people have a 6 shots Left shoulder (or hand)
tendency to panic and rush their shots off but there GRCF & GRSB standing unsupported
really isn’t any need to, providing you have given
it some practice beforehand! If shooting with an
underlever, you need to make sure that you keep
your thumb up out of the way and rack the action
fast before squeezing every shot off in a controlled
manner. Doing this properly should ensure that you
keep all of your shots within either the 10 or X ring.
Be firm but smooth with the trigger and concentrate
on pulling it all the way to the rear of the housing
each time. A good indication of time is simply keep-
ing to the rhythm of shots being fired by everyone
else. When it gets to the reload, I would suggest that
you leave the last (6th) empty case in the action and
then pull the rifle down close into your side before
quickly loading in the next 6 rounds. When this is
done bring the rifle quickly up into the aim again, A timer is essential and make sure that
rack the action and then fire off the remaining 6
it is placed where it can easily be seen.
shots. Hopefully you should start firing again around
You can buy a simple kitchen timer from
the same time as everyone else but if you find that
you have restarted a couple of shots behind them, somewhere like Currys or Boots from
then you need to make this time up otherwise you around £7- £10.

Target Shooter 95

LBP standing using barricade for support
LBR standing using barricade for support, double
action only
6 shots Right shoulder (or hand)
GRCF & GRSB standing unsupported
LBP standing using barricade for support
LBR standing using barricade for support, double
action only
I would recommend using a timer during most of the
1500 match (remember to reset the correct time for
each match) and I place mine on top of my shooting
box, which I position slightly over the foot fault line
nearest to me so that it acts as a barrier to make
sure that I don’t stand either on or over it, as this will
incur unwanted penalty points. Once I’ve adjusted
my scope and loaded for this match I adopt a good
kneeling position and then making sure that I do not
move my feet, I stand back up again picking up my
timer on the way. This stance will ensure that I will be
able to quickly adopt a good kneeling position again,
and that my body will be aligned perfectly with my
target saving me around 5 seconds or so on the day.
When in the ready position I hold the timer in my left
hand which still allows me to support the rifle under
the fore end. The kneeling position usually allows
me to adopt quite a steady hold which means that
I can usually shoot the first 6 rounds off reasonable
quickly, which then allows me to take a little more
time to shoot from my Weak shoulder. Once I
96 Target Shooter
have reloaded and I’m transferring the rifle into my
Weak shoulder, my timer usually shows that I have
around 60 – 65 seconds left out of the 90 seconds
allowed. Then, after my final reload, if everything has
gone smoothly I will usually have between 20 – 25
seconds left to shoot the final 6 rounds from my
Strong shoulder.
Getting your timing right to start off with is purely a
trial and error exercise really as shooting too fast
will produce more open groups on the target, whilst
shooting too slowly will usually result in not firing off
the required number of rounds with each one costing
you 10 points off your score. Again, simply trying to
follow the pace set by everyone else on the line after
each reload should give you an idea of where you
should be at during each match!
Match 3
50m - 165sec (including reloads)
GRCF & GRSB
6 shots Kneeling
6 shots Sitting
6 shots Left shoulder
6 shots Right shoulder
LBR & LBP
6 shots Sitting (note different order from rifles)
6 shots Kneeling using barricade for support (or
Prone, depending on range restrictions)
6 shots Left hand standing using barricade for
support
6 shots Right hand standing using barricade for
support
LBR may be fired single or double action
All preparations are as for Match 2 except your
timer should be set to 165 seconds and as the targets
are usually quite close together, it is very important
that you check that you are actually aiming at your
own target before starting to shoot. Checking your
target for the correct number or identifying piece of
fluorescent card is especially important after each
position change so make sure that you do it! Racking
the action slowly and smoothly when shooting with
an underlever will also help you to remain on your
target a bit easier. In Match 3 I again tend to take
more time shooting from the Kneeling and Weak
shoulder positions and shoot quicker on the others
as a poor trigger release at this distance will spread
your shots a lot more around the target. Ideally you
should have around 20 seconds or more left to shoot
your final 6 rounds. A smooth and safe transition
between each shooting position is essential and
when done properly, it will also save you a lot of time
allowing you to concentrate more on releasing each
shot. This can only be achieved through plenty of
practice, during which you need to pay particular
attention to your muzzle direction and trigger finger
location at all times!
Sequence 1
Taking a sight picture from the kneeling position and then standing up into the “ready” position without
moving your feet again will enable you to adopt this position quickly again, making sure that you are also
properly in line with your target when you start shooting. Once you have finished firing, lock open the action,

check the chamber is clear, place your finger outside the trigger guard and cant the rifle over so that the
weight of the rifle is supported by your forearm along the butt. Then, place your free hand on the floor to
the side of your body as this will help you to balance as you swing your legs underneath you into the sitting
position. Once you have shot from the sitting position lock open, clear, place your hand on the floor and
support the rifle as before and move into the standing position.
Sequence 2
Then, if shooting an Underlever, close the action and load 6 rounds into the loading gate or insert a
magazine into a 10/22. Pushing the rifle outwards in front of your body, you then need to rotate your body
sideways so that you can transfer the rifle to your left side. Now you can safely rack the action or release the
slide to load the rifle and carry on shooting!

Sequence 3
The same safety and transfer sequence should then be used to adopt a “strong shoulder” hold and then
once you have unloaded and checked the rifle is clear, continue to hold it by your side with the muzzle
pointing safely down range and wait until it is cleared by a Range Officer.
Unfortunately space dictates that this will be a two part article so next month I’ll cover Matches 4 and 5 along
with how to actually score the 1500 match. Until then, get down to the range and practice as the Phoenix is
only 3 months away!

Target Shooter 97
Rude Fat Dog
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Section 5

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 Accessories and advice to give you the leading edge in your competitions
 Reloading equipment, hard cast bullets and brass
www.rudefatdog.com
Tel: +44(0)1271 865865 Fax: +44(0)1271 865830

Buxted Rifle & Pistol Club

Club Feature
The indoor rifle range is located in the village
opposite Buxted mainline railway station. The
shooting club has been an intrinsic part of the
Buxted community for many decades.
Historically, as an NSRA affiliated small-bore rifle
and pistol club, Buxted ARPC has always achieved
a respectable level of competitive success. The
HFT venue is located 5 minutes away.
Fortunately, a dedicated core of shooters ensured
continued interest within the village and the
surrounding area.
Primarily a rim fire range, advances in airgun
technology have developed air weapons capable
of competing with their rim fire counterparts in
many aspects of modern target sports. This has
broadened the club’s appeal to many more airgun

98 Target Shooter
 The Buxted boys at the recent UK National
rimfire and Air Rifle Championship
shooting enthusiasts, especially those participating
in Hunter Field Target Shooting, an offshoot of
formal FT shooting.
HFT is an organised target shooting activity
intended to replicate rough hunting. Open to any
responsible airgun owner, regardless of age or
ability, virtually any safe, UK legal air rifle is suitable
for use.
Popular world wide, UKAHFT is the governing body
for HFT in the UK. As a UKAHFT affiliated club,
Buxted has an extremely healthy HFT membership,
especially juniors, making it the envy of many of its
peers.
Buxted has a picturesque but deceptively difficult
HFT ground, hosting regular club opens and rounds
of the Southern Hunter and Sussex Interclub
Series.
The HFT team actively participates in local,
national and world events and achieved success as
Sussex’s Interclub Champions.
The club’s 25-yard indoor airgun bench-rest team
often excel in many classes of the annual UKBR22
World Postal Championships. They finished as
reigning World Champions, in all three airgun
postal classes in one season, with individual
members achieving top ranks as well. Some
airgun bench shooters have represented the UK at
international level, holding future aspirations to
compete in the outdoor and rim fire arenas.
The club committee are keen to promote a
diversity of shooting related social activities for the
benefit of members. Club events are well attended
with most nights of the week occupied. The latest
being IPAS, Iron Plate Action Shooting, an addictive,
entertaining quick fire action distraction, using
semi-auto CO2 pistols, that’s proving highly popular
with shooters of all ages.
The club’s airgun bench-rest team have excelled
in UKBR22 World Postal Championship events.
Achieving reigning World Champion status in
all three airgun postal classes in one season,
with member’s also achieving top rank individual
success.
Buxted bench shooters have represented the UK
at international level, holding future aspirations to
compete in the outdoor and rim fire arenas as well.
The bench rest section is actively involved in the
development of specialist weapons and equipment
to maintain their edge over the competition.
However, some prefer to believe they are simply
better shots and no amount of technology is going
to improve on that
The Bertie Bassett
Contact;
Buxted Rifle & Pistol Club
http://www.buxtedshootingclub.co.uk/
Target Shooter 99
 VINCE’S REGULAR COLUMN WHEREBY
ACCURACY NUTS CAN KEEP UP TO
DATE WITH THE ACTIVITIES OF THE UKBRA

Competitions and top of the pile is a brand-new British-made

Following the cancellation of Round 3 of our
winter 600 yard series, our third shoot is
scheduled for March 7th so a full report in next
month’s Target Shooter – weather permitting.
The cancelled shoot will take place on Easter
rifle action - the GBR. Like Russ Gall’s action, the
GBR is a Remington 700 clone but made on CNC
machinery to a very high standard and
incorporating one or two sensible improvements
to the Remmy.

Monday – which will be convenient
for those who fancy an Easter of benchrest
shooting, as our first 100/1000 yard
shoots of 2010 take place on the same
weekend.
New stuff – the GBR action.
I have some very interesting new stuff this month
It is becoming ever more difficult and expensive
to import firearm-related parts from the US, so the
emergence of another home-built action is great
news for UK shooters. At this moment, I don’t
have a price but knowing that Fox Firearms are
involved you can bet it will be very competitive. I’ve
managed to get hold of an example off the first
production-run and I’m impressed!

100 Target Shooter

I will be building a ‘project rifle’ around this action to that the first batch will sell out very quickly and if
be serialised in coming issues of Target Shooter, you want your name on the waiting list, ring Fox
so we will look at things in greater detail next Firearms on 0161-430-8278 without delay.
month.
Events
SEB Rest – the Mk 2 version The next 600 yd shoot will be held at Diggle
Seb Lambang has had great success with his Ranges on March 7th – registration 10.00am.
joystick benchrest all over the world and Easter weekend will see a festival of benchrest
you will see these rests in use by top at Diggle with a 100 yard shoot on Saturday
benchrest shooters at all the world and European April 3rd, followed by 1000 yard benchrest on
matches. But, Seb is not a guy who rests on Easter Sunday and 600 yards on the Monday.
his laurels – a few months ago, he asked the New shooters are welcome – for more info.
benchrest world – via the internet - to suggest e-mail me on vinceb@6ppc.fsnet.co.uk
modifications to make his rest even better. When
did you last hear of a manufacturer doing that?

Seb took on-board our suggestions and he is

now ready to put the Mk2 into production and
he has kindly given us a few pictures – via UK
importer, Fox Firearms – wow, I’d want one even
if I didn’t shoot benchrest!

As you can see, the new rest is very different

and incorporates a lot of changes. We will have
a sample very shortly and Target Shooter will
get the first review of the new rest. I can imagine

To introduce our selves we are the United Kingdom Association of

Rimfire and Air Rifle Benchrest Shooting. By that we mean "True
Benchrest Shooting". The Association is recognised by rimfire
shooters across in the UK, with partners across Europe and the rest of
the world, as the presentative body that promotes rimfire and air rifle
benchrest across this country and with other partners in European and
World events.
Visit our website for news about national and international
competitions that all can ‘have a go at’. From novice to champion
shooter, everyone is welcome
www.benchrest22.org

Target Shooter 101

 In association with
Paul Barker…Target Shooter profile;
Paul Barker came to shooting 4 years ago after
his son talked him into getting an air rifle as a joint
Christmas present, soon after he joined Keighley
Rifle club and started to shoot competitively, initially
just doing club air rifle competitions but then moving
on to rimfire shooting on the club’s 100 yard outdoor
range. “Keighley has been a great place to learn to
shoot, if people want to just shoot for fun then that’s
OK but competition is actively encouraged and that I
have found that is what keeps it interesting for me.”
Besides benchrest Paul shoots a number of different
disciplines including match air rifle, sporting air rifle
and prone rimfire. “I initially started the benchresting
because I love the idea of precision shooting, and
in the early days I saw it as good training for my
Paul with his recent national and world
championship medals
102 Target Shooter
prone shooting as well. Some of the comps that I
shoot in don’t allow rear sand bags or anything more
sophisticated than a plain flat front rest. The butt of
the rifle has to be supported in the shoulder, because
you are still just aiming at a 2mm bull you really need
to have your breathing and trigger control nailed and
if you can translate that to prone shooting then it’s a
big help”
It was April last year when Paul joined the UK
Rimfire Benchrest Association, after finishing the
winter season just for fun he entered the summer
comps and then went to the national championships
at Portishead where he won bronze in the
unrestricted air rifle with a score that won individual
bronze and contributed to team gold in the world
postal championship.
Summer 2009 was a good season, besides the air
rifle bench rest medals, Paul also won gold in the
50m Iron Sights Benchrest and Unrestricted events
at the NSRA Bisley meeting as well as a number of
other medals for prone shooting including gold in
his class for the 50m Double English Match which
consists of 2 successive sets of 60 shots.
For equipment he uses a Feinwerkbau 2700 free
rifle with the heavy 19mm barrel and a Walther
Dominator air rifle. For prone shooting he uses a
Centra Pro 57 rear sight with Gehman 575 diopter/
iris and for bench resting a Nikko-Sterling 10-50
Diamond and Fox Fire arms 10-40 telescopic sight.
For resting he has recently replaced a Caldwell
Rock with a Seb Coaxial rest and rear bag. “The
Feinwerkbau has been a great buy. My wife went
through the roof when I first got it, but now they have
almost doubled in price so it did turn out to be a good
purchase. For prone shooting it is so adjustable that
you can get it to fit you perfectly. For bench rest-
ing HPS made me a custom slider plate for the front
and the cheek piece will fit in from the underside to
make a great “bunny rail”. The barrel and trigger are
superb and despite buying a barrel tuner I have found
that with the right ammo it works better without it.
When not shooting Paul works as a freelance
photographer for the News of the World and his
other hobbies include potholing and bell ringing.
“If you think shooting is difficult you should try bell Above and below - Paul
ringing. I have never had to concentrate so hard for shooting air rifle and rimfire
so long so it even helps with my shooting too.” benchrest

Target Shooter 103

 The Long View
News from the GB
F-Class Association
In a little over one month it will be time to dust off
our rifles and kick off our campaign to become
the GBFCA 2010 Open or F T/R Champions
and this year we have a ‘first’ for the GB F Class
Association.
Due to popular demand, the first competition will
be a short-range shoot. With the previous years
building up to the 2009 World Championships, it
was felt the best distances to shoot would be those
actually required for the World Championship -
which made good sense. But, with that over – for
another three and a half years - we can now vary
the shoots a bit.
F Class isn’t just about the 800, 900 and 1000 yard
competition, or Palma as it is sometimes known, it’s
also about shorter range shooting and many clubs
who only have access to say a 300 yard range may
still run successful F Class shoots. At my own club
for example, we regularly shoot F Class at 500/600
yards or less, with long range only once or twice
every couple of months.
So, the first event on the GBFCA calendar will be
a 500 and 600 yard shoot at Diggle ranges on the
weekend of the 10th/11th April. This isn’t just to
vary the shoots; we have done this partly to try to
broaden the appeal of F Class competition to other
scoped rifle shooters. If you already shoot in the
GB F Class League or regularly shoot long range,
then turning up at a completely new range to shoot
1000 yards is a challenge to relish. However, if
you haven’t done it before it can be daunting and
off-putting to some shooters.
Over the last few years, I have received e-mails
from several shooters who have a scoped rifle and
would like to take part in the League ‘when they have
better kit’ as they put it. That isn’t the point, most of
us started competing with the kit we had and then,
unless you have particularly deep pockets - or live
104 Target Shooter
with a gunsmith - build up your equipment as and
when you can afford it. You may not stand in the
winner’s circle very often but you will be gaining
valuable experience. Hopefully a shorter range
competition will be something of an ‘equipment
leveller’ and encourage those shooters who really
want to give it a go to ‘come out of the woodwork’.
Shorter range will also mean different calibres to
the usual unstoppable Open Class WSM’s. Smaller
calibres have not proven to be ideal at 1000 yards -
although there have been some notable exceptions
in some very skilled hands - particularly if the
weather is unusually benign. So for example,
maybe benchrest shooters with their hybrid 6mm’s
could put in an appearance, or anyone with a
scoped fullbore rifle for that matter.
But if you think short range means easier, think
again. At the present there is no ‘official’ short range
F Class target but fortunately Diggle has something
of its own that should be ideal and should be test-
ing for everyone as it is still based on the F Class
half MOA V bull that we use at longer ranges.
So if you haven’t already shot in the League, this
match could be the ideal opportunity. I can well
imagine a new shooter being can be put off by
the thought of not getting ‘on’ at 1000 yards –
particularly
if you are shooting a 308 – but at 5/600 yards, this
won’t be a problem and hopefully we can organise
a zeroing day on the Friday for those who need it.
The GB F Class League now has in excess of 100
members who enjoy not only great shoots but also
a good social side and regular weekends away –
isn’t it time YOU stopped thinking about it and had
a go this year? www.f-class.org.uk
 A regular column whereby Ken Hall keeps us up to date
with black powder cartridge rifle shooting in the UK.

Most newcomers to Quigley style shooting using the following equation;

will want to fit Vernier type
adjustable sights to their rifle of
choice. Fortunately there is a
fair selection to choose from out
there, however, for the most part
this may involve importing from
America or Europe. Whilst high
quality products command high
prices, the more economical
or lesser priced sights from
Pedersoli, Uberti or Armi Sport
are more than adequate for the
job if you purchase the right one. Here in the United angent of an angle = Opposite side
Kingdom, Henry Krank in Pudsey can supply the
full range of Pedersoli tang sights. Adjacent side
See links at end of article. Most rifle tangs
are already tapped to suit, so fitting them is In the diagram, line AB represents the sight
relatively easy, it is when it comes to using them radius, line AC the elevation on the rear sight and
that some shooters encounter problems. line BC the barrel line. The angle of elevation is
represented by “b”.
Many are already familiar with modern
Vernier target sights and how to read them, but The sight radius was measured on my rifle
what of traditional long range Vernier sights? at 34¼ in.
All Verniers work in the same way,
with a fixed and a moving scale. Modern Vernier Assuming an elevation of one degree, the
sights made for target rifles are graduated in tangent of one degree = 0. 017455
minutes of angle (60 minutes per degree) each
minute subtending approximately one inch at Using the equation AC = Tan b
100yds, two inches at 200yds etc. whereas original
and most reproductions are graduated in 1/100ths AB
of an inch or multiples of 1/100ths.
It follows that: AC = 0.017455 x
So how do they compare? 34.25

It’s been some time since I was at school = 0.59783375 inches.

but I decided to try some elementary mathematics

Target Shooter 105

 So an elevation of 0.598 inches gives an 2 degrees 41 minutes) for a .45in 500grain bullet
angle of one degree, therefore, as there are 60 in front of 65 grains of Swiss number 4.
minutes in one degree then;
0.598 = 0.009966 inches would give one My next task is to borrow a chronograph
minute of angle. and see what MV I am getting with this load, find
60 the ballistic coefficient of the bullet and start to
tabulate the effects of sight adjustment at various
Suddenly something is beginning to click. ranges.
0.0099 is VERY CLOSE to one hundredth of an
inch. Actually, a sight radius of 34.37 inches would As I stated earlier, it is a while since my
make one hundredth of an inch equal to one minute schooling, and so if my theories don’t hold water
of angle. So for our purpose, we can assume that then feel free to show me the error of my ways.
one hundredth of an inch on our Vernier rear sight
will give one minute of angle. Links
Montana Vintage Arms http://www.
Those “Good old boys” were pretty smart! montanavintagearms.com/vernier.html
Especially when you consider that these sights Axtell Rifle Company http://www.
were fitted to muzzle-loading rifles long before the riflesmith.com/sightssharps.html
advent of the self-contained cartridge! Baldwin Sights http://baldwin-sights.
com/
On my sight, the fixed scale is marked Dixie Gun Works http://
in inches subdivided into 20ths; therefore each www.dixiegunworks.com/default.
division represents 5/100ths or 5 minutes of php?cPath=22_129_651_653
angle. What this means to the impact of a bullet Henry Krank http://
at various ranges is dependant on many factors www.dixiegunworks.com/default.
such as muzzle velocity, bullet shape / weight and php?cPath=22_129_651_653
ballistic coefficient. It is worth noting that on rifles
with shorter barrels and therefore a shorter sight Here is a link to a terrific site which describes
radius, one minute of angle on the sight will move in depth how to read a Vernier scale…….
the impact of the bullet on the target slightly more
but not enough to make a substantial difference. http://www.uslink.net/~tom1/vernier.
htm
By now, feeling quite smug and with my Comments and questions please to
curiosity aroused, I decided to compare some khall6548@aol.com
of my own data with that
found in the excellent little
tome called “The Gun that
shaped America’s destiny”
by Martin Rywell. In this
volume, an elevation of 151
points (151/100) is required
at 1000yd for a .44in
500-grain bullet ahead of 90
grains of black powder. On
my Pedersoli Sharps, fitted
with their own Mid-Range
Soule sight, assuming that
0 (zero) on the vertical scale
represents a line through the
foresight parallel to the barrel,
then at 1000yds an elevation
of only 161 points (minutes)
is required to put rounds on
the target. (This, incidentally,
gives an elevation of around

106 Target Shooter

 Gallery Rifle & Pistol News
March brings the first of the big four meetings at the
National Shooting Centre, the Spring Action Weekend.
Plenty to do here with all the usual events for Gallery
Rifle and Pistol and some shotgun and rifle events too.
The ideal time to start getting scores registered in the
national database and move up the classifications.
The starting classifications for 2010 are now available
on the NSC website or on www.galleryrifle.com. Don’t
forget that you now have a separate classification for
each of the short events for each gun, making a total
of 28! You may feel you now have a better chance in
some of them than before so have a go at something
like Phoenix A and be thoroughly confused by the
course of fire.
The NRA Skills manual is well on the way to completion
and a section of it is aimed specifically at those trying
Gallery Rifle & Pistol for the first time. It deals with the
absolute basics to get you shooting safely on a range.
It covers what to do when you arrive at the range, how
to load, shoot, unload and prove the gun clear. It also
has a section on what to do when something goes
wrong and you have a malfunction. It is also the first
part in much larger manual being prepared by the NRA
GR&P sub committee on all aspects of training. It will
be published separately as a pdf file to download from
the www.galleryrifle.com website.
Those of you who have been competing at the NSC
and around the country for some time will remember
the various types of the man versus man event that
used to be very popular. There are still some around
which have different layouts but we no longer see
the crowds of competitors and spectators that there
used to be at the NSC. For those of you who don’t
know what it’s all about, the basic idea is to have two
competitors shooting at a small number of knockdown
steel plates with the first to finish being the winner. It
can be the best of three runs or whatever there is time
for. Sounds simple enough, doesn’t it?
It is simple until you add in the need to start with
running to the firing point with a can in your hand which
has to be put on a post. Then you have to shoot at the
plates in a specific order until they are all down except
the last one. Then you must reload the gun, regardless
of how many rounds you have left, and shoot a the last
plate.
There are so many things to get wrong and all the time
your brain is refusing to work properly, your hands are
shaking and you’re forgetting to breathe. It’s all about
speed and concentration and it’s fun.
We’re working on a way to get back to basics with this
event and bring it back to the NSC later in the year.
Range space, as always is a problem but we’ll try to
find a way. Any old photographs you may have would
be very welcome so please send them to gallery@nra.
org.uk.
Finally, here is the latest calendar for 2010. Entry
forms for the Spring Action Weekend are out now and
more are on their way. Check the NSC website and
your emails.
DATES FOR 2010
March 27-28 Spring Action Weekend NSC
Bisley
April 17-18 Basildon 1500 Basildon
May 2 Mattersey Ten Mattersey
May 8 Frome Western Winner Bristol
May 9 Shield Practical GR&P Dorset
May 28-30 The Phoenix Meeting NSC
Bisley
June 5 Open WCSA Gallery Rifle
Warminster
June 26-27 Derby 1500 Derby
July 10-11 Fermoy International GR
Ireland
July10-24 The Imperial Meeting NSC
Bisley
July 18 Mattersey Steel Shoot
Mattersey
July 24-25 Frome Three Gun Shield
Dorset
August 28-29 Gallery Rifle National
Championships NSC Bisley
September 19 Mattersey Bianchi Mattersey
October 17 Shield Steel Challenge GR&P
Dorset
October 23-24 The Trafalgar Meeting NSC
Bisley
October 30-30 Autumn Action Weekend NSC
Bisley
November 12-14 Leitmar International GR
Germany
(Either contact the organisers direct or go to www.gal-
leryrifle.com for entry forms.)
GR&P = Gallery Rifle Centre Fire (GRCF), Gallery Rifle
Small Bore (GRSB), Long Barrelled Pistol (LBP) and
Long Barrelled Revolver (LBR)
Please go to the Gallery Rifle website www.galleryrifle.
com for more news and information.
Target Shooter 107
Mini Rifle Returns

A number of years have passed since a

practical mini rifle match has been held in
the UK. Bedford Country Rifle and Pistol
Association came up with a great idea of
adding a mini rifle division to their Level 2
Long Barrel Revolver match held on 21st
February at their excellent range facilities.
So the UKPSA Mini Rifle rules were taken
out of mothballs, dusted off and quickly
brought up to date.
The match was the first Level 2 match
hosted by the Bedford club, but you would
have thought they were old hands at
running competitions. The nine stages were
challenging and fun to shoot. The props were
of an excellent standard. No way could you
describe this competition as a ‘blag’. Accuracy
was the by word of the day. A great deal of
the shots had to be taken at 20 metres plus,
but the real tester was the 50 metre 12 round
stage held on one of the outdoor ranges. A
simple enough stage of 6 targets requiring
one round on each, a reload and again one
round on each. But this distance caught out
many of the competitors, who found that a

The shotgun Festival at Bisley may be static

shooting, but great practical stages can still be
shot

full size IPSC

target is not
very large
when place
50 metres
away.

The match
took all day
to complete.
It seems
that it was a
day for the
older, more
discerning
shooter to
t r i u m p h
Jim Starley, first winner of a practical Mini Rifle with seniors
after an abscence of some years. scooping up
the prizes
in the LBR
108 Target Shooter
 Josie Adam, first Lady in Standard LBR
division at Bedford’s first L2 match
categories. Winner of LBR Standard was super senior
Jim Gibney, with Nick Towndrell second. Josie Adam
was first Lady. LBR Open was won by Pete Starley
with Andrew Sutton as runner up. James Harris was
winner of the LBP category. Four shooters competed
in the Mini Rifle category. This was won by Jim Starley,
with Neil Smith second.
The next Level 2 Long Barrel match will be at
Carlisle on Saturday 24th April, when Gallery
Rifle will be added as a new gun category. UKPSA
members are asked to check the Forum for
announcements on the match.
Shotgun Festival at Bisley
These matches have been taking place for a
couple of years now at Bisley. Held in the Spring
and Autumn and run by the NSC and the Blue Team
Club. This was a Level 1 match and was open to
non UKPSA members. Restrictions at Bisley do
not allow movement with a loaded gun at present.
This does not detract from the fun that can be
had from shooting Practical stages from a static
positions. The recent Spring Shotgun Festival
saw the largest number of entries to date. It was
made up of ten stages using slug, buckshot
and birdshot ammunition. Held on Butt Zero on
Stickledown Range, where use of the turning targets
and mover, add to the fun of shooting practical with
a shotgun. With blue skies and a warm winter sun,
the shooters worked their way round the stages. In
addition to the main event there is also the Snooker
competition. This requires static clays to be shot
against the clock. The shooter starts with an
unloaded gun and within the 20 seconds allowed, load
and shoot a red clay before shooting a coloured clay.
Like snooker the black is of higher value, but is placed
further away from the shooter. A few people have
cleaned this event in the past, but the cold was getting
into the fingers of many of the shooters and slowed
down their loading. George Granycome was the best
on the day with Dave Dowding and Paul Tasker tying
for second place.
George went onto win the Standard Manual (pump
action) prize in the practical stages. Rob Adam was
the winner in Standard Auto division and again Josie
Adam picked up the Ladies Prize.
The next Shotgun event for UKPSA members is
the Shield Hardy. A Level 3 championship match at
Shield’s range in Dorset.
If you want more information about the UKPSA and
practical shooting, visit our web site at www.ukpsa.
co.uk.
Target Shooter 109
Letters
Firstly can I thank you for a great magazine.
One question I would like to pose is
why don’t you do more about the rough
shooting/ clay shooting and the shotguns
associated with these sports as this would
round off the magazine very well.
The series of articles on the Enfield was
very enjoyable and I would like to see more
of this. They lend a bit of history to the
magazine.
My thanks, Robert
Hi Robert. There are a number of magazines that
cover the theme of rough shooting. In fact these
seem to outnumber most of the other shooting
magazines, so we think this particular
area or sport is covered in the UK. There is
even a website that works with the BASC that
produces online videos on this subject – Field
Sports TV Channel. This site is well worth the
view as it covers a lot of areas within the sport.
In terms of clay pigeon, we may look at one of
articles, especially in the lead up to the Olympic
Games. However, we did set this magazine
up for target shooting in all its forms, as this is
the one area that is not covered in one discrete
magazine in the UK. There are so many forms of
target shooting in the UK we have ample news
worthy articles that bring this information to the
reader.
Nigel will be pleased to hear about your interest
in the articles he has written. He has just started
a new series that we hope you and others find
equally enjoyable. Glad you like the magazine.
Carl
Can I thank you for the recent series of
articles by Don Brooks. This area of the
sport, namely ISSF rifle shooting, has been
seriously missed in the commercial
magazines. Can we have more??
What I like about Target Shooter magazine
is that it covers a lot of shooting disciplines,
so the reader can see the type of sports
available and the level of competition that
UK shooters are entering. It is very gratifying
to see that a number of our shooters
are competing at international level and
succeeding in attaining medal places. With
some shooters this has even been World and
European Champion status.
110 Target Shooter
I wish more could be done for shooting
sports, as the government seems to have
given up on it, with a very small amount of
money going to only a very small selected
number of shooting sports.
Do you know if the sports people get
sponsorship from the companies that
sell products in the UK, or do they pay for
everything out of their own pockets?
Thanks, Stephen
I am sure that Don will be pleased to hear a
positive return about his articles. If you wish
more, then please ask him about areas you
would like to be covered in his articles.
Target Shooter magazine was set up to show all
of target shooting sports and we try to cover as
many of these as possible. If you have others
you want to see then we can try to ask for writers
to look at these other shooting sports. Our sports
people have done very well in 2009 and I hope,
like the rest of the UK, this continues into 2010.
In terms of support, yes a lot of the UK shooters
pay for things out of their own pockets, for the
love of the sport. It would be nice to see more
of them being supported by either government
funding of sponsored by the gun trade within
the UK. I know abroad it is a very different
matter, with shooters in minority shooting
sports financed for competition by their national
shooting body (government funded), or in the
case of the USA in combination with members
of the gun trade itself. The unfortunate position
we are in at the moment is that recession has
hit the UK very hard, but it would be great to
see both shooters and the gun trade working in
harmony a great deal more to support one
another. This has been the case with a number
companies like Aim Field, Highland Outdoors
and Eley to name a few. (We have an article
about Eley supporting a young shooter this
month).
Support is hard to find, as companies want to
see a return on their investment, but it would be
good to see lots more of the gun trade getting
involved. Maybe as we come out of recession
we might see this happening. I hope so.
Carl
If you have an issue, question
or comment then please send
letters via customer support on
the website.
 News
Next month we continue with reviews and bringing you updates on what is happening in the
target shooting world. Hopefully by them the porr weather we are having will have gone and people
can come out of hibernation - starting to prepare and shoot in the spring weather. Until then, good
shooting and keep warm.
customer.services@targetshooter.co.uk
Happy reading and we hope you enjoy the magazine. The team at Target Shooter.
If you have any letters or news that you would like to air on a national basis then please contact us
at the magazine. This could be for those budding writers out there that would like to submit a full
article on specific firearms, competitions, shooting sports, etc.
The aim of the magazine is to include you the shooters in the United Kingdom and further afield.
So having a regular letters page or even a question and answer section would be really useful for
a lot of people out there. Let us know what you think!?
We would also like to have a gun of the month section - so send us your pic and spec and we’ll
include it in ‘gun of the month’.
Any news that your club or association thinks is worth viewing can also be sent in for selection.
What we would like is to get a letters page started with your views, news and perceptions about
all all the aspects of target shooting. So lets see those letters coming in and we will read your
thoughts in these pages.

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Benchrest Directory 79 Rhino Rifles 26
Bratton Sound Gunsafes 73 Richard Paul Russell Ltd 40
Bulzeye Pro 33 Roedale Precision 22
Eley LTD 85 RUAG Ammotec 12
Fox Firearms 36 & 74 Rude Fat Dog 98
G T Shooting 12 Shadtree Engineering Accuracy 25
Green Leopard 56 Shooting Bags 56
Highland Outdoors 3 South Yorkshire Gun Supplies 66
HPS Target Rifles Ltd 84 Surrey Guns 89
Indelfa industrial electronics 56 Tim Hannam 46
Lilja 79 UKBR22 - Rimfire and Air Rifle Benchrest 101
Low Mill Range Website & 79 UK Gunworks 60
March Scopes 26 Viking Arms LTD 2
Merseyside Armoury 56 Westlake Engineering 36
New Avon Arms 74 York Guns 32
North West Custom Parts 60 Zeiss Optics 10
NSRA 85

Target Shooter 111

Next time in.....

The March issue will be out as normal on the 1st of the month. Lots of follow up articles, new
reviews, news and as ever packed with the articles you want to read.
IWA Show 2010—Review

April 2010 Issue

On Test
Regular Reviews
Columns

Features ...and lots more

112 Target Shooter