NRA Journal - Summer 2004 - National Rifle Association

SPRING INTO ACTION WEEKENDby Fred James, Match Director Spring Into ActionIf you do not know what happens at the smallerAction Weekends held at Bisley, this may give yousome insight into what you are missing.The weekend of 27 and 28 March saw the secondSpring Into Action Weekend. There was very strongsupport for the event with over 144 competitorsprepared to brave the weather entering a total of 283competitions over the two days. The NationalShooting Centre pulled out all the stops and had theranges ready for Friday to allow the Range Officersto shoot their cards in advance, thus enabling themto concentrate fully on the weekend’s activities. Sueand Jane ran the front counter in their usual efficientstyle and sold a new range of Phoenix clothing andshower-proof products. The money raised will gotowards the RO’s night out at the Phoenix Meeting.Stats was again run by Charles Murton with help fromChris Farr; special thanks are due to Charles for againvolunteering to help with new computerprogramming and making the stats work.New gas barbecues had been purchased and werewell stocked; Café Melville was run by Christine Lowewho provided a fine fare of hot food to both staff andcompetitors alike.Stuart Haxton (CRO) and the range crews on Melvilledid a fantastic job in running the shoots on time.These, together with the rest of the 1500 shoots, provedto be very popular and were heavily subscribed. JohnRobinson quickly got to grips with the practicalitiesand timing of the .22 rubber plate shooting: a shootinvolving a course of fire held at six stages requiringa total of 120 rounds of ammunition. Each stage isshot four times with the best three being put towardsthe total score. David Holt and Richard Schofield ranthe 25m and 50m which was open to the GBCF, GRSBand Long Barrelled Pistol.Classic Rifles were located on Stickledown and werelooked after by David Shepperd (CRO) and NeilMcPheason who did a great job in getting a largenumber of shooters through in difficult conditions.David of the BBC RC has been a great help indeveloping this increasingly popular event; we arelooking forward to revising the course of fire for thenext 90m shoot in order to cut down waiting time forcompetitors. We are leaning towards having fourprone sighted shots followed by each competitorbeing allocated two targets firing at the prone andsitting stage on the first detail and then kneeling andstanding on the second detail. We hope the increasedturnover will free up time and space for more entriesand re-entries.For the first time, we were able to run a course of firefor 12-bore shotgun firing solid slug on Stickledownbutt zero with 30m turning targets. Our thanks go toAndy Duffy of the Metropolitan Police Shooting Clubwho enthusiastically ran this shoot. Although theentries on this occasion were relatively low due to thelate decision to run this competition, we hope to buildon this with the next shoot being planned for Friday27 and Saturday 28 August 2004 during the GalleryRifle and Pistol Championships.Jim Carter ran the McQueen helped by HowardDixon. Jim was a valiant last minute volunteerstanding in for Ken Shorthouse who wasunfortunately ill. We wish Ken a speedy recovery andtrust he will be fit for the next meeting.For the first time we were visited by the Midland RCof Eire who brought over a team of some twenty twocompetitors. They donated a splendid Irish pewtercup and other prizes to the first, second and thirdplaced competitors in the F Class competition whichwas won by Liam Jennings. Entering the F Class 90mClass, and the McQueen, John Paul, Captain of theMidland RC of Eire, said his team had had a greattime and they will be back for future events.The next event will be held on 28 and 29 August -entry forms are available now from Fred James at theNRA.A rarely seen flock of brass bandits in their natural habitat onMelville range.48Three of the competitors in the 1500 competition scoring theirthird stage match. (Photos: Fred James)