Summer 2013 - National Rifle Association

The various events produced a few‘situations’ for the GB shooters. Most of usoverheated to some degree and lots ofwater was poured over heads and downnecks. Some of our handloads turnedout to be off-spec (low powder) and onerifle ended up with a ruined barrel. MyRuger malfunctioned so badly on the firststage of my 1500 match that I pulled outwith only two shots fired. In the centrefireInternational match Taff put down thebest score on the range – all the way upto the last stage, where his gun jammedand forced him to withdraw with severalhundred points missing. Other guns alsodeveloped problems along the way – wesuspect the heat was affecting the gunsas well as their operators.Fortunately our hosts provided goodemergency gunsmithing support and mostproblems were fixed either by quick gunrepairs or gun loans. I shot my centrefireshort events with a borrowed gun andfactory ammunition – and put in a betterscore than I usually do at home with myown gun and carefully tuned handloads.Go figure.I’d never visited South Africa before andI’m glad I made the trip. The people madeus feel welcome – not just our SA HuntersIndividual resultsTaff WilcoxMel BeardSteve LambAndy SummersInternational results1st Multi-Target GRCF, 1st Multi-Target GRSB, 2nd 1500 GRCF, 2nd 25m PrecisionGRCF, 3rd 25m Precision GRSB, 3rd Timed & Precision 1 GRSB1st 50m Precision GRCF, 2nd Timed & Precision 1 GRSB2nd Multi-Target GRCF, 3rd 25m Precision GRCF3rd Multi-Target GRSBGRCF 1st South Africa 5912GRCF 2nd Great Britain 5900GRCF 3rd Germany 5871GRSB 1st South Africa 5811GRSB 2nd Great Britain 5809GRSB 3rd Germany 5770hosts but everyone we came across. Weworked as a team throughout the whole twoweeks and all thoroughly enjoyed ourselves. Ithink that, given the chance, any of us wouldgo back again when SA Hunters hosts its nextGR International – which will probably be in2014. I will certainly go back if I can. Whoknows – if I get some practice in (and fix mygun) I might actually be able to qualify forthe team next time.Full results, together with more photos, canbe found on www.galleryrifle.com.26 www.nra.org.uk