JIM WINS 4 MEDALS AND IS STILL NOT HAPPY

"IT SHOULD OF BEEN MORE"

Even with some of the usual faces missing it was great to see 10 Members at the Gallery Rifle National Championships, but this time the medals tally was on the low side.

Timed & Precision 1 C-F
We had six “taking part” in this event but certainly not competing! Jim was our highest scorer with a poor 297. Disgraceful !! Only Amy was near to her average with 295.

Timed & Precision 1 LBR

Chris caused a stir when he shot the event with a proper looking revolver! It was a nitro-proofed muzzleloader. Simon helped off range preparing the next cylinder but Chris recons he would have had sufficient time to load himself.

Timed & Precision 1 Shotgun
Simon and Chris had entered this for the first time along with Ian and truly enjoyed it. They did well and finished very close too, Simon coming 5th, Chris 7th and Ian 8th and certain to enter again.

Timed & Precision 3 LBR
Jim had a silly miss in the rapid stage then a very annoying light strike later on that cost him 5 points to finish third.

Multi-Target C-F
Again everyone was rubbish. Dave would have had a reasonable score if he had not left a shot in the gun. Even Amy was not up to her usual standard.

Phoenix A C-F
Pat was shooting this for the first time with a rifle and a very respectable 188 put him in 9th place in X class.

Phoenix A LBP
Pat was defending his National Record but some stiff competition pushed him down to third place. Good news is he still holds the Phoenix Record.

1500 S-B
Jim made some schoolboy errors that lost him at least six points in match 4 leaving him languishing close to the bottom of X class.

Dave is rather uninspired with the small-bore event and should try harder. He finished 5th in A class with a 1458 and Pete was even further behind.

1500 C-F
Dave and Jim were shooting shoulder to shoulder and put each other under considerable pressure (as usual there was a pint on the outcome).

Dave went into an early lead and by M3 was way ahead and giving jim a hard time. Jim pulled a few points back in M4 and then moved up a gear to claim yet another victory. Jim 3rd, Dave 10th.

Pete was in the middle of B class.
While in C class Ian was trying his 44 Marlin for the first time in a full 1500 match. At first he was disappointed but when the scores were added he was just 10 points off his PB.

1500 LBR
Jim was disappointed with his 1430 and was lucky to come 3rd in A class.

Bianchi C-F
Simon and Chris battled it out in C class, Simon winning by 47 points. (Is there a beer challenge going on here too?)

Advancing Target C-F
Dave shot this early on in the morning and was pleased with a 179, although he did get a maximum 180 at the Phoenix.
Jim was on the last detail of the day and Dave was his RO. The only way Jim could get another pint off Dave was to shoot a maximum which he had never done before – you guessed it a 180, a 1st place Gold medal and a pint.
(Jim shared the first place with Mick Tedesco of Mattersey, as outward gauges or countback could not separate them!)

Speed Steel Challenge S-B
Starting with the rifle horizontal at waist height the competitor has to hit 4 steel plates in any order then a stop plate. Five layouts, shot five times each, best four runs to count at each stage.
As always Dave excelled in this fast and furious event and came second again, with a time of 50.22 seconds, that is an average time of 2.511 seconds per run.
Mark shot this event for the first time and achieved an impressive 54.75 seconds to come 5th.

Speed Steel Challenge C-F
Jim has just started entering this event, same rules as above but with an underlever the times are slower because of having to work the action.
A time of 84.36 was fast enough for second place.

200 yards Any Rifle, Any Sights.
This event is a long time favourite with DRPC shooters as it give them the opportunity to use their full-bore rifles, and at a slightly different course of fire.
10shots prone in five minutes, 10 shots in one minute prone and then same again but kneeling.
Jim’s prone scores were poor but his kneeling pulled some points back and was 3rd,

Pete shot well and for saying his back is still troubling him his kneeling score was good, and he finished 4th.
Simon was borrowing an AR15 and at his first attempt at this came 5th, Amy was using the same rifle and was close behind in 8th place.

Ian who won this last time but then sold the rifle! only managed 9th.
Somehow Dave missed the target 5 times kneeling and he was lucky to come in 10th.
A pity nobody managed to win but six in the top ten is not bad!

200 yards Military Rifle (pre-1980 Iron Sights)
This is the same course of fire as above.
Chris and Simon have recently purchased a rather fine Schmidt-Rubin straight pull and this was its first competitive outing and they were surprised that the rules dictated they must shoot off their elbows – sling permitted.

There was a mix up with the events and if Chris had been in the correct class he would have come 4th with Simon 14 points behind.

Amy started exceptionally well and beat the boys in the prone slow-fire but then it all went to pieces.

The McQueen
This sniping event is always popular and is the only event you are allowed to re-enter, and as it is so much fun there is usually a queue for extra goes.
Pete shot first and was disappointed so had another go with another gun, then came back later to try again later but could only manage a below par 52. (He says he is taking his reloading gear with him next time)
Chris has sorted out a magic load for his 222 and scored a 56 to set the standard.

Mark shot with his 308 and when Ian beat him with a 51 decided to try again and startled everyone with a terrific 55 using factory ammo!

Team Derby were good but not quite good enough and the results were
2nd Chris 56, 3rd Mark 55, 8th Jim 53, 10th Pete 52, 12th Ian 51, 18th Dave 50, 27th Simon 47, 29th Amy 46.
There were 39 competitors and most re-entered so to get four in the top ten is impressive, and Dave had the dubious honour of being the only shooter to get 10 bulls with no V’s.

After another dismal failure, Dave hands his gunsmith a bag of gold and instructs him to "just make me a rifle that will beat that dam Smithy!"

Summary
Another good weekend - good turn out, good weather, good company. And although we won only eight medals – two gold, three silver, three bronze it was pleasing to see some new names at the top of the results.

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