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UKBRA 1000 Yards 1st May 2016


mole-e30

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1000 yard Benchrest Competition Sunday 1st May

The First of May - a Spring holiday, International Workers' Day, a Poem by Langston Hughes, a 1969 Bee Gees song, 1998 Film and Dmitri Shostakovich's Symphony No. 3 subtitled First of May. But was it to be the start of Summer? All will be explained.

 

Twenty-six today, bit down on the normal 30+ but it is a Bank Holiday weekend, and maybe some struggled to get a “pass-out”.

 

After a few senior moments by a few people we’re ready about 10:30, Light Guns first. The weather at the firing point didn’t seem too bad, a bit windy but showing a reasonably steady right to left wind, 6mm’s needing 7-9 moa of wind.

 

After the first detail a few puzzled looks, targets showing little wind but lots of vertical, what’s happening? As we progress through all the four Light Gun details nearly all are experiencing this vertical, even the heavy 7mm’s, we’re all obviously missing something –but what?

 

Early results suggest this is not likely to be a day for 4 and 5 inch groups. By the end of the morning Jeanette has the best group with just under 7” but Bruce is leading overall with an aggregate of about 9.2” closely followed by Sean with 9.5”. Interestingly enough most people’s groups were pretty consistent, some incredibly so – Sean just 2” between his highest and lowest.

 

As we break and return to the club house it is just starting to rain at the firing point. Discussions over lunch indicate a couple of weather anomalies; it has been raining most of the time at the butts, and there is quite strong blow straight down the range as indicated by the “range in use flag” near the butts. That explains the vertical – down the range wind forcing the shots down, this was born out by Nick Parkin explaining what had happened to one of my groups. It also explains why Butts Officer, Jim Marsden, mentioned the target were soggy.

 

It is clearly not Summer yet at Diggle.

 

After a pleasant repost it is time to change over, afternoon has 3 heavy guns, 4 light guns and 5 factory sporters – how will they fair?

 

As we make our way to the butts it is clear that it is likely to be an unpleasant experience for the butts crew, cold and dreek (dreek = bad weather, the kind of weather which makes you miserable: dull, grey and wet!).

 

Most in the butts were paying attention to the target (of course) and to the a-fore mentioned “range in use flag”. The flag’s behaviour during the groups bore pretty good correlation to the group sizes. Most were getting groups bigger than the morning shooters as the wind picked up and swung about.

 

But what’s going off now Nick Parkin and his Factory Savage are really trying hard, his last group an absolutely staggering 4.646” – not quite a UK record but an outstanding achievement any day, but especially today – well done Nick, probably the highlight of the day.

 

Now here come the Heavy Guns, will young Emily with the 6BR manage to hold off a challenge from Willy Dixon as he gives his “big boomer” its first competitive outing, if anything should handle the wind today it should be 210gr bullets doing 3320fps, and let’s not forget Daniel Valmont with a .338 Lapua. First detail to Emily, unfortunately during Willy’s second string the target became detached and when another group was attempted Willy experienced a technical issue with “big boomer” which he couldn’t resolve – but I’m sure “big boomer” will be back to give others a good run for their money.

 

By now the mist was coming down and visibility was getting grotty. Well done also to Mary Marsden with her 6.5 x 47 who had a great group at just over 8” during this latter part of the afternoon when it was both misty and pretty blowy.

 

Think most of us had a challenging, but as ever, an enjoyable day. Thanks to all for their efforts in the butts, on the gate and as ever our RO Vince.

 

Results for Light Gun:

 

Ist Bruce Lenton – 9.222”

2nd Sean Broxham – 9.577”

3rd Jeanette Whitney – 9.715”

Small Group – Jeanette Whitney – 6.890”

 

Results for Factory Sporter:

 

1st Nick Parkin – 10.994”

2nd Jim Marsden – 16.043”

3rd Stuart Benson – 16.693”

Small Group – Nick Parkin – 4.646”

 

Results for Heavy Gun:

 

Ist Emily Lenton – 21.063”

2nd Daniel Valmont – Only 2 groups shot

3rd Ian Dixon – Only 1 group shot

Small Group – Emily Lenton – 16.142”

 

2016 League Update (after 2 shoots) - top three

 

Light Gun

 

Bruce Lenton 19 pts, Sean Broxham 17pts, Mal Roberts 14pts

 

Heavy Gun

 

Willy Dixon 18pts, Emily Lenton 14pts, Mark Ellis 9 pts

 

Factory Sporter

 

Nick Parkin 20pts, Stuart Benson 16pts, Toni Young 11pts

 

 

Full Results

 

https://www.dropbox.com/s/01fls0hqj61k15d/UKBRA%201000BR%201st%20May%202016.pdf?dl=0

 

Next shoots is Sunday 19th June, when I am forecasting (well hoping) Summer will be upon us.

 

Note:

 

Galloway Small Arms Club at Gelston, near Castle Douglas have their 1000yd shoots Sunday 15th May and 12th June, if you are interested please let Bruce or I know.

 

Safe shooting

 

Tony Lenton

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Guys - check out that 4.6 inch group by Nick Parkin with an absolutely standard out of the box 6.5-284 Savage. That's 5-shots, in competition at 1000 yards!

 

It looks like Nick has well and truly got that Savage sorted, Vince. I think I might have trouble beating him this year if he comes up to the Scottish Open again. I must find out what he's running and give it a try before the barrel on my Savage goes.

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