UKBRA 1000 Yards - 30th April 2017

[mole-e30]

1000 yard Benchrest Competition Sunday 30^nd April 2017

Well what has happened to “Lake” Diggle, our wind indicator, is almost empty, couldn’t see if there were ripples or not, can barely see the water.

 

Well we started everything early, pick-up warming up, registration open at 8:30, wind flags up (great to have you back Mr Francis) first classes on the firing point and ready to go by just before 10 am. Well done to all.

 

After allowing the local horses to have a Sunday lie–in we start a few minutes after 10 o’clock, we needed to be “prompt” as we have a full house, the numbers - 14 Light guns, 7 Sporters and 17 Heavy Guns, total 38 shooters who have come to enjoy the wilds of mid-Lancashire. We have a few regulars missing, no Bruce Lenton, nor Emily Lenton and no Mal Roberts too, but we do have a goodly number who survived last month and must have enjoyed it – they’re back – good to see you again guys.

 

Now forget “Lake” Diggle you only need to step outside to realise that it is windy in fact it’s blowing a proverbial hooley, and yes hooley does appear in the Oxford English Dictionary. Folks it is bl___y windy today – unusually it’s an Easterly so shooters had better remember to twiddle their knobs the other way!

 

So here we go, blow by blow or should I say shot by shot, as usual I’ll try to mention most folks, if your name is not “called out” then don’t take offence. Some may be pleased to be mentioned others may wish I’d forgotten them.

 

Heavy Guns and Sporters up first today, please note that next time we may well shuffle the classes about – maybe Sporters with Light guns to even up the numbers and avoid some folks doing 4.5 hours butts duty – yes 4.5 hours without so much as a refreshing cup of Tetley’s or whatever your tipple is.

 

Detail One: 3 Light Guns, sighting-in takes a few minutes, not surprising as we have to remember to turn turrets back to zero and then to the left. 15” for Jack Gibb, 17” for Alex Carson but bit’s Mr Graham Francis who has clearly not forgotten how to do it during his absence who takes the lead with a very respectable 7.9” – “what are you shooting Graham?” – “7 WSM” - sensible fellow. Relay 2 oops Alex gets bigger, Jack a tad smaller but Graham get even smaller.

 

Detail Two: surprise surprise 3 Light Guns – Chris Maunder, Adrian Evans and Vince Bottomley all in double figures between 15 and 22”, and Vince reports he’s only just stayed on the paper. It’s clear if you get it wrong today you’ll be severely punished. Relay 2 – Adrian makes the biggest improvement and gets into single figures – just.

 

Back to Detail Two for their third and final relays: Jack makes significant progress to single figures, Alex stays there or there abouts but Graham suffers the ignominy of a 10” (now you know how the others feel). Final relay – Jack continues his improvement, Alex stays in the 20’s and Graham is back in single figures.. So it’s Graham with and agg. of 8.369” – he’s going to take some beating today, many would like an agg. of 8” on a calm day – well done! By the way nearest the bull too - so far anyway.

 

Detail two again: unfortunately no significant improvements in relay 3. Relay 4 – it’s Chris who make the best of it with just over 8”, and taking over the “nearest the bull” – just.

 

Two details down – 8 to go, better hurry up otherwise it will be dark when we finish.

 

Detail three, again all Light Guns. Sean Broxham leads the way with 9.5”, Simon Mearns nearly 20”, yours truly 16” and Mike Perdaux 10” wait for it plus 1P. Relay 2 – I’m the only one to make any improvement but it’s only marginal nothing to write home about.

 

Detail four, 3 Light Guns, could this be Steve Dunn’s day, looks like a day for a good BooBoo? Steve and Jeanette Whitney are just in the 10’s and Don Burrows at 13” – not bad scores. Relay 2 – Steve and Don get bigger, unfortunately Don appreciably so, but Jeanette moves into single figures with 9.6”.

 

Back to detail three. Relay 3 – we all make improvements but for Sean it’s only marginal. Relay 4 – Simon and Mike revert to their previous scores, or worse, I make a miniscule improvement but Sean records the smallest group so far today at a tad over 7”! Could this be today’s smallest group?

 

Detail four and the final two relays of the morning, my God its gone 12 already, how time flies when you are enjoying yourself ….. why else would we be here? Steve and Jeanette in the 9’s Don 16”. Relay 4 another 16 for Don, 13 for Jeanette but its Steve who shows the way with a stunning 5.345” – now who is going to beat that today? Fantastic group Steve, the BooBoo was clearly the right choice – not a day for your 22BR.

 

But the Light Guns are not finished yet, we have Mr Jackson to shoot this afternoon – will the “glorious” weather hold?

 

Repast finished and all ready for the afternoon “stint” Heavy Guns, Sporters and Mr Jackson, and it’s still windy, might be a tad worse even – let’s see how the afternoon goes?

 

Detail one: 3 Heavy Guns and 1 Sporter. With respect to the shooters nothing special here, some big groups, Jochen Schulz has the best but its still 17”, other out as far as 38”, maybe better next time. Relay 2 – now this is much better, for most as they post significant improvements, Mary Marsden and Jane Lowe at 15” Jochen now down to 9” but Paul Parkinson is still struggling a bit – how will the next detail do?

 

Detail 2: all Sporters. Relay 1 – again some large numbers and Toni Young although sighted in misses the target – this wind is a real pain in the a___. Relay 2 – divine intervention helps the “Shooting God” who post a 13” group, Alan Seagrave is next best at 15” with Graham Watt into the 20’s and Toni Young back on target with 19”.

 

Back to Detail One: after the very welcome gratuitous sighter (its free doesn’t count and after waiting for 10-15mins whilst your colleague on the other 4 benches shoot it is well worth taking and finding what the wind is doing NOW!) here we go. Mary Marsden has the best of this relay with 14” but the groups range from 14 to 29”. Final relay for the first 4 shooters – some improvements, Paul with his best group at 17” (not sure it’s the day for 6BR) but Jochen again has the best result at 15”, but this is still probably twice as big as we’d expect Jochen to typically return.

 

Detail Two again. Relay 3 - the main highlight is Alan Seagrave who get a 14”group and Graham Watts who has one shot just ¾” off the bull – will he get the prize money? Final relay for these folks – well Stewart calls for divine intervention again and gets an appropriate response posting a respectable 16” (in these conditions), Graham is in the low teens but it’s Alan who steals this show down at 13” – he’s got progressively smaller groups as he “understands” the conditions.

 

How will the next details do?

 

Detail Three; 4 Heavy Guns again. Relay 1 – Simon Drakes make the best impression at 14”, but again we have groups out to 35”. Relay 2 – Laurie Holland uses his F Class skill to post a respectable 14” group, 19” for Nick D’ Adamo, 20” for Jim Marsden but Simon is keeping his cool and stays in the 14’s.

 

Detail Four: Relay 1 – now this is more like it, has the wind dropped or what? Some great groups come in, 11” to Phil Sammons, and Les Prior (I’ll refrain from comments about his big shiney thing cos’ someone else has got one too – all will be revealed) 12” from Les Holgate and Dale Almond just in the 20’s. Relay 2 – the wind must had dropped!!! Phil makes it just under 5” which in any conditions is great shooting – well done, Dale storms back with 9”, and the two Les’s (not the same ring to it as the two Ronnies) make it 12 and 18 respectively – but this is one of the best relays we’ve seen this afternoon so far.

 

At this point the butts crew are heard to say “how many more?”. The butts officer (yours truly) reports we are half way through - stick in there guys!

 

Detail Three - Relay 3 - now let’s see what you guys are made of - 15” through to 22”, but Jim is making steady improvements. Relay 4 – Jim continues the trend of improvement, just, but it’s Simon who’s been the most consistent in this detail, however Jochen is still in the lead for the Heavy Guns and Alan Seagrave for the Sporters.

 

Detail Four again – Relay 3 – generally the groups are a bit bigger than their last ones - all in the high teens. Relay 4 – time to make it count guys – and count they do as Dale posts just under 7” and Les Holgate just over 7”, so sorry Jochen you’ve just been overtaken by Phil, Les H and Dale. Clearly Mr Prior needs to “polish his big shiney thing a bit more as he ends up in the 20’s – but at the end of the day lets not forget Les’ big toy is still just a 6BR and today??? – but privy to a wee secret there are plans for a bigger cartridge for days like today!

 

Detail Five: again all Heavy Guns including “big boomer” courtesy of Mr Dixon – just the job for today eh Ian? Relay 1 – well they are all in the teens, led by “big boomer” at 12”. Dan Valmont with his .338 might have just the cartridge for today – did he, let’s see? But worthy of note - Darrell Evans is just 0.4” off the bull – somebody just lost a tenner! Relay 2 – what the heck has happened here? Dan finds himself off the paper with all 5 shots, Ian Dixon is out to 24” Mark Ellis at 16” and it’s Darrell Evans who improves to 14”, remember folks this is the gun that broke the UK Heavy Gun record at the last shoot – who was using it Darrell?

 

Detail Six, whoa the end is in sight, mixed detail - 2 Sporters and 2 Heavy Guns. Relay 1 – the Sporters are in the 20’s Steve Roberts just over 10” but it’s that man Maughan again with 7” using his big new shiney thing. For a minute we need to congratulate Alan who came for the first time just 4 weeks ago and in that time he’s managed to craft a “real” Heavy Gun and bring it today – he obviously has too much time on his hands. Relay 2 – things a bit (for some a lot) bigger this time, but Alan’s is still respectable at 12”.

 

Detail Five – relay 3 – the wind must have dropped! All get much better groups and Mr Dixon can celebrate reaching single figures, closely followed by Dan, then Mark Ellis (Spud to his friends and customers) then Darrell, pretty close groups from just under 10” to just under 14” – now can they repeat this? Relay 4 – another very close relay, Ian in the lead again but it’s just under 11” through to just under 15” this time – what will this do to the lead in Heavy Gun? It puts Mark Ellis into third place now as Mark has shown “consistency is king”.

 

Detail Six – relay three and all eyes are on Alan Maughan – Steve and Alan are both in the 12’s, but Paul Pendleton and Matt Mills (competing for the first time) are in the 20’s and 30’s respectively. Relay 4 – final relay for Heavy Guns and Sporters – and again Alan is into single figures, Paul Pendleton has a great group to take the Sporter small group and Matt is learning the joys of windy benchrest fast.

 

Are we done – NO - a single man relay – welcome Mr Jackson – you have you pick of targets – no you don’t as the butts crew have safely stowed 2, 3 and 4 – you’ll have to use target 1. Dave makes a great job of putting the pressure on the morning’s Light Gun shooters as he post 18”, then a 10, then another 10, but the morning crew breathe a sigh of relief as Dave’s last group is a bit bigger – but one thing is clear Dave’s groups are all centred around the bull, better than anybody else – check his “Score” – you won that one Jacko – well done! Sorry there is no prize for this – yet - watch this space.

 

17:45 and we’re all finished and back off to the range house. No shooting records today but we have extended the butts record by another 30mins – remember what I said at the beginning we’ll shuffle the pack next time to try and even out the morning and afternoon stints.

 

Thanks to all who helped today, Laurie and Vince as RO’s, Jim Marsden and I in the butts, Toni Young and Jeanette for entering the scores on the run – that certainly speeded things up – a great team effort!

 

Finally, if you were a little frustrated by the length of the day, feel reassured that we’re looking at what we can do to make the finish an hour or so earlier. We appreciate that some have many hours drive ahead of them when we finish. We don’t want to curtail the enthusiasm and/or limit the numbers, if you have any ideas on how we might make it go a bit faster please speak to Bruce, Vince or I next time, remember no idea is a bad idea – many thanks.

 

Hope you all enjoy reading this as much as I enjoyed writing it – now I know how Paul felt when he started to compose his Epistle to the Romans – 4 hours and all with just one finger.

 

My final comment – well done to all, today was a tough day, not one to draw any conclusion from (good or bad) but a day to just enough the fun and the camaraderie.

 

Results for Light Gun:

 

1^st Graham Francis – 8.369””

2^nd Steve Dunn - 9.657”

3^rd Sean Broxham – 9.935”

 

Small Group – Steve Dunn – 5.345”

 

Results for Sporter:

 

1^st Alan Seagrave – 16.466”

2^nd Stuart Benson – 20.456”

3^rd Graham Watts – 20.893”

 

Small Group – Paul Pendleton 11.535”

 

Results for Heavy Gun:

 

1^st Alan Maughan – 10.214”

2^nd Phil Sammons – 12.472”

3^rd Mark Ellis – 13.507”

 

Small Group – Phil Sammons – 4.941”

 

2017 League Update - top three

 

Light Gun

 

Chris Maunder 15 pts, Sean Broxham 14pts, Steve Dunn 12pts

 

Heavy Gun

 

Alan Maughan 20pts, Mark Ellis 15pts, Laurie Holland 10pts

 

Sporter

 

Alan Seagrave 20pts, Stuart Benson 18 pts, Graham Watts 16pts

 

Shooting for Score:

 

Light Gun:

 

1^st Dave Jackson - 87 pts and 5 X’s

2^nd Graham Francis – 81pts and 3 X’s

3^rd Chris Maunder – 78pts and 3 X’s

 

Results for Sporter:

 

1^st Paul Pendleton – 64pts and 2 X’s

2^nd Graham Watts – 56pts and 2 X’s

3^rd Stewart Benson – 48pts and 1 X’s

 

Results for Heavy Gun:

 

1^st Steve Roberts – 82pts and 3 X’s

2^nd Ian Dixon – 76pts and 2 X’s

3^rd Alan Maughan – 75pts and 4 X’s

 

Next shoots is Sunday 19^th June

 

Safe shooting

 

Tony Lenton

 

Full results table – Group

 

https://www.dropbox.com/s/un1niv44evowz8l/UKBRA%201000BR%2030th%20April%202017%20-%20Group.pdf?dl=0

 

Full results table – Score

 

https://www.dropbox.com/s/apn1gooaxdxqyvm/UKBRA%201000BR%2030th%20April%202017%20-%20Score.pdf?dl=0

 

[foxing2night]

Another hard day at the Diggle,,

But really enjoyable

Great writeup Tony.

Once again Alan showed us the way!!

Fantastic result Alan, you must be chuffed

To bits??

Walking the the dog,,,

Darrel

[That bald headed Geordie]

Had a good day as usual at Diggle even if it was a bit windy for the 6BR but was still pleased. Well done to the comp winner Graham Francis in shooting to his usual high standard and also to Alan Maughan the winner in HG class with the Big Dog in 6 Dasher.

Also thanks to the guys who did the butts in the afternoon as it was an unusually long stint but it beats working down a coal mine lol.

Until next time ladies and gentlemen, and you too Holgate!

[Big Al]

Good write up Tony, thanks for that. As for having too much time on my hands, lets just say there is no midnight oil left!

 

As always a big thank you to the people who make days like this happen, all too often in many sports they go unnoticed and without their dedication and enthusiasm we would all be in a field plinking at gongs or something else.

 

Being a relative benchrest novice I try to keep my eyes and ears open throughout the day as there will be pearls of wisdom floating around if you have a mind to catch one or two. If one thing remains in my mind after Sunday it was a reply from Vince when I laughingly said to him that conditions like these are far from conducive to precision benchrest. His reply was simple but effective, he said its a competition and all about shooting smaller groups/aggregate than everyone else. Thinking about it made sense and I stopped caring about exactly how small a group my new rifle would shoot on that miserable day, so long as it was smaller than my rivals it would be good enough - wise words indeed.

 

I look forward to catching up with everyone in June.

[foxing2night]

Wise words Alan

[gbal]

Daughter,age 3,back from playgroup-excited:

 

"Got a prize for tying shoe laces today"

 

(but you can't tie your shoe laces...)

 

( "No,but I was the best of the ones who couldn't")

 

gbal

[Nick 53]

Considering the weather we had on the day, and the range was very happy with my results. Diggle always seems to amaze me with the wind even on calm days if the winds is about it can certainly throw a spanner in the works.

[foxing2night]

No 100yrd results for the Saturday ??

[pengo]

No 100yrd results for the Saturday ??

I'm guessing you might have done well then, Darrel.....

[foxing2night]

I'm guessing you might have done well then, Darrel.....

no my mate, just want to see the results

[1967spud]

yes id like to see them as well

[mole-e30]

Hopefully tomorrow folks, been rather busy at work