UKBRA 600 Yards - 12th March 2017

[mole-e30]

600 yard Benchrest Competition Sunday 12 March 2017

The final shoot of this year’s 600yard series, with trepidation we consider what is going to be thrown at us this time? Well just for starters we have two ranges in use at once and now two competitions on C range at the same time, us and the “Military lot” – this will test the RO’s!

 

Well the early weather doesn’t seem too bad but it can be deceptive and things are known to change.

 

Thirty-Two shooters; 13 Heavy Guns, 16 Light Guns and 3 Factory Sporters, they all nicely divvied up into 4 relays in the morning and 4 in the afternoon. Heavy Guns and Factory Sporters are up first. Judicious scheduling by Vince has seen all contenders for league top spots relayed together.

 

In an attempt to break a record we’re ready to go by 10:00, great and learning from last time just one single target up in the middle of each target board at once, this will stop Vince having to keep reminding us “top left hand target” or “bottom right hand target” and still we’d get it wrong – no chance now only one target to aim for – well one record card and one for sighting in – easy ….. we’ll see.

 

First detail, 4 Heavy Gun. As they say at the races “and they’re off” first relay and groups are all less than 4” and it’s Steve Roberts out in front with a starter at 1.78”. It is clear that today is going to be very different to last time. Second relay and they’re even better, the biggest is only 3.1”, but Steve still has the edge over Mary Marsden, followed by Jochen Schulz and Darrell Evans. Second detail, again all Heavy Guns, first relay goes to Jonathan Walker whose 1.715” just pips Steve Roberts, but all groups are reasonable. Second relay, unfortunately Jonathan can’t keep it up and Les Prior with his big new shiny thing (his new very Heavy Aluminium stocked Heavy Gun) takes it with a 2.2” group, but even that is not good enough to push Steve Roberts after 2 groups. Back to the first detail for relay 3; 3.4” is the biggest group, my these folks are really trying, but honours go to Darrell Evans with a 2.166”, but look out Mary Marsden is very consistently banging it in the 2’s. Final relay for these four; another 2” actually 2.305” for Mary this sees her in pole position but note Mary, Darrel and Steve are all agg’ing in the 2’s – well done folks. Detail two relay 3; unfortunately Laurie Holland is getting left behind a bit as its 1’s and 2’s for the others, Dale Almonds 1.437 will needed to be checked, think this is a new Heavy Gun record. Final group for detail two; Les’ big new shiny thing has settled down and he get another in the 2’s so does Laurie and Dale, but Jonathan has a 5” this time. So at the half way stage its Mary, Les and Darrell in that order with Dale holding the new small group record.

 

Detail three; 3 heavy Guns and Alan Seagrave with his Factory Sporter, good to see you back Alan, the Factory Sporters need some competition! First relay 5.5” is the biggest and Alan doesn’t seem to have lost his touch. Relay 2 unfortunately Alan’s lay off does seem to affect him, and Jane Lowe takes a penalty as her 5^th shot is still on its way, otherwise it was another good group for her. Detail four, 2 Factory Sporters and 2 Heavy Guns, first relay honours to Phil Sammons at 2.8” whilst the others are in the 6’s. Relay 2, its Phil again but there is time yet. Generally groups are getting bigger the wind does seem to have picked up a touch and from the butts the concern is are folks getting caught in the lulls? Back to detail 3,folks are being relatively consistent but its Jane Lowe who is trying to make up for her penalty by recording a 2.6” group the best so far of these latest two details. Final group for detail 3; and another 2.6 from Jane, pity about the penalty in group 2 otherwise Jane would have much further up the field, but it by far and away this relay’s best group. Detail four for their final two groups, Nick Dadamo has the best group at 3.2”. Ah ha remember what I said about not getting confused about which target…. Phil Sammons proves me wrong as he put his first shot on the sighter target and takes a penalty. Final relay of the morning; highlight here is Toni Young who gets a 3.3” to give her the Factory Sporter small group of the day, there is still plenty left in that .308 of hers – well done. Phil has another good group but the damage was done in relay 3.

 

It’s not 12:00 and we’re done, early start and the new target regime seems to paying dividends, however, exit from the butts is stalled as we wait patiently for our “Military” colleagues to finish.

 

Fed and watered and back on the range – all Light Guns this afternoon, four details of four. First up it’s those in closest contention for the league places. Relay 1; three 3’s but yours truly is left well behind with a six… did better last time in the wind, but its Mal Roberts by a nose from Gary Stewart. Relay 2; Mal this time but it must be the afternoon wind as the groups are not spectacular, the best Mal Roberts again! Detail two, relay 1; honours to Ian Dixon, it really does pay to use the right stock and bag combination as he gets into the 2’s. Relay 2; hell its Ian Dixon again and he’s getting better with 2.112” Jeanette Whitney, Sean Broxham and Brian Walker can’t touch him. Back to detail one; Mal shows us why his league leader and turns on the screws with 1.738”, which will prove to be the Light Gun small group of the day, whilst Bruce Lenton, Gary Stewart and I improve its not good enough. Our final relay; Gary Stewart finally breaks into the 2’s and Mal lapse into the 3’s Bruce and I are not in it today. Yours truly escapes to go measure a few targets. Detail 2; Ian Dixon improves again into the 1’s, just, but he’s heading for a good agg. if he can keep it together. It’s not Sean or Jeanette’s day either. Final relay for detail two; honours to Jeanette this time with 3.172” which pips Ian, but his agg. is safe, and he’s way out in front at the moment, in amongst the best of the Heavy Guns.

 

Detail 3 first group the best by far is young Emily Lenton with 3.2”, using the same set up as Grandpa and doing twice as well, where’s the justice in this world? Relay 2 Dave Jackson has the best group at 3.6”. Detail 4 what can they do? Relay 1; Jack Gibb starts with a mid 2’s and Vince Bottomley has a low 3’s keep it up guys! Relay 2 Jack does it with another 2.4” within 17 thou of his last group, Vince is still in the 3’s but marginally bigger and Don Burrows hits the 3’s too. Back to detail 3; not as good as their previous groups, Dave has the best of the luck. Final group, Emily gets badly bitten by just one shot, Dave gets into the 3’s again, Mike Perdaux makes it four in the 4’s – that’s consistency for you as does Alex Carson. Over to detail four what can Jack and Vince do? Relay 3; Vince in the 2’s and Jack in the 3’s, Don and Adrian Evans in the 4’s. Last relay of the day, and of the series for that matter, Vince in the 3’s, Jack in the 4’s they’re not are going to catch Ian Dixon today.

 

All finished by 3pm – another record!

 

Well that’s it for the season at 600 yards. Thanks to Vince and his assistant Jeanette for their usual RO skills, to Bruce Lenton and Jim Marsden as the “da facto” butt’s officers, we’ve got the routine working well now, and I’ll give myself a pat on the back for measuring the targets, and yes I do occasionally make a mistake but they’re usually big enough for the naked eye to notice – keep your eyes peeled.

 

This season we’ve had 61 people shoot at some time during the last 6 months (27 Light Guns, 25 Heavy Guns and 9 Factory Sporters) that great. We’ve had between 28 and 34 competitors that’s pretty consistent, and we used and measured 748 targets, broken Light and Heavy gun small group records and the Heavy Gun agg. so well done to all especially Gary Stewart, Steve Roberts, Mary Marsden and Dale Almond for their records, even if they didn’t always last too long.

 

Finally congratulations to the league winners Light Gun Mal Roberts, Heavy Gun Steve Roberts and Factory Sporter – Toni Young.

 

As spring is now upon us it’s time to change the routine, now its 100yards on Saturdays and 1000yards on Sundays - first of these are on 1^st and 2^nd of April, all are cordially invited to participate, let’s keep the numbers up, we’ve had great participation this year at 600yards please support the 100 and 1000yard events, if you do 600 and don’t do 1000 come and try it, it’s great fun, the distance and groups are just bigger but the crack is just the same.

 

Results for Light Gun:

 

I^st Ian Dixon – 2.687”

2^nd Jack Gibb – 3.079”

3^rd Vince Bottomley – 3.192”

 

Small Group – Mal Roberts – 1.738”

 

Results for Factory Sporter:

 

I^st Toni Young – 5.182”

2^nd Dan Valmont – 5.785”

3^rd Alan Seagrave – 6.627”

 

Small Group – Toni Young – 3.301”

 

Results for Heavy Gun:

 

I^st Mary Marsden – 2.630”

2^nd Les Prior – 2.744”

3^rd Darrell Evans – 2.853”

 

Small Group – Dale Almond - 1.437”

 

Nearest the Bull

 

Steve Roberts – 0.1”

 

2016/17 League Results (six results and TWO discards)

 

Light Gun:

 

I^st Mal Roberts – 36pts

2^nd Gary Stewart – 33pts

3^rd Bruce Lenton – 29pts

 

Heavy Gun:

 

I^st Steve Roberts – 39pts

2^nd Mary Marsden – 34pts

3^rd Darrell Evans – 31pts

 

Factory Sporter:

 

I^st Toni Young – 38pts

2^nd Paul Parkinson – 37pts

3^rd Dan Valmont – 19pts

 

Next 100yards shoot is Saturday 1^st April and 1000yards 2^nd April 2017

 

UKBRA Subs – please please remember £5 Sub’s are now due!!!!

 

Safe shooting

 

Tony Lenton

 

Full Details here – Round 6

https://www.dropbox.com/s/d6w1d1z77hz8wny/UKBRA%20600BR%2012th%20March%202017.pdf?dl=0

 

Full Details here – League

https://www.dropbox.com/s/7ml0rzklo6rhspe/UKBRA%20600BR%202017%20League.pdf?dl=0

 

 

[Big Al]

A couple of questions if I may Bruce.

 

Why do you discard two of the six scores and only count four towards the championship?

 

Also, why do you not have an overall champion as well as respective group champions?

[The Gun Pimp]

Hi Alan,

 

I set the 'rules' for this Championship many moons ago. Why only best four to count? Well, some folk travel a long way to shoot with us and remember, it's a winter series. I live 5 miles away but some travel over a 100 to shoot with us.

 

Plus, we all have holidays - I'm lucky as I set the shoot dates - there's never a shoot TT week!

 

If all six shoots counted and you couldn't make just one shoot - due to illness, weather conditions, work or holidays - you may as well forget about the Championship. I think best of four gives everyone a chance of getting their shoots in.

 

Overall Champion? Benchrest shooter of the Year? Great idea - I'm sure Bruce can put together a fair formula and it may encourage more to do all three distances.

 

Nice work on the bolt-handle jig BTW - you've inspired me to make one.

[mole-e30]

Vince, you've answered the discard one nicely

 

I've previously had a few thoughts on a "shooter of the year" formula using all the distances and classes....

 

I will see if I can maybe get the committee to endorse an embryonic system

[Laurie]

As always it was a great series despite 'Winter' and 'Diggle' being a contradiction in terms on the face of it! (Actually, we fell pretty lucky again, as we somehow usually do, avoiding days of snow or hill-fog.)

 

It's got to be 'Thank you!' to Vince (The Gun Pimp) who organises and runs them (and the summer 1,000 yard series too), Bruce (Mole-e30), Jim (Firedoc), and Jeannette (not on UKV) who do a great deal of the rest of the work on these often long days, and Bruce's dad Tony too who pores over shot targets measuring the groups.

[lee w 118]

Weld done to Chink Eastwood AKA jockey congrats and well done steve

Atb lee

[Big Al]

Hi Alan,

 

I set the 'rules' for this Championship many moons ago. Why only best four to count? Well, some folk travel a long way to shoot with us and remember, it's a winter series. I live 5 miles away but some travel over a 100 to shoot with us.

 

Plus, we all have holidays - I'm lucky as I set the shoot dates - there's never a shoot TT week!

 

If all six shoots counted and you couldn't make just one shoot - due to illness, weather conditions, work or holidays - you may as well forget about the Championship. I think best of four gives everyone a chance of getting their shoots in.

 

Overall Champion? Benchrest shooter of the Year? Great idea - I'm sure Bruce can put together a fair formula and it may encourage more to do all three distances.

 

Nice work on the bolt-handle jig BTW - you've inspired me to make one.

 

 

Thanks for the reply Vince, I hadn't considered the holiday issue but it makes sense.

 

As for the overall thing I was thinking more along the lines of overall 600yd Champion, 1000yd Champion etc rather than overall shooter of the year. Looking at the results from the outside it seems that round winners seem to come from both LG and HG in relatively equal measures as such it doesn't seem like one group has an advantage over the other?

 

I appreciate any changes require work and I dont even compete so Im not trying to tell anyone how to suck eggs here but in the results each round there is an overall list, if points were awarded for respective placings then there could easily be an overall champion. Who know, someone might even sponsor a prize.

 

As for inspiration, Im sure you will get your jig done quicker than the rifle you guys are inspiring me to build

[jockey]

End of a very enjoyable season.

I'd like to say thank you to Vince, Tony, and everyone that put in so much effort, and hard work, and Bruce for the great write ups.

Thanks to everyone who made me feel so welcome, and all the great advice.

Steve Roberts

[foxing2night]

Well done Steve my mate on your championship win,

And to Mary Marsden for her overall win on Sunday, fantastic shooting,

I have to say that it was one of the best seasons that I have had the pleasure of competing in.

Also a big thank you to everyone that made this possible.

 

Darrel

[lambsey]

Nice write up. Well done all.

[Nick 53]

Hi Bruce and Vince ,

I was amazed on my group size, never realised how well I did. This discipline along with Fclass I find very enjoyable shooting.

We have a good crowd on each discipline.

Looking forward to shooting again

Cheers Nick