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UKBRA 1000 Yards - 2nd April 2017


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1000 yard Benchrest Competition Sunday 2nd April 2017

The first 1000yard shoot of the 2017 season – welcome to all, be you a reader or a competitor.

 

08:15 and it’s bright and not a ripple on “Lake Diggle” - is this Diggle or an apparition, but it is now supposedly Spring!

 

Read on - this is a day of records.

 

After registration 39 shooters, this must be a record or very close, unfortunately 2 quickly find they do not have enough elevation on their scopes – a word to the wise, you’ll need anywhere between 23 and 40 MOA on your scope (from a 100 yard zero) dependent upon your bullet and it’s speed, and Jane Lowe suffers a trigger malfunction.

 

So we have 14 Heavy Guns, 15 Light Guns and 8 Factory Sporters. We also have a few “newbies” – welcome, if I’ve missed you apologies, including Simon Mearns, S Cunningham (what’s the S for?) and Alan Maughan and a few more familiar names now testing their aim at 1000 yards namely Steve Roberts and Darrell Evans, also welcome back to Steve Dunn.

 

After setting the flags we’re ready about 10;30 - great - let battle commence, Heavy Guns and Factory Sporters up first, not a lot of wind we’re expecting great things guys and girls.

 

Detail 0ne, 3 Heavy Guns and 1 Factory Sporter; nothing too spectacular, except Laurie Holland who is immediately in single figures with just over 7”, good start Laurie. Relay 2; Laurie tries even harder and makes it a 6, well done. Over to Detail Two; all 3 are Factory Sporters, Paul Parkinson makes it 2”, but there is always a rub in the tale - plus 3 penalties. Relay 2; WOW - Alan Seagrave with his hits 5.6” he’s always a force to be recon’d with, is this the worn out barrel Alan? Back to Detail One; Bruce Lenton gets into single figures with our new “toy” at 9” but again Laurie is stealing the show with an even better group just over 5”, Dan Valmont (also 338 Lap Mag) is in single figures. Relay 4 last chance guys – Bruce improves again at just under 9”, as does Dan but its Laurie who keeps it together for an agg. around 7”. Detail Two up again, wind must have caught folks as groups are bigger but Alan is still well into single digits. Final relay and Paul gets into single figures at 9” but again Alan is in the lead with 8”, hate to think what his agg. Is.

 

Detail three, Simon Drake takes the honours in relay 1 with a nice 7” group, Darrell Evans understands that this is very different to 600 yards, but his 11” is not that bad. Relay two, Sheila McGowan and Simon go the wrong way but Darrell gets it together for just under 7”. Welcome to Detail Four, 1 Heavy Gun and 3 Factory Sporters; it’s John Campbell with his Heavy Gun who shows the way with 8.5” with Graham Watts not too far behind. Relay 2; John again in single figures at 7” but Mr Cunningham is chasing hard at a very respectable 8.5”. Back to Detail 3; it’s better but lets blame the wind as groups are a bit bigger than their last relay, Darrell is again in the lead with 8.9”. Relay 4, now guys this is better as Simon and Darrell get their “that which promotes growth and vigour together” (sorry that’s an American expression) with 5” and 4.78” respectively so far the best groups of the day. Come on Detail Four what can you do? Relay 3; John is trying and Toni Young shows there is plenty left in her “good old Remy” with just under 8” and just over 8” respectively. Relay 4, now what’s happened, Graham Watt’s comes storming through with just over 10” whilst his colleagues are well into double figures. It’s clear that consistency at this games is really difficult.

 

The butts crew how now been in the butts for over 2.5 hours and are moaning….. “how many more”, “we’re hungry”, “it’ll be dark soon”, etc. etc. The butts officer offers words of reassurance “not much longer, stick in there”, whilst thinking to himself bloody hell two more relays!

 

Detail Five; 4 Heavy Guns including Ian Dixon’s “Big Boomer” and Les Prior with his big shiny thing and its new big bolt knob. Now its soon very clear that the wind must have dropped as groups significantly improve as all 4 shooters are ALL in single digits, with Mark Ellis (a-k Spud) trying really hard with under 5” (not quite Evan’s class but very close), Jochen is not far behind with just under 6”. Relay 2 and again its single digits for all but this time Les takes the lead with just under 6” – must be his big new knob (that’s the bolt handle!). Detail Six 3 Heavy Guns and 1 Factory Sporter ……. finally the last detail of the morning….. thank God! A mixed bag but a few show promise, Steve Roberts, but remember its 5 to count not 4, Alan Maughan under 10” and his first time! Relay 2; 21” (name withheld to protect the innocent) a 5”, a 6” and WOW a 2.778” hell this is clearly a HG 5 shot record but who…… Alan Maughan well done my man a damn fine group and using a borrowed rifle to boot!!!! A great group but whose rifle is Alan using? ….. Darrell Evans!!!! A couple of points here; Alan it just not cricket to borrows someone’s rifle then beat them and Darrell what are you playing it at, it is clearly the “mutt behind the butt” there is nothing wrong with your AI. After all this excitement back to Detail Five for relay 3; Jochen slips into double figures but Les is still trying hard with 6.6”. Relay 4 and Jochen gets it back together with a 4.6” with what could be the second smallest group of the morning (and half the afternoon), Les and Mark are still in single figures for all four groups – no mean achievement. The final 2 relays ….. Detail Six relay 3 Alan is at it again as he steals Mark’s second smallest group with 4.3”, Dale Almond shows what a simple Factory Sporter can do with just under 9”. Relay 4; an 11”, 2 7’s but it’s that man Maughan again with 5.6”….. he must have got the Heavy Gun Agg. record too, all with be revealed.

 

I said it was a day of records….. the butts crew would like to record their record too – 4 hours in the butt’s!!!! Any chance of a tea urn being provided?

 

Lunchtime over its, now Light Guns to the firing points, 15 shooters over 4 details. It’s about 3:00 – 3:30 by the time we’re ready to rock and roll. Will the wind be kind to the “big boys” class?

Detail One, including yours truly, Dave Jackson takes the honours in the relay 1 I’m just behind. Relay 2 to Dave Jackson again but by now the mirage has appeared just to add to the fun of things. Detail Two; a couple of 9’s from Steve Dunn and Jack Gibb, but Adrian Evans and Jeanette Whitney don’t have much luck. Relay 2; its Jeanette who gets the 9 this time as others struggle, well into double figures. Back to Detail one; I think I’ve now understood the wind and slow down my shooting, it appears to work as it’s in the 7’s, Mike Perdaux is close to single figures, but Don Burrows and Dave Jackson struggle. Our final relay; I’m happy with 8” Mike in the 10’s again and both Don and Dave make significant improvements. Back to Detail Two, Jeanette has this cracked as she get a 6’s whilst the others remain in double figures, this wind is fickle! Detail Two’s final group; 10’s for Jack, Jeanette and Steve. After two details I have the early lead followed by Jack but there are still many accomplished shooters to come.

 

Detail Three; 2 13’s a 12 and a 10, relay 2; this wind is hard work as it’s double figures all round again with Chris Maunder having the best of the two groups just from Mal Roberts then Sean Broxham. Detail Four, just 3 shooters; “newbie” Simon Mearns shows us how to do it with just over 5” followed by Vince Bottomley with a 7, Luke Wadsworth has a 12. Relay 2; Luke likes the idea of the single digit groups and gets just under 8” Simon is a big bigger and Vince goes into double figures, but they have probably the best groups of all the Light Guns so far; Jack and I are worrying about our early lead. Final two groups for Detail Three, Sean, and Mal make it 8’s Chris a 7 but Alex Carson is still in double figures. Their final group; now this is more like it, Sean has a 5 but Chris Maunder shows us all how with a very respectable 4.7” with what will be the smallest Light Gun group of the day. Unfortunately Mal is left fuming as the butts crew take down his target midway through his last string. We know folks don’t do it deliberately but it is off-putting, butt’s crews please be careful.

 

Again unfortunately Mal doesn’t have “matching” spare ammo so his reshot group is big – not normal Mal sized- sorry Mal. Final two groups of the day, Detail Four relay 3; Simon gets another cracking group at 6”, Luke 9 and Vince 7, well done guys, but from my “observation point” on the firing line I’d say there wind is definitely starting to ease as we approach early evening… but I would say that wouldn’t I. As if the groups were not small enough Luke and Simon do even better but Vince’s grows a touch, still great groups.

 

Approx. 17:15 – 17:30 and we’re all finished off to the range house.

 

As was said in a recent UKBRA post we’re looking at also “scoring” the groups as well so Bruce and I when we were in the butts “scored” all the groups as follows - 10” centre circle – 5 points then down through 4, 3, 2 to 1 if it’s on the paper (nothing if it’s on the Corex), the 5” centre bull is 5X, X’s to be used in the event of a tie. The score results are shown in the spreadsheet and the top three in each class at the end of this wee report. No prizes for these at the moment but watch this space.

 

Thanks to Vince and Jeanette on the firing line a long day for you guys, and to all those in the butts.

 

Results for Light Gun:

 

1st Chris Maunder – 9.043”

2nd Vince Bottomley – 9.123”

3rd Luke Wadsworth – 9.227”

 

Small Group – Chris Maunder – 4.736”

 

We recognise Simon Mearns small agg. (6.343”) however, this cannot be included as Simon was using a magazine feed, which is counter to the rules, we understand Simon is on the case for a manual loading ramp.

 

Results for Factory Sporter:

 

1st Alan Seagrave – 8.781”

2nd Stuart Benson – 8.922”

3rd Graham Watts – 11.562”

 

Small Group – Alan Seagrave – 5.124”

 

Results for Heavy Gun:

 

1st Alan Maughan – 5.507” ….. New UKBRA record

2nd Laurie Holland – 6.810”

3rd Les Prior – 7.394”

 

Small Group – Alan Maughan – 2.778” …… New UKBRA record

 

2017 League Update - top three

 

Light Gun

Chris Maunder 10 pts, Vince Bottomley 9pts, Luke Wadsworth 8pts

Heavy Gun

Alan Maughan 10pts, Laurie Holland 9pts, Les Prior 8pts

Factory Sporter

Alan Seagrave 10pts, Stuart Benson 9 pts, Graham Watts 8pts

 

Shooting for Score:

 

Light Gun:

 

1st Vince Bottomley - 90 pts and 2 X’s

2nd Sean Broxham – 85pts and 3 X’s

3rd Jack Gibb – 84pts and 5 X’s

 

Results for Factory Sporter:

 

1st Toni Young – 87pts and 1X

2nd Graham Watts – 86pts and 4 X’s

3rd Alan Seagrave – 81pts and 5 X’s

 

Results for Heavy Gun:

 

1st Dan Valmont – 92pts and 5 X’s

2nd Darrell Evans – 88pts and 8 X’s

3rd Mark Ellis – 86pts

 

Next shoots is Sunday 30th April, let’s keep the numbers up.

 

Safe shooting

 

Tony Lenton

 

Full results table – Group Size

 

https://www.dropbox.com/s/erkf500qs3gjztr/UKBRA%201000BR%202nd%20April%202017%20-%20Group.pdf?dl=0

 

Full results table – Score

 

https://www.dropbox.com/s/h9qj7hz6lqu1bff/UKBRA%201000BR%202nd%20April%202017%20-%20Score.pdf?dl=0

 

 

 

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Thanks to everyone who puts the hard work in behind the scenes and during the day itself to make these events possible. Having never shot in any kind of rifle competition before I was very pleased to see such a relaxed atmosphere, the banter with fellow enthusiasts and sense of camaraderie was inspiring.

 

I look forward to seeing you all again on the 30th, I just have to sort out who's rifle I will be borrowing for that one! ;)

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As always a brilliant day, with good company and good weather to boot,

Fantastic write up mr lenton,

Welcome Alan and Si into the world of benchrest,, awesome shooting both of my friends,

Alan well done on getting two uk records on your first visit, I think that you now have the bug, hook

line and sinker,

Can't wait for the next one,,

 

Darrel

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As always a brilliant day, with good company and good weather to boot,

Fantastic write up mr lenton,

Welcome Alan and Si into the world of benchrest,, awesome shooting both of my friends,

Alan well done on getting two uk records on your first visit, I think that you now have the bug, hook

line and sinker,

Can't wait for the next one,,

 

Darrel

DO NOT LET HIM USE YOUR RIFLE DARREL :D

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H

 

Darrel is simply the perfect sportsman. Huge respect. He's such a kind and helpful guy.
See you at the next shoot mate.

He is Welsh after all, so use to sharing things.....

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