Imperial 2015 Retrospective - The Compleat Shooter

We finally made it back home to Auckland after 30 hours of travel by car and plane; although the after effects of the time difference are going to take a few days to shake off. Was such an effort to come over to the UK and shoot at Bisley worth it? The answer is a complete and unreserved "yes". If there's anything which would make me move back to the UK from NZ then Bisley is it.

It was a good meeting which tested most of a rifle shooter's skills: the wind was tough on some days, particularly on Final Saturday, with major changes in strength and angle requiring bold decision making; we enjoyed both hot weather as well as a couple of days with some light rain during shooting hours; and to do well during the Imperial Meeting always requires strong marksmanships skills over mere luck. Winning, rather than merely doing well, requires the shooter to have mastered all of these skills and more.

On the shooting front, I pretty much managed to hit most of my goals. I had wanted to make the top 25 in each of the three Bisley Majors and earn myself another shooting slot on the GB Team for the Kolapore Cup. Despite having borrowed a rifle (loaned to me by my 2014 CWG pardner, who also shot very well, and very close in configuration to my own gun) I was delighted to make 5th in the Grand Agg, 15th in the St. George's and 19th in Her Majesty the Queen's Prize. Getting to shoot in my third Kolapore, coached by the ever-superb MJE, was a real vindication of my return to form after a fairly mediocre 2014 season. I even managed to pick up a couple of pots.



2015 Grand Agg Leaderboard. Reproduced with the kind permission of Glyn Barnett GC3 SC3 GM2 etc... etc...

It wasn't just me who was shooting well either: GCDB put in a stunning performance to win the Grand, having started the week not even on the bottom of the leader board. DC won the St. George's Challenge Vase and his second Queen's Prize with some really superb long-range shooting in difficult conditions, with changes of up to 6 minutes.



Glyn Barnett. The man, the hairstyle, the legend...

On the social front, Katrina and the kids got to have a lot of fun with the ever-expanding horde of shooters' offspring charging around camp. I spent a very great deal of time apologising to people for not being able to catch up with them properly as I charged off to another shoot, another barbecue, another thing I needed to organise, but there was still time to hang around at the legendary social hub of Bisley chez Watson on the way to and from my van from and to Century Range. We also managed to have a few people round our place for food and drinks.



Dinner and drinks at the Morris country estate.

The only real downside was that I didn't get to blog as much as I would have liked, but after mid-Tuesday it all gets too busy, with increasing numbers of shoots and events. That's OK though, this blog isn't really meant to be about my shooting so much as to talk about stuff that I've learned which might be useful for you.

So, dear reader, what do I have planned for the next few months? I'm going to talk some more about SCATT at some point; I've had some really good ideas on windreading and wind strategy; plus I'd like to write about the differences between shooting in pairs or threes and string shooting. I hope you'll enjoy reading which I've got to say, and please never be shy to ask me a question, talk about your experiences, or tell me if you think I've got it wrong.