Imperial 2017 Retrospective

It has taken a while for me to get around to writing up my range report from the 2017 Imperial Meeting; a mixture of inertia, general business at work and taking a brief break from training before getting stuck back in got in the way. It's a lovely, lazy but rainy Sunday afternoon here in Laingholm with a roast in the oven and a small glass of red* next to me as I write, so it seemed like a good time to look back on how things went and where I have to go next. To summarise: I got done what I needed to get done, but still have a decent amount of work to do in the lead up to the Commonwealth Shooting Federation Championships in November and hopefully the Commonwealth Games in April 2018.

In recent years, it has been my technique and scoring at short range that has driven my aggregate positions; however this year it was a bit different. I seemed to be able to hold a reasonable group at short, but kept on sneaking them out the sides. Although the wind was tricky at times I have a sneaking suspicion that I had been helping them occasionally.

Century 600x. Elevation was mostly OK, but the wind wasn't that hard.

By contrast my long range worked very well and I dropped few points over the hill, which pulled me up nicely in the aggregates and I managed to win the Palma Aggregate only two points down, beating DC by a few vee bulls.

Corporation 1000x. Wind was slightly harder that the graph implies, but not by much.

By the end of the meeting, I had achieved what I needed to. I didn't deliver anything spectacular, but I did come away with 20th in the Grand Aggregate albeit after a rather disappointing 71.7 in the Prince of Wales where every decision I made on the wind appeared to be wrong (I had worked my way up to 4th by that point.) I made up for this minor debacle by shooting 105.15 in Queen's I and, while my 146.16 in Queen's II left the possibility of an MCS in doubt, the conditions on the Saturday were benign enough that I put in a 149.15 in the final to leave me with a Commonwealth Games MCS of 400.46

Job done.

Queen's III 900x - Shot values rewritten in pen as far as possible because the card got soaked.

Queen's III 1000x - Elevation not quite so good as 900x but good enough. If shot 10 had gauged in, I would have top-scored in the final.

The heroes of the meeting were, of course, my legendary pardner CJW who took away the Grand Aggregate (not a bad effort for a man who claims to be better at a sprint than the marathon) along with PMP who finally won his first Queen's Prize. Other notable results included Great Britain's 21st consecutive win in the Kolapore; although the only time I can see this run being broken is perhaps when the Palma Match returns to Bisley in about a decade's time**; without enough teams with enough strength in depth it is hard to envisage someone surpassing the team's professional approach and ability to select from the broadest group of eligible shooters. By contrast Wales were not able to repeat our winning National Match performance from 2016 and England once again dominated.

CJW GC #Legend

It was a good year, a good meeting. The only real regrets I have from it are that Katrina and the kids weren't able to join me, and that I didn't seem to get more than two minutes with anyone I wanted to catch up with.

* Fickle Mistress, a Pinot Noir from Central Otago.
** My apologies to the 2018 Kolapore Captain if I just jinxed you.

Belmont Range Report - Watch for the Drop Offs!

As I have previously noted, all rifle ranges have their quirks, so it's always a good idea to go and have a bit of a pop before you go and do anything serious on a particular range. As it had been nearly six years since I'd last had a crack at Belmont during the 2011 World Long Range Championships, I decided that it would be worthwhile to pop over with the NZ Commonwealth Games squad and have a shoot there to get my eye in. It proved a worthwhile venture.

Belmont Range, Brisbane. The terminal on the right connects to the HEXTA electronic target system.

After a bit of a logistical cockup with the course of fire to be shot alongside the Aussies, I was going to be a Queen's I short of a full HMQPCOF. Fortunately I was able to enter the short range of the Natives' Rifle Club Championships on the Saturday. Shot on the superb HEXTA electronic targets* in fairly benign conditions, it was a nicely gentle reintroduction to the range. I was pleased to slot them all in, even if the conditions weren't massively challenging, mostly requiring only a bit of centering and the occasional change.

300x - Not a bad start. The HEXTA electronics worked well also.

500x - Keeping it together well, and still sheltered from the wind.

600x - Ignore shots 8, 9 & 10 as they were tacked on the end using CWG ammunition.

After my arrival, I'd found out that the Commonwealth Games ammunition was available in the Q Store; albeit at a rather steep AUD47 per 20 rounds. I picked up a box so I could see how it would go and was able to tack a few rounds on the end of my shoot at 600 yards. It seemed to group OK, although about 1/2 minute lower than my Optimus 155 handloads**.

With the third round of the Australia Cup not taking place until the Monday, I'd get to have a day off with the family; we had rented a place down in Broadbeach on the Gold Coast which backed on to the beautiful golden sandy beach. In addition to being a shooting holiday and a chance to refresh my memory of the conditions on the range, it was a treat for Katrina who would be celebrating her birthday on the Tuesday. We spent the Sunday morning on the beach, before heading over to one of the many amusement parks clustered around the area.

Heading up to the range on the Monday morning for an 08:30 start, it was clear that the conditions were going to be a bit tougher; I could see the flags standing proud from their poles as I drove along Old Cleveland Road, although they were mostly coming from between 1 and 2 o'clock. It was looking like angle could be more important than strength if it started to mix it up.

300x went well.

500x continued in much the same vein.

600x finished well, but no idea what happened to that second sighter.

In the event, we were tucked over on the right hand side of the range. Coupled with the dip in the range and some tree cover, this minimised the effect of changes at 300x and 500x; however back at 600x a careful eye was needed to avoid the occasional wind change which could have taken a shot out of the very tight bullseye. I was delighted to put them all in with solid vee counts at all three ranges to take the highest score on the range by a couple of vee bulls.

While the shorts had gone well, it was obvious that the long ranges in the afternoon were going to be a bit trickier. The wind didn't look like it was dying down and the bullet would be much more exposed to the wind with the additional elevation from both the range to target and the rising backslope in the back half of the range.

900x sensible group, just losing a couple out the sides to small wind errors.

1000x acceptable group, but one poor shot and a major wind error.

In the event, 900x went reasonably well and I lost only a couple of points to minor wind errors; it was nowhere near as difficult as I had feared might be the case; however 1000x would be much more taxing. Even though the angle of the wind kept the numbers relatively low, angle and strength changes produced a couple of big dropoffs during the shoot and several of us got caught for magpies and outers. Having dropped 6 points in aggregate by shot #5 I needed to go clean for my remaining ten shots to achieve an MCS. I successfully navigated a second big drop off but I let a slightly slack shot go, possibly as a result of my trying to get them away quickly to avoid another change in the aim and picked up a 4 for my 12th to count, taking an MCS with it. I stuck the final three shots in the bull to end up on 398.47, a single point short of the magical 399 score.

While I didn't quite achieve my goal, I did shoot well; particularly well at short range; and there is much for me to be pleased with. I've also now got some of the CWG ammunition back in NZ to make a few measurements, establish some zeroes and check that my rifle will group at 1000x when using it. Massive thanks must go to Malcolm Dodson, Brian Carter, John Snowden, Rob Johansen and Bevan Mehrtens from the NZ CWG Squad, but most particularly to Kim Ologhlen from the Natives Rifle Club for sorting me out secure storage for my rifle and gear, and allowing me to go slightly off-piste with my course of fire during the Natives RC short range.

Kim Ologhlen from the Natives Rifle Club. A top bloke.

Well, in conclusion I've left myself some work still to do; however I've got further opportunities to shoot minimum consideration scores between now and November, and my preparations for the 2017 Imperial Meeting are looking solid. If you're going to be around on Bisley Camp for the TR meeting, I'll see you then.

 * Yes, I was nice about electronic targets. I'll cover this off in a future article.
 ** RWS Cases, Fed 210 Match Primer, 155 grain HBC Optimus bullet loaded 40 thou off the lands, with 46.5grains ADI AR2008.

Trials and Tribulations

The process of actually getting to go to the Commonwealth Games is a long and often frustrating one; even after you have notionally been selected by your NGB*, there may be a whole host of other criteria to be fulfilled and indeed as one person once put it to me: you're not 100% sure until you're sitting on the plane waiting to take off. You need to convince them that you're capable of a medal-winning performance on the day.

I cannot speak for the other countries involved in The Games, whose selection processes may involve anonymous committees in smoke-filled rooms and the reading of entrails following the ritual sacrifice of small animals for all I know**; however Team Wales, the WTSF and the WRA jointly have a fairly straightforward approach, which can be summarised from the point of view of an athlete thus:

1. Do lashings and lashings of individual and pairs training
2. Come in the top 2 in the nominated ranking events
3. Shoot as many minimum consideration scores as humanly possible, preferably during competitions involving other CWG-level athletes, whom you beat during the process

There is considerably more to the formal procedure than this from the point of the NGB, but this gets to the heart of what you actually need to do and can control in order to get selected. My legendary pardner CJW and I have achieved #2, have solid plans in place for #1, and are both working on #3. Unfortunately #3 involves shooting a total of 399 out of 405 for a full HM Queen's Prize course of fire, which is no mean feat; doubly so when you live in a country where no one ever shoots a full HMQPCOF. Fortunately, I also live in a country of fine, upstanding people who are willing to muck in and help out a fellow rifle shooter in need; and, to cut a long story short, I've been shooting alongside the NZ CWG ranking events which do involve shooting the full course of fire.

Fast forward to last week, when I got to spend a wonderful four days down at Trentham trying to shoot an MCS while simultaneously not cocking up anyone else's shoot. At this point enormous thanks are due to a moderate-sized cast of people who helped out by ROing, butt marking, logistics etc... etc... So 'nuff respect*** to Kevin Win, Tony Gore, Andre Doyle, Vic and Jared McMurdo of HotloadeD Kiwi fame, Eben Fourie, Darryl Crow, John McLaren, Brian Carter, John Snowden, Bevan Mehrtens, Malcolm Dodson, John Whiteman, Geoff Smith, Rob Johansen, Rick Fincham, Allen Owens, Henry Firmston, and all the others who helped out and made things run super-smoothly.

The downside is that I didn't get an MCS; I managed two 396s. Boo! The upside is that I did have some excellent groups and only one dodgy shoot. Yay!

35.6 at 300x in Trial 2

35.7 at 500x in Trial 1. Bring it.

35.6 at 600x in Trial 1. Tough to get on 600x ICFRA targets.

On the other hand, the second of my 396s would have been a 401 (and therefore a minimum consideration score by 2 clear points) had I not carelessly placed one of my shots on an adjacent target at 900 yards. Boo!

Shot #12 rather spoiled the look of the thing.

While I didn't ultimately get the result that I wanted out of the weekend, it was a really worthwhile exercise now that I have some emotional distance on the crossed shot: I got to shoot two full courses of fire with top flight shooters; had some great results; have confirmed that my brand new jacket does not fit; have confirmed that the tweaks I have made to my old jacket have helped; and it is clear to me that I can (still) shoot the groups and scores required. Roll on June, when I'll hopefully get a chance to shoot a full course of fire on Belmont Range in Australia, the 2018 Gold Coast CWG venue.

* National Governing Body. It actually may not be entire clear who your NGB is, or indeed there may be more than one body you need to satisfy during the process.
** You know who you are.
*** I may be up to date on shooting terminology, but my chat dates from the mid-90's.

Range Report: Trials 3 & 4

The Imperial Meeting at Bisley usually makes up two of the trials, with all of the competitions from the first Friday, middle weekend and final Monday counting. It is during this ten day period that the majority of the real action takes places as the runners and racers are sorted out. It is very easy to get caught up in The Glory of the Bisley Imperial Meeting, with its distractions and social scene; although I must admit that there are some shooters who combine the two admirably.

As I had persuaded my employer to let me stay on in the UK between the end of trial 2 and the start of the Imperial, I was able to get a little range time and felt confident about my basic ability to shoot decent groups; however I was a bit more worried about the wind. While good shooting and good windreading very often go hand in hand* it's not always the case, and a bad detail on Stickledown can shred any aspiration. Other people clearly felt that same way, so I was able to join RO, SCC, PG and a couple of other shooters for shoots at 1000x to get my eye in. This helped.

Trial 3 - Middle Friday to Middle Sunday
After a rather enjoyable lie-in after the UVRC barbecue, a couple of beers and a rather late night final work conference call taken in the umbrella tent my meeting proper kicked off with a sensible shoot at 600x in the Century. It was a rather workmanlike shoot; the group was marginally over 1 minute of arc and my windreading was acceptable, although I did lose one to a gust halfway through.

Solid but nothing special. My target-mate and GB coaching stalwart MKT managed an superbly-judged 50.1, just missing out on a perfect polo shoot.

 Moving back to the Admiral Hutton at 900, the moderate-to-fresh winds continued and I repeated my performance; although the group was slightly better.

No-frills long range shooting.

To round out the day, I finally managed to put them all in. While my most common short-range score is 50 ex 50, I still find myself slightly on edge at the start of each Imperial Meeting waiting for the first possible, so it is always a relief to open my account on the Friday.

Much more the thing. Pity about shot #3.

It was clear that I was starting to get into the swing of things, but I would need to maintain this kind of form to establish a lead over the other shooters in the trial.

Donegall. Don't know what happened to that second sighter.

Very pleased with this. About as good a long-range group

Fortunately, the middle Saturday ended up going fairly well; although I did manage to lose my first point of the meeting to what was clearly a bad shot on my behalf. This always feels slightly different to one out the side where there's at least a sizeable probability that it was simply a poor wind call or getting caught in the aim. This time it was definitely your fault and you shot an inner.

Telegraph. First bad shot of the meeting where I lost a point.

The Sunday of the Bisley meeting is something special for me. I have won the Sunday Aggregate twice and it was the first competition I ever won during the Imperial Meeting proper. I was simultaneously slightly disappointed not to win it again despite a superb day on the ranges and delighted to see my friend TLB win it with some excellent shooting and by the narrowest possible margin - despite us sharing a score of 175.22 he edged me at the line by scoring a 50.8 in the Duke of Cambridge (at 900x the longest range of the day) to my 50.7

Ice cold in Alex. A solid 50.8

Perhaps not the neatest group, but a good string at the end.

Tried hard to lose shot 9 but got away with it. Otherwise pretty solid.

At the end of trial 3 having dropped only 4 points out of 500, I was 3 points clear of the next shooter. Job done.


Trial 4 - Final Monday to Final Thursday
A curious aspect of the psychology of shooting trials in the format that Welsh fullbore rifle shooting currently employs is that as soon as you're settled in one trial and performing, that trial is over and another is forthcoming with all attendant nerves, worries and tribulations regarding establishing a solid base from the start. Perhaps it's just the way I feel about it; having climbed one mountain, it's time for another with all of the fears of failure which can attend.

The shoots on Monday went OK. Although the winds seemed light, there was a subtle capriciousness to them. What seemed clear before a shot was fired became less obvious as time went on, and changes were often hidden. Watching the mirage seemed to be the best bet, but I still managed to lose four points on the day; although that seemed disastrous at the time, it turned out to be a reasonable result.

The Times. Sighters a bit spread and not happy with my wind zero.

The Corporation. So close and yet so far. Could've easily been more, but I didn't really take advantage of the conditions.

Slightly scrappy shoot, but could've been worse given the wind spread.

A picture was emerging; I was clearly shooting acceptably well, but a top performance was eluding me slightly. I felt like my wind zero wasn't quite as it should have been, and some of my sighters were at the extremes of the group. What happened in the St. George's 1st Stage did rattle me slightly, though, I clearly put one out of the group (the wind clearly didn't do that much to it) but I didn't feel it go. Worse yet, it was my last to count with a 75 in the gun. I obviously did something wrong, but whatever it was eludes me yet. Take the point and move on, thankful that you've qualified for stage 2.

Yes, that last to count isn't all it might have been. I never like losing one at 300, but to lose the last is worse.

 At this point, I had an afternoon off and away from shooting entirely. Katrina, the kids and I made it over to Guildford for an hour or two in the pool, and then a bit of shopping.

Queen's Wednesday is a busy day. Although the shoots are brief, especially as most people have figured zeroes and aren't fussy about taking cooking bull sighters by this point in the Grand Agg, the "transaction costs" are high. There's a lot of to-ing and fro-ing between various ranges on Century and Stickledown, so it can be tiring day.

Queen's I 300x. I'll take that 5 sighter. I'm not proud.

 Moving back from short to long, I continued to shoot well but managed to lose another 3 points to wind.

The Conan Doyle. Tricky winds.

Queen's I 500x. Lucky not to lose shot 3.

Queen's I 600x. Nicely held.

In the end, I cleaned Stage 1 of Her Majesty the Queen's Prize and it's always something of a relief to have a guaranteed shot at the second stage, if you'll excuse the unintentional pun. At this point things were looking solid in Trial 4; although my legendary pardner of Glasgow 2014 was starting to kick some arse and we were level going into the final day.

The PoW. A good finish to the Grand Agg and Trial 4.

I ended up coming joint first in trial 4 with CJW. We were both 5 points ahead of our nearest rivals. Job done.

Although I achieved what I had set out to during my trip over to the UK for the Imperial in 2016, I felt like I hadn't quite delivered as good a performance as I might: I had some issues with wind zeros, probably as the result of problems with cheek position and/or pressure, I didn't feel quite as settled as I have in previous meetings, and I didn;t achieve a Minimum Consideration Score (MCS) for the 2018 Commonwealth Games. There were still positives; in particular I coped much better with downward-sloping firing points - a perennial problem for me - which lead to good results at long range. Much to think about in the coming months.

* The simple reason for this is that if you're not shooting well, it's very hard to tell whether or not a sideways shot is because you've winged it or because of the wind. Hint: If you get one out left and then follow it up with a symmetrical one out the other side, it's quite possible that the first one was a bad shot.

Range Report: CWG Trial 2

The British Commonwealth Rifle Club open meeting usually features some pretty stiff competition, not least because to become a member of the club you must have shot on an international team; however a majority of serious shooters also take part as by tradition the ammunition used comes from the same batch as that year's Imperial meeting.

The short range on day 1 was dominated by tricky winds and rain, with scores not up to their usual standard; although this didn't seem to phase any of the six people on detail 1 who managed to slot in 50.9s in the West Indies 300 yard shoot. Unfortunately I lost one out the top to a bit of early nerves, but held the rest in for a slightly loose 49.5.

A bit nervous at the start. Long time, no live fire.

Similarly, the first of two shoots at 500 yards, the India, was not all it might have been; I made a bold change at the start of the shoot and wound myself out to the left and was a bit more circumspect later on in the piece, only to lose one out right when I under-called a big change. Two down seemed to be a little off the pace, given the conditions, and I was already a shot behind.

Better elevation, but got the wrong end of the bracket twice.

We would revisit 500 yards after lunch in the Africa which went somewhat better. My position felt tight but relaxed and the rifle rested cleanly on target, with the result that the one shot I did help slightly clipped the lefthand edge of the vee-bull. My compatriot CJW managed to take the top slot with a superb 50.10 but I was pleased with my own 50.8. My hold had settled down after the very slightly shaky start in the morning.

Bring it.

Although the winds seemed to die back, they did have the capacity to surprise back at 600 yards. I pursued a strategy of shooting to the mean wind and trying to avoid firing in the lulls and gusts. My group was solid and I only lost one right at the end; I backed off a quarter as the wind appeared to be dropping, which proved a poor judgement call and cost me both the possible and the win. I ended up four off on the day, in 7th place.

A bit unlucky to finish on an inner, but could have been worse. A bit later and it could have been a magpie.

The Sunday morning dawned still, and there were expectations of high scoring. These were proved right on the first detail of the Falkland Islands at 900x, but the flags started to lift towards the end of the shoot and when the second detail got down, there was a very fickle lefthand wind with some big gusts and drop-offs. I shot reasonably well but couldn't quite keep up with the bracket of 4 to 8 despite recognising halfway through that I was constantly lagging the changes. I was unable to get ahead and finished with an OKish 48.5

Decent shoot, just not quite up to speed with the wind.

The odd wind conditions continued during the second 900x shoot of the morning. Fortunately my shooting was getting into the groove and I had more of a handle on the wind, and while I was unlucky to lose my 5th out left my 11th to count only stayed in by virtue of being a waterline shot. There were no 75s and I missed out on the tie shoot by a single vee-bull.

Happy with this. Got unlucky with shot 3, but lucky with shot 9. Honours even.

A long break before the shoot at 1000 yards afforded me the opportunity to have a decent lunch and a brief snooze in the vam before heading back up to Stickledown. The lazily flapping flags convinced me that this was going to be relatively straightforward; however as the previous details had found, the wind would pick up to a more typical value before ebbing back. The shifting winds, combing with a slack shot over which I took too much time, meant I lost 4 points; far from a disaster, but a little off the pace.

Shot 11 spoiled the look of the thing; I held on too long, but otherwise I'm happy with the shooting.

My consistent, if not exceptional, shooting won me 4th place in the BCRC Open but took me the top slot in Trial 2. This is heartening, as I'm still on the upswing but haven't yet hit top form, and with the Imperial Meeting making up trials 3 and 4, things are looking positive. A bit more SCATT and some livefire before everything kicks off next Friday, and hopefully I'll be able to make the most of my squadding.

Range Report: CWG Trial 1

In the past week I have flown halfway around the world (twice), had a wonderful long weekend at my spiritual home and made a good hundred holes in bits of paper at various distances with a view to qualifying for the 2018 Commonwealth Games. Originally tacked onto the front end of a business trip to North America, I have ended up having to return to NZ on the May bank holiday Monday owing to a delay in my project. Avoid this if you possibly can, because forty-eight hours of flying in six days in economy is a real pain in the arse.

What I can heartily recommend is enjoying a sport like shooting, where people against whom I was directly competing went out of their way to help me try and beat them: One lent me a rifle to shoot; another loaded top-notch ammunition for me to use. Other people made similar efforts, offered to load me ammo in case of issues, gave me lifts around camp and to the airport on the Monday. You know who you are. Legends. Without people like this, I wouldn't have been able to shoot at all, and our sport would be just another kind of game.

The trial itself was based around the Army Open, with Queen's I, Queen's II and Palma courses of fire spread over the course of the weekend. Being the forward-thinking, war-fighting chaps that they are, the ATSC has made it any ammo and all ICFRA targets. Combine the hard targets with tricky winds and it was bound to be an interesting weekend; and so it proved. It started in pretty benign fashion at 300 yards, with winds not far off zero and a small spread; however back at 500 yards the bracket widened to two minutes, and even further at 600 to run from about 1 right to over 3 left. In the event, I wasn't too unhappy dropping only three points. At least once I had seen everyone else's results. No one managed to clean the shoot, and only two people managed 104s.

The vicious fishtail wind continued into the afternoon, with occasional light showers of rain adding to the excitement. The bracket at 300 ran to about a minute either side of zero. I lost one well out right to a combination of a bad shot and a poor wind call. The bracket at 500 yards was similar, although I managed to avoid firing at the extremes, but I found myself sneaking out into the inner several times. Unlike at previous ranges, my group wasn't centred and I ended up with a 47 as a result of the sudden changes in strength and angle. Still, it could've been worse; the shooters on first detail at 600x took a beating with a huge wind bracket running to several minutes in either direction, whereas those of us on second detail had it a bit easier. There was only right wind to deal with, and I managed to squeeze them all into the tight ICFRA bullseye for a total of 146. Despite what I would generally consider mediocre scores, I was in fifth place in the open competition and first in the trials by three points.

On Sunday morning, the conditions looked readable but proved deceptive. As with the Saturday, the strength and angle would be stable for a few tens of seconds before shifting to a new state extremely rapidly. I only dropped a couple at 800, losing one just out either side. At 900 yards, the wind had strengthened but the general pattern continued of rapid changes within a bracket of 4 to 9 left. After a bull and an inner for my first two shots to count I got caught badly in the aim for a far right outer. ICFRA targets are utterly brutal in hard conditions. The good news in the cloud of being four points down is that I'd managed to identify two general wind conditions: one at a bit under 6 left and another just over 8 left. Using this approach I only lost one further point for a 70. Despite two relatively good scores, my lead in the trials had diminished to a single point.

Up until the final range, I had consistently held about 3/4 of a minute across the ranges. Unfortunately a miserable firing point didn't help my position and I had serious difficulties maintaining an acceptable group despite getting up and attempting to completely reset my position after five shots: tighten my sling, move my mat and do some padding of the drop-off in the firing point. I didn't end up with anything particularly wide unlike the many other shooters who collected outers and misses, but I did end up with a couple of magpies and an awful lot of inners spread at various points around the bullseye for a 61. My group was not all that it might have been.

At the end of the day, while I didn't win the first trial, I did manage to shoot well and led until the final range, losing the lead only after a difficult 1000 yards detail. I'll take second place, four points off the lead, especially as the next nearest competitor was a further eighteen points behind.

Onwards and upwards.