MY first ever match on foreign soil

[motorcycle_dan]

Traveling as part of one's job is never as fun in real life as it sounds from the stories. In this case however, I am very happy to have been able to travel to another country and compete with air pistol.

I Just finished my first ever competition on foreign soil. Managed to attend the Leicestershire & Rutland Smallbore Rifle Association 2007 Air Pistol Meeting. Held at the Holwell Rifle Club near Melton Mowbray in the UK. (Famous for their Pork Pies, but ya'll already knew that rite?)

Managed to arrange a hired car to take me to from the match. Quite
difficult to make all the connections, coordinate with the match director
etc. Thank you very much Brian Cushion, very glad I was able to attend.

The match was 40 shots at 10 meters and 40 shots at 20 yards (on a PL15
target which I had never seen before this trip) On the 10 meter I did nicely My first two shots on a sighter target were tens. I changed and posted a scoring target then promptly shot a 7 followed by a 6. Managed to get my brain put away and started shooting respectable groups.

On to the 20 yard relay, I choose not to shoot a sighter target, go straight
into the match scoring targets.(newbie mistake) First group was centered
around the 6:00 area of the bull. Two clicks up and second target was
better but still a few outside the black. Two more clicks up and the
targets are looking respectable. Final target had more 10's than 9's so I
was quite happy with it.

I hung about and chatted with the nice people at the match. Once the last
relay was done, it turns out my score of 360 in 10 meter was top of the A
class. For which I received a nice trophy. A 1960 Centenial commemerative pot from the British National Rifle association celebrating 100 years 1860-1960.

The match director watches for things to turn up on e-Bay that would make a nice match trophy.

Excellent Idea I thought. Now I have a momento of the match that I'll display for some time.

So the score for the day, Good Match, good scores, good people, and a good pork pie from Dickinson and Morris on the way back to Coventry.

Think I'm kidding? www.porkpie.co.uk
Quite good, the pork pie but I suspect my cardiologist is calling that yacht
builder back and getting the "deluxe" package now that I'll be making a few more of the payments...

Dan /¦\

[Capt. William]

Dan, I didn't know they shot air pistol at 20 yards. Did you bring your own air pistol through customs, or use a club gun?

Don't forget to bring me a pork pie next time you go! :-)

Jim

[RobStubbs]

20y competitions are fairly common here and we ocaissionally shoot 25M as well.

If you had wanted a really busy weekend you could have driven further south to Hertfordshire as we had our county championships this weekend as well. We shoot ordinary 10M competitions but we also do a 6 yard competition.

Rob.

[Capt. William]

Those are pretty good distances for air pistols! But then, air pistols are capable of more long range accuracy than most shooters realize.

Jim

[jrmcdaniel]

For much of anything beyond 10M, I strongly suggest using a domed pellet. I tried shooting at 30yds and the wad cutters were definitely tumbling while my domed pellets -- even though heavier -- were far more accurate and had enough better ballistics to overcome the weight "penalty" at that distance. Even at 10M, a domed pellet was the most accurate in my SAM M10 but it would not be legal for a match.

JSB Exacts or Crosman Premier (light) pellets are used almost universally by field target shooters although at 12fpe or above. In field target, accuracy is paramont (not a paper game so the holes don't matter).

[Fred Mannis]

For much of anything beyond 10M, I strongly suggest using a domed pellet. I tried shooting at 30yds and the wad cutters were definitely tumbling while my domed pellets -- even though heavier -- were far more accurate and had enough better ballistics to overcome the weight "penalty" at that distance. Even at 10M, a domed pellet was the most accurate in my SAM M10 but it would not be legal for a match.

JSB Exacts or Crosman Premier (light) pellets are used almost universally by field target shooters although at 12fpe or above. In field target, accuracy is paramont (not a paper game so the holes don't matter).

I am not aware of any rule that prohibits a domed pellet. Can you quote me the section? Scorers dislike them because they have to plug the hole for proper scoring.
I like the Beeman Trophy. This is a dome shaped, match grade, light weight (7.88grain) pellet that I use for any shooting beyond 10M. chrono 485 f/s in my LP50.

[David Levene]

For much of anything beyond 10M, I strongly suggest using a domed pellet.

When we first lost our cartridge pistols in the UK and had to start shooting 25m with air some of us tried domed pellets.

They weren't as good as Finale Match in my pistol. I am not sure if anyone is still using the domes.

[jrmcdaniel]

Re rule for wad cutters -- my error, apparently. I did find a few countries that required wad cutters but the ISSF and, apparently, the NRA do not specify the pellet shape (except for shotgun). Surprising that domed pellets are not used more since the inherent accuracy is better the higher the BC. For some targets, I suspect that scoring would actually be easier -- we use National targets and the newer paper they use is pretty bad for tearing.