Target Sports

TARGET RIFLE BASICS: UNRESOLVED ISSUES

Created on 14th May 2009

CHRIS WHITE attended the 2008 NRA Imperial Meeting - and found that some problems arose

ZAINAL ABIDIN Md Zain of Malaysia took the Queen's this year with a well-deserved 294 and 36 Vs ex-300, two Vs ahead of Jane Messer and Paul Kent. However, the Imperial Meeting was overshadowed by three disparate issues. The first nobody could do anything about, other than attempt to cope. The second should not have happened but did, and the third many predicted would happen and should have been avoided.

Individual TR matches started on Friday 18 July with the Century at 500yd and 600yd and the Admiral Hutton at 900yd. These shoots are considered warm-ups. For overseas competitors this may be their first experience of shooting at Bisley, and it gives old hands a chance to get back into the swing and to form a judgement on ammunition quality. Temperatures were cool at 14°C (about 58F). There was a fairly strong wind from the left with frequent angle changes - tiresome but not unreadable. Cool overcast conditions meant no mirage so wind doping was almost entirely flag-based.

Ammunition lot 155 shot to just over a minute of elevation in my 1-in-12 Krieger at 900yd and gave me no cause for dissatisfaction. In the 1-in-14 Krieger lot 153 shot to less than half a minute of elevation at 500yd - rather outstanding for me. At 600yd it was a bit over 1¼ minutes - not so good but not dire.

Saturday started with the last of the warm-ups, the Donegal at 300yd. Again there was a stiff wind from the left and despite a lowering sky the first detail got underway in fine weather at 8.30am. However, shortly into the shoot the heavens opened.

I had just shot two solid Vs and was on aim for the third to count when this deluge occurred, resulting in a magpie three at seven o'clock. Conventional wisdom states that this is a result of water in the rifle. I don't think that's what happened in this case, because the rifle had been loaded and shouldered before the rain came. It's my belief that the volume of water in the air acted like a huge prism and actually distorted the sight picture, in effect moving the point at which the rifle was aimed. The gentleman on my left was rewarded with a hit scoring just one, and in the same direction. Our other colleague, a Canadian cadet, fired and got a non-scoring hit, again with the shot at seven o'clock. The moral of the story is to keep your ammunition and rifle dry. That's why us old fogies use a shooting box and eschew having the ammunition and score book exposed to the elements.

Tiresome conditions continued with strong winds changing direction. By the time we got into Sunday these directional changes were across zero. Many shooters (about 30% I'd guess) were convinced their zeros were out. Logically it is difficult to believe that over 300 shooters turned up at Bisley with bad zeros. What I think had happened was that experienced shooters were misinterpreting the wind, believing their eyes rather than their rifles. There were also the ‘caught in the aim' scenarios when a rapid transitory change occurred just as the shot was delivered. By the time the shooter got his head off the rifle normality had returned, resulting in confusion.

By Tuesday it started to warm up and much more mirage was visible. How much it helped some shooters is debatable.

By the end of the week temperatures had risen to 29°C (about 88F). There was nothing any of us could do about the wind other than try to deal with it.

The next issue was safety-related and simply should not have happened. I have pushed the point in Target Sports (March 2008 and August 2008) of the danger of relying on the breech flag as an indictor that the rifle is safe. Early in the meeting a young shooter cleared an overseas competitor's rifle which had a breech flag inserted. Unfortunately the latter could not produce a converted sighter when he presented his score ticket to the RO. The Chief Range Officer found it in the rifle! The upshot of this is the young man was expelled from the meeting. Many shooters muttered: "There but for the grace of God go I". This should not need saying again: never, never assume. You must physically check the rifle before you sign and hand over the ticket.

Ammunition issues

Now for the final issue. Until this year the MoD has repaid the NRA for the provision of certain facilities with an issue of ammunition. The NRA has been stuck with what the MoD has procured. Apart from one brief departure that has been either target or sniper grade ammunition produced at the former ROF Radway Green. A significant limiting factor on this ammunition's performance is, in my opinion, related to the way RG manufactures the bullet to comply with the Geneva Convention. This agreement has ended which means the NRA was not given MoD procured ammunition for 2008.

There was a split in attitude among shooters at the Imperial. Those who shoot nothing but RG assumed all dropped points were either down to errors of wind judgement or bad shots, and those who shoot good commercial ammunition or even hand loads put all dropped points down to RG. The reality of the matter probably lay somewhere in between. Experienced shooters should be able to call bad shots. Into this category fall shooters who would say something like: "I'm not immune to letting off bad shots but when I'm shooting good ammunition I'm usually able to call them; however, I've had a few that I didn't call". When this scenario becomes commonplace the only conclusion one can draw is that the problem is ammunition-related.

Most of the latter camp expected that they would get to shoot the Imperial with something other than RG. This is the only major shooting event in the UK that dictates which ammunition competitors use. Shooters at the NSRA meeting would be incredulous if the NSRA bought a huge batch of ammunition and compelled them to use it, more so if the ammunition was of demonstrably doubtful quality. The Scottish and Welsh Open Championships have run quite satisfactorily for many years with competitor-supplied ammunition, as have a number of provincial meetings, for example, Lancashire, Hereford and Worcester, Yorkshire, East of Scotland and even that hot bed of Conservatism, Northumberland. Quality ammunition is available for competitors to purchase and cadets are permitted to use RG ammunition supplied to their unit.
Many hoped that the NRA would follow suit, however the following arguments against competitor-supplied ammunition were published in the NRA journal:

Allowing any ammunition would provide a massive unfair advantage to the very small number [a number which I would suggest the NRA has massively underestimated] of competitors who know how to handload. This advantage is, presumably, a different sort of advantage than the one for those with deep pockets and a battery of different rifles who can find one which best handles the issue ammunition. Allowing any ammunition would also price young shooters out of the meeting because they would not be able to afford quality commercial ammunition. I don't see many youngsters shooting Eley Club at the NSRA meeting! Cadets would presumably be able to bring their own RG, thus reducing their costs, as they do in the Scottish which has a healthy ‘schools persons' entry. The argument is, therefore, rather tenuous.

So while not approving of the decision to stick to issue ammunition, there was an expectation that the ammunition would be up to scratch. This expectation also went out of the window when we read in the NRA Journal that there was no viable alternative to RG and that, given a steady increase in the proportion of highest possible scores (up to 7%) in recent years, RG was getting better! What about the 93% who didn't get one: nothing to do with better equipment then? Clearly this argument is unfounded. The scene was set: the 2008 Imperial was to be shot with issued RG.

Alarm bells rang for me on Sunday afternoon where four radial departures (11 o'clock) in the Daily Mail (500yd) with ammunition lot 157 turned a hard-fought-for 73 into a dismal 69. The next morning we shot The Times at 300yd in very challenging wind conditions. I dropped three points but they were very close and possibly attributable to wind. However, there were a significant number of 11 and two o'clock magpie threes appearing elsewhere.

St George's first stage, again at 300yd, was shot on Tuesday morning with ammunition lot 154 which held about 1¼ minutes of elevation: acceptable but not brilliant. When I arrived for the 300yd shoot of Queen's I on Wednesday I was presented with a box which bore lot identity 157, when it should have been 156. On querying this, the RO asserted that he had merely been filling up empty boxes. I smelt a rat and politely asked if he would replace it with ammunition which I could see was 156, i.e. out of a sealed box. He refused. All the boxes on his table said 157 and I asked him if he had issued the wrong ammunition, at which point the competitor Wing Officer intervened and brought the assistant Chief RCO. I got my lot 156 although a number of shooters in that, and the previous detail, shot with the wrong ammunition. If ammunition control procedures were in place they were clearly inadequate. In my rifle 156 held ¾ minute at 300yd and 500yd, with a vertical flyer at 600yd opening this up to 1¼ minutes.

On the same target Canadian international Ken Westling had a low shot which almost cost two points and for which he disclaimed responsibility. Many shooters complained of ‘explosive' groups at 600yd.

As always there were some who seemed immune to the problem but there were a lot of shooters behind the rope watching the Queen's Final who I would have expected to be on the firing point shooting it.

Dropped points

Some may say that my uncalled dropped points were down to bad shooting. If so why did my shooting deteriorate dramatically in this one meeting?

In the past, NRA members have been reluctant to criticise the ammunition openly. This year many shooters approached me in the expectation that Target Sports would reflect their collective grievances. In addition to this, three heavyweight British internationals are prepared to be named as believing the ammuntion quality was unnacceptable. These are Dr John Warburton, David Dyson and Dr Graham Nelson. Dr Warburton won the Grand Aggregate in 1985 and has been placed in the top 50 16 times. He has also shot in the Queen's Final 15 times and shot for GB on many occasions. Dyson has shot for GB several times, including the last Palma Match where he won the State President's Trophy. Dr Nelson has shot in the GB under 25 teams and captained the GB under 25 team at the World Championships in 2006.

I also had a conversation with a pretty disgruntled Australian international, Dr Gray Robertson, who was bemoaning the cost of coming to Bisley to be rewarded with off-call shots.

The NRA may well argue that there was no alternative supplier given that 155gn RG ammunition requires the rifle to have a non-standard throat and large commercial manufacturers would have to re-tool. This was disputed in an interview I conducted with John Carmichael of HPS Ltd. John was adamant that HPS has the productive capability and is, in fact, the largest non-governmental manufacturer of .308W in Europe.

There may, of course, be a cost issue. My Imperial meeting entry cost £529.35. When you add to that the cost of travelling and accommodation the figure is close to £1,000. The ammunition component was a little over £100. In the scale of things would it matter much if this was £160? Cost per round is not a real issue.

The NRA assures me it is working hard on an alternative for next year. I hope so because if one is not found members will vote with their feet. For many the Imperial is their annual holiday. We go there to engage in a test of skill not to play a game of chance. If we want to blow a grand on a lottery then we'll go to the bookie's not to Bisley!