Galleryrifle

GalleryRifle Shooting in the UK

Rules

Proposed changes to under-lever loading rules for 2025.

Where a COF requires competitors to reload an under-lever,  it is common safe practice to fire 6 shots, load 6 rounds through the gate and then rack the action and carry on shooting. However, there are still a small minority that eject their fired 6th round, then place a Live round into the open chamber, before closing the action and loading 5 more rounds through the gate. This significantly increases the possibility of a negligent discharge (ND) through accidently touching the trigger, or catching the trigger on clothing / belts etc. The same risk of course applies to the initial load if you are then loading subsequent rounds through the gate. This is not just a theoretical exercise – there is already evidence that this has occurred in recent matches so this proposal seeks to minimise this risk as far as possible. In all likelihood, if an ND occurs under these circumstances, the barrel of the under-lever will not intentionally be aimed at a target and may even escape the range danger area. Clearly, that both compromises range safety and potentially the sport – should a significant accident occur.

It is therefore proposed that everybody adopts the same commonly used practice of loading / reloading ALL live rounds through the gate, and then racking the firearms. (i.e. LOAD, then MAKE READY, rather than MAKE READY – with a live rounds in the chamber – then continue to LOAD). The only exception to this would be for Precision shooters, who load a single round into the chamber for each shot (on the basis that the articulated risk of an ND is effectively negated, as there are no further rounds to load via the gate, before firing the single shot).

This enhances the safety rules that require competitors to only rack a Live round into the chamber when they have adopted their required shooting position and are ready to shoot. Therefore this change will significantly minimise the chances of an ND whenever a shooter is either loading, reloading, or moving position.

Unless there is strong evidence to the contrary, this proposal will be introduced into the GR&P Handbook in 2025 – with failure to comply receiving a warning. Then, from 2026, this will be the only accepted practice, with penalties for non-compliance. Feedback on this proposal is welcome.

Ash

NRA GR Rep

2024 Basildon Open

BasildonBasildon is back

The 2024 Basildon Open

3-5 May 2024

 

Entry forms now available

Imperial GR&P Meeting 2024

For a few years now at the GR&P Imperial meeting entries have been scarce in some competitions (especially the Trophy Matches) to the point where some were significantly undersubscribed and some actually empty. However, the ‘Unlimited’ matches continue to attract  shooters throughout the weekend.  There were also calls for more recognition of the Gallery Rifle Classic events, which from an Imperial perspective reflects the heritage of the meeting.

Taking those observations into account, the new structure will see the Unlimiteds shot for the whole meeting and the trophies for each respective event will be awarded to the highest placed GRCF Classic score (medals will continue to be awarded across the whole range of gun types). So, instead of a poorly attended Head-to-Head Trophy match, all scores from the Unlimiteds will determine the medal and trophy winners, along with ‘Highest Possible Score’ (HPS) awards.  As the name suggests, you can still enter and shoot an unlimited  number of times to achieve that ultimate score!

The aggregates will remain, slightly amended,  (no longer requiring nomination) to provide the variety of challenges across a number of events and the Team matches will of course continue (noting that the nominated Team scores will not count for HPS and Unlimited medals). The ‘grand agg’ for GRCF, GRCF Classic and GRSB remain at the traditional 7 events. Its 5 for LBR/LBP and 3 for MLR.  The slight amendment to the aggregates mentioned above is pre-nomination for shooting aggregate cards has been removed. We’ve also removed the malfunction allowance; it was difficult to police,  it doesn’t appear across the wider GR&P annual programme and, of course, if the concept of pre-nominated grand agg cards is no longer with us its not actually required.

2024 GR&P Handbook

We’ve also updated a couple of the courses of fire to both reflect the event conditions and names, aligned to the rest of the GR&P annual programme and in some cases increased the round count to ensure consistency. As an example, Advancing Target will change to 6 shots on a single target per pass, rather than 3 on each of two targets – which now aligns with all the other GR&P meetings.  So – make sure you clean those firearms ! As always, the changes will be reflected in the latest GR&P handbook.

Please take the time to read it.

Ash

2024 GR&P Handbook

No comments

The 2024 GR&P Handbook is published

2024 GR&P Handbook

A Reminder about GB Team Fundraising

EasyFundraisingDid you know that whenever you buy anything online – from your weekly shop to your annual holiday – you could be raising free donations for Great Britain Gallery Rifle Team with Easyfundraising?

There are over 4,000 shops and sites on board ready to make a donation – including eBay, Argos, John Lewis, ASOS, Booking.com and M&S – and it won’t cost you a penny extra to help us raise funds.Easy Fundraising outlets

All you need to do is:

1. Go to EasyFundRaising and join for free.

2. Every time you shop online, go to easyfundraising first to find the site you want and start shopping.

3. After you’ve checked out, the retailer will make a donation to the Great Britain GR&P Teams at no extra cost to you whatsoever!

There are no catches or hidden charges and the GB Team will be really grateful for your donations.

Thank you for your support.

The 2024

Gallery Rifle and Pistol

Competition and Events Calendar

GR&P 2024 Calendar

The 2024 Gallery Rifle & Pistol competition and events calendar. Download, print, distribute as required

IGRF and German Open Results

Results from the recent IGRF international match held at Leitmar ranges in Germany are published

IGRF 2023

Centrefire Match

Smallbore Match

Individual Results

2023 Season Rankings

RankingsThe full set of 2023 GR&P ranking tables are now published.  Running across a full season the full season meeting count is 17. To have a chance of topping any of the tables you’ll need a “top 4” bullet count – that is you’ll have to have submitted 4 scores in the season to have a realistic chance of seeing how you have performed throughout the year. These scores are simply summed. A raw average column is also supplied for people who submitted less than 4 scores to give a comparison of how you may be competing.

The methodology for running the tables throughout the season was set out about ten years ago. There was no particular grand plan or scientific analysis – the advocates of the idea simply implemented what they thought would be an interesting and ongoing record of scores people could refer to throughout the season. The concept of the ‘best 4’ was a combination of the 4 Bisley GRAWS, which are still the highest attended shoots of the year, and a judgement call on how many meetings people were actually attending throughout the season.

The main algorithm favours a simple addition of the best 4 scores recorded over the season. Scores are crunched after each meeting so mid season tables show on an annual rolling basis. Its appreciated not all meetings offer all events so some competitions will not make the count of four. The raw average column offers an alternative relative view of performance. but, of course, interpret with appropriate caution.

Even for shooters who only participate in the odd meeting throughout the year the tables offer a fairly quick to access and compact view of achieved scores at all the recognised meetings.

We are looking for feedback on how scores data is processed and presented for GR&P discipline. Feel free to offer this via the usual channels.

 

Browse the 2023 GR&P Ranking Tables

Budleigh Farm RimFire Festival – Results

The Budleigh Farm RFF results are posted below. Held over the weekend of the 30 September / 1 October 2023 the standard rifle and LBP events were on offer.

Rifle Results

Pistol Results

SLG and JSPC Autumn Results

Results for the 2023 SLG Open 1500 and shorts can be browsed over on the SLG Bisley web site. Summary and printable results also available and elsewhere in this site.

Results and photos from the JSPC Autumn Open Weekend can be found over on the JSPC website.

Browse SLG Website

Browse JSPC Website

2023 GR&P Nationals – Final Results

Final results are posted for the Gallery Rifle and Pistol Nationals – held over the weekend of 2-3 September 2023 at Bisley.

Final Results

 

Derby Handgun 2023 – Results

The results of the second Derby Handgun Challenge can be seen below

Derby Handgun 2023 – Final Results

Congratulations to Glenn Gordon for his achievement in the Aggregates and almost everything else! A special mention goes to David Gwalter for setting a new British Record in the LBP 1020 with a Maximum score and 91 X’s.

There were a few less competitors than last year but more scorecards so everyone is shooting more events. Aggregate competitions were tried this year, one we called the Black Target Aggregate – events shot on 1500 targets, WA48, 1500 & 1020 and they proved popular with LBP and LBR. Not so much with Iron Sights. Also the 1470 Aggregate – this was everything else on offer with a total score of, you guessed it 1470.

It was great so many had a go and those who shot both with two guns fired over 1000 round taking two days – quite a marathon – well done!

Thanks to Shooting Supplies and RAM Bullets for the prizes they donated.

We are aware that the competition clashed with the Europeans and we could have had more people attending. However the GR calendar is getting fuller every year and leaves little room for manoeuvre. If you have any suggestions about another time of year please let me know. We want the event to grow.

See you next year!

Regards

Jim, MD

 

The 2024 Calendar

It is appreciated at the time of writing the year is only just past the halfway mark but if anyone has firm dates for the 2024 GR&P competitive calendar cemented into their schedules please sent them over.

Potential GR&P Rule Change

When the Gallery Rifle (GR&P) discipline was founded, many of its rules were inspired by those of the World Association 1500 (WA1500), the governing body for a wide range of handgun shooting. Over time, we’ve refined the GR&P rules based on experience and common practice.

One of the common practices adopted by many UK GR&P shooters has been around reloading. Many of our events involve shooting two or more strings of 6 shots within a time limit which includes reloading. Many shooters took to loading with 6, shooting 5 and then reloading with a round still in the chamber; this gives a small time advantage, particularly with our .22 semi-auto rifles and Long Barrel Pistols (LBPs) as these would not need to be re-cocked. Other shooters stuck with the “load 6, shoot 6, reload” practice mandated by the WA1500 rules even though we didn’t specifically include it within the GR&P rules.

The UK is a founder member of the International Gallery Rifle Federation (IGRF), which is the governing body for international GR matches. Other members include Germany – where “load 6, shoot 6, reload” is a rule for GR, i.e. “load 6, shoot 5, reload” is specifically not allowed. In order to ensure a level playing field across all IGRF international matches, regardless of host country, the IGRF adopted a new rule in its 2023 Manual:

1.69 In all IGRF International Team Matches, all loaded rounds must be fired before reloading commences. For example, the historic practice of “load 6, shoot 5, reload 6, shoot 7” is NOT allowed.

This rule was of course in place for the IGRF international matches at Phoenix earlier this year. The GR&P Working Party have reviewed this and we are considering introducing this rule into the 2024 GR&P Handbook for all GR&P shooting.

The reasons for this are:

  • To encourage all GR&P shooters to get used to reloading in the international standard way rather than potentially mixing two techniques depending on which match or country they are shooting in at the time.
  • To ensure a level playing field for all GR shooters next time the UK hosts an IGRF World Championship, which includes individual World Champion awards (based on scores shot in the main individual events) as well as shoulder-to-shoulder international matches.

We realise that, if we introduced this rule, many shooters would have to relearn an ingrained reloading technique. We would therefore not penalise anyone for getting it wrong during the 2024 season; ROs would be instructed to remind anyone seen using the wrong reloading technique about the rule change but would not start applying procedural penalties for using it until the 2025 season.

If you have any comments on this potential rule change, please email them to gallery@nra.org.uk.

Remembering Dave Stanley

David Stanley: 20th July 1958 – 20th June 2023

Dave Stanley passed away on the 20th June 2023. His funeral and remembrance ceremony took place on the 12th July at 11.30 Durham crematorium.

Dave was well known within the shooting community and had a long history of competitive shooting. He was a member of a few shooting clubs including Mattersey, Bishop Auckland and Skerningham. He was particularly fond of Bisley however and Jane is bringing Dave’s ashes down to the NSC at the end of August to coincide with the Gallery Rifle Nationals. She is going to scatter them on Stickledown ranges on Friday 1st September at about six thirty PM.

Pete at the Surrey Rifle Club is also going to arrange a dinner in the evening for anyone wishing to get together. The meal will cost £30 per head for three courses and proceeds will go to  cancer research. Pete has asked for people to pay cash and for catering reasons he has asked for an indication of numbers and if anyone has any food allergies.

Anyone who wishes to attend the meal can you please let Jane know directly or via here.

Many thanks all and rest easy Dave