The Imperial Gallery Rifle and Pistol Meeting
In the middle of the Imperial meeting there still languishes the most relaxed competitive Gallery Rifle and Pistol (GR&P) meeting on the circuit.
The Imperial Gallery Rifle and Pistol meeting runs for five days – middle Wednesday to middle Sunday – (12-16 July 2017) and is worth at least a couple of days out of your usual routine to attend. The meeting still seems to be continually off the radar for a lot of GR&P shooters. Attempts to promote it in the past have been met with limited success so an outline of what the meeting is all about is below.
In the 1990s and earlier it was a pistol meeting. It changed to a GR and MLR/P meeting in later years and has been running ever since most recent addition of LBR and LBP offerings.
The meeting is open to all shooters and offers competition in Galleryrifle Centrefire (GRCF), Galleryrifle Smallbore (GRSB), Long Barrel Revolver and Pistol (LBR/LBP) Muzzle loading Revolver/Pistol (MLP/MLR) and some Air Pistol (AP). There are unlimited medal entry matches, squadded trophy matches and team matches.
The format of the Imperial is slightly different to many GR meetings people may attend. Its broadly split into two streams and there are one or two nuances, mainly regarding sights.
The traditional trophy matches are run over the weekend and if entered will be squadded affairs. The trophy matches, for GRCF, are iron sights only. Running throughout the meeting and making up the bulk of the shooting are the unlimited entry matches – simply called “the Unlimiteds”. Any sights are allowed here so scopes, red dots or any variation are perfectly acceptable.
The idea of the Unlimiteds is exactly what it says – unlimited entries. People can shoot as many times as they want in any chosen event and keep submitting scorecards to be processed for that perfect score. In fact to get a score on the board shooters have to submit at least two cards in any event. They can submit more if they wish however only the top two will be crunched for the final record.
That’s the formula – the encouraging factor is to shoot – as many times as the shooter wants and on this basis the entry costs are deliberately kept low. For 2016 all medals entries were priced at £4.50 a card. 2017 prices will not be too much more. Its the cheapest competitive shooting on the GR circuit.
The Events
They are described in the Bisley bible (The NRA handbook) and there are 7 in all but here is a summary of the Unlimited events shot for medals throughout the meeting. These are available for both GRCF,GRSB, LBP/LBR and MLP.
- Advancing Target – 24 round course of fire
- America Match – 30 round course of fire
- T&P1 (Police Medals) – 30 round course of fire
- Multi-Target (Service Medals) – a 24 round course of fire
- Scott Medals (a precision match) – a 20 round course of fire
- Granet Medals (a duelling match) – a 20 round course of fire
- Silhouettes Medals (a rapids match) – a 15 round course of fire
The Grand Aggregate – the Grand Agg. is now available for GRCF, LBR, LBP and MLR. Take one of each of the above events for GRCF and nominate the card. Exclude America and Silhouettes and its the LBR/LBP/MLR Grand Agg. One nuance mentioned above comes into play here – its an iron sights only aggregate for GRCF – any sights for the pistols!
Trophy matches are for competed for over the weekend sessions and are available in the following events. They are all for GRCF apart from the two as appropriately indicated. They are all Iron sighted affairs!
- The T&P1 Match (Police Match)
- The Multi-Target Match (Service Match)
- The Scott Cup (Precision)
- The Granet Cup (Duelling)
- The Silhouettes Cup (Rapids)
- The Cotterill Trophy (Air Pistol)
- The Galleryrifle Smallbore Match (Smallbore)
- The Galleryrifle Match (precision and duelling)
- The Man v Man match
There are also nine team events in total but in line with the NRA’s overall charitable objectives for the encouragement of shooting three are restricted to University teams and one is a traditional Oxbridge varsity match.
The final medals on offer are the Highest Possible Scores (HPS) Jewels and the Grandmaster medal. These are defined in the bible and offer a chance to achieve competitive reward based on achieving perfect scores in stages of all the competitions or striving for points based on standards.
Entries are now open for the 148th Imperial meeting – either on-line or via a downloaded PDF entry form.
The Aberdeen Wapinschaw represents arguably one of the longest running shooting competitions in the UK, tracing a lineage to 1862. The Association presents one of the finest trophy tables in the UK, with many exquisite trophies dating from the 1860s and onwards through the 20th and 21st Century.
d news I’m afraid. Anyone who shot on Melville ranges at Bisley in the recent past would probably have remembered Les Pulling. He was the range warden there for many years and retired in 2012.
The first Imperial Meeting was contested on Wimbledon Common in 1890, when Queen Victoria fired the first shot and gave a prize of £250 to the best individual marksman.
We are now looking forward to one of the largest and most popular meetings of the season, the Phoenix Meeting, 26-28 May – with the International Match on Monday 29 May. This festival of shooting saw almost 500 competitors take part last year and provides the opportunity to shoot Gallery Rifle, Target Shotgun, Practical Pistol and Revolver, and has Air and Fullbore competitions from 15 yards to 1000 yards. Classic shooters also have the opportunity to take part in events across the weekend.
Results for the 2017 Spring Action Weekend are now final:
If anyone is visiting the 