JSPC NewsEntry forms are available for the next few competitions on the Gallery Rifle circuit throughout April – a busy month…
Support some of these events if you can. They are all well run and well organised registered shoots.
Results from the 2016 Spring Action Meeting are published.
Challenges by Tuesday 29th March please.
Don’t forget folks the launch of the NRA 2016 Handgun League is just two weeks away. Consisting of eight individual rounds spread over the season and taking place over four venues it kicks off in a fortnight at the Spring Action Weekend (SAW). The matches are fun and challenging practical pistol matches you can shoot with a .22 Long Barrelled Pistol (LBP) or a Long Barrelled Revolver (LBR). They will involve exciting and interesting courses of fire around barricades and visible obstacles designed to test your skill, ability and agility.
Many thank are conveyed to the NRA, Edgar Brothers and AW Armoury who are sponsoring the league.
Promote the league around your clubs – print the full size flyer and pin up on your noticeboards.
A printable flyer for the 2016 Calendar of events. Please download, print and pin up around your clubrooms. The season is kicking off in a couple of weeks with the Spring Action weekend and round one of the NRA Handgun league.
The 2016 outing for this half day meeting on Warminster Range 1A.
Now a high Summer slot for 2016 but worth a look if you fancy a trip to the South West to shoot on the fringes of Salisbury Plain. Its an open shoot and has events for Gallery Rifle Centrefire (GRCF), Gallery Rifle Smallbore (GRSB) and Lightweight Sporting Rifle (LSR).
This year it will be running in two divisions (and NOT as a Wiltshire and Open competition) comprising X&A Class people in Division 1 and B, C, D and U in Division 2. In addition there will be prizes of 500 rds of 22 ammo for the winners in each division, 300 for 2nd place and 200 rds for third place.
Note the change of date for this – SATURDAY 16th JULY
Information recently received from Gerry McCarthy, the NASRPC Chair, about the Irish Open in July has confirmed the 2016 Irish Open and IGRF international is still at Harbour House, Kildare.
There are changes to the way overseas travelling shooters obtain firearms passes from the Garda.
Anyone travelling to Ireland needs to complete the application form for visitors permit and provide a full copy of their FAC and the original copy of their EFP.
There is no need to send any money. Competitors will be presented with a bill when they pick up your squadding cards on the first day they arrive. It is still 40 euros per gun.
The deadline for the applications has been brought forward. Gerry is willing to to co-ordinate but he would need paperwork by the 22 April at the latest. Realistically that means any UK based shooters really need to get paperwork all sorted by the Spring Action Weekend if they can. Anyone doing this may well be able to take advantage of the administration offered by the GB team adjutant – the efficacious Jim Smith.
When Gerry has got the passes authorised he will return them to Jim who will send back onto you.
Anyone wanting to compete in Ireland who does not have an EFP (European Firearms Pass) can obtain them free from their own local police force.
Please let anyone know who is not in the GB squad if you know they are planning a trip to Ireland.
Any further information required let me know. Anyone wanting to send direct to Gerry get in touch and details can be passed on.
The 2016 OpenThe 2016 Scottish Gallery Rifle and Pistol Championship will be held over two venue dates. Commencing on the 17 to 19th June at the JSPC Colmsliehill range where a series of short events will be held and concluding with 1500 events at Drums Links the home of Aberdeen Full Bore Gun Club on the 7th August. The Championship for Rifle will be held concurrently with a shorter Championship for Long Barrelled Revolver and Pistol. This will be a registered event and entrance open to all.
Stage 1 , Scottish Gallery Rifle and Pistol Championship Stage 1, Short Events, to be held at JSPC Colmsliehill range on the 17-19 June.
Stage 2, Scottish Gallery Rifle Championship Stage 2 , 1500 Events , to be held at Aberdeen full bore Gun club on the 7th August.
If a competitor is only able to attend the one event , they could still complete for ten Scottish Champion titles inc Pistol and revolver , awarded per discipline eg Scottish Champion SB Rifle TP1 . The overall Scottish Champion Gallery Rifle title being awarded to the highest overall aggregate score ( CF and SB rifle) events) would require the competitor to shoot all events over the two event stages.
A few of us will be be down to The 2016 GB Shooting show at Stoneleigh again this year.
The show is at Stoneleigh Park again for 2016 – the same venue as the last couple of years. Mark the dates – 12, 13, 14 February 2016
We are in Hall 3 – around about Zone 31 if you look at one of the show plans. If you don’t and you are there on the day wandering around aimlessly home in on the Spitfire which will be parked in Hall 3 – we are just around the corner. Yes – we kid you not – a Spitfire. It will no doubt generate quite a lot of interest amongst visitors, so I think it will be quite a busy area.
This year we are sharing the stand with the FCSA and Lovat Society.
Please support the show and come and see us – after you’ve visited the Spitfire of course – the important things first – the stuff that matters.
Saturday 12th March, Bisley CampThe Introduction to Gallery Rifle (GR) Course will provide the fundamental skills for taking part in GR events and competitions, and will include individual coaching, positional shooting techniques, range procedures, match preparation, mental and physical attitudes, aiming, breathing, trigger control and much more.
The day is open for all shooters who have perhaps completed a NRA approved probationary course or have become a full member of a club and have been shooting for a while and wish to embark on the next stage of competitive GR&P shooting.
Your own Gallery rifles, pistols and equipment is ideally required although some equipment will be available for hire or loan if required. LBRs and LBPs are not available to loan or hire so those wanting to train in these disciplines must have their own equipment.
Further details and a booking form available on the NRA website.
08.00 Meet at the NRA for tea/coffee etc and a look at program for the day. GR Classes; types of firearms, the competitive circuit, clubs, kit and equipment. Review of the basic techniques of marksmanship and shooting, aiming, stance, breathing, trigger release.
09.00 Move to range for practical work.
12.30 Lunch at ATSC
13.30 Further range practice
16.00 Return to NRA training rooms for a look at and a review of the day, where to go from here, next steps, feedback and, generally, anything else.
17:00 Finish
The updated 2016 GR&P rulebook and 2016 Phoenix booklet is now at the printers. Hard copies will be available and ready for collection at the NRA Offices from the end of the month and there will be a few copies available at the GB Shooting show next week.
As a result of feedback, lobbying, natural justice and the usual moaning and groaning it is inevitable there will be changes to the odd rule set or section contained within. This year is no exception – there are minor amendments to both sections of the booklet.
T&P2 shooters should pay attention to the timing changes in that area. LBP shooters should pay attention to the holster rule changes in T&P2, 1020 and 1500 competitions. At the Phoenix meeting this year there are changes to conditions in some of the 100,200,300 yard matches.
Everyone is encouraged to download a copy of both booklets – linked here as separate PDFs, and familiarise yourselves with the rule changes and changes and conditions.
The hard copy will, as usual, be a combined booklet and has been layed out this year to be slightly easier to read. Feedback welcome either way if this is the case and as usual any mistakes, errors or typos let us know.
Jon Avetoomyan and his team has named the Great Britain Galley rifle squad for 2016. The main squad and reserve/development squad are listed below. Matches in the UK at Bisley are planned as well as tours to Ireland and Germany.
The GB Gallery Rifle team is an official NRA team who shoot competitively on the international circuit. Anyone wishing to know more about the team, the shooting or the criteria for selection please get in touch.
| NAME | GRID |
| Jon Avetoomyan | 1542 |
| Colin McMichael | 2163 |
| Andrew Summers | 1057 |
| Taff Wilcox | 1426 |
| Keith Cox | 167 |
| Terry Fry | 1772 |
| Chris West | 1990 |
| Jim Smith | 683 |
| Frazer Hay | 2901 |
| Mel Beard | 43 |
| Gary Bowden | 2886 |
| Greg Rastell | 2337 |
| Jonnie Cormie | 2055 |
| Norman Veitch | 3114 |
| Gwyn Roberts | 623 |
| Dave Hacket | 296 |
| Steve Lamb | 1022 |
| Andrew Jarman | 1180 |
| Dave Guest | 2613 |
| Pete Watts | 783 |
| NAME | GRID |
| Ashley Dagger | 180 |
| Gerry Betteridge | 52 |
| Robert Tonner | 2330 |
| Glen Gordon | 2340 |
| Dave Holt | 354 |
| Dale Rogers | 2115 |
| Angie Foster | 2865 |
| Morne van Dalen | 1773 |
| Helen Hay | 2900 |
| Rob Wheeler | 3203 |
The work on Melville Range will affect the way all people use it and also how its used for national competitions. A few comments have been received but if anyone else has thoughts on how this will impact the Bisley GRAWS, Phoenix meeting, Historics and IHAM etc send them over.
The work is taking place to reduce the risk of ricochets and allow the continued concurrent use of Melville and Butt Zero / right hand side of Stickledown at 900yds. The work being shown here is the removal of the 25m target line and its conversion into a 25m firing point. The sand and mini mantlets are being replaced with ballistic tiles at 50m.
There are some photos below taken a few days ago – about in mid January 2016.
Melville Bay E mostly complete
Melville bay B under transformation
Melville Bay B
Melville Bay C
Melville Bay C
Balistic Blocks at the 25m point
The Target line at 50m
 Bay A |
 Bay A |
Its tight at the top and no more so than the Timed and Precision one event in GRCF. For all the classified events we have traditionally always broken divisional classes on bullet score. Up until now this has generally been an easy and acceptable way to achieve what we require.
T&P1 GRCF is a popular event and over the last few seasons the breakpoints used have started to prove themselves inadequate for dividing people into appropriate divisions in a fair way.
On that basis we’ll be separating the T&P1 GRCF event on X count from next season onwards. Individual classes will be retrospectively applied before the start of the 2016 season so some people will be reclassified because of these changes.
Details as below:
| Class | Current Breakpoints | Active shooters | Proposed Breakpoints | Active Shooters |
| X | 300 | 28% | 300.21 | 9.5% |
| A | 297 – 299 | 26% | 299 – 300.20 | 33.5% |
| B | up to 297 | 46% | up to 299 | 57% |
Jonathon Avetoomyan has been appointed the Great Britain Gallery Rifle captain for the 2016 season. I’m sure the GR community and squad will wish Jon good and we are sure he will continue to but build on the success of outgoing captain Pete Cooper who took the team to victory in the IGRF World Cup Finals in November 2015.
Jon started his shooting career as a pistol shooter in 1984. He then founded a local shooting club in 1998 and continued with competitive shooting within the Gallery Rifle discipline. He started attending larger national competitions in 2000, including the Gallery Rifle circuit at Bisley and other locations around the country. He is an active member of several clubs and help to run the Army Open and the Welsh Open events on the current GR circuit. He shoots for Wales and is a current member of the GB squad having toured and shot in Ireland and Germany several times over the last few years.
HELD AT THE LEITMAR RANGES IN GERMANY
On Monday 16th November 2015 the second Gallery Rifle World Championships were held at the newly refurbished range facility in Leitmar, Germany. The order of the day had been agreed at an IGRF committee meeting held on Friday 13th November 2015 where it was decided that the smallbore match would take place first followed by the centrefire match.
The teams compete in a full 1500 match, each team fielding 5 competitors with the top four scores to count. Each match would be shot shoulder to shoulder with the shooters lining up starting with one man from Germany then one from Ireland then South Africa then GB and so on.
The first line of smallbore shooters was on the range for 09:00 and then we were under way. As the first match was wrapping up the scores were looking close and it was looking likely to be a hard fought competition with no one nation running away from the others at this point. By the end of the second detail some nerves were beginning to show across the line and the scores were showing it with some of the best shooters falling well below their best. Then it was time for the last line of the smallbore match and it was all to play for. The last shots were fired and score cards filled in, all that was left was for the stats team to do their work. What felt like a very long nervous wait (about 5mins to be honest) finally revealed that GB had triumphed to retain the title of Smallbore World Champions.
Before we reset the range ready to start the Centrefire match everyone moved quietly out to the carpark area standing close and united to observe a minute’s silence in respect of those who lost their lives or were injured or had been affected by the horrific events in Paris only days earlier. After a respectfully observed silence we again quietly moved back inside to commence the competition.
The order of the line was the same as the smallbore and would also spread across three details. This time GB took an early lead thanks to a PB by Greg Rastall putting in a strong 1493 with 100x, this put team GB firmly in the driving seat and they never took their foot of the gas. The final scores came in showing that GB had taken both matches and could proudly call themselves World Galleryrifle Champions.
| Jarman, Andrew | 1481.79 |
| Cormie, Jonathan | 1476.93 |
| Avetoomyan, Jonathan | 1467.84 |
| Cox, Keith | 1463.99 |
| Hay, Fraser | 1450.61 |
| 5887.355 |
| de Villiers, Deon | 1478.89 |
| Roets, Nico | 1474.75 |
| Griesel, Johan | 1461.81 |
| Terblance, Werner | 1461.71 |
| Kriek, Jaques | 1452.66 |
| 5874.316 |
| Pfeifer,Roman | 1477.91 |
| Waldvogt,Meik | 1467.75 |
| Grün, Reto | 1463.75 |
| Riewe, Torsten | 1454.63 |
| Steinke, Andreas | 1391.37 |
| 5861.304 |
| Kehoe, Jeff | 1473.87 |
| Byrne, James | 1461.82 |
| Nolan, Mark | 1461.74 |
| Thompson Noel | 1454.58 |
| Byrne, Declan | 1453.66 |
| 5849.301 |
| Fry, Terry | 1494.96 |
| Rastall, Greg | 1493.100 |
| West, Chris | 1490.85 |
| Hackett, David | 1483.91 |
| McMichael, Colin | 1477.93 |
| 5960.372 |
| van Tonder, Flippie | 1489.94 |
| de Beer, Gerrie | 1484.99 |
| Liebner Siegfried | 1483.102 |
| Strauss, Heinrich | 1477.79 |
| Louw, Hercules | 1407.84 |
| 5933.374 |
| Kehoe, Jeff | 1492.106 |
| Nestor, Michael | 1490.93 |
| Carroll, Simon | 1477.83 |
| Byrne, Declan | 1471.84 |
| Kelly Mike | 1466.78 |
| 5930.366 |
| Pfeifer, Roman | 1486.96 |
| Waldvogt, Meik | 1483.89 |
| Riewe, Torsten | 1481.89 |
| Grün, Reto | 1475.89 |
| Blüße Bruno | 1467.60 |
| 5925.363 |
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