Much as we’d love to continue to be able to publish CompAir for free, from Issue 4 onwards we do have to start to cover at least some of the costs involved in the magazine’s production, and so it will cost £2.50 per edition from then on. The easiest way to ensure you receive each issue as soon as it comes off the digital presses is by subscribing (see the back page for full details of how to do this), and we’ll ensure that it arrives straight in your Inbox - pronto!
One of the beauties of a digital magazine is that there’s always room for more though, so if you would like to see more about your sport in your area appearing then all you have to do is tell us. Write-ups on your local shoot, details about what’s going on at your club, snippets of news and gossip are all very welcome – after all, if you don’t tell us about it, we can’t tell everybody else!
We’d also like to thank our regional correspondents for all their hard work in covering events and compiling reports on those shoots that Rob and I are unable to make it along to. Right from the outset, we wanted this magazine to give far greater coverage of FT and HFT than other magazines are doing, and this has only been possible thanks to our contributors and reporters.
Firstly, massive thanks to all of you for letting us have your thoughts and suggestions on the magazine, and it has been really gratifying to learn that so many of you seem to like what we have put together and have subscribed to future editions.
It was only a few short months ago that Rob and I were sat nervously waiting for feedback and the first comments to come in regarding Issue 1 of CompAir Magazine, and here we are putting the finishing touches to Issue 3!
M.A.D. weekend a huge success
EFTF European Field Target Championships
John Fleming scoops the SARPA Scottish Championships
HFT Masters Series heads north
Air Arms RSN 10 Memorial Challenge HFT Shoot
UKAHFT Series places going quickly!
Round 6 - 21 August at Rivington - 43 places left Round 7 – 25 September at Cambridge - 53 places left Round 8 – 15 October (Saturday) at Emley Moor - 32 places left Round 9 – 16 October (Sunday) Emley Moor - 30 places left
A full set of results can be found HERE
Daystate stepped in at the last minute to sponsor Round 4 - and turned up with their latest gun
Space and time don’t permit a full report on what was a fabulous 2 days of shooting, but a particular mention goes to reigning HFT World Champion Simon Howarth who has recently started competing in the .22 category. Simon dominated both days, with very impressive scores of 51 and 52 – a feat that was all the more remarkable as this was only the eighth time he has competed in the class!
Top score on Sunday was again a 58, with Richard Woods just pipping Dave Ramshead for first place.
M.A.D.’s Richard Woods and his team of eager helpers laid out 2 very different and very challenging courses, which had Dave Taylor, Paul Kelly and Steve Edmondson all finishing equal on 58 in the Open Class on the Saturday. After a tense shoot-off, Dave took top slot.
Rounds 4 and 5 of the UKAHFT Series took place just before this edition of CompAir went to press, but we are able to report that this highly popular event once again went down a storm with everyone who took part. Fine weather, banter of the highest order, and a goodly amount of money raised for a very worthwhile cause by Charlotte Edmondson (who bravely volunteered to have her hair shaved off for the McMillan Cancer charity), all went to make the two days one of the high points on this year’s HFT competition circuit.
Hungary’s Ferenc Sas was crowned PCP Champion while his fellow countryman István Fejes Tóth took the Springer title. Hungary also lifted the team PCP title while Estonia held them off for the Springer team title.
The ‘European’ EFTF European Championships were held in Sarlóspuszta, Hungary in late July. 17 european countries were represented. Uncharacteristic for the time of year the competitors endured several hours of constant rain over the two days of shooting.
Just as this edition was going to press, news came through that CompAir’s very own Scottish correspondent John Fleming had claimed overall victory in the recent SARPA Scottish HFT Championships after a tense shoot-off with Justin Grice. John is a member of the New Caledonian Air Rifle Club, and fellow club members Graham Livingstone took first place in the Veterans Class and Susan King claimed second place in the Ladies Category.
Visit the HFT Masters website for more information.
If you can’t make this shoot, you’ll have another chance when the Series visits Lea Valley on Sunday October 23rd.
This increasingly popular series has enjoyed a successful first half to the year, and is looking to build upon the growing number of entrants that its events have attracted when Emley Moor plays host to the next round on Saturday August 20th.
You don’t have to shoot an Air Arms rifle to take part as the competition is open to owners of any sub-12 ft./lb. air rifle – but you’ll have to be quick! Entries are limited to 150 competitors and places are getting booked up fast. Visit Air Arms website to book yourself a great day out.
The entry fee of just £15 not only gives you 2 top-notch UKAHFT specification courses to shoot, Air Arms even include lunch, afternoon tea and cake, as well as entry into the prize draw which has a brand spanking new Air Arms HFT 500 up for grabs as the main prize.
Over the last few years, this shoot has become one of the “must-do” events on the HFT calendar. Northall Farm at Fletching in East Sussex is a great venue and once again plays host to the event on Sunday 4th September.
Booking forms can be downloaded from the UKAHF website
Pete Sparkes told us that as of mid-July spaces were still available for the other remaining rounds but shooters should get their booking forms and cheques into him sooner rather than later in order to avoid disappointment:
With the increasing popularity of HFT, entries for the UKAHFT National Series seem to be selling out earlier and earlier. The M.A.D. double-header weekend entry list was full back in June, with fair size reserve lists for both days waiting for any cancellations.
It’s sometimes easy to forget the huge amount of time, effort and preparation that goes into ensuring that not only are shooters given a superbly set course to enjoy, but also that the day runs safely and smoothly, and all credit to Buxted Club for ticking all the boxes in these respects – you did yourselves and our sport proud.
Talking of the Open Class, Round 3 was also notable in that the top score for the day in this group was also matched by one of the shooters in another category; take a bow Mr Mike Burgess who topped the Veterans Class with a stunning score of 57 – matching that of Andy Simpson who took the honours in the Open group. In the Junior 9-13 category, Jonathan Bent came in with a very creditable 45, whilst in the Junior 14-16 group Elliot Reed’s superb 54 narrowly edged Tom Willingham into second place. Normal service was resumed in the .22 Class with Ed Tandi’s score of 46 putting him 3 ahead of his closest rival, and Elliot Reed’s mother Theresa picking up the silverware in the Ladies Class. The Recoil category was also a very close-run affair, with Perry Broad’s score of 49 putting him just one point clear of Chris Tyhurst.
The chrono also claimed a few high-profile victims (not for the first time this year) and it does make you wonder if it is really worth running your gun so close to the legal limit. Is that extra tiny bit of power going to really make much difference to your trajectory, especially in the .177 PCP Open Class? Is it really worth the risk of getting disqualified, especially if you have made a long and costly journey to come along to the shoot?
On exiting the woods, competitors were faced with the joy of one of the positional shots, in the form of an unsupported, 35 yard, free-stander – with a changeable and blustery wind thrown in for good measure, and a further 4 equally challenging lanes that caught out a significant number of the HFT Royalty that had come along to play that day.
Turnout for the shoot was a little lower than at some of the previous rounds; Buxted can be said to be somewhat off the beaten track for some, though not far enough off of it to deter the likes of Gordon Burns making the 1,123 mile round trip from Edinburgh to take part in what is regarded as the premier HFT series in the country. Unusually, Pete Sparkes was not able to attend (due to a family wedding), and so all-round good guy Charles Peal valiantly stepped in to orchestrate proceedings for the day, ably assisted by Pete Dutton and the Buxted crew.
Perry Broad triumphed in the closely contested Recoil Class
Ed Tandi was once again back in charge of the .22 category with a superb score of 46
Andy Simpson topped the Open Category, whilst Mike Burgess matched his score of 57 to take the Veterans Class
One man and his gun - Vince Guy from the Swallows FT Club loves his sport
A very pensive looking Graeme Cargan on Peg 15
The sport of HFT brings out the height of sartorial elegance in some people
M.A.D.’s Jean Greatrex oversees a busy afternoon session in the Buxted woods
The guys from Meon Valley enjoyed their day out in East Sussex, whilst Mile Oak’s Mike Byford makes his presence known to the HFT press photogrpher
What do you reckon 5 across is then, Jean...... it begins D.O.U.G.H.N.
Charles Peal (ably assisted by Justin Raynor) stepped in to cover Pete Sparkes’ usual role.
Mile Oak’s Chris Tyhurst was narrowly beaten into 2nd place in the Recoil Class at Round 3
Those shooters who had been at the Buxted ground the previous weekend to contest round 5 of the SIHFT Series knew better than to expect that it would give them any help or inside knowledge on what would await them on the following Sunday – other than that it would be even trickier! Despite some pretty appalling weather during the week, Simmo and his chums had managed to lay out a course that demanded absolute respect and pegs that required “a really, really good coat of looking at” prior to settling down to squeeze the trigger.
The members of Buxted Air Rifle Club have long enjoyed a reputation as some of the finest HFT course-builders in the country (it’s no coincidence that Andy Simpson and his fellow club members are routinely invited to set one of the 2 courses at the HFT World Championships at Kelmarsh each year!), and for Round 3 of the 2016 UKAHFT National Series they once again delivered a corker.
The Future of the Sport...
So there we have it, the big title is settled but there’s plenty more to be won and lost at the final Grand Prix at Anston on 7th August. We’ll bring you all the news and results from that, and also from the World Championships in Portugal 2 weeks later. Our money is on Jack Harris for the World’s title, but we’re hoping for a Team England win just so we don’t have another year of them reminding us who won it last year. Whatever the results, they’ll be out on our Facebook page as soon as they happen and we can peel ourselves away from the bar. It’s a hard life all this journey stuff but we’re going to struggle on.
Silhouettes was kept wide open by Neil Hague who put 19 down, with Dan Eley and Ian Taylor dropping just one less. Ian’s in the lead but Jack could drop his East Devon result and overtake him. It will all go down to the last ram.
Andy Calpin finally has a tidy looking stock, courtesy of Warren Edwards
Open class saw it’s own high score of the day with Ian Challis delivering another 100% with 47 targets downed, some 3 targets ahead of Tony Fouraces and Barry McGraw one behind that. That means that Ian has once again taken the title and remains undefeated since it’s inception in 2013.
Brian Samson, fired up by the failure at the last GP and with new bits in his boinger put in a 43, with Phil Hollis just behind on 41, and Steve Privett behind on 38. Brian is taking the lead into it, but Steve won the World Championship coming from behind so nothing is a given, especially where springers are concerned.
In C Mark Rodgers, Darren Hillier and Paul Gallagher all tied on 39 meaning that grade is still wide open and down to what anyone can do at Grand Prix 7 at Anston, and what score that enables them to drop. Everyone in the top 5 has a score they could easily drop that would see them with a good shot at the title.
Heat and pressure at East Devon, an exposed 35 yard reducer
A simple 20 yard stander, never a given
Spurred on by the warning words that Steve ‘Chubby’ Chubb was on his tail in B grade, Josh put another grade shattering score in of 46 leaving Graham Fleeman and Paul Maher in his wake on 43 and 42 respectively. Josh is almost guaranteed to win the grade now, it almost being mathematically impossible for him to be caught.
Local lad Andy Williams had a good day in A grade with a 46, just ahead of Ian Stoddart and David Mitchell who by now were bickering over the lead for the series. It’s neck and neck and down to the wire as Ian can do it if he puts in a strong score and drops his score from Far Coley.
Consolation for Justin was that it was his first ever outright win in a Grand Prix, no-one else equalling or surpassing his score on the day. Several equals and shootoffs along the way are always memorable but you never forget the day you were clear of everyone. James Osborne quietly continuing his form picked up 3rd place.
East Devon has taken advantage of areas the storms opened up
One day i’ll be like Jack
35 B 40 degrees in the sun and Rhinos. It could be mistaken for Africa
However although the wind was down for the day it was perhaps just as problematic as the warm breeze and thin wood provided little indication of the feint breeze moving through it. Ian was flying, dispatching long 40 plus yard standers and everything else for 20 targets on the trot before an uncharacteristic mistake on a 20 yard stander tripped him up. Meanwhile Justin Wood was driving hard also clearing everything in front of him. Ian had further trouble a couple of lanes on, and in the darkness couldn’t pick out where his shot had landed on the first target. The second shot in the lane didn’t go where it should have either. Justin then lost one to a 52 yard target due to the crosshairs not being in the right place for the breeze, but Ian lost another on another 40 yard stander seemingly not able to put them where he wanted. As they left the course to wonder how that left their standings Jack then arrived in the car park. As he set about the course in his usual relaxed manner, he lost two early on. Perhaps too relaxed? Who knows, but he didn’t let any more get away and he finished one behind Justin on a 48. That meant that it was mathematically impossible for him to be caught and he now had two back-to-back BFTA Grand Prix titles under his belt. Quite some achievement amongst all his others. Winning the toughest title in the FT world once is hard enough. Twice is something special. Back-to-back is something else.
John Amos takes 3rd place in his stride
Are Daystate making a comeback into FT?
2nd place for a 48 for AA’s James Osborne
From up north to down south, Grand Prix 6 was SWEFTA’s turn to host at East Devon. Another regular ground on the calendar, many were familiar with it’s U shaped line and pine forest course. Recent storms had thinned out the far end into more open areas meaning it offered more varied terrrain than in previous years. It seemed many though weren’t aware that the course typically was more windy in the afternoon and with temperatures also gaining in the afternoon it was perhaps the tougher session. Despite that Ian and Justin set about the course, with the rumour being that Jack couldn’t make the date. It would seem like it was the opportunity to make up some ground. As Ian Taylor had said, after Far Coley the only way to make the day count in Jack’s absence would be to put in a win. Quite a few can work that sort of simple maths out, but there’s very few who can say it and who would also be a favourite to achieve it. Ian is one of them.
Despite Jack’s clearance Ian was still smiling
In Open class Ian Challis was now well in his stride, another win, 4 targets clear of the South West’s Tony Fouracres and Jeremy Stamp. Piston saw more action with Steve Privett three targets clear of Neil Thornycroft and John Amos. The custom tune of Brian Samson’s gun failing mid course meant that he was only able to sit by the sidelines and wonder what could have been. Justin Wood made good use of the time off the course to put 19 of the 20 rack targets down to keep his top placing hopes in the silhouette competition alive.
Far Coley at it’s best
That’s one way to solve the problem
In A Sam Barr had a good day on 42, with the now ever seemingly present David Mitchell one behind. The Midlands own Keith Hassall trailed by one for 3rd place. Josh Vaughan placed another grade busting score in to lead B, leaving David Gage and and Andrew Watkins three and four shots behind. The North East’s Paul Gallagher had a smile on his face for the day’s work, winning C with a 39, lifting him up the series table. David Page-Starr was only a target behind for second place though and the North West’s George Heath was just one behind him for 3rd place. It was still very tight at the top in that grade.
Doing BASC proud
Mr Clean
One person did have this course mastered. Jack Harris did what only four other shooters had done in over a decade of modern 50 shot grand prix courses and cleared the course. But it wasn’t just achievement which was impressive in itself, it was the manner. Jack barely displayed any stress as he approached his last two lanes, the first being a 60 yard combined distance standing lane, another with a tight reducer and a high placed 50+ yard target to finish. Jack as they say, was back. In a return to form James Osborne and Dan Eley placed close, just two and three targets behind, but series contenders Ian and Justin were ousted from the trophies, 5 shots behind, meaning Jack had pushed them both 10 points down.
Just 2 standers, 1 reducer and one 50+ yard target to finish for a clear
Welsh Master and soon to be Grand Prix Champion, Jack Harris
Hardly...
Woody trying out his determined look... Grrrr
With most people’s results being a little battered by either the wind or the high scores many were hoping they would be able to recover and possibly drop their scores from Wales. Far Coley was the venue for the next one, the Midlands Grand Prix and it was a favourite of many. The venue offered a range of terrain to shoot over with most of the course inside a lightly wooded area, but with a large pond and a grassy area at either end exposing targets to the breeze it was always going to be a challenge to master it. Fortunately the strong winds seen in Wales hadn’t arrived, however the breeze did perhaps persuade many to give more windage to the targets than they actually required. Patience and calculated placement of the crosshairs was the order of the day.
Very few did this twice in the same lane in the afternoon on the ridge
Quarry being all quarryish
This is our church
Mark Henson has continued in form all year
In Piston Steve Privett kept up the pressure on Brian leaving him 4 shots behind, with Glenn Newman just one behind that. However due to the peculiarity of piston shooters being scored against PCP shooters Steve would likely be dropping the round’s score. In the Open class, Jeremy Stamp shone in the rain with a 41, while Barry Smith and David Clark where a whole 7 shots behind in the afternoon for the 2nd and 3rd place trophies. Silhouettes were romped mid-morning by Dan Eley and it was only Mark Stenton, Ian Taylor and Andy Calpin that could get close. By the afternoon double figures were well beyond most people’s expectations.
Andrew Gillott’s AJP Custom served him well
Standers were set to test the nerves in more ways than one at Quarry
A study in standing by Neil Hague
Mirroring AA, David Mitchell made full use of the opportunity and put 43 down in the AM session in A grade, leaving his rival Ian Stoddart to suffer in the afternoon. Paula Schofield and Jonathan Noon followed close behind David with 42 and 40. B grade was a Welsh rout. Steve Chubb lead with a 38 in the morning session, Tom Gould 2 behind, and Paul Maher one behind that. The story was the same in C grade, but it was the South East’s Gary Keogh that joined Mark Rodgers on 36, with Leanne Mason also from the morning session three shots behind that in 3rd.
They’re still blasting at Quarry
Super Spice on the standers
As ever with Wales that distraction always begins with a W. It’s either wet or windy. Or both. On this day it was to be both. Nothing unusual. While the AM session were treated to light winds, they were also treated to a deluge. And while the PM had session stayed dry the heat, which reached nearly 40 degrees C in the sun, created strong convection winds which the landscape only emphasised. At least the mystery of wind direction wasn’t present, but it was certainly a case of having to judge how much to give. Although a 40mm target is quite large there were many who would simply give too much, only to then give too little in the same lane. Double dinks are something many seasoned shooters have endured before. Repetitive double dinks are something that test the metal of even the most competition hardened. In the afternoon, around lane 10 it became more normal to count up the amount of hits on one hand rather than discussing how many had been lost. The trick it seemed was not to do it too many times. Justin Wood seemed to be dialed in to what the course needed from the get go, and ended up in a tough shoot off with Dan Eley for 3rd place honours on 43. It would appear that Justin was making amends for Grand Prix 1’s shootoff and was determined not to let Dan get his way, dropping full length standers in a stiff afternoon’s breeze to stake his claim on the position. But the the damage ahd been done in the AM session, Andrew Gillott on a 44 with his new AJP custom Steyr and Jack with his trusted EV2 some way ahead on a 46. Ian Taylor was left with a long drive home mulling over a 36 and it’s impact on the series. With 4 shoots in, Jack was joining Ian with 2 wins, but Justin was splitting the pair by a fraction of a percent.
Quarry lives up to its name
Doesn’t matter if you miss when the scenery looks like this
With the North West behind us Wales had their round at a new ground for the modern FT scene, Quarry. Aptly named. Dropping down from the car parking area it’s an exposed 20-30 ft cliff which runs for a few hundred yards. The club had made full use of this feature and instead of shooting from below up to targets mounted on it, the shooters were placed on the rocky outcrops shooting down into the undulating areas below. Old disused buildings broke up the landscape further and created interesting positions for the targets quite akin to a farmland hunting scenario. Quite how some of the rabbits would have got to where they did no-one could quite work out, but there was plenty to distract them from these wonderings.
It was good to see the Scottish visitors down south
Andy Finnigan on a tricky and costly stander at Tawd
Tawd vale is spectacular at this time of year
In piston class the intense rivalry continued, with Brian Samson keeping consistent good form, putting 40 targets down, but John Amos had upped the anti with 42. Meanwhile Steve Privett kept his 43 quiet until handing his scorecard in, meaning he was now in the lead for the series. Open class saw Ian Challis have his first win of the season, catching up with early leader Barry McGraw. Julian Head was a long way from his Swefta home but the trip was worth it as he picked up 3rd place. In the silhouettes Dorian Falconer wasn’t going to let Jack and Ian have it their way, and joined them in putting down 19 in the racks.
Steve Privett tells Mark Brewitt his score
Yep, that’s all the way out there
Local NWFTA lad George Heath took top place in C grade with Darron Hillier continuing his successful return just one behind on 34. Mark Rodgers recovered from a tough GP2 to and was rewarded with 3rd place.
Josh Vaughan continued his attack on the B grade title as per usual but he wasn’t allowed to have it all his own way with Mick Trowman also scoring 39, although youth did triumph in the shootoff for the trophies. Graham Fleeman was left to up his 3rd place trophy uncontested as the AM shooters with the same score had since departed.
In A, John Sears put another strong shoot in with a 44 in the AM session, something most AA’s failed to equal on the day. Richard Shepherd wasn’t far behind showing consistent form with a 42, with Ian Stoddart joining him on the same score.
One of the first casualties was Justin Wood, who was 6 points adrift of his nearest rival Ian Taylor who put a 47 down in the PM session. This was just 1 shot ahead of the four 46’s put in by Mark Henson, Jack Harris, Andy Finnigan and Andrew Gillott who were all 3 shots clear of anyone else. This meant in AA it had all changed again, with Ian Taylor now on top, Jack and Justin now behind playing catch up. It also meant with 2 out of 3 wins, Ian meant business.
Gadget immersed himself into the course at Tawd
Tawd Vale demanded maximum concentration from Kev Sayers
Can’t beat a bit of bling
With the start of the series behind us, the North West now had it’s turn in hosting the next Grand Prix. Tawd Vale is a venue that is familiar to many who’ve been on the Grand Prix circuit for a number of years, but despite that there is always something new to the ground to keep the course from becoming over familiar. Mixed with the open woodland of the main bowl, the course either punched tight corridors through banks of Rhododendron, or was stretched across exposed grassy areas. Luckily the high winds of last year that decimated the field weren’t present, but there was a stiff breeze and it created it’s own problems as it struck around the course.
• The likelihood of an accident occurring increases, and • A liability arises which falls upon the person or persons who are deemed to have been responsible for safety
In the next edition of CompAir, we’ll look at some of the ingredients that go into putting on a well-organised, enjoyable and successful FT/HFT competition.
Marshals can help in all sorts of ways - such as confirming that it’s just the 1 Point for plating the target
At the end of the day, our sport is all about fun and enjoyment, and the very best laid out courses, all the shiny trophies, and the prettiest gold badges amount to absolutely nothing compared to the safety and well-being of those who put their trust in you to run a safe and professional competition.
So, whilst not every accident is avoidable, you should ask yourself when organising a shoot whether you have done “everything that could reasonably be expected” to ensure that it is conducted in a safe manner. If the answer to that is yes, then you will not only have much less chance of ending up in court, you will also have the peace of mind in knowing that you have done your very best to prevent an accident, even if the very worst should happen.
Competitors have every right to expect the presence of a marshal to ensure that the rules are being upheld and that the shoot runs as smoothly as possible - even more so if the club has charged shooters an entry fee!
Safety considerations aside, a marshal’s responsibilities also extend to ensuring that a shoot is conducted in accordance with the various rules of the competition, as well as being on hand to deal with a variety of situations such as the re-tying snapped reset strings, checking called targets, and a myriad of other tasks.
You might think that the club’s liability insurance would take care of everything and would cover any financial obligation should the club be negligent. Whilst this is usually so and most insurers will meet claims for loss of life, injury, permanent disability, damages, loss of income, and so forth, what is less well known is that if it could be shown that the club has been negligent in any way then it is by no means unknown for the insurance company to seek financial redress from the committee members personally, or even from the landowner from whom the club leases their grounds! As David Ilsley of BASC explains “One of the quickest ways for a club to lose its shooting rights is to get its landlord embroiled in litigation with their insurers because the club has failed to conduct shoots in a proper and safe manner.”
With a purposeful stride and a target checker in his hand (at least that’s what he said it was!), Mr Chillingworth heads off to do his bit to ensure fair play
If it can be shown that insufficient consideration was given to safety matters, then the officers of the club concerned (regardless of whether they were even present at the shoot!) could all be held liable for failing to exercise an appropriate level of care for both its members and those visiting shooters. Safety is the responsibility of everyone, but particularly the shoot organiser, the club Competition Secretary, the Chief Marshal and his team, and all club committee members. As previously high-lighted, a club safety policy should be agreed and accepted by everybody holding such a position, and communicated to everyone concerned. Should you find yourself at the sharp end of an investigative tribunal, the last thing they will want to hear from you is that you thought safety was down to someone else!
Being approached by a well dressed young chap, David Nicholls wonders if it’s the man from Health & Safety......or Man at C&A!
How many clubs hold a briefing for shoot marshals? Not many, I’ll wager. The role of Chief Marshall goes way beyond quickly reading out the safety brief off of the back of a card and maybe checking a target if it is “called”. It is his/her responsibility to make sure that the team of marshals are fully briefed in advance, are all kitted out with hi-viz vests and whistles, and are made aware of any special issues such as slippery/muddy ground, trip hazards on the course, the use of 2-way radios, the spacing out of marshals along the firing line and the specific areas of the course that each will be covering. A marshal’s briefing is especially important if the shoot has any unusual aspects to it (e.g. 2 courses being shot in the same vicinity at the same time, requiring 2 different sound signals for stoppages and restarts such as air horns for the first course and whistles for the second one), or if people are undertaking marshalling duties away from the home club ground (as is often the case at FT Grand Prix or a round of the UKAHFT Series)
If your club is charging an entry fee for the shoot, then you may have to go even further; Dr Peter Marshall of BASC’s Sporting Services Department advises that any individual or club organising more than a handful of shoots each year should ensure that all marshals have received proper and adequate training. Certainly if an event is being run for profit or gain (as was the case with the above open shoot), then all marshals should have previously attended a recognised training course and have the appropriate certification to confirm this. BASC and the ATEO (the Airgun Training & Education Organisation) both run suitable courses.
Simply asking a club member to put on a hi-viz jacket and do a spot of marshalling could also land you in hot water. You need to ensure that any persons undertaking marshalling duties are suitably experienced, aware of the responsibilities that the role entails and have been briefed properly and in full by the Chief Marshal.
Marshaling duties don’t always mean you have to miss out on taking part in the shoot
Lewis Hodges vying for The Coolest Marshal of 2016 Award
Some pretty searching questions would undoubtedly be asked as to why a shoot was allowed to continue with no marshals present on the course and how that situation ever was ever allowed to arise in the first place. Suffice to say that the law takes a very dim view of such culpable negligence, when someone has acted without reasonable caution and in doing so has put another person at risk of injury or death. No matter how careful we are, accidents will sometimes occur but by ensuring that we do everything that can reasonably be expected of us in order to prevent an accident then the legal obligation to exercise a proper duty of care will be fulfilled.
More importantly, the fact that no marshals were present on the course at the time of the incident could successfully be used in court to show a lack of proper regard for safety considerations by the Chief Marshall and those other individuals involved in organising the shoot. This assertion would be backed up ill-judged positioning of the plinking range and by the fact that no mention was made at the safety briefing in the morning as to the times that it was open and available for use, nor was any signage put in place at other times to indicate that it was closed and should not be used.
In this example, whilst it could be argued that it is doubtful that the presence of a marshal would have prevented the accident, when the case went to court (as it almost certainly would have) the prosecution could equally argue that if one had been present then he/she would have been on hand to advise the shooters to take care in any muddy/slippery conditions, keep watch for safe practice (for example, not loading the rifle until the shooter was in the prone position, etc.), as well as being on hand to raise the alarm immediately by means of a walkie-talkie or whistle.
Failure to excercise due care and attention when organising a shoot can easily end up with you being in the dock
With any accident involving a firearm, the police will certainly want to talk to all those involved, and will call in either the Environmental Health Authority or possibly the Health & Safety Executive. The latter bodies will conduct detailed and in-depth interviews with the shooters present, the Chief Marshal (and very possibly all other marshals present that day), the club committee members, and the person or persons responsible for organising the competition. They will ask to see a copy of the club’s Safety Policy, and will pay particular attention to the sections in it that cover the organising and safe running of shoots and competitions. Naturally, your club already has this documentation in place?
Let’s look at some of the issues that might have arisen if the above hypothetical injury had indeed occurred, with particular regard to liability:
It’s all too easy (especially if you shoot most weekends) to become a bit blasé about the pre-shoot safety brief, or maybe a little too casual about where and when you take your gun out of its bag/case to show off your new scope to a fellow shooter – and by small increments such as these, little by little safety slips down the priority order. We’ve all heard the phrase “Safety first” time and time again but when it doesn’t come at the top of the list, two things happen:
Over the next few issues of CompAir Magazine, we’ll be taking a look at some of the aspects that go into running shoots both safely and successfully, but we’re going to start off by considering a few of the responsibilities that fall upon those involved in organising a shoot – and ramifications for those individuals should things go awry.
It’s all too easy to forget sometimes that whichever discipline of our sport you take part in, it involves the use of pieces of equipment that in the eyes of the law are classed as firearms. Our rifles might be under the 12ft/lbs limit that here in the UK negates the requirement for a Fire Arms Certificate to be held, but they are still weapons and have the capability to seriously injure or even worse.
Does this all sound a bit unlikely? Well, with the exception of the injured shooter and the subsequent investigations, all of the above actually occurred a few weeks ago at a shoot.
Also by this time, word of the incident had reached both the local press and national media, and both were busily rushing out vivid and lurid reports of the accident, and were collectively calling for the banning of guns or much tighter controls for gun ownership. 15 miles way, in his hospital bed, a guy was trying to come to terms with facing the rest of his life with only one eye……..
Fast forward 24 hours, and the Environmental Health Authority had become involved and begun their enquiries. The Police were continuing with theirs and were taking statements from witnesses to the incident, the club committee members and the Chief Marshall. Once accounts had been gathered in from all those involved, one thing quickly became apparent - when the incident had occurred there were no marshals on the course; those marshals that had previously been there had headed back to the burger van as soon as they had finished shooting their final peg.
Immediately, things went into overdrive - someone dialled 999, people rushed to where the incident had occurred, the call went out for any first aiders, junior shooters were ushered away from the scene, and about 20 minutes later the Police and ambulance crew arrived.
A competitor came running up to him in a state of distress; one of the last few shooters out on the course had slipped whilst getting down for his shot, and with his rifle already loaded and his finger on the trigger, had discharged his gun accidentally, hitting his shooting partner in the left eye.
By now almost everyone had congregated around the signing-in tent and the burger van, chatting away about how the day had gone for them, whilst waiting for the final scores to be totted up. There were just a few “stragglers” finishing off the last few lanes on one of the courses, and as soon as they were done, the winners’ trophies could be handed out, the targets packed away, and then it would be home for dinner and a well-earned glass or two of something nice. But then…..
Not only can he shoot a springer, he can also manage a spot of marshaling at the same time - what a talented chap!
Almost everything had gone well, apart from a few shooters using the plinking range when they shouldn’t have been. Normally this wouldn’t have been a problem, but due to an oversight by the course setters the far end of the plink backed onto part the shooting line of one of the HFT courses. This hadn’t been an issue during the pre-shoot practice session when the plink was open, but whilst the HFT course was in use, there was a slight chance that a stray pellet might have carried on past the end of the plinking range. Still, he’d put a stop to this and there’d been no harm done. Yes, a very good day indeed…..the rain that had been around early in the morning had cleared away, everyone seemed to be enjoying themselves, and the good turnout would ensue a very welcome addition to the club’s coffers.
The day was drawing towards the end of what, in the opinion of the Chief Marshall, had been a very successful one. His club had hosted an open shoot that had been very well attended; in fact, nearly 3 times the amount of competitors compared to last year’s event, with a significant number of visiting shooters from other clubs turning up on the day.
A full list of the day’s scores can be found HERE, along with the club league table after the first 6 rounds.
Not only did Charles’ score of 56 secure first place, it also helped Mile Oak come out as the top-scoring club on the day – quite a feat when you consider that they only fielded 5 shooters, so each of their scores counted towards the total! Continuing The Oaks trail of glory was springer supremo Chris Tyhurst, who with a magnificent score of 50 ended the day with the top boinger score.
With fewer number of shooters that normal and only a few brief stoppages, the shoot was done and dusted pretty swiftly, and the scores were swiftly totted up by Mr Mike Burgess and his trusty laptop. Whilst the new boots really did look fab, they were not enough to clinch the highest score of the day, with Charles Peal of Mile Oak Club just edging out Richard Chase once again by a single, solitary point; more homebrew obviously required.
Safety brief over, what had previously been just mild drizzle intensified and the bedraggled mob headed out for what would be a very soggy day on Ford’s concrete. The course was set out over 3 distinct areas – the western end of the runway, a section of copse somewhat kindly referred to as “The Meadow”, and a section of woodland beyond that. The stiff-ish wind added a considerable degree of spice to proceedings, especially as the general direction in which targets had been laid out varied in each section, meaning that shooters had to re-calculate how much to allow for windage as they progressed around the course.
At 46 entries, the number of shooters was lower than at previous rounds, partly owing to Round 6 clashing with the big UKAHFT Poppy Shoot at the Misfits Club which almost all of the Maldon regulars were attending, but what the day might have lacked in quantity of entrants it more than made up for in the quality of the course. I have never seen so many reducers at Ford before – I didn’t know they even owned that many; maybe Simmo has moved into the murky world of mini-kill target production and then set himself up as a dealer, selling them on to help other clubs so they in turn can inflict Buxted-style levels of pain and anguish on their own unsuspecting members?
Ford Club’s head honcho Richard Chase and his band of merry men had laid out what would have been a pretty tough course at any club, but throw in Ford’s traditionally tricky wind and a good dose of rain and this round was going to be no picnic. Obviously armed with some prior insider’s knowledge about the inclement conditions that were due to arrive on the day of the shoot, Richard had wisely invested in some brand spanking new boots for his club’s big day in the S.I.H.F.T spotlight and had high hopes that they would be the key to those vital extra few extra points, as he shamelessly pursued top shot glory at his home event for the second time this year. At the first round at Ford back in April, Richard’s magnificent score of 57 was eclipsed by some young upstart from Mile Oak Club, and he’s only just getting over the disappointment (by judicious use of potent homebrew and new footwear).
Round 6 marked the halfway point in the increasingly popular S.I.H.F.T. Series, with the second visit of the year to Ford’s unique ground that incorporates a section of the old (and now disused!) runway into the HFT course.
Young Abi Maw is putting in scores equal to or better than many of the shooters in the Open Class, and her’s is definitely a name to keep an eye out for in the future
Barbara Pearce from Iden Ferns club took the Ladies category by a solitary point
Mile Oak’s Aaron Friend went on to turn in a very respectable score of 57
Simon Williams is the self-appointed style consultant for Mile Oak club; Justin Rayner of Buxted is not wholly convinced that this is a good thing
Nothing like a nice supported kneeling shot to start the day’s proceedings.....
Many of the shots at Swallows were across the fishing lake, and presented some interesting and unique challenges
Mike Burgess’ safety brief caused Buxted’s Andy Simpson to turn to the bottle before we had even got started
Round 7 attracted 68 shooters, and they were rewarded with a great day’s sport at the Swallows grounds
The chaps from Swallows FTC had been very busy cutting lanes in the field section of the course - must have been hot work given the mini heatwave that we had a few days prior to the shoot.
Full results and scores of the day’s fun and games are available HERE
The remaining dates for your diary are Round 8 at Buxted on 7 August, Round 9 at Mile Oak on 28 August, and Round 10 at Horsham on 11 September. The season finale/fun shoot takes place on 9 October, though the venue is yet to be confirmed.
Once all the score cards had been returned and messrs. Peal and Burgess had fired up the latop, top honours were shared by 2015 HFT World Champion Vince Holland, Sam Robinson (making a welcome return to the sport), and our host for the day, Mike Burgess, all coming in with very creditable scores of 59. They were followed by a sizeable chasing pack of shooters with scores of 58 and 57. In the Ladies category, Iden Ferns shooter Barbara Pearce just eclipsed Maldon’s Jean Greatrix with a 51, whilst in the Junior Class Abi Maw’s score of 53 put many Open Class competitors in the shade – this young lady’s scores are consistently on the up, and she is surely a force to be reckoned with over the next few years. Pat Fitzgerald from Ford was the sole .22 shooter but also managed an incredible score of 53, and he must be a contender if he continues with this calibre in this coming winter’s Southern Hunters Series. Continuing the “53 theme”, Derek Watson from Horsham shared top springer slot with Buxted’s Nigel Wood.
Whilst there is no getting away from the fact that the frequent stoppages did become somewhat irksome, it was nonetheless a very enjoyable way to spend a Sunday morning. The banter was of an excellent standard (don’t mention that Graeme Cargan not only got a PB of 58, he also openly admitted to drinking Bailey’s Cream Liqueur – frequently! He’ll be “coming out” as a vegetarian next, I shouldn’t wonder), and the threatened rain held off – just!
Over the last few years many competitors on the HFT circuit have upped their game and the course-setters have followed suit; the result is that some courses have a very high degree of difficulty and it is not uncommon to see the top score of the day coming in at say between 55 and 57. The Swallows club has somewhat bucked this trend and has managed to achieve a level in the laying out of their courses whereby scores are often well into the upper fifties, but a clear round (though not impossible) is still very, very hard to achieve. It’s a welcome and refreshing change from some of the truly hardcore courses that other clubs sometimes set, and maybe the slightly more forgiving Swallows courses encourage and inspire shooters to try just that little bit harder, knowing that they might just clear the course or get a personal best score. Whatever the case is, it’s a very hard balance to achieve and yet Swallows F.T.C. do seem particularly adept at getting it spot on.
68 shooter booked themselves in for what is always a very enjoyable venue to shoot at. Mike Burgess and his fellow Swallows club members had put in Herculean amounts of hard work and effort over the previous few days in searing temperatures during a mini heatwave (otherwise known as “summer” in most other countries), and so you had to feel very sorry for them when they arrived to find that the course that they had so carefully laid out was “not how they had left it the evening before”. This was undoubtedly one of the reasons why 3 of the targets had to subsequently be pulled and for a higher than normal number of stoppages during the competition. After a hectic bit of checking and re-setting things various (including Mr Burgess employing the use of a sizeable fishing rod – don’t ask!), the course was back in some sort of order and we were ready to go…….
Fast forward a fortnight on from a very damp and soggy Round 6 at Ford to a warm and balmy Sunday at Swallows Field Target Club just a few miles along the Sussex coast for Round 7 of this year’s SIHFT Series……
So, all still to play for in every class and grade, the SWEFTA league certainly is a lively place again in 2016.
Dartmoor Marksmen are again making the HFT championship their own, but West Devon are doing a fine job of harassing them all the way 66 points behind. East devon figure again and have the chance to catch up as they only need 38 points to catch the West devon boys. South Dorset are a further 122 point back but have shown strongly of late, so you never know.
For the first time in many years East Devon have been knocked off the top by the new team from Avon Hawks. The Hawks currently enjoy a 32 point lead aded to at almost every shoot this year. Third place is presently held by Dartmoor Marksmen, with dark horses Duchy a mere 20 points behind.
Rudi Gerlach working at another springer title
Rudi Gerlach also occupies top slot in HFT recoiling, but ‘Springer’ John Martin is not going to let him off the hook easily and with only 8 points between them. Third place is presently occupied by John Farbrother, but as he only trails Springer John by 26 points, the top three could hardly be closer. Fourth place is held by Garry Marshall, but only because he is a few shoots down on the other guys, his average scores being up there with the best.
Gary Shuttlewood dominates the top of this new class, he currently has a perfect 600 having won every round so far, but I don’t think that will concern last years B class winner Louise-Claire Heath too much, as this young lady can really shoot, so if I were Gary, I wouldn’t be polishing that trophy yet. Louise-Claire’s dad Stuart only has a 20 point deficit behind his elder daughter with younger daughter Arianna 65 points behind.
Another regular performer Nigel Palmer holds top spot in HFT bb, but he only has a 10 point lead over Trevor Bray in second who in turn is being pressed by Tim Clarke just 3 points lower on the table. Tim has a slight breathing space with 100 point lead over Helen Walton. However a good shoot for Helen and a bad shoot for Tim could soon close that gap.
Paul Salmon is in a solid position in HFT A
Four shooter have a better than average chance in HFT A this year. Paul Salmon currently holds top spot and as a solid top scoring shooter Paul could be hard to dislodge, but he has Mark Donnelly only 10 points behind him and with the higher scores possibly in HFT, that is a pretty slim margin. Next up is that man Rob Meatyard again just 17 points behind Mark, but with his own pressure in the form of Bill Hartnoll a mere 7 points adrift. Exciting stuff with five shoots to go.
Julian Head is strorming the GP series
Tony Fouracres offers a novel way to get ahead
The ever familiar names of Tony Fouracres and Graham Murfin sit in the familiar places of first and second in Open class and as Tony has a comfortable 100 point lead over Graham things look all set at the top. However, there are two people set to upset the apple cart, third place man Jeremy Stamp, who having just won the class at the recent GP in Wales is gaining form and confidence as the season goes on. He may just be a little too far sbehind to catch Tony, but if I was Graham I’d be glancing over my shoulder, and if I was fourth place man Graham Noyce I’d also be looking over my shoulder, as despite some solid shooting this season Graham has Gary Shuttlewood just behind him and Gary’s change of kit from his Steyr back to his RAW TM1000 saw him take the class win at Duchy in some pretty adverse weather conditions. Open could yet be turned on its head.
John Farbrother battling in the springers
A string of class wins means Rudi Gerlach leads John Farbrother in the recoiling class, but like several of the other classes there are only 20 points between them at present, so things could soon change when dropped scores start to bite. Graham Tucker is little way behind the first two, but as he has Glenn Skinner only 2 point behind him, it is all still there to play for.
Simon Gliddon presently holds a comfortable 40 point lead over newcomer Scott Wood, but as Scott’s scores are improving at every shoot, Simon can’t afford to lift his foot off the gas. That said neither can Scott as he has Malcolm Hulak only 15 point adrift and with a dropped score or two that margin can soon disappear. Malcolm has a pretty comfortable lead over Lesley Oxbow Trim, but with a few more scores to her name Lesley could soon start to catch up.
Gary Widlake is returning to form
John Martin is happily leading B grade
Tony Crabb working the ProTarget in B grade
Returnee Gary Widlake has certainly made his mark on B grade this season. Gary has not shot for something like ten years, but you’d never know it to see his scores. He is presently bested into first by the rapidly improving John Martin, who has taken to pcp rifles like a duck to water already winning B grade at a GP earlier this season. These two are less than 1 point apart at the time of writing and I predict it will go right to the last shoot. Sean Rolston who is 20 points behind John and Gary is next on the table, a bad day at Duchy spoiling and otherwise excellent score line (remember what I said about dropped scores). Sean is not safe though as the old dog we call Tony Crabb is only 2 points behind, and when he has a mind to Tony can shoot with the best of them, so another pair to keep and eye on in the second half of the season.
Rob Taylor under pressure to retain A
It is all change at the top of A grade after the uncharacteristically wet shoot at Duchy. Martin Hammond has shot to the top of the table with previous leader Rob Taylor only 5 points behind. Both shooters are pretty evenly matched so far this year, so this one could run to the wire. Solid performer Nigel Palmer is never too far from the top and is presently occupying third spot but he has an on form Jamie Deal only 2 points behind him. I suspect we will see the same names at the top come the end of the season, but I’m not sticking out my neck to predict what the order will be.
Rob Meatyard lays waiting in AA
Steve Franklin is old school but all can still learn from him
With Simon Evans concentrating his efforts in Wales, Steve Franklin’s name is once again at the top of the table in 2016. However a change of scope and pellets has raised Mark Shepherd’s name up into second place. Mark is 45 points behind Steve, so there is some work to do if he is to catch up, but as Steve only has one win to his name this season and with some of the technically more difficult shoots to come at Buckley Wood, South Dorset, a return visit to West Devon and the equally exposed Shebbear still to come it could all change, especially as Andy Williams is only 2 points behind Mark and Rob Meatyard only 5 points behind Andy.
The second half of the season is always influenced heavily by dropped scores, so it could be all change across all the grades before the year is up. So who are the dead certs? The dark horses? The new faces?
Well, the SWEFTA season just reached around the half way point, I say around as with eleven shoots in the season, it is actually impossible to have a half way shoot.
Just a selection of the zero boards and spinners that Advanced Targets can offer
Advanced Targets make some very innovative air gun targets
Darren Lovett, the man behind Advanced Targets. Spinners can be custom made to your exact requirements.
A few weeks later I attended the famous Benefit Boys Summer Meet held at Richings Park, along with about 80 others and enjoyed a great weekend filled with good food, banter, and a range of different shooting competitions, all in aid of Help For Heroes Charity. A 30 shot HFT comp was held on the Saturday and a short 20 shot HFT comp was held on the Sunday, the latter with some very different mini-targets made by Darren Lovett from Advanced Targets. They were damned hard to see and even harder to shoot, but great fun and a great change from the norm. Darren also makes a fantastic range of different targets, spinners and bell targets, all at great pries and available to order direct from him. He will also make you any combination of spinners, target holders, etc. that you might have in mind; I have a very nice collection of Darren’s targets myself and can highly recommend them for any club or individual shooter. Just drop him a message here on Advanced Targets’ Facebook page.
The new club at Richings Park already boasts its own range of clothing
Enjoy your shooting whatever the weather
The success achieved by this new Club has been fantastic in such a very short space of time, and it came as no surprise to learn that Richings Park will be hosting one of the rounds of the Southern Hunters Series this Winter. I would personally like to congratulate my good friend Garry Brooks and everyone else who has been involved in setting up this brilliant new club. As I’m writing this I am writing this I am already planning my next visit Richings Park Airgun Club, and am once again looking forward to meeting up with some old friends, making new ones, and enjoying some more shooting and great banter.
A big kill zone but a target that could easily be missed tucked away in the shade of the tree’s branches
Sunday dawned and around 60 shooters from all over the UK turned up to support the club in their first ever HFT competition, including some of The Midlands lads that I shoot with, others from the forum and some of the lads from another newly-formed club, the Black Cats HFT Airgun Club (which I’m hoping to get an invite to visit soon from Davy Thomas – hint, hint!).The course was difficult but a fun one to shoot; range-finding was tough, especially on those lanes which started in open ground but had the target placed in dense, shaded woodland. You could really begin to appreciate that with the varied grounds Richings Park has how it is possible to lay out a different course every 2 weeks and for “event shoots”. Everyone who turned out for the inaugural event really seemed to enjoy the day and many will be returning for some more of what this new venue can offer. Everyone involved was rightly congratulated on staging what was a very successful first HFT event.
A tricky, slightly lofted target at Richings Park
So many range traps in woodland
At the time of writing, memberships are not currently available but they are in the pipeline. Day charges are £6 per day for adults, whilst children under 14 shoot free (though of course they must be accompanied by an adult); yet another good move by a new club to encourage younger shooters into our sport.
There’s a goodly amount of land for a variety of HFT courses to be set in both woodland and open fields, enough for two courses on an event day. Garry also showed me another wooded area that looked like a fantastic place for a possible third course in the near future. A 30 target course is set out every second and last weekend of each month, and the plinking range is open every weekend from 10am until late, as well as every Thursday in the Summer from 3pm. Clay pigeon shooting is also available every first and third Sunday of the month, if you fancy having a go at something different.
There’s also an area from which you can practice your unsupported standers
There is even a dedicated prone area on the plinking range - so no excuses therefore for not getting your zero bang on!
The view looking down the range
The 30 yard zeroing and plinking range
I was invited to come down for a weekend and shoot in the newly-formed club’s very first HFT Competition in May. As I don’t get many weekends off work and I had a new scope I was eager to try out (a Hawke Sidewinder TAC30 10x42), I decided to make the most of it and packed mine and Liam’s rifles, and off we headed for a lad’s weekend away. On the Saturday, Garry met me at the club and showed me the big changes since the time of my last visit; it’s not overly stating things to say that in a very short space of time, the Club had created a fantastic venue for airgun shooting. It boasts not one but two covered plinking ranges of 60 yards and 30 yards, with knock-down targets, spinners, bells and zero boards to shoot at. The 60 yard range also has a standing shooting area, and a slabbed prone-only area either side, for that much-needed practice of those dreaded positional shots. There is also a plan to install a covered, prone zeroing range out to 45 yards, to help you get all your aim points well and truly sorted and your zero absolutely spot on.
Something a bit different - an HFT-style bell target
The covered plinking and zeroeing area, complete with seats and bench
That weekend really gave me the “HFT bug”, and Garry kindly invited me down to a shoot later that year at Richings Park Clay Pigeon Club in West London. That was my first visit to the venue, and it was obvious that the site had great potential for big things to happen in the future. It didn’t take long for the ideas to start flowing, and in February this year, with the help of Mark Ramsey, Simon Reynolds, Scott Marshall, and Gary and Adam Domm (the 2 brothers who own Richings Park Shooting Club), Richings Park Airgun Club was formed.
Gary Domm and Garry Brooks
Looking down range; so many targets to choose from!
I have only been shooting for just under a year, and when I first started getting interested, I decided to join the Airgun Forum to get a bit of help and advice from more experienced people. After a bit of reading and a few questions, I was invited to attend the Forum Meet weekend the following month for my first taste of HFT, and it was there that I was first introduced to Garry Brooks. It was Gary who helped me set up my rifle correctly, took me round my first HFT course, and gave me a whole load of useful tips and advice during the course of my first shoot.
Full technical specifications for the scope are available on Nikko Stirling’s website, and you can see the other scopes available in the Panamax range on Uttings website – just don’t leave it too long in case they pull those special offer prices!
Whist it may be true that much better scopes are available for a few hundred quid more, if you are in the market for a reasonable bit of glass to go on your second rifle/back-up gun, or maybe looking for a decent scope for a youngster’s gun that won’t break the bank, then you could do a whole lot worse than the Nikko Stirling Panamax.
Setting the parallax at 27 yards seems to work for me
I set the parallax at 27 yards, and at this setting I am very happy with the depth of field that the scope gives me – enough blur at 40 and 45 yards (the maximum distance that targets are set out to for HFT competitions) to help me range-find, whilst still enabling me to make out the kill zones on the ones at 8-13 yards fairly readily. Having used the scope 3 times now in competitions, I’ve been seriously impressed with it– whilst the Panamax doesn’t quite measure up to the old Viper 10 x 44 scope (have you seen the sort of money that these scopes are changing hands for lately on the second-hand market, now that they are no longer available new!!), it really is a remarkable bit of kit for the money. If you can get your paws on one at the special offer price, then you will have bagged yourself an absolute bargain.
Magnifiction only goes up to x9, but that is enough for my HFT needs
Mounting the scope and getting it zeroed was very straightforward, with the turrets being very easy to adjust, as well as non-fiddly and (most importantly for me now that I have to wear glasses for reading) well-labelled. I had been recommended the Sportsmatch Dampa mount with an arrestor pin as being the best way of attaching a scope to a spring gun, and although a little pricey at around the £40 mark, I felt it was worth the extra investment.
The Sportsmatch Dampa mount was enough money at £40, but does the job nicely.
There are a number of models available in the Panamax range, and the one I opted for is also available with IR for an additional tenner, but as I have never used IR in 5 years of shooting HFT (maybe that could account for my rubbish scores??) I decided to save my money and sensibly invest it in beer. I had initially been tempted to go for the 4-12 x 50 model (£169.99, reduced to £109.99 by Uttings), but had decided that maybe this was just a little bit overkill for my purposes.
Now all I need to do is to learn how to shoot my new toy properly
The Panamax range is advertised as giving the shooter an extra 20% field of vision when compared to other 1 inch tube scopes, and Nikko Stirling list a number of other features including a half mildot reticle. Half mildots were “a must” for me, and the Panamax’s reticle is also very clean, simple, and unfussy. It would be fair to say that the whole feel of the scope is one of it being a workman-like, no frills, but very well-made, quality bit of kit. Not only was the field of vision more than acceptable, I was particularly surprised and impressed by the quality of glass that Nikko had used in this scope.
The half-mildot reticle on the Panamax is a no frills, uncomplicated one.
I recently acquired a Walther LGU springer that I’m intending to campaign in one of the popular HFT winter series, but was undecided as to what scope to put atop it. One of the guys at my local club had recently acquired a Nikko Stirling Panamax for his gun, and a quick look at this scope and a peek down the tube was enough to persuade me, especially when he told me that Uttings were doing a special offer with the RRP of £136.99 being reduced down to £89.99! Full marks to Uttings not just for this remarkable deal, but also for their online ordering and delivery. Their website was a doddle to use and the delivery by DPD was spot on; I received a confirmatory email and text telling me the day it would be delivered, and on the day of delivery I got another text and email that specified the exact hour slot and even the name of the van driver! The scope was very well packaged to prevent any damage whilst in transit, and the whole ordering and delivery process was silky smooth and very professional – unlike some of the online ordering horror stories that you sometimes hear of.
The Panamax has got to be one of the very best bargains out there at the moment
We’re well and truly spoilt for choice when it comes to the wide range of scopes available today, and so understandably there’s often a tendency amongst some airgun magazines to review the very latest, revolutionary bit of glass that the manufacturers come up with. Here at CompAir we prefer to tread a somewhat different path and so this month we’re taking a look at the Nikko Stirling Panamax, a scope that at first glance seems “very run of the mill”.
Well-made, robust and great value - the G.P.I Tactical Drag Bag from Optics Warehouse should be on every shooter’s shopping list
Although pricey at £14 + P&P, the raincover is an essential rather than an optional extra for any drag bag
and yet more storage pocket space!
The G.P.I. drag bag will comfortably hold 2 rifles, should the need arise.
The generous number of storage pockets will accommodate almost everything you need during a day’s competition
For further details and full specifications of the G.P.I. Tactical Drag Bag, visit the Optic Warehouse website. Raincovers can be purchased from AIM Field Sports.
Yes, you can buy a gun bag for a lot less than £70 – but previous experience has taught me that this can often be a false economy, and the majority of these cheaper bags seem to offer nowhere near the level of padding and protection that the G.P.I. does. When you consider the value of your rifle and scope, £70 seems a relatively small price to pay in order to afford both of these a decent level of protection, especially after you have put the hours in getting everything set up and adjusted to suit you perfectly. And that’s before you take into account the time and money you will have spent on travel and accommodation for some of the far-flung competitions that your might have entered – the last thing you want after having travelled hundreds of miles and spent a small fortune on petrol is to have a poor shoot because your gun received a knock in transit and the zero shifted - or even worse, have something get broken. The G.P.I. Tactical Drag Bag won’t guarantee that everything will always be hunky-dory, but it will go a long way to ensuring that things are where they should be and as they should be when you settle down to take that all-important first shot of the competition.
Nearly 9 months on, how is the G.P.I. bag standing up to the rigours of life on the HFT circuit? Pretty bloody well, I have to say! I’ve shot every weekend since Christmas apart from two Sundays off, as well as most Wednesday evenings since spring, and there is not a single sign of wear on the bag – it really does still look almost like new. There have been a couple of times when it has had two rifles in it (and one of them was my weighty LGU springer!) and yet everything held together just as it should.
When it arrived a few days later, first impressions of the G.P.I. drag bag were very good; it seemed very robust, had generous padding in all the right places, and more storage pockets than I could ever hope to fill. The only slight downside was that I quickly realised that I would also need to get one of those elasticated raincovers that go over the ends and underside of the bag. I had incorrectly assumed that the raincover was included with the bag itself, and somewhat ironically the only place that I could find these covers was AIM Field Sports! At £13.99 + P&P, these seemed to me to be exorbitantly priced, but what the heck - I’d already saved myself a packet on the bag itself and, daft as it sounds, the raincover is essential. Not only does it help keep things nice and dry inside the bag and keep the front “nose cone” of the bag in place, it also helps to protect it from a lot of the wear and tear that gun bags are subjected to in the course of their working lives
The bag was made by G.P.I. and had been bought from Optics Warehouse (the very same guys that get some cracking deals on some fab scopes), and the following morning saw my flexible friend doing what he does best.
Towards the end of last year, one of the guys I was shooting a competition with was using one of these tactical drag bags, and I remarked that much as I’d love one I couldn’t bring myself to part with the thick end of £150 for a gun bag. As it turned out, neither could my shooting partner; he’d bought his for less than 70 quid! The alarm bells in my head started ringing straight away – “It’s probably a cheap copy of the AIM bag and will end up in the bin by next winter”. But no, close examination of my partner’s bag showed it to be well-made, sturdy, and more than capable of hauling my pride and joy around a wet and muddy HFT course.
Over the last couple of years, the “tactical drag bag” style of gun bag has been seen more and more on both the FT and HFT circuits, with the one from AIM Field Sports proving to be particularly popular. The only thing that prevented me ordering one was the price – at nearly £145 by the time postage and packing have been added on, I felt that I could much more wisely invest this sort money in pellets and beer.
A decent bag for your rifle is an essential bit of kit – it keeps your gun safe and secure when in transit and whilst you’re working your way round the course, as well as holding all those other essentials that we take with us to a shoot, such as a shooting glove, water bottle, spare tins of pellets, your score card case, a pen, and loads of other bits and bobs. However, rifle bags tend to take a bit of a hammering and a cheap bag will do you no favours at all, often falling to bits in less than a year.
Everyone loves a bargain, especially when it’s connected to our favourite way of spending the weekend.
This issue we’re going to look at shimming. What it is, why we needed to do it, and why we not only no longer need to, and why we no longer should do.
Either of these routes should allow you to keep a scope at optical centre, within it’s adjustment range and probably more importantly, straight. That shim you’re now going remove can be safely placed in the bin. Or back into the photo album.
The second solution is to use a standard set of mounts, but to have a custom scope rail built with the desired inclination machined into the rail. Steyr supply a rail for this purpose, but it’s Picatinny which means using less common mounts. AJP Engineering as well as other engineers can offer rails with the more familiar dovetails though, and they can make the rail for the desired height as well.
The first one is the mounts themselves. For many years now adjustable mounts have been availa-ble. In the early days these were fiddly to adjust, but now there are sets on the market like the Sportsmatch ATP61’s which are only adjustable in elevation. At around £40 they’re not much more expensive than a standard set of mounts. These work by allowing the mounts to rotate and there-fore the scope to point more down the trajectory without the scope being forced into a bend. They’re very simple to setup, requiring just an adjustment of a single grub screw to get the desired angle. After a few shots the clamps can be tightened up and checked again. For those wondering if these will hold, Steve Privett, World Springer FT Champion uses them, as well as a set of riser blocks, with no ill effects.
But there’s a couple of solutions to this problem. Both aren’t as cheap as a bit of drinks can, but one isn’t much more expensive than the set of mounts you’re probably using already.
Here’s where the shim comes in. Traditionally bits of old drinks can, but anything including milk bits of milk cartons or film negatives, are shoved into the rear mount to elevate it. This has the effect of making the scope point more down the trajectory without any adjustment, meaning what was out of it’s reach may well be with grasp now. However this does have an impact on the scope. The more shim required, the more the rear part of the scope’s tube is held at a different height to the front part of the tube. It’s not so much bent as being forced into a zig zag shape, the two ends in the mounts level, and the bit in between bending to accommodate the difference in height. If that doesn’t have you wincing, then this might. If your scope is a side wheel parallax then it likely means the parallax assembly runs inside the front half of the scope’s tube, running back and forth along the inner wall surface. That means you’ve got a straight bit of tube trying to slide inside a bent bit of tube. Or worse, you now are bending the bit of tube that holds your expensive bits of glass. Adding several shims (i’ve seen 4 bits of film before) often has that side wheel going from slick and smooth to stiff and grabby. Just think what’s rubbing inside.
Sometimes this isn’t an issue, the scope may have a wide range of adjustment. However with a high scope height and a close target, it’s not unknown for an FT shooter to be dialing several turns of a turret. Besides the issue of remembering just how many turns they’ve done a more important issue is they may run out of travel. Another issue is shooters wanting to keep their scopes at opti-cal centre or away from their extremes of adjustment where over adjustment can cause damage.
But there’s a third factor, and that’s how high our scope is. As we’ve said, the close targets require holdover to compensate for the distance between scope and bore. But certainly modern FT shoot-ers are now tending to adopt a more comfortable ‘head up’ position and the scopes are rising off the bores by in some cases by several inches. In HFT with smaller scopes sitting tight to the bore, scopes are defeating the holdover of closer targets, but this means more holdover for longer tar-gets. So we now have more adjustment demand on the scope.
Moving back and forth from this zero distance requires us to adjust the turret or holdover to com-pensate for the new point of impact. Further out from the zero, we’re doing that because the pellet is falling more the further it goes. Coming back from the zero, we’re actually trying to defeat the dis-tance from the crosshairs inside the scope to the trajectory of the pellet. This is why close shots need a lot of holdover or adjustment clicks. Very close targets, 8 or 10 yards, require more than longer range 45 or 55 yard targets. This is the second factor, the range of targets we’re shooting at.
Lets get to what shimming is. This refers to the sliver of material put in between the lower surface of the scope and the rear scope mount, with the idea that this elevates the rear of the scope. Why do we need to do this? Well for a few reasons. Firstly that as soon as the pellet leaves the barrel it’s falling due to the effect of gravity. So as a scope in a standard set of mounts on a standard set of dovetail rails points parallel (or should do) to the barrel, the pellet is always falling down away from it. What we can do is adjust the scope’s elevation turret to coincide with that path. We cannot chose at what distance that is, that’s defined by the pellet’s trajectory and how high our scope is above it. But we can at least get a zero. Most scopes and guns are capable of this, and unless something is out of line a normal .177 rifle running at 11.5ft-lb will have a ‘zero’ at around 25-30 yards. So this is one factor. We’re adjusting the scope away from centre.
For a long time FT & HFT has been using kit that has been adapted to do the job. Guns and scopes and all manner of kit is rarely designed specifically for what we like to use it for so there’s a certain element of adaptation and customisation which runs through both disciplines. Indeed it’s part of the character of airgun field target shooting. But after a while what we used to put up with, or assume was the way to do things, may actually turn out to be more old hat than old school.
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As this edition of CompAir rolls off the digital presses just a day or so after what promises to be another epic weekend, it’s just a tad too late for us to bring you a full report on rounds 4 and 5, but you can catch up on the full results by visiting the UKAHFT website.
Connor McSherry and Laura Dickson will be slogging it out in the Junior 9-13 group, whilst in the 14-16 category Tom Willingham must surely be firm favourite to head up the placings. Meanwhile, the Ladies category looks all set for an intriguing 3-way battle between Joanne Cogger, Charlotte Edmondson, and Theresa Reed, a battle that really is too close to call.
At the time of writing, the Recoil Class has attracted just 8 entries but it that doesn’t mean that Perry Broad (who topped the springer category at rounds 2 and 3) won’t be facing some stiff competition from Matthew Smith and the rest of the field.
The .22 Class has attracted a few more entries than we normally see, including Nick Hopkinson and Ed Tandi who are both in with a very good chance of taking the top slot in this specialist category. The 2016 HFT World Champion Simon Howarth will also be breaking out the heavy artillery and joining in the .22 fun and games, and it’ll be very interesting to see how he gets on in the large calibre category.
The home team took the team award on both days in 2015- will Dopper & co. pull it off again this year?
Mike Burgess will be looking to extend his lead at the top of the Veterans Class, and based on his recent form you’ll only get very short odds on him doing exactly that.
In the Open Class, few would bet against the home crowd featuring in the top placings; Colin “Tugg” Wilson, 2015 World HFT Champion Vince Holland, Jennie Stone, Simon Vant, Alex Larkin, and of course, Richard Woods are just a few of the M.A.D. members who will be vying for honours on both days. Whilst home advantage counts for something, it is not everything and the likes of James McLachlan, Andy Simpson and Justin Grice will be doing their level best to make sure that the weekend doesn’t turn out to be a total “MAD-fest”.
So, let’s take a look at a few of the contenders who might be taking home some Essex silverware:
It’s not just a boy’s weekend away - the ladies of M.A.D. enjoying themselves at last summer’s shoot
The whole MAD weekend also lends itself very readily to a “boy’s (or girl’s!) weekend away” experience, with many arriving from Friday lunchtime onwards to get a good spot to pitch their tent on or park the camper van. Once set up, competitors can get some last minute practice in on the mightily impressive Maldon plinking range, or have a crack at the 30 target practice course that Richard Woods and his eager band of helpers set out.
A weekend away, a spot of camping, some cracking HFT courses, and the occassional beer - it has to be the M.A.D. double-header weekend!
Another factor that makes this weekend particularly attractive, especially to those shooters hailing from considerable distances away, is that you get to compete in 2 shoots. So, if you mess up on Day 1, the slate is magically wiped clean overnight and you’ve got a chance to redeem your self-respect the next morning - or not, as the case may be……
The course setters at MAD know neither fear nor shame when it comes to the positioning of some targets
The latter attracts competitors from all over the country (this year sees a very sizeable contingent from Scotland making the long journey down to Essex), and for several very good reasons. Of course the chance to shoot two top-flight UKAHFT spec courses is always an attractive proposition, but when you throw in a spot of free camping at M.A.D.’s grounds, hopefully some hot and sunny weather, and a liberal dose of post-shoot banter and booze, you can begin to see why this year’s event at the end of July had sold out long before anyone had even begun to think about dragging down the tent from the garage loft to give it an airing.
Over the last few years there have been a few HFT competitions that have become “must-do” events in many shooters’ calendars: the HFT Worlds would naturally be on the list, and of course the Air Arms Memorial RSN10 shoot in early September would also feature, as would the English Open, and then there’s the (in)famous UKAHFT double-header at Maldon…….
I would like to finish in the top 10 in the UKAHFT (as would everyone taking part!) and would also like to get the Southern Hunters Series ready to hand on to its next custodian in the next year or two. Aside from these, I will keep shooting HFT for enjoyment and as a great way to relax from the day job.
I may be biased but I think Lewis Hodges from The Oaks should be watched, whilst Tom Willingham from MAD seems to be putting in some excellent scores of late, and Abi Maw, a junior who shoots many of the SIHFT and SHS rounds and her scores are just getting better and better.
Naturally, there will be further advances and technical improvements in both rifles and scopes, but also in the area of the ammunition that we use. Improvements in pellet design and manufacture will continue to increase the improve the ease and accuracy of shooting, and so I can imagine that we will continue seeing kill sizes reducing / mini-kill ranges increasing, though ultimately it will still fundamentally about the shooter. We may also see more adoption of the class system currently in use in the FT discipline; the skill will be to maintain the different ethos of HFT v FT. On top of this, with HFT growing in other countries, the challenge will be to maintain open communication with the other national organisations to allow level inter-country competition.
Not really, it is already run by people who I believe want to control with a light touch. No one can keep everyone happy but just do what they think is right. If people are still enjoying it and coming to shoots then it is working, if numbers drop off then start to investigate and take a closer look at how things are being done. The Worlds booked up faster than ever this year and the UKAHFT season is fully booked for some of the rounds. Also, we had 120 people shoot the last round of the Southern Hunters Series this year, so it all looks pretty healthy.
It’s not really a truly bad thing but there are so many competitions today you can run out of time! I am just very lucky to have an incredibly understanding wife who seems happy to let me get on with it (or maybe she’s just a good actor!)
I just enjoy shooting, competitions, being outdoors, and meeting people – HFT provides all these and we get to visit some fabulous areas of the country. I like the relative informality and friendly atmosphere of the Sussex Interclub and Southern Hunters series but also have really started enjoying the UKAHFT shoots; the courses are always excellent and the competition very close, though having said all that 95% of competitors are there first and foremost to enjoy themselves.
My main competition gun since late 2011 is an Air Arms FTP900 with a Leupold Mk4 2.5-8 x 36 scope. I lightened / shortened the rifle with the original muzzle break and shroud removed, the hamster replaced with an ali one, and the stock cut down to allow me to shoot off the deck when possible
I have been shooting for about 40 years one way or another, but only started HFT when I joined Mile Oak Shooting Club in late 2009. My eldest son was doing his Duke of Edinburgh award and one of the options was Marksmanship; we called Mike Byford and he agreed to help Stuart through his D. of E. I have never left and have ended up as Mile Oak club secretary.
CompAir caught up with Charles for his take on the current state of the sport…
Charles Peal is a popular and well-known figure on the HFT scene, not least for being one of the people behind highly successful series such as the Southern Hunters and S.I.H.F.T competitions.
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