Category Archives: Competition

McQueen Pairs

Well that was fun and we will certainly do that again. Thanks to those who turned out and helped run the shoot. It was a great way to spend a sunny sunday morning. Not too many shooters so we all had a good blast. It was a bit of a confusing event to shoot and there was some fast decision-making and confusion with targets popping up in pairs.

You have to agree with your partner who is taking the higher/lower or the left and right shots and even then the blur your partners bullet made you realise you had to shoot at the other target and so a fast switch was required all within 3 seconds. Anyway it was a good event and lots of fun. Next time we run it come and have a go. There is a club gun and we had plenty of ammo.

The hardware present was impressive but unless you get the shooting on the correct target then the overall score didn’t make the grade as you were only allowed 10 scoring shots on each target.

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The scores are on the results page. Don’t pay too much attention to the individual scores as you didn’t necessarily shoot every shot at the same target. It’s the overall that counts.

See you next time for the Service Rifle.

Program Revision

The delays in building the pavilion mean we have had to shift the program around a bit. Shoots that were published as being at 600 yards have been amended to 500 yards until we can get 600 up and running again.

A revised program has been uploaded to the relevant page but a copy can be found here:-

2014 Shooting Calendar Post Revision

We will probably switch some back to 600 once we know when we will have the firing point ready. So note the revisions and keep an eye on the web site as we may amend the distances back when we can.

We are currently waiting for the piles to be installed then the base can be prepared and then the pavilion built. We have been promised that the piles will be fitted next week but don’t count on it.

See you at the McQueen on Sunday.

McQueen Pairs – Sunday 3 August

A note to all to clarify this forthcoming event. We trialled this at the Christmas Shoot and it seemed to be fun so we are doing it again – and why not!

It is shot with one McQueen Castle (per team) with two targets and two shooters. Targets are exposed simultaneously and the shooters have to decide who takes which target.

So you have 10 rounds each and no more than 10 hits on each target per detail. If there are more than 10 shots on a single target then you lose the highest scoring shot on that target.

Work it out with your buddy who will take each shot and don’t double up on a target – all in 3 seconds. The maximum score is 50.10 per target making a total of 100.20.

It’s not as difficult as it sounds and when we did it before it was great fun.

The club rifle will be available but it would help is members would share their rifles as there is only one club gun. Shoot with your mates and as its only a fun shoot. There will be no drawing random names out of a hat as it gets too complicated with latecomers.

It is a labour intensive shoot so expect to have several trips to the butts but we should be able to swap round fairly quickly.

Remember its supposed to be fun so enjoy yourselves and remember to lend a hand with the organisation. Briefing at 9.20 so don’t be late.

 

The Kirby Cup

The above competition is this Sunday and we have a couple of notices to inform you about.

Due to the absence of a 600 yard firing point the competition instead of being 2 x 7 at 3/5/6 will be amended to 2 x 10 at 3/5. This will make it easier to run and a better shoot in the circumstances.

On the subject of running it we are very light on committee members available this weekend for a variety of reasons. So our President Graham Arthur has kindly agreed to oversee the event and he will be supported by Malcolm Dalgleish and Greg Box who will cover the Range Officer duties. Tim Hammond will be on hand to sort out Target 4 (battle damage) and ensure the targets don’t play up. We (me especially) are extremely grateful to these members to step up and ensure the shoot could go ahead. Remember the club is run by volunteers not paid officials.

In general we rely on a very small pool of people to run things so going forward we would be grateful for any help we can get. With this in mind I have created a list fo general duties we have to cover in a day and how to set up the range. It may help you understand what needs doing, how it gets done, and perhaps volunteer for some of it from time to time.

Notes on Task Range Operation and Tasks

With regard to the ongoing saga of the George Arnold Pavillion we are currently waiting for a contractor to fit the necessary piles to the build site so we can lay the foundations. They are apparently overloaded with work so we are waiting in a queue. This, I am told, is the reason for the hole in the ground remaining unfilled! We will have to move some of the shoots around for the latter part of the year as a result so we will keep you informed.

Have a good shoot on Sunday and Give the range staff a hand, (Please)

McQueen and Kirby Cup

The McQueen was shot today in superb weather. The results are on the relevant page (if you think I have got yours wrong then let me know.) No prizes for guessing the top shooter. The first score of the day set the standard that was unbeaten (50.10 – no practice, just the two sighters).

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As regards the next event (the Kirby Cup) we have a manpower shortage. Due to a variety of reasons our usual range staff have other commitments and cannot run the shoot. Our President Graham Arthur has offered to oversee things but he cannot manage the event single handed and we need some help from the membership for this and other shoots in general.
We would like some volunteers to step forward and help run the Kirby Cup and to assist with other shoots in the future. The duties would include early arrival, setting up the targets, face changes range officering and putting away/locking up. We really have too few people to do these things and would like some more volunteers to help. The committee are volunteers and cannot always be available.

The Kirby Cup is a particular problem but in any event some more help with Range Management would be much appreciated. So please offer to help (in advance) and we can run the shoot.

In general we would like to increase our pool of members who can assist with shoots and turn up on a regular and reliable basis.

So offers would be appreciated so the event can go ahead.

Pavillion Update – The watertable is still too high to dig the foundations so we are waiting for the contractors to install the necessary Piling so the build can get started. I dont have any more information than that but if you want more then please contact Frank Roberts or George Cotton.

Membership update

I have been carrying around the membership cards all year and out of nearly 100 members I still have at least 35 who have not been to the range this year!  One of them is for a member who made a huge fuss when I mentioned we may scrap having membership cards!

 

Knight Cup & Gellibrand Shield

A small but perfectly formed gathering on a glorious but breezy day at the range. The weather was hot but the cooling breeze played havoc with some of the scores. Well they did mine at least. We kept all the TR shooters on the same details wherever possible so there were no complaints about muzzle blast etc so hopefully we can persuade some more TR shooters along to the next TR shoot in a months time.

The next shoot is a modern McQueen and we may well have a pairs stage if enough people want to take part. so have a think about that.

I should have taken a photo of the range but I didn’t think about it until most had gone and I was walking back from packing the butts away. But by then the flags were still not like the usual pointing in all directions of earlier in the shoot. There was a deer grazing at 200 yards so at least some of the neighbours didn’t mind the noise.

The results page has been updated.

 

 

Service Rifle 3 & The Devon Tankard

Nice day and a decent turn out given the competition with the Phoenix meeting over at Bisley this weekend. Sensible folk came to Dorking and avoided the extreme temptation of all those lovely toys for sale. (Remember the quickest way to double your money is to fold it in half and put it back in your pocket)

So a pleasant shoot in fine weather and a good time was had by all (well I think so).

The results are on the relevant page. Enjoy.

The next shoot is the .22 Devon Tankard that is for .22 Target Rifles at 200 yards. We don’t always have much of a turn out for this. Epsom are intending to field a team so to make it worthwhile for them please let us know if you intend to come and support the event. Experience has shows that you need to be grouping in the centre of the electronic targets for them to register a .22 so check your zero. If it looks like there will be no takers for this shoot we may have to cancel it and if this is the case we will post a notice on this site.

Modern McQueens

Another successful shoot. We had a bit of rain dodging but nothing too bad. Having three McQueen targets got everyone enough shooting and off the range before the heavens opened at 1pm. The competition was tough at the top with three scores of 50.8 in first place. As two of them were from Mr Clarke of Sporting Services fame then I (the other 50.8) conceeded and declare Graham the winner of this years Modern McQueen Event.

We have another McQueen shoot later in the year and I think a Pairs shoot is called for so find a friend and work out a strategy for how you intend to work it.

The next shoot is a TR comp so I hope to see all the TR shooters on the point and we will keep the muzzle brakes away from you!

The results are in the usual place

Improvements

We are always busy improving things for you so check out the photo section for some of the recent changes. These Include:-

A new Roof for the Target shed. It is a short term repair as the old roof was literally falling apart and bits of the front had fallen off -aside from the bullet holes in it (Zero Your Rifles!).

We will be undertaking a complete rebuild of this part of the range as our next major project but we have a number of technical issues to solve before we can proceed. It is not as easy as it sounds. We have added some steps up the side of to the roof of the target shed so it can be easily and safely accessed without going up the dodgy ladder. The steps are at the flag pole end of the shed.

We have also filled the void between the front sleeper wall with sand to try to stop rounds penetrating the double sleepers and damaging the now repaired roof (Zero Your Rifles!). When you miss the target the rounds end up somewhere and often this is the sort of damage we are now having to repair. If you look at the photos page you can see on of the target numbers full of holes!

The next repair is some additional sand going into the butts bank next week. We have added some and need to add some more as well. This is again a temporary measure as the butts need some rebuilding as well.

Visitors will have noticed some new safety signs around the range as well with some more to be added. Everyone has to be safe.

And finally if you looked at the photo of the sand filled front wall you may have noticed a third McQueen target as well. We have two McQueen shoots next month and as these are popular we will be running three targets so there is less waiting for a go. The first shoot is at 200 yards, all welcome but the trophy is for classic sniper rifles and the second at 300 yards is for modern rifles. If you are not sure of the difference then see the ‘what you need to shoot with us page’ for some guidance. The course of fire is on the course of fire page. We do need some help with this shoot so don’t forget to lend a hand. We have another McQueen shoot in the program and previous experiments  have shown that shooting in pairs is fun so we may try that.

The Hut build is still held up by the wet ground as the footings fill up with water at the moment. Luckily the engineers will sort that out.

The next shoot is Service Rifle and the course of fire is .. well no it isn’t on the course f fire page as I haven’t written it yet. Ill get right on it and post it soon. (Update – its there now!)

Enjoy the good weather, renew your membership if you haven’t already and we will see you on the range soon.

And Finally thanks to all who make things happen on the range and do so much work to keep it all going forward. You know who you are and we cant do it without all of you.

The Penguin

Well a fantastic day for shooting. The ground is drying out nicely and with the new equipment benches the mud is no longer a problem. We had a great turn out and most of us had too many layers and overheated It is march but felt more like June!

The top shot was Rob Bennett who put in a 44 with an SMLE at 300 and a 50 (with a 7.62) at 500. That sort of shooting with a 99 year old rifle is hard to beat so well done to Rob. The main shoot was a Team match against Horsham who by fielding Rob managed to scrap the lead over the home team.

Well that’s a bit of a fib but hey I write the blog. Horsham got 485.31 and Dorking got XXX no I cant say, oh well 414.15 so they thrashed us. Still everyone enjoyed themselves except one – see the photo below. Serves him right for digging up our firing points!

Results on relevant page

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