Round 1.

Steve L has launched the rifle competition with a highly respectable 19 but Alex C has thrown his hat into the ring with a 17.  Given that both guys are good shots, it's interesting to see that Steve's 100 year old BSA Granny has outshot a Venom HW77. 

After many delays, Bri has finally shot at a target with his HW30S.  Tuned/optimised for exactly this type of work with a shortened spring and delrin guides, a buttoned and sleeved piston, polished sears and match trigger blade, hamster, adjustable butt pad, diopter sights and raised mounts, it turned in an 18, one behind Steve's bog standard, telegram from The Queen, no frills Granny gun.

Dismissing the thought that Steve might be the better shot as preposterous, it seems that (spring) airgun design was defined 100 years ago and everything since has just been interpretation.  Looks like the light weight, balance and simple but effective sights of classic British Steel works better at these short ranges than the heavy Teutonic field piece or Carlos Fandango'd featherweight gun. 

14/5/20 update.  Another two shooters take part.  Stef G had a crack with his scoped HW97.  Finding that the scope wouldn't focus down to 6m, he extended the range to 10m.  Not something anyone envisaged when drawing up the few rules we have but shooting at a longer range is hardly an advantage.  Quite the opposite, I'd think.  He got a 15 and will doubtless improve on that. 

Moving from heavyweight field gun to lightweight plinker, Stoof thumbed his nose at peepsights and scopes, grabbed an ageing HW25 with opens and shot our second 20 at a more conventional 6m.

Keep up the good work, gentlemen.

Round 2.

However, it's not all going Steve's way.  Perhaps he's given himself a handicap to stop the German gun shooters crying but his second round score of 17 has evened things out a bit.  Still in the top spot though. 

Alex did not take the matter lightly and, in a prescient moment 35 years ago, he built his garage with this competition in mind and has been working towards victory since 1985.  His solid 19 puts him on level pegging with Steve.

And, either heralding a perfect 20/20 score or setting himself up for a massive and embarrassing fall, Bri has been experimenting with different rear aperture/front sight element combinations.  An all too brief practice today definitely points towards a car crash but stranger things have happened.

And it was neither a trainwreck or a triumphant clear round - 19.  Enough to grab pole position though.

Who's going to start Round 3?  And it's not too late for anyone else to get stuck in - get shooting and get some cards in!

15/5/20 Update.  Stoof has put in a 16 with his dinky HW25.  Averaging 18 so far and in the running. 

And the answer to that would be SteveL.  Foregoing the Brummy classics, he shot a 19 with his newly acquired HW30S taking him back to the top of the table again.

Alex - are you going to let this stand?

Obviously not - a new trigger blade later and we've got our first 20/20.  Enough to knock Steve down a notch and claim 1st place.

Good shooting Alex.  Keep up the practice though as rumour has it that hotshot Stef is about to enter the ring.

The Planets aligned enough for Bri to shoot a card.  If only his eye and sights had aligned as well - 18.  Stoof, making up for lost time, also racked up an 18.  And, at the time of writing, that puts the first four shooters within a two point spread. 

Round 4.

Then Stoof has to go and upset everything by putting in a 4th round score of 19 to take the lead.

Some people...

Not standing for that are Mr L and Alex with a 20 and 19 respectively, both nicely lined up for an assault on the top spot.

And an 18 for Bri which well and truly undered his whelm and left Steve and Alex unchallenged in the Top Two places.

Round 5.

First to shoot all five rounds is Stoof.  As I write, his 19 has put him top of the tree but, due to his (comparatively) low scoring second round, he's looking vulnerable to the slightly sharper shooting duo of Alex and Steve.

Yep, definitely vulnerable as Alex has shot a 19 in his final round to climb into pole position.  However, he can still be beaten by Stef, Steve and Bri if they all get perfect scores.  However, Stef's forte is Target Pistol and Bri has forgotten how to shoot so it might be all down to Steve.

And, news just in as I write this, Steve has just gone and shot a 20 - King of the Castle!

And finally - Bri reaches Round 5!  Still hasn't shot a perfect 20 as his 19 demonstrates.

Round 6.

Due to hardly any demand, the competitions are being extended past five rounds.  Let's consider Rounds 6-10 as a separate Comp. from the first five. 

Clearly not satisfied with coming out on top of the first five rounds, Steve L and his trigger finger are itching for more and scored another 20 with his peep sighted HW30.

Gentlemen, are you going to let this sort of behaviour go unchallenged? 

No, is the answer to that - Alex C and his FWB 124 will not stand idly by and let Steve go without a fight.  His replying 20 is clearly a declaration of war and a sign that the following rounds are going to be closely fought.

And a belated entry into the second phase of this competition for Bri sees him remove himself from the front running with an 18.

Round 7.

Steve L has just notched up his fourth 20 in a row.  And the shots were quite central on the targets - no sign of any of them worrying the outer lines.  The fear is that he's getting a taste for this.  Will he be buying a full-on 10m target rifle?  And all the funny glasses and leather gear that go with it?

Time will tell. 

In the meantime, Alex seems to be hitting his stride with yet another 20.

It's looking like a two horse race - time for Stoof to pick up his gun again? 

Round 8. 

Somewhere along the line I missed out one of Steve's scores.  Caught up now but it doesn't really matter as it was another boringly excellent perfect 20.

And what is it about Round 8 that's causing things to go astray - the picture of Alex's latest card (yet another boringly excellent perfect 20, yawn...) got lost somewhere between my inbox and desktop.  What's important though is that Alex has his eyes on the prize.

Could there be a dance-off to decide the winner? 

Round 9.

Hold the front page as Steve has dropped a point!

A 19 means that he can be beaten - Alex, get yourself to your garage range now!

Wow - Alex's scores are mirroring Steve's.  Is he using Mr L as a role model by shooting a 19?  Maybe he dropped a stitch to avoid angering the Gods of Shooting with a perfect score.

All eyes on Mr C to equalise in Round 10.

Round 10.

Bouncing back from the total and utter disaster of the previous round, Steve has shot another 20 for a total of 99/100.

And, in similar fashion, Alex has shot another 20 leaving both shooters on 99/100.

Clearly, some form of tie break is required.  An interpretive dance followed by axe throwing and finishing off with the swimsuit round perhaps?

Or...

One round of 10 shots at 5p size targets.  Colour in the circles and any hole touching the target is one point.

Best of luck, Gentlemen. 

The Tie Break. 

Somewhat disturbingly, both Steve and Alex were very, very keen to get into their Speedo thongs but, as a humanitarian gesture in these troubled times, we're not going down that route.  Instead, they're going to shoot at targets like this - a 5p size circle with no outer embellishments.

Colouring in the inside of the circle to aid visibilty is permitted but not anything outside which would favour a peepsight over opens - let's have a level playing field, chaps.

If the pellet hole touches any part of the bull then that's a point.  A miss will obviously be a zero.

One round, 10 shots - may the best man win.

Well, that didn't go as planned.  Despite making the targets smaller, both Alex and Steve got perfect 10s and we're back to level pegging.

Is another tie break in order?  Competitive knitting or arm wrestling perhaps?

                                       7/9/20

The Rules.

Any air rifle, any calibre.  Use a carbine stocked pistol if you like.  Any sights except lasers.

6m(ish) range.  Note the "ish" bit - get as close as possible to 6m but a little under won't cause problems.

Don't take the *ish with 3m or less though. 

If you're using a scope and can't get it to focus down to 6m, it's ok to extend the range a bit.

Standing and unsupported.  Could make an exception to the unsupported bit for Russ if he promises to be rubbish.  

Using a 10p coin, draw 10 circles on a sheet of A4 or similar like the pictures at the top of the page.  Colour in the circles for visibility if you like.

One shot per circle.  Two points for cleanly inside, one point for touching any of the circle edge, zero for a miss.

Write your name, date, the word "RIFLE" and gun used on the target.  Take a pic (include the rifle if possible) and either post it on the GARC Forum page

 https://garc.freeforums.net/thread/107/garc-postal-pistol-rifle-competitions

or zap it to Bri at garcweb@outlook.com.