Imperial CSR nationals

The NRA CSR Individual and Team Imperial Matches are now over and after 5 days of excellent shooting at the Bisley and Pirbright Ranges there are many tired but happy CSR regulars already getting shooting withdrawal symptoms whilst they reminisce over the great time that they have just had. A very big thank you goes out to, in no particular order, Martin Camp, Fred Cooke, Peter Cottrell and Mark Bradley as well as all those who helped run the Butts and record the scores, however, the biggest thank you goes out to all the individual and team competitors who entered as without you there would be no CSR. Below is a summary of each of the 5 days shooting with a few of the provisional results.

Wednesday 24 June 15 - The Imperial Practical Rifle Match

A good turnout of far travelled shooters started the Imperial CSR Championships at Bisley on Wednesday 24th June with 68 competitors from across the United Kingdom and a committed regular entrant, from Denmark, who had an arduous 14 hour journey to get to Century Range for the Imperial Practical Rifle Match. Mandatory trigger weighing, safety catch checks and a safety briefing by the Range Officers preceded the first rounds down from 600 yards. A slight delay to the start of the match occurred as the first Butts Crew, and helpful NRA Target Shed Staff, had to do a little juggling to ensure that the full scoring areas of all targets could be seen as, unusually, we found ourselves shooting on the Left hand side of Century in Butts 11 and 12. The Practical Rifle Match traditionally is the first match of the Championships and is a standalone event that does not count towards the individual aggregate. Consisting of 10 stages starting at 600 yards all the way down to 100 yards and is a good opportunity to blow the cobwebs away and make sure everything is working as expected at the start of the week. The sky was blue and the sun bright with reasonably consistent wind blowing from left to right, not something that we regularly get over the Winter League so there was, as expected, some very good shooting. However, the much prized 10-Wash scores for each practice did not start to appear until everyone reached the 300 yard line as the wind did take its toll at 600, 500 and 400 yards. The PR Match has certain elements that we don’t usually practice such as magazine changes that add to the challenge including the engagement of targets in a specified order, so there is ample opportunity to make a procedural error that will result in the loss of points if penalties are awarded, so you have to think as well as shoot and it’s very important that you know the course of fire as mistakes are costly. Everyone who entered seemed to enjoy themselves even given that there were 4 advances where the shooting either preceded or included a 100 yard dash from one firing point to another in 45 seconds and no sprained ankles or twisted knees.

Thursday 25 June 15 – The Short Range Matches

The number of competitors for Thursday’s matches increased as the CSR contingent headed over to the Military Ranges at Pirbright to shoot the Urban Contact Match (UCM) on Nelson Range and the Short Range Matches on Hutchings Range. The facilities at Nelson are excellent and they allow up to 30 shooters to fire at the same time in the fast and dynamic UCM which has turning targets exposed at 100, 75, 50 and 25 yards as the match proceeds. The range layout can provides a challenge as it is notoriously a very easy range to cross lane shoot on and there were plenty of points lost by several competitors who were caught out, nevertheless there were some outstanding scores in the high 170s and mid 180s. The UCM can be a difficult and any slight error in sight settings or point of aim can cost you dearly as the targets uses pistol scoring rings. For the afternoon we all headed over to Hutchings Range which is very familiar to those who shoot the Falling Plates, a 24 lane Converted Gallery Range recently upgraded with SARTS, we stuck to the traditional wooden veneer targets in Hythe Frames. The Short Matches consist of practices at 100, 200 and 300 yards and thankfully there was no running involved. Things ran relatively smoothly but there was a problem on one practice where there were several protests about the target exposure timings and that resulted in a reshoot for the whole detail. A well sheltered range with tree lines either side, the breeze had little effect and there were, as expected, many 10-Wash scores achieved at 200 and 300 yards in the prone elements particularly in the Practical Optic Class were there will have to be a tie breaking shoot for the 300 yard matches as five competitors shooting a HPS in each practice. It seems to be getting hotter and the days longer but the best was yet to come as we all returned to Century Range on Friday for the Long and Short Range Rural Contact matches.

Friday 26 June 15 – The Long and Short Range Rural Contact Matches

On the hottest day of the year so far the 3rd day of the Championships took place on Century Range with another good turnout of over 80 competitors taking part in the Long and Short Range Rural Contact Matches. Although it was going to get hot later on the first two details shooting the long range match had no wind to worry about as the air was cool and still until later in the morning and the resulting scores showed some edge had been gained, however, CSR is a long game and one good shoot is not going to make you the Champion as you have to be consistent and avoid bad shots. The NRA Media Team was in attendance and was busy interviewing, filming, recording and taking pictures so there was plenty to see on the NRA Facebook pages. There were some very good scores achieved and some consistently good shooting from the front runners.

Saturday 27 June 15 – The Rural Contact Match and NRA Falling Plates

The final day of the individual NRA CSR Championships again took place on Century Range with all still to play for. Several shooters in each class were within only a few points of each other so the Rural Contact Match demanded concentration and focus as any errors could mean a drop in the contender’s placing. A six practice match with sighters only given on the second to last practice required the shooters to get their wind estimates correct from the start, and the wind on Saturday was not being kind as it fish tailed from left to right. In a tightly shot match everyone shot reasonably well and at the top the placings remained the same with the overall winners of each class leaving the range relieved and tired after four days of intense shooting. The individual NRA Imperial CSR Class Champions for 2015 are as follows:

Historic Enfield J B Drummond 562

Iron Sights G Ellis 939

Practical Optic J Morgan-Hosey 1132

Service Optic P Cottrell 1125

Finishing reasonably early allowed many of the competitors to take a break and relax before heading over to Pirbright Ranges to take part in the always exciting Falling Plates knock-out. Two classes are shot: Modern and Historic and, after a running order draw, the knockout consisted of two teams running against each other with a hectic sprint from the prone position at 300 yards to the firing point at 200 yards where the teams throw themselves onto the ground, make ready and then engage the 10 steel plates in a box in front of the mantlet, the team knocking the plates down the quickest going through to the next round. There were more ‘Historic’ class teams this year than in the ‘Modern’ class and that might have been because they have the benefit of only having to run 30 yards but nevertheless their shooting skills were just as good as it’s pretty hard to hit the 12 inch square plates with a 100 year old iron sighted rifle. There was plenty of media coverage and if you look on the NRA Facebook pages there are lots of images and clips of the various teams taking part. Congratulations to the London Practical Shooting Club who fielded the winning teams in both classes.

Sunday 28 June 15 – The NRA Civilian Methuen Matches

A very popular team event, the Methuen comprises of teams of six shooters shooting the Short Range Rural Contact Match course of fire with each team allocated two lanes so that there are three details and the team members shoot in pairs with wind coaching and time calling allowed. There were 13 teams this year 10 shooting in the Modern Class and 3 in the Historic Class and as always the competition was tough. In the Modern Class the Highpower Rifle Association, who were last year’s winners, fielded a strong team but were up against well practiced and determined teams from the London Practical Shooting Club who had entered four teams. An error in this match can be costly and a few silly mistakes by the HRA lost them much needed points early in the match so the LPSC ‘A’ Team, who were on top form, took an early lead which they held allowing them to reclaim the trophy for 2015 finishing 24 points ahead on 1351 over the runners up with 1327; that equates to four more points per team member which over a fifty round course is not a great deal showing that lack of mistakes and consistency will always give you the edge. The Historic Class was won by the Lee Enfield Rifle Association ‘A’ Team on 878 who beat the Mars and Minerva Shooting Club by 307 points and the LERA ‘B’ Team who were 2 further points behind.

To sum up it was a fantastic week and there were plenty of smiling faces at all the prize- givings showing that everyone enjoyed themselves immensely. It is encouraging to see people returning every year and also seeing many new faces which only goes to confirm that the CSR is popular and growing.

CSR 2015/16 Winter League

The Winter League matches recommence on Sunday 4th October 2015 and will again run through to April 2016 detail are on the NRA Website.

Historic Service Rifle Match

There is a Historic Service Rifle Match on Saturday 3rd October 2015 details are on the NRA Website.

CSR Introductory Courses

The NRA will be running a series of CSR Introductory Courses over the Autumn and Winter for new competitors and those already shooting who are seeking some excellent coaching. Details are available from Shooting Division and the NRA Website.