Friday, May 21, 2010

Fredericton Centennial Match

We will be firing the Fredericton Centenntial Match tomorrow Sat-22-May-2010 at Batouche Range, CFB Gagetown, starting at 09:00 (please show up by 08:30 to set up the range and register for the match).  The course of fire will be 2 sighters and 10 on score at 500 metres, twice, and then 2 sighters and 10 on score at 600 metres, also twice - so 48 rounds for the day.  Our match fee is still $20.  Match director is Daniel Chisholm.

Please see our schedule (link) for the rest of our matches.

Since this is still early in the year, I will have some RNBRA membership forms with me at the range.

Also, please remember that next weekend's match the RCR Centennial (Sun-30-May) has been moved to St. Antoine Gun Club.  It is also a 500m & 600m match.

Last weekend's Intro Level Circle Training at St. Antoine worked out quite well.  We had ten people on Saturday day and eight people on Sunday, including three brand new people.  It seemed to me that having the second day was really quite helpful, I think everybody on day 2 ended up building very well on day 1's work.  I was so pleased to see that the new guys really caught onto things quite quickly, and by day 2 seemed to really "get" the various judgements and involved in fullbore shooting (seeing a group form shot-by-shot, centring it up, making educated guesses about what the group, wind indicators and shooters' calls might be telling you, etc).

For those who have never been to Batouche Range before, here's a google map link.  If you click here a larger view, you can then click on "Driving directions to Batouche Range" for a blow-by-blow driving directions from Hwy-7/Exit-303.



View Batouche Range in a larger map

Monday, May 10, 2010

Intro Level Circle Training 15&16 May

EDIT 17-May - We had a pleasant and successful event, ten shooters on Saturday and eight on Sunday.  Having two days back-to-back was quite helpful, on Sunday we got to build quite a bit on Saturday's experience.  St. Antoine is a beautiful facility, I'm looking forward to shooting there again later this month at the RCR Centennial Match 30-May (500m & 600m).


There will be two "Circle Training" events this year.  The first one is this coming weekend, Sat-Sun 15-16 May, and will be held at the St. Antoine Gun Club.

This will be an "Introductory Level" event; it will be straightforward for everyone, including complete beginners, to participate and get something useful from it.  The other Circle Training event on our schedule (5-June) will be an Advanced Level one, which will require either that you have a fair bit of experience with team shooting, or you have taken this Intro Level and are keen to keep going.

THIS EVENT IS A FANTASTIC OPPORTUNITY TO LEARN ABOUT SHOOTING; almost all of our shooting days are individual matches, in which coaching while shooting is in progress would be considered to be cheating.  This is NOT A MATCH, and is not only a great opportunity for brand new shooters to try outdoor centrefire target rifle shooting, it is also one of the few opportunities for competitors to sit back and try something new and perhaps even take a step toward the next level of their shooting progress.

We will only fire 300m for this Intro Level Circle Training course, so we won't be dealing with any particular wind-reading challenge.  Instead we will focus on team shooting procedures, shooter-coach-plotter communications and interaction, plotting groups, operating a plotomatic, centering groups, etc.

Feel free to shoot one or both days.  Each day will be essentially the same format.  We'll form groups of approximately six people, who will then spend the day on a target and cycle through the different roles of the "circle" - one pair will operate the target in the butts, another pair will shoot, and the third pair will coach the shooters.  The third pair will takes turns acting as Coach and as Assistant Coach (plotter).  After the two shooters have fired, we'll cycle through and shift roles of each pair - so when the day is done everybody will have done each role twice or three times.

Bring enough ammo to shoot twice or three times in a day (24 or 36 rounds per day ought to do it).

Ron advises me that you should bring raingear and especially bug dope, he expects the flies will be quite hungry by this weekend.

Camping is available on the site, and you may use the facilities in the clubhouse but please remember you are responsible for your behaviour.  If your would like to camp, please contact me (dmc@danielchisholm.com) or Ron prior to this weekend so he can open up the building for you.

The fee for each day will be $10.

If it rains much we'll make a smart retreat into the clubhouse before we or our gear get too terribly wet and we'll spend some time there doing "classroom" stuff while we wait for comfortable weather.  We'll save the "how-to-shoot-and-win-in-miserable-weather" lesson for some other day....!  There are plenty of useful things that can be learned in warmth and comfort - shooting of groups, centring of groups, shooter-coach communications, match procedures and tactics, etc.

DIRECTIONS TO ST. ANTOINE GUN CLUB: Take #115 north from Moncton.  When you enter the village, turn right on Chemin Renaud Mills (there's an Irving on the corner).  Go east a mile or two, there is a big blue sign on the right side of the road,


View St. Antoine Gun Club in a larger map

MOVED TO ST. ANTOINE: RCR Centennial Match

The RCR Centennial Match, Sun-30-May has been moved to St. Antoine Gun Club; I have updated our schedule to reflect this.

As published, the course of fire will be two sighters and ten on score (2ss10) at 500m, twice, and 2ss10 at 600m, also twice.

Match director is Ron Surette.

First Match of 2010!

The first match of the year for RNBRA's Fullbore Section was fired last Saturday 8-May at Batouche Range, CFB Gagetown NB.  Match Director was Conrad Leroux, and a total of twelve people fired the match including three new shooters.

The course of fire was 2ss10 at 300m, four times.  TR shooter Don Coleman had a fantastic day, dropping only one point.