Small-bore Prone Rifle

At St. Nicholas, the Small-bore Rifle shooting is undertaken as a prone event at three distances, and in several different disciplines. Taking the disciplines first, these are either deliberate 'slow fire' precision events, shot over a 20 minute 'detail' and involving 20 shots at 50m or 100yds, or 10 shots at 25yds, or they can be a 'timed' event at 25yds, where the 10 shots have to be completed in a 90 second period. The 'slow fire' precision events at 50m and 100yd can be shot with 'iron sights' or 'any-sights', depending on the competition rules.

50m small-bore prone rifle firing point

The above photo shows seven full-members of the Club shooting a detail of 50m precision targets. The rifle types vary but are usually Anshutz rifles from the 1813 and 1913 series, or are the older 'Martini action' BSA rifles. One of the joys of outdoor shooting, especially during the autumn and winter, can be the weather conditions experienced. It can get quite 'murky' when it rains or starts to cloud over...

A rare site these days - SNOW!

More common, especially during the winter season, are the early starts hampered by fog. If you cannot see the butts, you cannot shoot your competition card!

 
Less than 100yds in the fog

When the weather is fine though, it can be a real pleasure to shoot outdoors. Normally the wind (and rain) sweep across the range from the right hand side, although the various surrounding trees can create some interesting 'eddies' at times. Wind flags (sometimes) prove useful additions to the range.

Any-sights prone rifle shooting

In the photo above, you can see a Club member who is shooting in an 'any-sights' competition. Here the normal iron sights have been replaced by a telescopic sight. These usually range from 14x to 25x magnification and from 40mm to 56mm in objective lens diameter. Although this has the advantage of bringing the image of the target closer to the shooters, it also magnifies the effect of the shooters heartbeat on the stability of the image. It's not uncommon to see the crosshairs moving several centimetres across the face of the target. It is an 'urban myth' that shooting with a scope is easier than shooting with iron sights.
 

The 25yd outdoor range firing point

Shooting small-bore prone rifle at St. Nicholas offers competitions  using iron-sights and any-sights, 100yds, 50m and 25yds, slow-fire precision and timed.