Full-bore Target Rifle

Although St. Nicholas does not have facilities to shoot full-bore rifle at its Foxbury range, Club members often travel down to Bisley in Surrey to shoot as members of other Clubs. These include Caterham & District Rifle Club and Bexleyheath Shooting Club.

Aslow-fire precision discipline, full-bore rifle shooting falls into two sections; Match Rifle shot at 1000, 1100 and 1200yds, and Target Rifle shot at 300, 500, 600, 900 and 1000yds. Within the Club, it is the Target Rifle discipline which has the most followers. We tend to shoot Full-bore Target Rifle as members of the Full-bore Rifle section of the Bexleyheath Shooting Club. Members use a mix of commercial, ex-military and custom made rifles, mainly in 7.62mm (.308) or .303 calibre. Given the distances being shot at, most events take place on the Century and Stickledown ranges at Bisley Camp, under the auspices of the N.R.A.

1000yd firing point, Stickledown Range, Bisley

A 1000yds is a looooooong way to shoot. If you follow the line of flags down the range, you can just see the target as a white rectangle, just to the right of the fourth flag. If you prefer to shoot Match Rifle, then the ranges increase in length. At Bisley, the longest range available is the 1200yds firing point on Stickledown. The 1100yds and 1200yds firing points are not normally in day-to-day use. Shooting on the 1200yds firing point entails the closing of several access roads on the camp.

 
600yd firing point, Century Range, Bisley

At 600yds the targets are much closer. On firing point 29, the left hand side shooter prepares to take his shot, (at the right hand most of the five exposed targets), while the shooter on the right hand side is plotting her last shot in her score book.

With good weather, (for a shooter that means not raining, not too hot and not too windy), a sight th warm the heart is a details of full firing points. The targets show a score of 4 on each, except target 27, which shows a miss (not one of our targets I hasten to add!).

Full-bore target rifle

Also available to NRA members, are the electronic scoring targets available at different distances. New target rifles are sighted in on the Zero Range, and no trip to Bisley is complete without a trip to "Jenny's" for a bacon roll and a cup of tea!