NRA Journal - Spring 2007 - National Rifle Association

WAVERLEY DISTRICT RIFLE CLUBby Bob GalfskiyAs the club secretary I suggested to our membersthat we should hold a sponsored shoot to attempt toraise money for the benefit of the NRA Butts Appeal.My suggestion was that we hire an electronicallymarkedtarget at 300 yards and have four shooters(from the minimum requirement of eight membersin the club team) on the firing point at any one time,having zeroed their rifles and the club rifles on amanual target in the morning. Each team memberwould then shoot at will, attempting to establish thetotal number of NRA standard target rifle bulls and Vbulls which the team could score during the elapsedshooting time of one hour whilst rotating the teammembers as they become tired or when their barrelsbecome overly hot.I further suggested that we could possibly approachGuinness World Records Ltd (GWR) with a view toestablishing this event as a World Record althoughunfortunately it appears that GWR are not currentlyrenowned for their interest in target rifle shooting!When 11 November finally came around after weeksof planning we held a normal club practice in themorning, marking the target using relays of ourmembers, zeroing the rifles, discussing the event andbrewing copious quantities of tea and coffee in ourday-tent to stave off the cold caused by the gusty,chill wind which had sprung up before lunch-time.In the afternoon we tried out the Häring System ontarget 102.We began by establishing how quickly the monitorcould react to one firer shooting immediately afterthe other, within less than half a second. The systemcoped with this trial extremely well, showing the mostrecent fall of shot as a red disc, which changed to cyanwhen it was superseded by the next shot. Also, a greendiamond appeared on the monitor screens showingthe calculated centre of the developing group.Eventually we got four firers down and ready, sharingthree monitors which were visible to all and situatingthe fourth monitor on a table outside the tent, whereour timekeeper could sit and record each score anduse the stopwatch to ‘time-out’ any breaks caused bypossible software, firmware or hardware problemswhich we thought might arise. I had taken part inthe NRA trials of both the different types of electronicmarking systems before Christmas of 2004, so I wasalready impressed by the capabilities of the Häringsensors and monitors, although I had my reservationsabout what lay ahead for our team in this event.I was right! After less than 15 minutes shooting itbecame obvious that the score being indicated on themonitors was no longer the one fired by the last teammember to shoot. We started a ‘time-out’ and watchedas the monitor continued to scroll down dozens ofscores, even though none of us was shooting! Thiswe found somewhat disturbing, but Bob Oxford, oneof the most experienced of our club members, cameto the rescue, explaining that the computer, it seemed,was only programmed to accept 20 shots in a row andthat we would need to wait for it to catch up. Wenoted the ‘Shot Number’ given on the Häring monitorat the time we had stopped shooting, waited until thesystem appeared to be in a better mood, then resumedthe timed shoot. Our Timekeeper, Debbie Ann Privett,an experienced Range Officer and an expert in the artof shouting very loud commands, gave the firers theirsignal to stop and later to restart, also operating thestopwatch and recording all the scores on paper, suchmulti-tasking being well beyond the capability of mostmen, particularly myself. Debbie proved a wonderfulasset to the team (she unerringly shoots straight Vbulls with my F Class rifle!) and proved to be a greatorganiser of all the aforementioned duties when it washer turn to sit in the timekeeper’s chair.A tent - a necessary piece of kit for shooting in November!“Have we finished yet?”38