Activities at Grange Rifle and Pistol Club

Pistol and Gallery Rifle Section

The Pistol Section meets every Tuesday and Friday evening, with a weekly competition also held on the Friday evening, starting at 8.30.  Note the name 'Pistol Section' is historical, as pistol ownership was banned in The Firearms (Amendment) Act 1997 and The Firearms (Amendment) (No. 2) Act 1997.  Instead the same competitions are now shot with Gallery rifles classed as GRCF (Gallery Rifle Centre Fire) and GRSB (Gallery Rifle Small Bore), or Long Barrelled Revolvers (LBR's) and Long Barrelled Pistols (LBP's).

Gallery rifles are lightweight sporting rifles chambered for centrefire pistol rounds, mostly (.38/.357mag or .44mag), or .22 rimfire rounds.  Rimfire rifles can come in a variety of types, the ones most usually found in the club being bolt-action, lever-action, pump-action and self-loading (semi-auto).  The fullbore/centrefire rifles are usually underlever types, with the majority of members favouring Marlins for their rugged reliability. These rifles take a lot of skill and dexterity to shoot well in competition, but they’re great fun. Long barrelled revolvers/pistols, must have a barrel length of at least 12 inches and an overall length of at least 24inches, achieved by the fitting of a wrist support to meet the legal requirements. Revolvers are now firmly back in play with many of our members now owning LBRs and using them in competition. It is permitted to use either open sights, telescopic sights or red dot sights on the gallery rifles and LBRs and most people are shooting competitions using optics.

Available for use by section members, we have a CZ .22 bolt-action with open sights, a Marlin .22 bolt-action (scoped), a Ruger 10/22 semi-auto(scoped), a Magtech 7022 semi-auto(scoped),  a Marlin underlever in .357/.38 (open sights) and a .22 pump-action BSA of 1930's vintage.

Many of our members also own air rifles and muzzle-loading black powder pistols and are welcome to use these on Pistol Section nights.

There are many different Gallery Rifle competitions, for a full list see the NRA's "Gallery Rifle and Pistol Handbook".  For the Friday evening competition we use the 25 metre range and alternate between the competition "Police Pistol 1", now renamed "Timed and Precision" and the competition "Service B", also called "Multi-Target".  We usually have between 10 and 15 shooters taking part. The competitions are run on a handicap basis, so everyone has a good chance of winning, whether they're a novice or experienced shooter. We give prizes each week for the first, second and third placed shooters (funded by the £2 entry fee!). On the last Friday of each month we vary things by holding a knock-down steel plate shoot which is fast and furious. Also in the summer months, weather permitting, we hold a running boar shoot on the fifty metre outdoor range, which involves a very different type of skill.  Pistol Section members also travel to the National Shooting Centre at Bisley every year for the Phoenix Meeting in May, more information can be found here..

The two main Friday competitions, which are shot with electronically controlled turning target equipment, were originally designed for handgun shooting but have now been modified for gallery rifles.The two main Friday competitions which are shot on alternate weeks, are now run to the latest rules of the Gallery Rifle and Pistol Section of the NRA, taking in stages at 25, 20, 15 and 10 metres. The same courses of fire can be shot with either a .22 semi-auto rifle on half-sized targets, or with a full-bore gallery rifle or long-barrelled revolver on full-sized targets. Maximum scores are not easy to achieve in these competitions, whether shooting with a rifle or a handgun, with open sights, or using optics, but the handicapping system gives everyone a chance. Many of our competitive shooters now shoot the competitions twice on the Friday night, (time permitting), both with rifle and revolver.

The end of the month steel plate shoot was designed for .22 semi-auto rifles shooting at five steel discs 4 inches in diameter and a paper target in a time of ten seconds. The aim is to drop the five plates with the first five shots, then get the best possible score on the paper target with the five remaining shots before the target turns away. So easy but so hard !

We have now introduced more excitement with a set of heavyweight steel knock-down skittles for use with underlever rifles and revolvers. The course of fire for this competition is twelve shots in thirty seconds, starting with six rounds loaded and six loose rounds on the table for a reload. The competitor must knock down the five skittles, reload and shoot the remaining shots on the paper target before it turns away. Both competitions are shot at a range of about seventeen metres.

We encourage all new members in the section to have a go at the competitions as soon as they have been put through their basic training with the various firearms and have the confidence to have a go.

Courses of fire for Friday night competition

	Police Pistol 1 (Single Target)	Service B (Two Identical Targets)
Stage 1	12 rounds in 2 minutes, to include a reload	6 shots on the left-hand target only in 15 seconds
Stage 2	2 strings of 6 shots each, 1 shot at each 2 second exposure	6 shots, three on each target in 10 seconds
Stage 3	6 shots, 2 shots at each 3 second exposure	6 shots on the right-hand target, 2 at each 3 second exposure
Stage 4	- / -	6 shots, 3 on each target in 8 seconds
Shots/ Points	30 shots in all with a possible maximum score of 300 points	12 shots on each target with the centre scoring five points, and a possible total score of 120 points.

Shooters are expected to know and abide by the RANGE RULES at all times.