The main discipline we shoot is prone rifle smallbore, and this is the most popular form of the sport. There are three distances at which to shoot, 25yds, 50m and 100yds. The majority of our shooting is done at 25yds, indoors, as this is the length of our range. 50m and 100yds are normally shot outdoors although covered firing points are common so you don't have to get wet in the rain.

When shooting at 25yds, the targets consist of 10 aiming marks. One shot is fired at each of the 10 aiming marks. 50m cards usually contain four aiming marks and you fire five shots at each aiming mark, 100yd cards have just two aiming marks and ten shots are fired at each aiming mark. At all distances, each shot can score a maximum of 10 points.

When shooting outdoors you have to contend with the weather, a chance in wind direction can easily take your shots into the 7-ring or worse so you have to be vigilant and adjust your sights as necessary.

The Lord Roberts Centre, a state-of-the-art 50m range was built at Bisley to host the 2002 Commonwealth Games. The facilty has 60+ firing points, all using electronic targets. Electronic targets work by using 4 sensitive microphones to detect where the shots fall. A screen next to the shooter then displays the score. The club often goes there to train at long range.

Scoring - Inward and Outward Gauging

At 25yds the scoring is outward gauging, that is if your shot completely breaks a scoring line the lower score is counted. The central ring scores 10 points each subsequent ring scoring one less until your shot misses the blcak completely. A shot which is touching the black but not totally within the black scores 4 which is the lowest possible score.

50m and 100yd targets are inwardly gauging meaning that a shot scores the highest score for any ring it has broken or is touching.

Sighters

Sighers are non-scoring shots used to determine where your first shots hit the target. Every target rifle has very accurate sights that can move your shots around the target.

You may normally have unlimited sighers (firing into a spare aiming mark) so that you can adjust your sights so the shots hit centrally. The directions for adjusting the sight turrets are as follows.

Right Handers

• To move your shot left turn the side turret clockwise (and vice versa)
• To move your shot down turn the top turret clockwise (and vice versa)

Left Handers

• To move your shot left turn the side turret anticlockwise (and vice versa)
• To move your shot down turn the top turret clockwise (and vice versa)