York Guns

GMK

Beechwood Equipment

Edgar Brothers

By Pete Whomersley

The 30th of July saw the Mattersey Rifle & Pistol Club's Steel Challenge held at its ranges in North Nottinghamshire. Once again the weather gods smiled on us, but it could have been a little cooler. In the kind of temperatures we have been having it can be pretty gruelling for the Range Officers running the shoot so all credit to them.

When I started to plan the shoot we thought only three ranges would be available to us and this meant that things were going to be tight. As some of you know the club has added more ranges to the complex which we had certificates for, but were told by Notts Police that we could not use them. Just in the nick of time we were told to go ahead and use them meaning I could spread the courses of fire out and because of this everything ran smoothly. It also has to be said that our Senior Range Officer Bob Peace did a great job organising the Range Officers. Having a good number of range crew, well organised, helped tremendously with the smooth running of the competition.

Courses Of Fire

There were a couple of changes to the stages we had last time mainly because we thought there would only be three ranges to use. The popular Mover stage was dropped and replaced by the Barricade stage, forty plates with forty rounds shot as its name suggests from behind the Barricade - ten rounds from each side twice with a par time of 45 seconds. Some thought this was going to be easier than the Mover, wrong!
The Three Position was changed to the Ambidex stage with all but ten rounds fired from the weak shoulder.
The usual favourites the Snooker, Pool, Big 50, Two & Up and the Speed stages were all there.

We managed to run some side shoots one of which was the ever popular shotgun speed steel. The setup belongs to, and was run by, Pete Harvey. This is now one of the most successful events we have run so far.
There was also full bore Bianchi steel plates as a side shoot.

Sponsorship

York Guns organised some great sponsorship from GMK, Beechwood Equiment and Edgar Brothers in the shape of rifle bags, cartridge bags, a hip flask and caps, all of which were greatly appreciated.

Prizes

There were plenty of Mattersey medals up for grabs - 1st to 5th in four classes and 1st to 5th in each of the seven stages, so it's a great shoot for the newcomer to the sport as there is always a good chance of winning something.
The trophies are made by P & V Enamels of Birmingham.

Food

I would like to thank the ladies who did the catering - Alison, little Toni, Sherilyn and Lyn, what a great job they did
keeping everyone fed and watered.

Thanks

All that's left is to thank everyone who entered the shoot. I'm sure you all had a great time and a really big thanks to all the
people who worked hard to make the whole thing happen - cheers guys!

For those who haven't seen them, the results can be found here.