THE SERVICE SHOTGUN 'A', SLUG MATCH
What's this all about then?
SOME TIME AGO there was a meeting of minds over the use of solid slug ammunition through shotguns at the National Shooting Centre. The National Rifle Association armourer got together with some of the guys and girls from the 'Blue Team' (which is formed from members of the Practical Shooting Section of the Metropolitan Police Shooting Club) and came up with the idea of shooting shotgun slug events on turning targets. This was mainly as a result of a number of Blue Team members representing the UK at the International Practical Shooting Confederation, European Practical Shotgun Championship in Terni Italy in August 2003. This extensive competition, the first of its type at this level of competition, had a large proportion of stages where only solid slug ammunition could be used, something not normally encountered in the U.K. Although the team came back with a large number of medals (including the female European champion's) it was clear that practice with slug was required if that is the way competitions are going abroad. There are one hundred per cent slug competitions for shotgun held in this country, hut these are mainly of a pure Practical nature, a simpler format for practice was needed.
Two experimental shotgun slug competitions were run to start with, early in 2004, which ultimately ended up with the appearance of the Service Shotgun 'A' Slug Match at the 'Spring into Action' event at Bisley on the weekend of the 27th and 28th of March this year. The competition was 'streamlined' from its original format mainly for ease of running and because of shared range facilities.
The event was shot on butt zero of Stickledown range with two banks of turning targets comprising eight DP2 targets at a range of 30 metres from the shooters. Each competitor has two adjacent targets with a separation of one target space to the next person's targets. Only Section 1 (Firearms Act 1968) extended magazine shotguns are used, as normally used in Practical competition, also for ease of shooting. Only solid slug is allowed as it is easy to score and patch on the targets and, after all, that is what practice is designed for. Buckshot could be used but is erratic, very difficult to score and worse to patch and any smaller shot size would just he impossible. The total round count for this competition is a nice even 50 rounds.
The rules used are the IPSC Shotgun Competition Rules, January 2004 edition, modified, with the Diversity and Freestyle principles suspended. That is to say in this style of competition, a single course of fire is being repeated, reloads are made mandatory and shooting positions are defined, all of which are never normally permitted in Practical competition. There is also the addition of the range command of 'WATCH AND SHOOT WATCH AND SHOOT'in preparation for the turning of the targets. There is, of course, strict compliance with one range officer to each competitor and all those RCO's officiating currently are United Kingdom Practical Shooting Association qualified.
The start conditions for each stage is the shotgun loaded option 1 (that is magazine loaded and fitted [if applicable] chamber loaded, hammer and/or sear cocked, safety catch engaged), both hands on the gun, pointing down range, parallel to the ground at waist level, finger outside the trigger guard. The gun cannot be shouldered until the targets face except in the prone position. The gun is returned to waist level when targets are edged.
The Course of Fire
Sighting. 2 shots on one target from any position, not to count for score.
Practice 1. Prone (Rifle prone), 2 targets, 12 shots total, 6 rounds on each target in 3 minutes, the exposure time to include any reloading.
Practice 2. Sitting ( at least one buttock touching the ground ), 2 targets, 12 shots total, the targets making four appearances of 10 seconds with an away time of 20 seconds. The shooter is required to fire three rounds at each exposure, with six rounds on each target, the exposure time to include any reloading.
Practice 3. Kneeling (at least one knee touching the ground ), 2 targets, 12 shots total, the targets making six appearances of 4 seconds with an away time that varies from 10 seconds to 25 seconds. The shooter is required to fire two rounds at each exposure, with 6 rounds on each target, the exposure time to include any reloading.
Practice 4. Standing 2 targets. 12 shots total, the targets making 3 appearances of 3 seconds with an away time of 7 seconds. The shooter is required to fire 2 rounds on the left hand target on each exposure. Both targets will then edge for 20 seconds during which the shooter must perform a mandatory reload (at least I round to go into the gun ). The targets then face for 10 seconds with an away time of 7 seconds the shooter is required to fire 2 rounds on the right hand target. This is followed by 2 more appearances of the targets for 5 seconds with an away time of 7 seconds, during which the shooter is required to fire two shots on each exposure on the right hand target, with 6 rounds on each target. The total time to include all reloading.
The competition is not yet perfect and needs fine-tuning. The more experienced shooters found that a number of the timings were overly long, hence these will most likely be reduced. Otherwise it works well, is easy to run and if given its own range space (i.e. not running in tandem with another discipline) it will run quickly and efficiently.
Highest scores, so far, are in the 450s out of 480 range, but I am sure we will see these go up as we get more practice and. in fact, there has already had to be a count hack for a place. At the 'Spring into Action' event the NRA very kindly awarded medals for the first three places along with a perpetual trophy for first place in this competition. The competition is not as easy as it sounds or looks and with the changes planned it is going to get more difficult, but everyone who has taken part so far, has remarked on how much they enjoyed it.
Why Service Shotgun ‘A’
So why is it called Service Shotgun 'A'! Well, it is not because of any association with the police or services. It is because the course of fire is very similar in style to that of Service Pistol competitions in that it uses two turning targets. Also once this course of fire is developed and defined, further different courses of file will he designed, i.e Service Shotgun 'B', 'C' etc.
This event is excellent practice for the use of slug in Practical Shotgun competition and, hopefully, in the future, it will hold its own as a discipline in its own right. It is quicker to run and score, and less expeitsive than most Practical competitions and given substantial numbers of competitors taking part, the cost of entry could be kept low or even reduced. There are further exents of this type envisaged for later in the year, which will be publicised nearer the time. So watch the U.K.P.S.A. web site (www.ukpsa.co.uk) for news of future dates. There should also be an event of this type in the Phoenix meeting next year.
D.V.C.
The 'CAPTAIN'
Reproduced with kind permission of Target Sports from the May 2004 Phoenix supplement
ABP 20/5/2004