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The UK Region of the International Practical Shooting Confederation |
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The UKPSA supports many different disciplines of practical shooting within the UK. These include Shotgun (PSG), Handgun, Long Barrel Revolver, Gallery Rifle, Mini Rifle and Action Air. Practical Shooting is currently the second most popular international target shooting discipline and is now the fastest growing of the shooting disciplines. The International Practical Shooting Confederation (IPSC) is the world-wide governing body for practical shooting today and numbers some 85 affiliated nations including most European countries. The motto for practical shooting is DVC, Diligentia, Vis, Celeritas. Which is latin for accuracy, power, speed. All elements should be equally tested when participating in practical shooting.
The governing body of IPSC practical shooting in Great Britain is the United Kingdom Practical Shooting Association, (UKPSA) which administers the sport, sanctions graded and championship competitions, selects the National Teams, organises training and maintains discipline and rules within the sport. The UKPSA represents Practical Shooting on the British Shooting Sports Council and maintains close liaison with other shooting organisations, representing the interests of the sport and of its members to all authorities. Founded in 1977, the UKPSA has grown steadily over the years and we have 25 affiliated clubs throughout the UK. A democratically elected Council runs the Association. This consisting of five executive officers, Chairman, Regional Director, Secretary, Treasurer and Public Relations Officer together with approximately Regional Organisers and specific discipline Secretaries and co-opted members who make up the Full Council of the UKPSA. All active practical shooters join the UKPSA which in turn makes them members of the IPSC allowing them to shoot in any Practical match in any discipline anywhere in the world. Members receive the Association's regular digital journal "eDVC" and have access to the members Forum where views and advice can be exchanged along with notices about matches, results and courses. UKPSA members also have automatic insurance cover for third party liability, £2M, for shooting related accidents at any time, personal accident cover for £5,000 capital sums and £50 weekly benefits, £5,000 of all risks shooting equipment cover and £25,000 of legal expenses for FAC related problems.
Members may speak, vote, and stand for office at the annual general meetings of the Association. They have the right to consult the minutes of the Association and to attend Council meetings as observers. They may qualify for classification awards, hold titles and trophies and be selected to the National Squads or to UKPSA teams at overseas competitions. Members have the experience and expertise of the Association to call upon in case advice or support is needed. Indeed the UKPSA welcomes novice shooters and equally represents shooters of all ages and abilities, and specifically recognises junior, lady, and senior classes and supports National teams for men and women.
In line with the strict safety requirements eye and ear protection is mandatory for all UKPSA shoots. Only one shooter completes a course of fire at a time, strictly supervised one on one, by a trained and qualified Range Officer. Infraction of safety rules invokes immediate disqualification from the match and may result in disciplinary proceedings. However, this is a very rare occurrence. Overall, to date ALL the practical shooting disciplines have an exceptional safety record.
The UKPSA is committed to maintaining the highest standards of training, firmly believing that ensuring that all shooters are trained to a common syllabus reinforces its excellent safety record. It is not a requirement to be a UKPSA member to attend training courses but unless you do so you will not be able to compete in any UKPSA sanctioned event. The UKPSA two day safety training course was known as the 'basic' course, but this title did not do justice to the structure or importance of the training syllabus. The course is intensive and many people have been amazed by their own achievements by the end of the fourteen hours of instruction. A typical course will start with lectures covering an introduction to the sport, safety, equipment and techniques. This will lead to the various shooting exercises, which start with the absolute basics of safe gun handling and move forward steadily to include pre-match preparation and eventually a qualification exercise. The emphasis on the course at all times is SAFETY. Simply attending the course is no guarantee of passing; indeed many students pass the course but are not, in the instructors view completely ready for competition. They can return, when they have achieved further shooting experience to qualify to competition ready. A course pass to competition ready standard is a prerequisite for entry into any UKPSA approved competition.
There are many people that have attended training courses during the past years that have decided for whatever reason not to continue with the sport of practical shooting. However just about all would agree that the course was beneficial in some way or other. Many have expressed the view that the training, with the heavy emphasis towards safe gun handling, can be applied to all other shooting disciplines regardless of whether a rifle, shotgun, full bore pistol or gas powered pistol is involved.
One of the prime responsibilities of the Association is to provide a full UK shooting calendar, or rather to channel the activities of clubs wishing to host major events. In this it has been very successful. But Practical Shooting is a world-wide sport with many UK members travelling throughout the globe - America, South Africa and Asia being popular destinations. The 2008 World Handgun Championships were held in Bali, the 2010 European Handgun Championships were held in Serbia. Despite the laws of this land Brits were there shooting handgun.
Today the UKPSA fully supports Practical Shotgun, a demanding, testing and very rewarding discipline. Members have participated in three European Shotgun Championships since 2003, travelling to Italy, Greece and Czech republic. Members also travelled to the USA for the first Pan American Shotgun Championships. Closer to home there is a full compoetition calendar for PSG, as well as Mini-Rifle (.22 rifle), Long Barrel Revolver (LBR), Gallery Rifle, Handgun, Action Air (Gas Powered Pistol) and Rifle. The competition season for shotgun and LBR now consists of several graded matches, some of which are at International level, and a major championship, the British Open. The venues continue to provide fresh challenges and new ideas and a special thanks must go to the range and build crews for their untiring efforts. These are exciting and challenging competitions.
So what is 'practical' shooting? The idea is simple. The shooter tackles competitive 'stages' requiring varying numbers of rounds and using different shooting positions, against the clock. The appeal of the sport lies in the diversity of the courses of fire available to the shooter - they are different for every match. Targets vary in size, shape, position and material - metal, paper or frangible - from a variety of distances (usually from 3 to 60 yards). Matches are open to all UKPSA members, for further details of the matches visit the members' Bulletin Board/Forum- there is a Calendar. We also have a help line manned by Alan Phillips. Alan may not have answers to all of your queries instantly, but promises to make his best endeavours to steer you in the right direction. The Hotline number is: 07010 703845 (note that this a premium rate number). Or you can email Alan Phillips or even ask the membership at large by posting a message on the Bulletin Board. Click the links for a little more general info about Practical Shotgun and PSG competitions in PDF.
DVC and Safe Shooting,
Ken Trail
Since the handgun ban in Great Britain in 1997 this has posed a lot of problems for UKPSA members who want to participate in IPSC pistol competitions.
Some members keep pistols stored for them in European countries and travel to matches in these countries. Also, where legal, UKPSA members have been able to borrow the equipment needed to participate in graded practical pistol competition around European countries. This has enabled the United Kingdom to still be represented at Level 2 and Level 3 International Matches and also at level 4 European Championships.
A number of UKPSA members live in Northern Ireland and these people have assisted in keeping practical pistol competition going at club level. This enables UKPSA members in Great Britain to travel to Northern Ireland and take part in club matches. National Squad training days are organised in Northern Ireland allowing training for International matches.
Also the UKPSA have developed graded practical pistol competition in Northern Ireland by helping to organise and develop a practical pistol shooting section for Northern Ireland pistol shooters and to assist in organising Graded Level 2 competitions for these members to participate in. UKPSA members in Great Britain will also continue to participate in practical pistol shooting events in Northern Ireland.
The UKPSA has set up a Handgun Commission, to further develop IPSC Practical Pistol competition based in Northern Ireland.
A Chairman and Secretary have been selected to run the Handgun Commission and develop graded competitions and to communicate with all UKPSA members who are interested in graded pistol competition.
The Handgun Commission will also communicate with our neighbouring IPSC Regions in the Isle of Man and Republic of Ireland, so that members of these two regions are also kept informed of UKPSA handgun events taking place in Northern Ireland.
IPSC Rifle follows essentially the same rule book as IPSC Shotgun and IPSC Handgun with minor differences because of the firearm type.
Typical courses of fire have targets at distances from 25-300 metres, although longer distances are also used at some matches.
The targets used in the UK are predominantly ‘paper’ rather than steel because of range regulations, and there can also be range restrictions on fire and movement by civilians on areas operated by Landmark who control the use of military ranges.
Whilst IPSC Rifle recognises four principle divisions, only two of those can be used in the UK because of the restriction on the use of semi-automatic centrefire rifles.
The two remaining divisions ‘Manual Open’ and ‘Manual Standard’ are due to supplemented by ‘Manual Standard 10’ which will be of great interest to competitors with Lee Enfield rifles that would not have able to use their full magazine capacity when used in the ‘Manual Standard’ division.
Manual Open division at shorter ranges is dominated by straight pull AR15 platform rifles in the 5.56mm calibre or chambered for the longer range wildcat 6.5mm Grendel, since these also popular for the British NRA’s Civilian Service Rifle matches.
Longer range matches usually require 7.62x51mm ammunition, and there are number of bolt action platforms that are suitable and competitive. However careful handloading with the smaller calibres can also produce impressive accuracy at extended distances.
Since target distances can vary substantially, knowing your rifle’s zero and elevation adjustments or hold over are very important, especially when moving back beyond 400 metres.
In the late 1990s a group of shooters both new and pre hand gun ban got together to start to shoot practical pistol matches with Gas Powered Pistols (GPP) using the then available CO2 pistols by Umarex and also the Brocock gas cartridge pistols. Shorter distances, less bang but more enjoyable than they had initially thought.
As new shooters became interested it was decided to formalise the requirements for match entry to ensure that safety (always a prime concern) was maintained. The UKPSA handgun safety course was used as a base for GPP Competition Licence course and gradually the numbers of shooters increased and more matches came on line.
Matches were being run in accordance with IPSC style rules and Range Officer requirements, and as the syllabus was the same as for handguns, many of these new shooters went on the shoot full bore abroad after taking recoil appreciation and full bore handling tests.
The change in licensing in 2004 requiring Brocock
pistols to be held on a Firearms Certificate meant that many GPP
shooters also purchased other firearms and several moved to bigger
bang activities.
2006 saw the inclusion of airsoft pistols within GPP and for a time match numbers increased, however a number of GPP shooters wished to run matches under diluted rules and a split away from IPSC/UKPSA to run their own matches.
GPP matches are now infrequent and it is hoped that the recent formal acceptance by IPSC of Action Air rules may stimulate more interest in the future.
If you want to more information on GPP contact -
training@ukpsa.org
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