Handgun Activities in Northern Ireland

The Development of the UKPSA in Northern Ireland

The International Practical Shooting Confederation (IPSC) was founded in 1976 and the United Kingdom Practical Shooting Association ( UKPSA ) was established as the IPSC Region to represent the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland in 1977. Shooters from Northern Ireland have been active in the UKPSA since the UK Regions formation and attended matches that were organised across the UK. The UKPSA organised the IPSC European Handgun Championships at Bisley in 1987, which UKPSA members from Northern Ireland attended. The UKPSA also organised the IPSC World Shoot XIII at Bisley in 1993. UKPSA members from Northern Ireland both competed in this competition and also made up part of the World Shoots range office crew and totally ran several of the 30 separate stages that made up World Shoot XIII.

Every year in the UK there where six IPSC Level III Championship Matches; The British Open, Northern Areas, Southern Areas, Scottish Championship, Welsh Championship and Northern Ireland Championship. The Northern Ireland Championship was obviously organised and run by UKPSA members from Northern Ireland.

Every year everything went well until 1997. With the loss of competitive pistol competition shooting in GB, a small group of NI UKPSA members assisted in keeping things going in Northern Ireland with a series of locally organised club matches. We did get IPSC graded events running again in 2007 – 2008. After this things went quite, mainly due to the lack of a venue to run proper graded IPSC competition.

In 2012 UKPSA members in Northern Ireland will have a venue, were graded IPSC competitions can be organised and run properly to IPSC rules. Over the past year the UKPSA has put in a lot of effort to try and re-establish properly organised and run events to IPSC rules. This will come to fruition in 2012 as outlined below.

 
UKPSA Handgun Commission

Good news for practical pistol competitors in Northern Ireland. In 2012 the UKPSA will be organising a series of events. The UKPSA has set up a Handgun Commission (HC) to promote both club level and graded competitions, which will be properly organised and run to IPSC rules. The HC will be similar to the Shotgun Commission that was set up by the UKPSA to promote practical shotgun competition. There is now a very healthy calendar of practical shotgun events across GB. The intension is to use the same approach to develop practical pistol competition. In 2012 this will consist of two Level II Graded Matches and two Level I Club Matches. These will be the first graded IPSC events in Northern Ireland since 2008.

A Chairman and Secretary have been selected to run the Handgun Commission and Develop graded competitions and to communicate with UKPSA members in Northern Ireland and also those UKPSA members who are interested in graded pistol competition and live in GB. 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 events that will take place in Northern Ireland.

UKPSA members who live in Northern Ireland regularly compete in the IPSC European Level III Match Circuit, the European Championship and also in the 2011 World Shoot XVI in Rhodes, Greece. At home in Northern Ireland around 120 people compete in club level matches and the 40 UKPSA members in Northern Ireland have wished for the re-establishment of graded competitions. This wish will be reality in 2012 with the UKPSA organising a series club level and graded IPSC competitions run to IPSC rules.

The Level II Graded Matches will be held in May and August. The Level I Club Matches will take place in April and July. As well as the competitors who will take part complying properly with IPSC rules and regulations, the event has to be run properly as well. To ensure this the UKPSA will also organise a two day Range Officer training course on the 23rd and 24th March 2012. There are a number of current UKPSA members and former members who live in Northern Ireland who where previously RO qualified. The UKPSA will also run a one day training course on 25th March 2012 that will enable current members and former members who rejoin, to re-qualify as Range Officers.

For those who want to be kept informed of UKPSA competitions, training courses, joining or re-joining the UKPSA, when entry forms for competitions will be available send an e mail to the Handgun Commission Secretary Fred Hanna at
handgun@ukpsa.org

This initiative has one goal; to train our members, Range Officers and Officials and to ensure that UKPSA members can shoot and enjoy properly organised IPSC handgun competition within the United Kingdom IPSC Region.

UPDATE - December 2011

 Northern Ireland Club Affiliations

As Handgun Commission Secretary I am pleased to announce that the following two Northern Ireland shooting clubs have affiliated to the UKPSA.

The Police Service of Northern Ireland Rifle and Pistol Club

The Ulster Small Arms Shooting Club

We welcome these two clubs to the UKPSA and will look forward to their members joining with the members of many other clubs across Northern Ireland participating in UKPSA organised IPSC events.

United Kingdom Handgun Championship 

In addition to the two Level 2 Graded IPSC competitions that have already been announced a third Level 2 Graded IPSC competition will also take place in 2012.

The results of these three competitions will be combined to form a UK Handgun Championship.

The dates for these three competitions are the 12th May, 21st July and 18th August. At the conclusion of the third competition we will be able to announce UKPSA Handgun Champions in the IPSC Handgun Divisions of Classic, Open, Production, Revolver and Standard Divisions.  

The first UKPSA Handgun Commission Handgun Competition for 2012 will be a Level 1 Match on 21st April.

UKPSA Range Officer Seminar

All the places available for the Range Officer Seminar for the 23rd and 24th March 2012 have been taken. Also UKPSA members and former members who have rejoined, from both Northern Ireland and Great Britain, who were previously qualified UKPSA Handgun Range Officers will be attending a Range Officer Re-qualification course on 25th March.

We will keep you informed of other events that are currently being planned. More good news and developments will follow soon.

Regards

Fred Hanna
UKPSA Handgun Commission Secretary

CHRISTMAS EDITION 2011
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UKPSA Membership in Northern Ireland

UKPSA members are spread across a number of Northern Ireland
Rifle and Pistol clubs. These include :-
Ballymena RPC
Bracken RPC
Bangor
Clandeboye and District RPC
Dunnyboe RPC
Ex Services RPC
Kells RPC
Langford Lodge Sporting Club
Newtownards and District RPC
Northern Ireland Fire and Rescue Service RPC
Northern Ireland Target Shooters Association
Police Service of Northern Ireland RPC
Ulster Rifle Association
Ulster Small Arms Club

For clubs that our not affiliated to the UKPSA we though of appointing club representatives that members could contact, within their own club. As the UKPSA uses a one person – one vote system to run the Association, we will not bother with middle men. If you need to contact the Association you can do so at the HC e mail address handgun@ukpsa.org   You can also contact the United Kingdom Regional Director Vanessa Duffy at rd@ukpsa.org   

The UKPSA has a lot of very experienced people across the Association, some who were involved in the running of the 1987 IPSC European Championships and 1993 IPSC World Shoot Ten, both of which took place at Bisley. The Association is also active at many levels in IPSC/IROA. So if you have a question or need help, then ask!

Running IPSC Competitions

As you can see UKPSA members are spread across many clubs in NI. We know that most of the NI clubs are not interested in running practical pistol events and that only a very small number of NI clubs actually have the facilities that are required to run an IPSC competition. Also currently in NI there is no one who is qualified to run an IPSC competition. The NI clubs that are big enough to host an IPSC competition do not currently have any of the qualified personnel that are required to run a graded match. This will change with the Range Officer Seminar and Range Officer Re-qualification Seminar in March 2012. This cadre of RO’s will be running of all of the UKPSA matches conducted in NI in 2012.

Targetshooter Online Digital Magazine

The UKPSA has a monthly section in Targetshooter online magazine, were information relating to both the UKPSA and IPSC is published.You can view this at www.targetshooter.co.uk 
In the December issue there is a report with images on the 2011 IPSC World Shoot XVI. The UKPSA had 19 members, including five members from Northern Ireland, who took part in WSXVI. 

IPSC 2012 Rule Book

The IPSC 2012 Rule Book is now available and includes all the updates from the IPSC General Assembly at the 2011 World Shoot XVI in Rhodes, Greece. You can also download and print and bind you own copy here.

The UKPSA’s Bob Chittleborough and Neil Beverley were both heavily involved in sorting out all the new rule editions and updating the IPSC 2012 Handgun Rule Book.


The Northern Ireland UKPSA Handgun Commission wish all of you and your families an enjoyable and peaceful festive season and we forward to seeing you all at our events that have been organised for 2012. More good news and developments will follow soon.

Regards
Fred Hanna
UKPSA Handgun Commission Chairman

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UKPSA HANDGUN COMMISSION UPDATE
Christmas – New Year Competition

In conjunction with Kells Rifle and Pistol Club, County Antrim, the UKPSA and Kells
RPC will host a three stage event on their range on 14th January 2012. It is not a graded
event so anyone can attend. The emphasise here will be on having a fun day out.

To shoot all three stages the cost will be £5 per person to shoot in one IPSC Division; £6.50 to shoot in two IPSC Divisions and £7 to shoot in three IPSC Divisions. So, for example you could shoot all three stages with your Standard Division pistol (£5) and then reshoot them with your Production Division pistol (£6.50) and then reshoot them again with either
your Classic, Open or Revolver Division guns (£7). Entry fees will be taken on the day of the event.

Once everyone has completed all three stages in as many IPSC Divisions as they want to you can shoot the stages again for practice at no extra charge. The event will be conducted to IPSC rules.

This event is being organised to both enable UKPSA members to get together and for others who want to find out more about properly organised and run IPSC competitions and how to participate in them. The Handgun Commission (HC) Chairman and Secretary will both be on hand to answer questions.

If you want to attend this event please e mail the HC Secretary at handgun@ukpsa.org

Many of you will be familiar with Kells RPC, as this is were several Level 2 matches and the International Level 3 United Kingdom Open Competition were held in 2007 and 2008. You can see more by looking at the clubs web site www.kellsrpc.com   

In the practical pistol section of the menu bar on Kells RPC web site you can read match reports from previous graded IPSC matches held at Kells in 2007 and 2008, including the report on the UKPSA 2008 UK Open.

Safety Re-assessment
The event at Kells RPC will also be used to allow former members of the UKPSA who want to rejoin the Association, to under go a safety assessment to enable them to get their previous membership number back and reactivate their competition licence so that they can participate in graded UKPSA/IPSC events.

Also those of you who successfully completed the UKPSA pistol safety course, but never joined the Association can also undertake the safety re-assessment and join the UKPSA. There is no charge for the safety re-assessment.

If you want to undergo a safety re-assessment on the 14th January 2012 then please contact the HC email address handgun@ukpsa.org 

Chronographing Ammunition
 At the event at Kells RPC we will have a chronograph set up which can be used to test your various ammunition loads. So while you are digesting the turkey and Christmas pudding you can assemble batches of reloaded ammunition and you can
also test factory ammunition. All this ammunition can be tested and results recorded. Remember to bring a note book and pen to record the results in. 

For those planning to attend could you please reply and also let me know which IPSC Divisions you wish to take part in. This will aid in planning. The stages will be set up from 9am and the match will start at 11am.

Fred Hanna
UKPSA Handgun Commission Secretary

HC Update March 2012
HC Update April 2012
HC Update May 2012

UKPSA & ITS - Details of 2012 UK and Irish IPSC HG Championships

Match Results

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