ALTON RIFLE CLUB – ECCENTRIC & ANIMAL FUN SHOOT
Each year we run a 25-yard indoor fun postal shoot intended to be shot between the summer and winter leagues. The competition was established as a prone shoot in 1982 as a modest fund raiser towards our new club building at that time. It has continued ever since, simply because those that shoot in it enjoy it as a light-hearted variation on our regular shooting and now includes a Light Sporting Rifle class in addition to the three classes for prone shooters.
The competition consists of two target patterns, eccentric and animal, with 2 instances of each to be shot (see patterns below).
All cards are scored by inward gauging. On the eccentric target a bull counts as 10 and cutting the outermost ring 5. On the animal target a bull counts as 10, cutting the outermost ring as 7 and anywhere else on the body area 1. On either target a shot missing the target area entirely does not score and if there are more than 10 shots in total on any card we will score the 10 worst shots and deduct 1 point per excess shot.
“Possibles” on the eccentric pattern are not uncommon but getting 10 “clean kills” on the animal pattern is very rare! The targets are printed by us on the rear of standard 1989 pattern 25-yard cards, so they will fit normal prone card hangers and most accurate shots will fall in the normal 10 black target areas so should not cause damage to the hangers. (The animal cards will need to hang at 90 degrees in the LSR card hangers.)
Broadly, the timetable of the competition is as follows:
End of July, entry forms sent out and entries open
End of August, entries close
First week of September, cards are posted out
End of October, cards must be shot and posted back to us
End of November, results are issued
PRIZES:
An engraved shield is added to the trophy for each class which is then presented to each of the winners to hold until the commencement of the next years competition.
ROLL OF HONOUR:
| YEAR | CLASS A | CLASS B | CLASS C |
| 2015 | P Stoneman (Pinewood) 388 | R Churchill (Ringwood) 387 | P Hale (Ringwood) 375 |
| 2016 | B Cave (Pinewood) 389 | A Lidster (Pinewood) 392 | D Love (Colbury) 373 |
| 2017 | D Hartley (Alton) 386 | B Herrington (Ringwood) 385 | M Bicknell (Pinewood) 381 |
| 2018 | D Hartley (Alton) 389 | N Logan (Chichester) 386 | W Arnett (Ringwood) 378 |
| 2019 | R Forster (Alton) 392 | M Taylor (Wickham) 385 | S Winkworth (Wickham) 382 |
| 20/21 | Covid! | Covid! | Covid! |
LSR class first shot in 2019, Winner was P Fig (Salisbury) with 320, 2nd was 316 and 3rd 315
Cards are to be shot at 25 yards and normal 1989 pattern ‘sighters’ can be used. They do not all have to be shot on the same day and can be spread over up to 4 shooting sessions.
Entries are to be in one of four classes: –
Class A (Prone) – average over 96
Class B (Prone) – average 92 to 96
Class C (Prone) – average below 92
Light Sporting Rifle class – all averages
Averages for the prone class entered are to be calculated from the best 10 of the last 12 cards shot in your most recent county Winter League competition or similar, and a declaration made on the entry form signed by a club official.
The entry fee is £6 per person, preferably paid online to 30-90-15 00012603 quoting your club name and “ECC”. If paying be cheque please make this payable to “Alton Rifle Club”.
Competitors need not sign the cards after shooting, but all cards must be witnessed and dated by a club official in the usual way.
The winner in each class shall be the competitor with the highest aggregate score across all 4 cards out of a possible 400. In the event of a tie the winner shall be the competitor with the highest aggregate score on the two Eccentric cards added together. If that still results in a tie the aggregate score for cards 1 to 3 inclusive will be calculated. In the event that no outright winner can be determined then the trophy will be shared for an equal time between all winners.
If you would like to find out more about this competition do please contact us on competitions@altonrifleclub.com and we will get back to you. Thanks.