CCF National Schools Target Rifle Competition 2024
Students recently took part in the National Schools Target Rifle Competition at Bisley, spending four days enjoying a programme of activities and events, their accommodation and meals provided at Brunswick Camp, Pirbright in Woking.
Showcasing target rifle at its very best, the competition comprised of a range of shooting opportunities for cadets. Year 12’s Oscar shares his experience:
Oscar, Year 12
Our shooting team, including Year 12’s Oliver, Jack and I as well as Year 10’s Ernest and Arlo and Year 9’s Woody, all set off in the Woodbridge School mini bus on Sunday morning heading for Alexander Barracks, Pirbright. On arrival we set up and went for dinner ready for our first practice day. Over the Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday we all had the chance to practice shoots consisting of two sighters and seven scoring shots with a maximum score possible of 35.7. We started off shooting twice at 300yds and then moved back to shoot twice again at 500 yards and ending the days with one 600 yard shoot.
The food was good and on Wednesday evening we had the chance to do a clay pigeon shoot after dinner which everyone really enjoyed.
On the Thursday it was Ashburton Day which was the main competition. The opening of the competition was marked by a detail of the Scottish cadets who marched down the 300 yard firing point to the magnificent sound of the bagpipes. We then started with the team of four in the School Fours (WO1 Oscar, Sgt Oliver, L.cpl Arlo and Cadet Woody) followed by the team of two (Sgt Jack and Cadet Ernest) in the School Pairs. We did all the ranges and then the final competition was the Spencer Mellish in which the best shooter from each school takes part in a competition where you shoot two sighters followed by 10 scoring rounds. You do not have a coach and have to rely on yourself to make adjustments to the sights. It was an honour to be picked to shoot in this part of the competition and I really enjoyed the challenge and learnt a lot, especially about how to counteract the wind!
Thank you to all of the cadets that took part, representing themselves and the School brilliantly, and to Austin for teaching me how to coach and for teaching all the new cadets how a full bore shoot works. A special thank you goes to Mr Stollery who made it all happen.
