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Salient: Victoria University Students' Paper. Vol. 28, No. 8. 1965.

Shooting Club: Rife Rifling

Shooting Club: Rife Rifling

shooting club

You may know the University has a shooting club—you may even know they have two. As a guide to the differences between the two clubs, as a guide to shooting as a sport, Michael Birch, of .303 Rifles Club and Miniature Rifles Club has written the following article.

At Victoria two types of target shooting are catered tor: smallbore, or miniature rifles: and fullbore, or .303 rifles.

The term "miniature" is somewhat misleading, since smallbore rifles weigh up to 16 pounds. This heavy weight makes the rifle less susceptible to wobbles, and also reduces the recoil. "Miniature" actually refers to the bullet, the well-known .22 calibre. Naturally enough, .303 rifles use .303 calibre bullets.

303 rifles are fired out-of-doors— locally, on the Army's range out at Trentham. Nearly all the shooters are men, and this leads to the average outdoor shooter being a somewhat more Crumpian character than his indoor counterpart. Miniature rifles are fired on an indoor 25-yard range, with many women participants, and the sport is more socially orientated. Of course, some schizophrenic types do both kinds of shooting!

The smallbore target has a bullseye only [unclear: lin] diameter. The .303 bull is 7 inches in diameter at 300 yards. 15 inches at 500 and 600 yards, and 30 inches at 800 and 900 yards. On an average day at Trentham, the wind (which is never constant) may deflect the bullet up to 5 or 6 minutes of angle. The longer the range, the greater the deviation, and at 900 yards on a windy day the bullet may be blown up to two or three yards off target. Learning to correct the sights on the rifle for varying winds is one of the fundamentals of .303 shooting.

Indoors, of course, there are no problems of varying conditions, and it becomes a matter of aiming in exactly the same manner for each shot. All misses become the fault of the shooter directly, and cannot be blamed on a capricious breeze.

Rifle shooting calls for concentration ton each and every shot), determination (to improve one's technique and hence scores), and judgment (as to whether the sights are set correctly, etc). These things come with practice, and are in themselves worthwhile rewards.

The Victoria shooting clubs are quite strong, both numerically and in ability. At last Easter tournament the .303 team took second place and nearly defeated Canterbury. Two members of the team shot for NZU against a provincial side, while the other four shot for North Island against South Island. The Miniature Rifles team that competed in last year's Winter Tournament did equally as well— second to Canterbury once again.

Anyone who is now convinced that shooting is the sport for him/ her, etc. should garb themselves in ancient raiment, and will be made welcome at the basement of the Winter Show Building on Monday nights at 7.30