The Phoenix

[User702]

They did look nice, but I'm not prepared to buy a rifle like that in straight pull. It's almost heresy.

[raybrown53]

They're the ones who were selling straight pull AR's for £3k!

Bloody hell. I didnt go to Phoenix other commitments prevented me from attending. 3k for an AR15 SP.... ummm nah I will stick to my vz58 :) thanks

[zanes]

I was interested to hear about a Glock and Sig 226 LBPs in the pipeline.

Tell me more please?

Quick Google Search

http://www.iconarms.com/Products.html

In .22RF. My cynicism thinks airsoft "wrappers" for something :/

[Gaz]

I have heard some less than favourable reports on the F Class comps from people including abysmal marking and the wrong targets being used, I certainly know of one effer that gave up in disgust. Apparently the CSR shooters were not given the correct targets either.

Minority disciplines getting the thin edge of the wedge. The downside is F Class and CSR are two of the shooting disciplines demonstrating significant growth....

As Dougan says, there's some real problems on the marking side of the NRA and it isn't confined to "minority" disciplines. Last weekend they didn't have enough markers to offer them to all who wanted one (not a problem in our case, it was a late booking and the range office rang me to warn that it was highly unlikely we'd get one). But I overheard a very irate RCO, in charge of a butt of TR shooters who'd been falling back from 300-600, asking his markers why they'd rigged 500x targets at 600. According to the marker on the radio the correct targets were at the far end of the butt - but he couldn't explain why nobody had bothered trudging twenty yards to find them.

It's strange how taxing at source has driven away all the quality labour while the NRA presumably daren't sack the remaining wasters for fear of being left high and dry.

Back to the Phoenix - was good to bump into Dougan at the fair. And next time the beers are on me! :cheers:

[User702]

Gaz,

We had that on Century on Sunday as well. Frames 43 and 45 had 500x targets at 400m and 44 and 46 had the correct size. A lot of random frame handling too. And they started late.

But, it was a nice day, so not all bad.

[DanTheMan]

I was interested to hear about a Glock and Sig 226 LBPs in the pipeline.

Tell me more please?

Missed that stand, how much £ are they selling the Sigs & Glocks in .22 for ?

[Maggot]

Gaz, John....Sad to say it was I who gave up in disgust. Actually that's not quiet true, it went more like this.

Incidentally, I feel for Mick (our RO at 400-600) and Chris and his boss at 800-1000, this has nothing to do with them, they were patient, professional, up beat and dealt with the muppet factor very well.

It started in the pouring rain at 400...yuck...but dealable with if its a pukka comp.

Imagine my surprise when a 500 TR target appeared....I thought he meant F class target at 400 (even that would have been a cop out).

You may well ask why I did not just take the points and walk. I realised that I was kidding myself when I simply looked over the scope of the set rifle at 400 and whacked a V....I was not prepared to compromise myself by posting what could have been an excellent score by shooting at a ruddy bin lid!!

Pretentious? Precious? Not really. Add together the cost of travel, ammo, entry, and it adds up to a tidy sum, so I was royally p*** off that for the second year we had all been sold another duck, and there was going to be no sympathy (just excuses) from the organisers.

We fell back to 500....correct target came up....so why an NRA TR Target at 400? Now would'nt it have been better if you do not have correct F class 400 targets (I must admit I have never seen one) to do one of the following.

1. Scrub it and just shoot 2+20 at 5 & 6 in future (I appreciate that doing 3/5 & 6 would cause logistical problems)

2. Put a 500 F class target up at 4 (at least it has a white centre and is nearer to the plot sheets)

3. Put a 300 target up and make us work for it!!

So 500 was ok.

The at 600 a 500 target came up (I was doing ok as it happens) and one of our number realised it was wrong and we had to re-start...FFS tesnews

So, that is what happened, I did not give up as such, I just did not want to shoot a lie, it would not have gone in my score book and I recorded no card for that leg.

Incidentally, why the different scoer system to every other shoot we do? It either makes a reasonable score look poor and causes confusion? Why do it?

So we rock up in time for the AM 800 shoot and, same as last year, markers rock up at 08:30 (as booked) even though we had a 08:00 start....so another balls ache.

My first round goes down at 800, initially comes back clear target, so I challenge for a higher score. I get an indignant marker moaning about this but apparenly it clipped the top of the board.

Now look folks, I know my rifle and load. Even at 1000 elevation wise I cannot every remember missing the board and am usually on (or in line with) the black.

I cleared 800 in the euros last year, same load, same rifle.....

So at 800 with the correct El I expect it somewhere in the black. marker was adamant (and I dont mean an 80s bloke who sung about prince charming clapclap ) so I corrected...to put myself on the bottom edge of the target board.

Again, adamant so I correct to center.....it goes nowhere...same place.....help.

Well by this time I have lost 4 points so at 800 I am effectively buggered, so I corrected again and it went 12:00 in the 1 ring...eh??

So I asked my scorer to void the card as I thought I had an issue with the rifle.

Returned it to the correct elevation and shot a series of either 5s or Vs, or at least on the waterline.

The odd thing was that I swear I remembered the voice/attitude of the marker, we had issues with him 2 weeks ago, either way I am convinced that I was missmarked initially, this has started to happen on and off with other F class bods.

I cannot speak for other disciplines where this is suspected, I know the RO on saturday was armed with a sheet of paper with soem new rules for CSR...but no Fig11s....

The same marker put 2 blooms up 3 times in the same practice shoot, obviously thought it was funny and could not be bothered to watch, so when the patches blew off he had no idea and Swagged it.

We complained in writing, the target being a Palma one (with them scoring Palma scores) which was as much use a tits on a fish.

Back to 800 at the Phoenix

The funny thing is that I used 3 spare rounds up at 800 (we had no foulers so they were going begging and the RO was happy). I shot a V, 0, 5....no change in the wind...so where did that bullet go?

900 and 1000 were pretty uneventfull but the marking was painfully slow. So slow in fact that on both further occasions the second detail was half way through by the time we (first detail) had finished.

Now staying in that position gets a bit achey, and its hard to concentrate that long, with nearly every round a message 4 (or 7) and each shot effectively a sighter.

It was quite self evident that nothing was being watched, and he was only reacting to message 4 from the RO.

When it did go down it took an age....to find and mark a hit in the 5,4,V...why??

So you can shout what you like, but my lot use their own markers, pay more, but the results are stunning.

We did complain (chiefely on behalf of the Dutch who were clearly peed off with their marker as well). The lass was great but asked us if we had any suggestions. Basically they read them the riot act, which goes in one ear and out the other.

I must admit other than penalising them financially (which means they wont come back) I could not suggest a solution.

Bottom line, I wont be doing any more comps at the NSC other than club ones or the league ones where the markers are at pain of death.

I have wasted too much money....Sorry, but that's the last time for me, ever.

I doubt the NRA are quaking in their boots, but it ruined my shoots.

I have since found an issue with my bag rider that means I will get a poor lateral group. It needs fixing before I shoot again, but even that would not have accounted for the issues we had with the marking, it affected al of us accross several targets, and this seems to be par for the course on stickledown this year.

I am considering what I can do to evidence thsi and how I can improve the situation re recompense without falling out with the range office staff who, by all accounts, find it as frustrating as we do

[ovenpaa]

On the subject of the Phoenix, does anyone know why the Police were called Sunday?

[kennyc]

On the subject of the Phoenix, does anyone know why the Police were called Sunday?

it wasn't me! I went Saturday

[Christel]

On the subject of the Phoenix, does anyone know why the Police were called Sunday?

it wasn't me! I went Saturday

Style police :lol: