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DIGGLE RANGES UK 500 YD ANNUAL FLY SHOOT


Like most good competitions, the Fly shoot has few rules – any rifle, any sight, any rest, any calibre – as long as it is within range-safety limits and that means anything from a 204 Ruger to the 338 Lapua Magnum. But then again, how much firepower do you need to dispose of a fly – even at 500 yards. We run just two classes – one for ‘out of the box’ factory rifles and the other for anything else. This year, factory rifles made up about a third of the entry.


Incidentally, the Aussies


shoot the fly at 500 metres so, if any are reading this they probably think we are cheating!


Lets look at the target! (See Yellow Fly Target on previous page). That ten-ring is 58 mm across – i.e well under a half MOA at 500 yards and the one-ring is 220 mm in diameter. The large V usefully assists as an aiming-mark for shooters using low-power scopes.


The competition is shot prone, off the (wet) grass and consists of a five-minute sighting in period on a separate target, then three 5-shot groups. After each group, the targets are pulled and the shot-holes marked so that each group is easily distinguishable for measuring and scoring.


Scores are made in the normal way via the scoring rings but then groups are measured – in inches and the value subtracted from ten to give the ‘group bonus’. For example, a three-inch group would attract a seven-point group bonus. Group bonuses typically account for around 20 points of a good shooter’s total points tally.


Oh, did I mention – no wind flags! Therefore, it’s a big help if you can see your shot-holes! On the target, you can see my shot-hole – at 10 o’clock on the edge of the one-ring. I saw the shot and aimed-off to get somewhere near the ten-ring but of course, that ‘stretched’ my group somewhat – thus sacrificing ‘group bonus’ points!


But what of the fly? Why is there a fly in the middle of the target? No one knows! But, it’s a bit like the Egg Shoot – if you tell your mates you hit a fly at 500 yards, it sounds kind of impressive – even if the fly is bigger than any I’ve ever seen.


This year, we handed out about a dozen fly patches – about a quarter of the entry managed to hit it.


Although cash prizes are handed out to the first three in each class, most shooters come for the fly patch and go home happy if they win one. We also reward the shooter of the smallest group in each class with a cash prize and a small-group patch.


One of the drawbacks of the Fly Shoot is scoring the targets. Measuring every group takes time, especially if the scoring is being done by competitors as it was today – thank you Mike and Peter - it helps to slow down the action so that the scorers can keep up. The drawback of this is of course is lot of hanging around – which is fine on a nice sunny day nattering about accurate rifles and the like but a bit depressing when it keeps raining. Fortunately, the Diggle Range House is close by so it was easy to stroll back for a cuppa, a snack and a change of clothing!


This year, we had a few of the GBFCA regulars turn-up to try their luck with their F Class rifles and indeed it is a good test of any accurate rifle – shooting groups is the best indication of a rifle’s capability and a good F Class Open rifle should be capable of knocking in sub. three-inch groups at 500 yards. And indeed they were, with Peter Wilson, Mark Daish and John Campbell all turning in two-inch groups, with Mark eventually shooting the smallest group of the day with a splendid 1.737 incher with his 284 Win built on a Barnard action. However, John Campbell’s string of three two-inch groups, nicely centred around the fly, was good enough to take the Open Class win.


In Factory Class, the competition was equally fierce. Steve Hodge had a great shoot which included a sub three-inch group with his ‘out of the box’ 308 Savage F/TR rifle, eventually tying for second place with Darrel Evans, who has won many 600 yard benchrest accolades with the 6.5x47 Accuracy International. However, the win went to Andy Massingham with his Blazer LRS tactical rifle and his 2.45 inch group also won him the Factory small-group award.


After the shoot, several competitors came up to me and asked if we could run two Fly Shoots every year – there is certainly the enthusiasm for another but the Diggle Calendar is so full it would mean dropping another event. However, if any other clubs would be interested in running a fly shoot, I would be happy to send you a sample target. We get ours printed locally and they cost about 30p each. The fly and small-group patches come from Jacquard Weaving at Chorley www.jacquard.co.uk


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