The Royal Green Jackets Association
Seven Metre Bell Target Air Rifle League By Ed Massey cleanly, or the pellet goes in but leaves a mark on the out side of the hole is scored as a 5. If a pellet impacts the plate between the hole and the first
Back in 1995 I joined the Bridgend and District Air Rifle League, a .177 Air Rifle 7 Meter Bell Target rifle league that was established 112 years ago. The object of this format of shooting is to put a .177 pellet through a 9.525 millimetre hole on a 5 inch metal plate, from seven meters, (twentyone feet), the face of which is painted white. The centre of the plate stands 5 feet vertically from the ground and level with the firing line. The plate is marked with concentric rings at 1 inch, inner, 2 inches, Magpie and 3 inches, outer. Set in a black painted metal box with a light running a 100 watt pearl bulb. With an aperture in the front measuring 6 to 8 inches in diameter and a bell behind the plate, (bell target). The “bell� is usually a rotary saw blade.
ring, but does not enter the hole, this is a 4 and as the shooter hit’s the plate further out from the centre then the scores decrease accordingly, 3, 2 and outer or 0. If any part of the pellet straddles the line by any amount then that shot is marked up, from example, from a 3 to a 4 and so on. Each match is shot between two teams with maximum of 10 shooters per match, each member shooting shoulder to shoulder, (one shooter at a time on the firing point), with an opponent. Each shooter is given 7 scoring shots and a sighter. The sighter is the first shot and does not count. It is basically for the shooter to know his / her rifle is working properly and the sights are properly adjusted. Yes, we have lady members as well. In fact every team has at least 1 lady member. We also cater for younger members starting as young as 10 years old. The maximum points that can be scored from any individual shooter is 35.7, that is 7 clean shots of 5.1. Only 5 people have achieved this in the 112 years and, amazingly, 2 of them have achieved it twice. Any scores of 35 to 35.7 is called a possible and that shooter is applauded by all present.
These rings indicate what is scored. Straight through the hole, with out leaving a mark on the plate, is scored as a 5.1, the maximum single score from one shot. Not going through the hole
Each shot is painted out once the score has been recorded. Each match has a score caller from the away team and a painter from the home team. Both teams make a written record of these scores on a scoring sheet and this is then passed on to the fixtures secretary whom correlates these in a permanent record and each league and competition has its own table showing a teams progress in the form of a news letter.
To the right, myself and my pairs partner Simon Williams, of St Brides ARC centre, with Kevin McNally, of Tondu Cricket Club, the league chairman at the time, left. Collecting our Handicap Pairs runners up commemoratives
I am a member of a long established club. We shoot on a regular basis between September and 65
