Well, first season back competing after 4 years off to build the range and I cant be that unhappy. In the four UKPSA competitions I entered I scored a 1st, 3rd, 3rd and 7th. The highlights were seeing some of the old friends I made when I was shooting more regularly as well as the sea of new faces now competing but also so see some of the new courses of fire from the ranges, challenging despite the lack of real distance sometimes.

My over riding impression is that the game has moved on and Mini Rifle is starting to grow again, it needs nurturing but its by far the most accessible discipline of practical shooting in the UK (no special licence needed as you do with Section shotgun and lbp).

This year was a bit of a development year for me personally, first year back on the circuit and I wanted to use it as a season for trying different things, I tried a CZ 512 Tactical which worked well but sheer lack of interest from the suppliers in helping create a practical version meant I went back to the Smith and Wesson 15.22 where with some help from our partners Blackrifle I managed to improve its accuracy to a point I'm happy with it again.

Short stage from Birmingham

This first season back was always going to be a little trial and error, my fitness needs work (no change there then) and with changes of guns it has taken me a while to get back into muscle memory of the handling but also with an extensive motor racing program this year its meant long periods without competing which doesnt really help so I plan to design some training programs that should help me address that.

Exciting news for us next year is that we have been selected to host a Level 3 IPSC match for the UKPSA, level 3 means its a regional championship level so it means we should attract competitors from outside the UK, its the first Level 3 Mini Rifle match to be held in the UK so we are very proud and want to create something memorable and if I want to do well myself I need to train.

Best thing for me is that I enjoyed it, I enjoy things more when I do them well so I'm happy with my performance but if I'm to compete with the top shooters in Europe I need to train and not just turn up and shoot, you'd thinking having my own range makes that easy but the fact is when we have shooters here my job is to look after them, add all the training we do and Experience Days there just isnt the time, I need to sort that.

2019 is looking to be an interesting year already!

Thanks to all of our partners this year especially Aimpoint for the best red dots out there, Wildcat for their moderators and Black Rifle for their lovely carbon fibre bits.

A little update to this report, turns out despite only entering a bare minimum of competitions this year I attained 3rd overall in the UKPSA series and 5th overall in the NRA series so despite being my first year back I'm pretty happy with that.

 

Check out our Youtube Channel for lots more videos of stages and our new series on training that is coming soon.