What is 300m ?
The similarity with 50m is that 300m is the same course of fire i.e. 60 shots prone plus sighters or 3 X 20 (20 shots each at prone, standing and kneeling).
At the club nearly everyone is a prone
shooter, with the odd exception.
At Bisley during 2004 the 300m Target Rifle Club was formed, we installed 10 lanes of KME electronic targets for club use.
The 60 shot prone Match has 15mins sighting time and a match time of 50mins, this is extended to 60mins for non ISSF shoots.
In the past 300m was shot mostly using 7.62
cal., which tended to dissuade small-bore shooters from trying the
discipline. Firstly there was the heavy recoil and then the muzzle blast
and noise from your shooting neighbours. Although the hand loaded
ammunition was very accurate the course of fire did tend to wear down the
shooter unless of course you were Malcolm Cooper.
Now almost everyone uses the 6mm BR (BR stands for bench
rest). This has a mild recoil compared with 7.62 and is extremely
accurate. The two factory loads are Norma and Lapua. Norma uses a 105gn.
Berger
LTB bullet
and this load is used by everyone in the GB squad who does not hand
load. The length tolerant bullet is used to suit all different chambers.
The hand loaders amongst us tend to use Berger VLD (very low drag) 105 grn.
bullets, to tune the load to the rifle. (click
here to see a comparison with .22)
Shooting your own accurate hand loads is part of the buzz of 300m. It can be time consuming but very rewarding when you get it right.
The modern 300m rifle is very accurate and at the moment the best ones come from either Germany or Switzerland. The market leaders are Grunig and Bleiker
On some of the 300m systems the stock is the same as
small-bore so it is possible to have one stock and two actions. It also
means that your 50m shooting can be training for 300m.
Come along to Bisley, the home of GB300m Target Rifle Club and the home of shooting in the UK and see for yourself.
Have a look on this site and our facebook page for shooting dates for this year.
As we know it today 300m shooting started in Europe in the early 1800’s and was popular enough to be included in the 1896 Modern Olympics held in Greece! In 1896 Olympics the 300 meter Free Rifle (full bore) was the only rifle shooting event. Four championships were awarded from the 3x20 match, the aggregate, and the prone, kneeling and standing sub events
It continued as an ISU Olympic event
until the mid seventies when it was removed from the competition program.
The last Olympic match
was at the Munich Games in 1972.
Sport shooting differs from military
in that special rifles are required for the positional and prone events
and they do not resemble any military
Nevertheless despite the withdrawal of 300m from the Olympics, it did not deter the European and other world countries in reviving the sport. In the eighties the English match event was introduced with the intention of trying to include many Commonwealth countries who shot only prone.
In the early nineties the Europa Cup circuit was introduced by a number of European shooting organisation headed by the French, this consisted of three or four qualifying events in which points are awarded. Culminating in the Europa Cup Final for the top twenty shooters in each event.
The worlds best ISSF Shooters train
for much of their shooting career with similar equipment at 50m, so there
is a natural progression to 300m, which by some is considered the
classic event, most finding it challenging and fun.
All the current events require good
technical control, mental application and general physical fitness as some
competitions last over four hours.
There are three classifications of rifle - Free and Standard for men and the new Ladies Sports Rifle.
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Mens Free Rifles have a maximum weight of 8kgrm and no trigger weight limitation other than being safe |
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Ladies Sport Rifle have a maximum weight of 6.5 kg and as the free rifle, no trigger weight limitations |
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The Standard Rifle have a maximum weight of 5.5kg and a trigger weight of 1500 grms |
The designs follow closely
50m rifles and often stocks and sights are inter-changeable.
Britain has only one range which civilian 300m shooters can compete and train. This is on Butt 10 at Bisley and has somewhat restricted use. Despite this and with a lot of training being done at events overseas, there is even more reason to congratulate UK shooters for their outstanding scores over the last twenty years.
300m ranges are to be found in most European countries and prior to the second world war were mostly located in Switzerland, Italy, Nordic and the iron curtain countries. Some unfortunately closed due to high upkeep costs and non Olympic status and, unless used for the military, there was no reason to keep them open.
The 1972 Olympic Range at Munich closed in the seventies, but has recently reopened with about 30 firing points and limited usage per year
So what, if any, are the drawbacks?
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It’s not cheap |
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Limited range time in the UK |
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It can be frustrating taking time getting rifle and ammo tuned to perfection |
On the plus side you get :
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Up to 60 shots in a competition |
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The use of modern and relatively unrestricted equipment |
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The use of selected factory supplied or hand loaded ammunition |
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A flat protected firing point (under
cover) |
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The same basic rules as 50m |
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ISSF organization and status up to European and World levels |
If this has interested you then contact the info@GB300m.com who will be pleased to give you further details.
Above is the first thing you see when going to compete or train at Bisley it may not be pretty from the outside, but inside things are better.
The firing point at Bisley
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Hard at work at Bisley
Yes that black dot is the target.
Back in the days before electronic targets this was the target (black dot)
for a detailed look at bull dimensions click the bull