Commonwealth Games Fullbore Events

(by Jim Thompson)

The next Commonwealth Games will be held at New Delhi, India in October 2010. The next Commonwealth Shooting Federation (CSF) Championships will be held in India probably in February 2010. Final arrangements for the Fullbore Events have not yet been announced by the Indian Games Authorities.

Following the designated aggregate scores made in 2007 and 2008, and the final selection trial in 2008, the top four shooters were named as the training squad for the CSFC and Commonwealth Games. Mr. Sandy Peden was appointed as manager/coach by the DCRA Executive Committee. He, along with two other advisors, will coordinate the training and selection procedures for 2009. Scores at the 2009 Canadian Championships, and in a further one day trial on the day following, will form part of the process. It is hoped that three shooters will attend the CSFC in February 2010, with two being chosen subsequently to represent Canada in the Commonwealth Games Fullbore Events in October 2010.

Commonwealth Shooting Federation 300m ISSF Event

It is possible, but it is not confirmed at the time of writing, that there will be a prone 60-shot 300 metre ISSF event at the Commonwealth Shooting Federation Championships in India in February 2010. This may be for one or two shooters. The DCRA and SFC have agreed that selection for this event will be based on the 2009 DCRA Sierra 300 metre Canadian Championship, which will be expanded to a two-day event (see Programme and Schedule). Please consult the DCRA Office and DCRA web site for further details, which will be posted as soon as they become available.

EDIT 14-APR: Roger asked in the comments section below whether 300m ISSF might become an event in the Commonwealth Games. I didn't know, so so I asked Jim Thompson and Stan Frost and got the following.

Stan wrote:

Dan,

There may be some confusion between the Commonwealth Games and the Commonwealth Shooting Federation Championships. The Games have a fixed list of shooting events, which cannot be changed this close to the Games and which does NOT include 300 m ISSF for 2010. 300m ISSF may be offered as an alternative to TR Queen's Prize Course but this would be done during the bidding process for the Games. There is a movement afoot to get this alternative approach changed for the next Games in 2014, allowing both to be offered.

The Commonwealth Shooting Federation Championships, which are being shot in India on the Games range but 7 months before the Games, do include 300 m ISSF.

TR was first included in the Commonwealth Games in 1966 in Jamaica and has been included since. To my knowledge 300m ISSF has never been included in the Games. The CSFC are a recent innovation. I know they were first fired in 1997 in Malaysia and I think they may have been fired once before that. (I think the original intent was to have the CSFC every two years, but they have been unable to find host countries at this frequency.) They have tended to use the same courses of fire as the Games but sometimes with more events being shot. I am pretty sure that 300 m ISSF was not included at Bisley in 2001 and I don't think it was included in Oz in 2005. Jim may offer some enlightenment here.

Jim wrote:

Stan has got it right, as usual!

The only thing I can add is that, as far as I know, Glasgow in 2014 will have TR Queen's prize in the Games, but TR and 300m in the CSFC. I don't think, at this stage, that they can add 300m to the Games programme.

The CSF Fullbore Committee, of which I'm a member, has been trying to stress that TR-QP must always be part of the Games, but that 300m might be added. 300m is not an alternative to TR-QP.

2009 Canadian Championships 14-22 August

The overall programme will be pretty much the same as in previous years. Dates for this year's matches are 14-22 August 2009.

Starting in 2009, for a three year trial period, we will be using the ICFRA rules for TR and F Class. The ICFRA rules will be "backstopped" by our DCRA rulebook - if something isn't handled by the ICFRA rules (for example, team eligibility requirements), the DCRA rulebook will apply. Also, we have made two small amendments to the ICFRA rules for our use ("Message 6", and "bolts out").

For both TR and F/F Class, we have eliminated the .223 Rem 81 grain bullet weight limit. The .308 Win 156 grain bullet weight limit still applies.

There is now no TR class rifle weight limit (formerly it was 6.5kg). Also, the TR trigger weight limit is now 0.5kg (formerly 1.5kg).

The shooting programme will be basically the same as in previous years. Changes:

• This year the Sierra Canadian 300m ISSF match will be two days and 120 shots long, and it will form part of the selection process for the Canadian 300m ISSF team to the Commonwealth Shooting Federation Championships in February 2010.
• There will be a final selection trial on Sunday 23 August to determine the final composition of our Commonweatlth Games team.
• The Early Short Course and the Later Short Course matches have been cancelled. It is still possible to enter matches individually on a space-available basis; somebody not shooting the Grand Agg can put together for themselves quite a big shooting schedule, hundreds of shots if they wish, for Fri-Sun 14-16 Augor Thu-Sat 20-22 Aug.
  

There are a number of changes specific to F-Class which I have put in a posting of its own, see below. TR shooters and F Class shooters will no longer be squadded together, which allows for a number of changes to be made for F Class shooters without affecting TR shooters (targets, scoring, etc).

2009 Canadian Championships - F Class

There are a number of changes for F-Class this year.

Firstly, F Class shooters will now be squadded separately from TR shooters. We'll still share the same range, but we will no longer get to have and F-Class and a TR shooter firing together on the same target. Personally I will miss this fellowship, and I will also say that this was not an easy change to make, but it is hoped that this will be an overall improvement to F Class shooting at the Canadian Championships matches.

Secondly, F-Class will no longer fire on TR targets using V=6 scoring. We will be using a special (roughly) 1/2-MOA V-bull paster applied to the standard DCRA target. F-Class shooters will be scored on a "5-V" system. The 5-ring for F-class shooter will be the V-ring of the current DCRA target system, i.e. approximately 1 MOA (a bit tighter actually at 300m, and a bit looses at 900m), and the F-Class V-bull will be exactly half that diameter. The F-Class 4-ring will be the 5-ring from the TR target, roughly 2MOA diameter (a bit tighter at 300m, a bit looser at 900m).

Thirdly, we will be recognizing a third variety of F-Class this year, F/Restricted, which is defined in the ICFRA F-Class rules. Briefly, it is .223 Rem or .308 Win, no bullet weight limit, and the front rest may only be a bipod or hand (i.e. pedestal benchrests are not allow). You'll see that this is very similar to F/Farquharson, though not identical - F/Farquharson restricts .308 Win bullet weight to <156 grains (no limit for .223 Rem), and F/Farquharson permits any kind of front rest to be used.

Fourthly, F/Farquharson and F/Restricted will now be fully and equally recognized in all the prize lists. Provided that there are at least three shooters, the first place F/Farquaharson and the first place F/Restrcited shooter will receive the same award (gold medallion, etc) as the first place F/Open shooter.