TargetTalk

It is some time now since the Rapid Fire - Shorts- match has been phased out from the ISSF programme.

What have people done with their R/F pistols?
Some people here in Oz, surrendered their obsolete pistols in the Buy-Back programme, due to the legally undersized barrels of pistols such as Walthers.

I know there are still many of the old R/F pistols are around, here in Oz,but there are no recognized matches provided.

At my club there has been only a couple of occasions when we have been able to shoot the old match using up some of our .22 shorts.

Are there still any matches for this gun - in USA, Canada, Germany, and other European countries?

Some of these guns were worth a couple of thousand dollars when we bought them, and it appears there was no thought by the International body, as to what we could do with the pistols. At the time they said it was because many ladies might shoot the match. Well, where are they?
Here in Oz no lady shooter has taken it up seriously (State or International level). Some may shoot it at Club level only.
Out of 150 members in my club there is only one lady who occasionally shoots the match.

Has anyone thought of formulating some sort of match where we can use these pistols? No-one is interested in buying them, so what do we do with them? There is no value in them as antiques, and in many people's opinion, the Old R/F match was one of the best pistol matches. I know there has been some problem with .22shorts reliability, but even the present .22 longs are not as good and reliable as they used to be. Many guns don't like the ammo for R/F. If you want to be successful you have to practice, and practice, to reach any decent level.

I look forward to hearing your suggestions, and maybe we can get something done.

Alex L.

Alex L wrote:At the time they said it was because many ladies might shoot the match.

Did they? I don't remember that. I'd be surprised if they did as ISSF rule 8.15.0 doesn't allow women to shoot Rapid Fire Pistol.

Ladies can of course shoot Rapid Fire in non ISSF matches if allowed under local rules, but those local rules could also allow 22 short.

I have an old OSP. I have a 22 LR bbl. I know that regular LR ammo is too hot for it but I bought some Lapua Rapid Pistol to try. Here in the United States the OSP would make a nice "gallery" or 50 foot pistol provided you use a GSP trigger. I like my pistol and want to play around with it!

a number of RF Walthers have been converted to .22lr in Australia (including the trigger sets to +1000g, sights to -220mm, etc.).

At least the Walthers can be converted, but...

Spencer

I have an IJ-34 R/F gathering cobwebs. Barrel too long to sell in Buy-back.
New uses would be great. [ I know I can go fishing and use it as a sinker ]

Alex,

I guess an option for some would be to pressure their club to program the "old" RF match regularly. Maybe we could even get a little more old and go back to using the service match target! I guess with the passage of time the shooters with the .22 shorts will become a minority. A recent "old rules" match at our club wasn't overly popular as I recall but that may have been due to its impromptu nature.

One thing for sure, the rules aren't likely to change and RF with .22 shorts is as dead as disco.

At least your Walther is big enough to double as a hammer, my FAS is way too light :-)

Pete

shadow wrote:I have an old OSP. I have a 22 LR bbl. I know that regular LR ammo is too hot for it but I bought some Lapua Rapid Pistol to try. Here in the United States the OSP would make a nice "gallery" or 50 foot pistol provided you use a GSP trigger. I like my pistol and want to play around with it!

Shadow,

If you do a search on Target Talk, you should be able to find detailed instructions from Sandy Sanibanez on converting an OSP to .22LR. You can, of course, do a partial conversion by omitting some of the steps he describes, but I would strongly advise against using any standard velocity .22LR ammo - even the Lapua rapid - without beefing up the recoil system. You will most likely destroy the gun. Strengthening the recoil system is easy enough to do, so check it out. I've done it, and it makes a pretty neat gun.

HTH,
Fred