TargetTalk

From South Africa we are proud to report that we have 1000 scholars shooting 3P air.

1. Our .22 rilfes(6000) were taken by governmanent last year and 60 years of school sport destroyed.

2. 3P air was introduced to us at World Cup in Atlanta in 1998 by Gary Anderson, thank you to USA shooting.

3. We have the N.S.R.A in Britian interested in sponsoring event with the British Junior Int. in August next year.

4. We would like to become involved in a world body and have contacted U.S.A.S to this end.

5. We subscribe to U.S.A.S rules

6. Our highest scores are: 562(Sporter), 586(Precision)

7. With the shortage of facilities, cost of equipment, travel problems would 3P air not possibly be an alternative to .22 shooting in the future and become an Olympic sport?

8. Another plus factor would be that every committed ahtlete can practice as long as he/she wishes from home. This would eliminate all the structures needed to support an athlete who shows major promise re: cost

9. Here in South Africa we have designed a multi purpose rifle in conjunction with Dave Froggit the English coach which would serve as

a) Sporter Rifle
b) Precision Rifle
c) 10m Rilfe
d) Field target rifle
e) M/S rifle
f) Benchrest rifle
g) 25 yard prone and 3P outdoor rifle
h) This sporter rifle would cost less than $500 and by adding on weight, better sights, scope and adjusting power to higher velocities one rifle would serve all above shooting diciplines
i) We have this rife on test in South Africa, it is as accurate as the more expensive German makes. PCP.Excellent trigger. Regulated.
j) In first 10m competition here a scholar ranked 2nd among the top 16 shooters in the country.
k) At it's first outing in benchrest it took first place, beating rilfes costing four times more.
l) This rifle is available for evaluation: contact me at autoweld@mweb.co.za for further particulars.

10. The rifle will be manufactured in the UK

11. We agree 100% with the article by Lones Wigger on how to improve the standard of performance

12. Matt Emmons made us South Africans very proud just to be involved in shooting, you really have Gold there.

Please give us your thoughts on above and also your vision for the future.

Mike (RSA)
(Shooting Development Schools South Africa)

From my limited experience with precision 3p air is that it would have to be significantly changed to become an olympic sport. I am not that great a shooter and I can easily shoot 100's (10 shots) on a 10m air rifle target in prone and can almost do so in kneeling. Any world class shooter would be cleaning prone and kneeling every time and it would be a standing only match as it is. I know, we could change the target and measure the shots with micrometers or something but to me that seems to not be very interesting. How about stretching out the distance a bit for 3p air? 50m is too long probably but how about 25m? Make it an outdoor discipline- add a little wind to the game?

Progression from 3 P junior to a senior code has many advantages:
1. Low cost.
2. Availability of 10m ranges Worldwide
3. An enormous pool of est. shooters, why try to convert them
instead of providing a senior discipline for them. Surely this
popularity is an indicator?


Pdeal raises some interesting points and I wish to comment as follo
ws: Boring, easy!----- not so if scores are taken to the 10th decimal
point as the scoring systems now cater for. Now throw in a final
in a hall to accommodate many spectators tv etc. The logistics
at sb ranges except the elaborate ones are a nightmare.
25 M/yds with 800fps air rifle outdoors makes a lot of sense and
it has been pointed out to me that this code is very close to
reality in your country. An additional code where SPACE permits.
3 P 22 has an Aura attached to it that is difficult to explain, a sort
of Cult status------- shouldnt that become 3 P Air in the
future.

Friends in Europe tell me that 22 interest is shrinking there
for the same reasons as well.

The UK is also investigating alternatives like 3P Air.

Well we know whats working and whats not and the
faster we wake up the more shooters we will retain.

From me far away,

Mike From SouthAfrica

Interesting concept about 10m 3p shooting...

What does theNRA and USAS think, Is this the future....

Interesting about the development of a rifle down under in South Africa! More info please (maybe a photo?)

How big is the shooting sports really in South Africa?

Thanx everybody for you possitieve attitude towards our great sport, we need it in the days where the ANTI-GUNNERS are getting the media attention.

Adr

Hi,
To all those who responded by mail thank you.

I get the impression that promoting 3 P air at a senior level can be

a touchy subject for some but I believe that a great future lies ahead

for this meanial shooting sport.

A question raised about taget shooting down our way ( South Africa )---

We have about 1500 shooters of all codes affiliated to our National

Body, ISSF style shooting is very small, we also have a Target Hunting

Association--- centre fire rifle at paper targets in real life conditions. The

largest discipline is clay target. Our Schools 3 P air has 1000 marksmen

and women competing on a regular basis with another 1500 shooting at

their own school only.

I will arrange for a photo of the MPR if you would please contct me

at autoweld @ mweb.co.za. It appears that this rifle will definitely

be exibited at Vegas Jan. 2005.

Yours,

Mike rsa.

Interesting that you bring this up. One of the reasons Xavier is loosing their rifle program is because of ventilation concerns with their range.

I was told that NCAA shooting probably will be 100% AR in 5 years.

Also the EU is talking about a ban on lead.

All of this poses some interesting problems for shooting in the future.
TM

I will mention again what I put out there many years ago. It will not be too long in the future before the Olympic Games shooting events, other than shotgun, will all be air. This is for some of the reasons mentioned above, but also this move will be made because of space and cost considerations. Take it to the bank, folks, this will be slowly phased in and already has begun. The only place to shoot cartridge arms will be in WC's, World Champs, etc.

To all junior coaches out there. Please do a quick survey with your shooters and determine what percentage of them would like to see 3P Air Precision as a Senior code

Please post on the forum.

This result would be interesting in the end the Shooters must be happy.

David D