Non-U.S. shooters: Can I shoot in your Nationals?

[Sawyer]

To all non-American shooters: Do you have national-level events that I, as an independant shooter, could enter?

Larry Sawyer

[Jon E]

For Smallbore, 300mtr Rifle and Rim/centre fire Pistol:
As a non swiss citizen it would be possible to shoot the national matches, as a independant shooter however,not. You would first have to become a member of a Swisss shooting club in order to qualify. I'm not really sure if this is required solely because of the Swiss Shooting Federation, it is possibly to do with the fact that most if not all ranges in Switzerland belong to the military and it's a form of vetting.

For Air Rifle/pistol it's probably the same.

Jon E

[Guest]

I successfully competed in the usa nationals this year in rifle prone as a "visitor" also shot in the usa olympic trials matches as a "visitor" they have no problem with outside participants, except you can not qaulify for a finals. Next year I noted that any shooter, including visitors will be able to qaulify for the finals in the rocky mountain championships, held in mid feb in colorado at the olympic training centre.

happy shooting

Johan

[Jose Rossy]

Larry, we have several rifle championships: the National Smallbore Championship (prone and 3P), sanctioned by the National Rifle Association, the National Highpower Rifle Championship, also sanctioned by the NRA, the National Trophy Matches, sanctioned by the Civilian Marksmanship Program, and the USA Shooting 3P and prone 50 meter and 300 meter Championships.

The NRA and CMP also have pistol championships.

You can, as a foreigner, compete in NRA sanctioned tournaments all the way to the national level.

NRA Rule 2.1.1 Non-US Citizens

Non-US Citizens who are also non-Residents (meaning legal US residents), who are not members of the National Rifle Association of America, but who are members in good standing of their own National Association, and have adequate proof of such membership in hand, may compete in any NRA Sanctioned Tournament, unless further restrictions are imposed by conditions stated in the (tournament) program.

Italics are my additions.

I believe USA Shooting allows foreigners to compete, as long as they are members in good standing of their National Federation or Association.

ETA: The Civilian Marksmanship Program does allow non US citizens to participate in any of its rifle or pistol matches or championships.

Also, I just now realized that Larry Sawyer is an American asking if he can compete in other countries' championships.

Larry, I apologize for the confusion, but I will leave my post up so that shooters from other countries can see that they can enter all US championships, with, at most, a membership in their national federation.

[Sparks]

In Ireland you could enter all of the national-level matches as an independent shooter, but you'd need an Irish firearms licence (not that hard to get). You couldn't enter the National championships unless you held an Irish passport, but you could enter the concurrently-shot Open championships, and we have in fact have had several non-Irish people do that and win. Club shoots would, of course, be by invitation of the club, but most clubs have no problems in this. Generally, it's a "the more the merrier" affair (so long as safety remains the first priority, of course) - the Irish aren't renowned internationally for their strict adherence to formality ;)

[Bill Poole]

The Civilian Marksmanship Program does not allow non US citizens to participate in any of its rifle or pistol matches or championships.

I asked CMP several years ago and was told that rule has not been in effect for years and that non-citizens were welcome to shoot all matches. We have several non-citizens on the AZ rifle team.

Poole
http://arizona.rifleshooting.com/

[Jose Rossy]

The Civilian Marksmanship Program does not allow non US citizens to participate in any of its rifle or pistol matches or championships.

I asked CMP several years ago and was told that rule has not been in effect for years and that non-citizens were welcome to shoot all matches. We have several non-citizens on the AZ rifle team.

Poole
http://arizona.rifleshooting.com/

You are right. I was going by memory since I couldn't get my Adobe Acrobat reader to work. After I rebooted and got it to work, I refreshed myself on the CMP's elegibility requirements. I have amended my post.

[Sawyer]

My original post asked about entering events in foreign (non-U.S.) countries. I am an American, for those of you who don't know me (I know Bill Poole does) and I'm already shooting most of the big U.S. events; I was just curious as to which other countries would allow a non-citizen to enter their Nationals. I prefer a National-level event, because I want the stiffest competition possible.
I was already aware that Switzerland was an option. Thank you for the post from Ireland. Any others?

Larry

[Jaroslav]

You can compete in the Airgun Slovak National Championships without being a member of a club affiliated with the Slovak Shooting Federation. However, for smallbore, you have to enter a club and qualify (providing at least three results from qualifying competitions; the average of three best is evaluated; experience says you need some 586 in prone or 1120 in 3P) for the nationals. Citizenship and residence does not matter.

By the way, if you are heading for Europe with the aim to seek good competitors, you do not necessarily need to limit yourself to nationals. There is a lot of Grand Prix level competitions with five and more nations participating with their national teams.

10s 2U
Jaro

[Sawyer]

Jaro-
I'm shooting better than those scores now. Please email me at Rifleman@tcinternet.net as I'd like to get some details from you. thanks!

Larry

[Ross Mason]

Nothing like getting in some advertising.

If you guys and gals are getting sick of the cold up thar, why not come and spend a month in New Zealand.

For a month over January / February now has a nice calender that will take you over the whole country over a month culminating in our week long Nationals.

This year it started with the North Island Champs (3P and 50m Prone) in Tokoroa on Jan 22/23. Next week Jan 29/30 was Palmerston North, (Air and Prone). 12 /13 Feb in Auckland and finally the Nationals in Christchurch starting on the 19 Feb and finishing on the 26th. (everything shot, Air, Prone 3P and Disabled Air Rifle and 50m Rifle - we even have a gold medallist from the 2004 Paralympics so we can't be that bad).

The NZ Pistol Champs start in Auckland the following week.

There ya go. Oh...by the way...we don't take fingerprints of visitors down here either!! We LIKE them.

Regards

Ross Mason