RO, RO, RO your DURC….

Range Officer duty again last night in DURC. Quiet night, though I’ve heard that there’s a lot of the students who don’t know we’re operating or where we are – even after having joined up in fresher’s week 🙁 Must see about fixing that…

The evening went reasonably well. We’ve got an ERASMUS student from Germany with a 560+ average, which is always good as it drives up the level of competition. Some of our juniors were down shooting again, this is always good to see, and they’re making progress. Had a novice competition which will become a regular thing for wednesdays now, using one of the edelmann training targets which has a single scoring ring, the aiming mark and the ten-ring on it. If your shot misses the aiming mark (the black circle), it’s a -1; if it hits it, you score a 0; and if you get the shot inside the scoring line without breaking it (the equivalent of shooting a 9 or higher in competition), you get 1 point. Plus, we natter away behind you to simulate match pressure. It’s a pretty nifty training exercise for mental control. Then after that, the Equestrian Club were down training for the tetrathlon. Always good to see them, always a pain when they don’t stay with the shooting, even though they know that in terms of cost-benefit analyses, training in shooting is better than training in any other part of the tetrathlon because they gain so many points. Oh well. Maybe this year will be different…

We’re starting to train the Intervarsity squad in DURC soon enough as well; we’re hoping to start around the 21st of November this year and get them up to speed, training on Monday nights. More details to follow.

On the .22 front, shot in the Leinster 25yd Open in RRPC this weekend. Awful match. Hadn’t picked up the rifle since the Nationals, but could still drill the centre out – when I could see the target properly. Keelan’s said it himself, the lighting needs fixing at the end of the range to get rid of shadows. Still though, I’ve put in a 580 and higher there before, and Richard Stapleton Jr put in a 587 this weekend, so the real reason for that awful 565 is my lack of .22 training. That’s not going to change anytime soon though; Bisley takes priority for now.

Speaking of air rifle, tonight’s squad training night in Wilkinstown so it’s off to there this evening a little before five (ah, the M50 followed by the N3… must bring a book to read along the way 😀 ). Time for some training before the UCD Airgun Open this weekend. Time to ask about the progress with sourcing the air pistol as well – with WTSC apparently being the only club sorting out authorisations so that all the shooters can try pistol matches, it’s getting annoying seeing pistol matches held in other clubs where you know you can’t legally take part by borrowing a pistol 🙁

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