Shooting Class Categories

[fastnick]

Oh well, I thought I might as well throw my two ha'pence worth in as well.....

I shoot .22 because:

A) I enjoy it and the challenges that this calibre brings
B) As I prefer not to have to wear my reading glasses when I shoot, I am less likely to put the bigger pellets in the wrong way round
C) The camaraderie that exists in this class (much the same as I sense there is in the recoil class)

I don't win many trophies, but I enjoy myself hugely and always come away from a shoot having learnt something new - and these two things matter far more to me than any piece of tin or plastic to put on the bookshelf in my study

Whilst it is nice on those rare occasions when I manage to get my act together and come in with a decent enough score to collect a cup, there is very little satisfaction in doing so if there were only a couple of other .22 shooters.

However, at those shoots where the .22 guys are put in a class with the recoil shooters, then that makes for a far better competition, with more shooters competing against each other, and therefore a greater sense of pride/satisfaction/enjoyment if you manage to come out with the top score in this "combined class". Not always, but more often than not the scores from the recoil and .22 classes at a competition are very similar (obviously for different reasons), and this serves to make far more of more of a contest for all concerned than it would have been if say just three .22 shooters and 5 recoil shooters were in 2 different classes.

Add in the savings to the host club in terms of the money that they would have had to fork out for trophies in both the .22 and recoil classes, and for me putting both these classes together (only on those occasions when there really aren't sufficient numbers to make one or both classes "viable" on their own) is a great thing to do and adds to the overall enjoyment of the day as far as I'm concerned. If there are sufficient competitors in each class, then run the 2 classes (which is also a good case for encouraging pre-booking by shooters)