Practical Shooting

Range Conducting Officer Commands and Protocols

At the start:

1. Load
2. Are you ready?
3. Stand by

After the last shot:

1. If you are finished unload and show clear
2. Secure your chamber
3. Range is clear

Breakdown of each command

Load: Insert magazine, lay rifle flat. Do not cock the rifle.

Are you ready?: Answer not needed unless not ready.

Stand by: At this point the timer is started. There is a random delay of up to five seconds. Upon hearing the timer beep, pick up the rifle and cock it. Take the first shots then move to the next position.

If you are finished unload and show clear: Drop the magazine then hold the bolt open and show the clear chamber to the RCO. The RCO will declare chamber as "clear" or may issue the next command.

Secure your chamber: Insert a chamber flag making sure the RCO can see what you are doing, then put the rifle down with the flag clearly visible.

Range is clear: No one is to move forward of the rifle before the range is declared as clear.

Safety

Always have the barrel pointing down range, you are holding a loaded and ready to fire rifle. Making a mistake here could be deadly and you will be disqualified if you don't follow this rule.

As the course is being shot, the RCO will follow the shooter closely with the timer facing the ejection port of the rifle. This is to pick up the rifle sound. The time stops at each shot and will stop timing after the stop button is pressed. You may follow the shooter and RCO down the course but keep your distance and stay at least a couple of meters behind the RCO.

Some Tips

1. If you have a jam, point the ejection port down and pull the charging handle back. Hold it back then turn the rifle to inspect the chamber.
2. Change magazine before it is empty - if you have a round in the chamber you don't need to cock the rifle again.
3. Change magazine while moving between positions, that way it saves you standing still while the timer is running.

Scoring

The final score is the points divided by time. The faster you are the higher your score. The more targets you hit the higher your score.

There is often a lot of haggling over "it's in" or "there are two bullets through one hole", it's part of the fun. However, in general we score in (meaning if you hit the line it counts as in).

Discussion

Please note that most discussion will be on WhatsApp or at the range. If you would like to be included in the discussion you will need to be on WhatsApp. Ask to be added to the group.

IPSC

We don't claim to be compliant with the IPSC rules, we have developed our own thing to fit in with the facilities we have and the way we want to shoot. This we call the "Witney Rules Practical Shooting".

Almost every course will include a compulsory magazine change, even if you have a 50 round drum!

In general we shoot from multiple positions. Each position has one or more targets where each target may require multiple shots.