The team rose bright and early (one much earlier than others) for the first day of shooting in Quebec. For many of us it was our first visit to the Batoche range at Valcartier and also a new experience of using the electronic target systems on our personal devices! The morning commenced with liberal application of mosquito spray, with Tom Shaw valiently attracting most of the bugs to himself and leaving the rest of us relatively unscathed. After the sun rose and the wind picked up the biting insects subsided somewhat and it turned into a pleasant day.

It was a longer day than we are used to at Bisley with 4 shoots of 2 sighters and 15 to count at distances of 300, 400, 500 and 600 yards. The weather held throughout the day except a small deluge during the start of the final shoot. Scores were high, especially at 300 yards after a strict team talk from the Captain, with 12 team members managing a highest “possible” score of 75. At the end of the day the Saturday Aggregate was led by Nigel Ball with a score of 298.35 out of 300.60, closely followed by David Rose who scored 298.29. Special mention goes to Chris Heales who shot exceptionally at the first three ranges before unfortunately cross firing at the last range of the day.

In the evening the team headed out to dinner with the Province of Quebec Rifle Association. The journey from the hotel to the restaurant was either 6 miles or 27 miles depending on who was navigating, but once we were all sat down it was a very pleasant evening of socialising with the locals. Big thank you to Nicole and Gale for organising!

Tomorrow concludes the Quebec Open meeting and also a team match which will be the first opportunity for the team to test their team shooting drills in Canada. Best of luck to all teams!

Written by Lindsey McKerrell