Whilst many have been busy preparing for the season ahead, so too has the GBRT Canada 2025 squad. We recently assembled at an overcast Bisley for our first training weekend of the year, and with less than five months until we fly to Canada, the energy amongst the team was palpable.

After a warm breakfast in the Surrey, we headed out to 600 yards, which gave the team a chance to ‘dust off the cobwebs’ from a long winter break. However, it quickly became apparent that very few cobwebs had actually formed, as scores and team drills were strong from the outset. It was clear the team had heeded the advice of our esteemed Vice and had been training hard throughout the off-season.

We had plenty of time to speed through longer courses of fire and this presented a good opportunity for the coaches to play ‘musical chairs’, swapping targets in order to coach all team members. The clouds rolled in and, with collective amazement that we had avoided the rain all day, we retired to the clubhouses to freshen up for a fantastic three-course dinner by the Surrey Rifle Association, which replenished the team’s energy levels.

Sunday morning tested our stamina with an ambitious course of fire consisting of three 15-round shoots for each firer. Unfazed, the team made short work of even the tighter ICFRA targets we were training on (used internationally and considerably smaller than the standard NRA target faces).

The team performed incredibly well, dropping only 137 out of the 6,825 points available across the weekend—approximately 90% of the team’s shots finding the bull or better. An imperious benchmark, but we now embark on securing that extra 10%…