Southampton Buccaneers Field Target Club

This section is intended to give you an insight into FT and what the club does.  SBFTC has all the targets and general equipment that you'll need, but we only have one club rifle which is intended for first timers.  Most of the members are very happy to allow you to try out their kit, so even if you don't have your own rifle you'll almost certainly get to shoot.  If you already have a rifle bring it along (so long as it's below 12ft/lb) and get a taste of FT.  We recognise that not everyone wants to compete, so if you decide FT's not your cup of tea you're welcome to use our facilities to hone your shooting skills.  There is quite a strong social element at the club, and there's an opportunity to sort out problems with your equipment, try out some different pellets or to have a chat about what accessory to get next.

If there is only one thing you remember from this site it's don't buy anything until you've talked to people who actually participate in the sport.  Don't believe anything you read in magazines or on the internet (apart form this, obviously!) as we see quite a few people who've spent good money on equipment that a shop or friend has told them is really good only to find it's not suited to the intended purpose or that they've spent more than you needed to.  Don't rely on magazine reviews either, we've found that some rifles that are "highly recommended" are in fact complete junk and are best avoided unless you want to become a valued customer of Royal Mail sending it back for repairs every other week.  Remember that all retailers have to sell stuff to stay in business and that the magazines rely heavily on advertising revenue (how much revenue do you think they get if they slate a new rifle?), and whilst we are not implying that they seek to take advantage of an inexperienced buyer, we are saying that many rifles and scopes on the market are not ideally suited to FT, or even HFT and that a large number of retailers are not fully aware of the requirements.  Field target has an unjustified reputation of being an expensive sport, and yes, you do see some very expensive equipment at national events, but you also see second or third hand equipment being shot just as well alongside the new stuff.  It's exactly the same as any other sport, if it's something you enjoy and have a talent for you will probably invest in the latest or best equipment, but it won't necessarily improve your accuracy.  The equipment helps, but skill will always show through regardless of what you're shooting.

FT isn't necessarily for everyone.  It's something that takes time, and the acquisition of the core skill's required to be competitive can be a slow process.  It's also not an adrenalin rush of something like paint balling, more a sense of achievement.  Some days firing 10 rounds down the range in quick succession is what you want to do, but good results come from a controlled and focussed approach.  It's also worth noting that unlike the majority of other sports all shooting sports, including air rifles and pistols, are heavily legislated which means that we have some clear rules that must be followed. If you don't follow the rules you may end up in prison!

Origins of the sport
The exact origins of FT have been lost in time, but it is generally accepted that the first field target competition took place in the early 1980's in the South of England.  Rumour has it behind a pub.  The early competitors used a variety of rifles, usually with open sights or very basic telescopic sights to shoot small round paper targets that were stuck onto boards.  After each shot everyone would go and see if it was a hit or miss, the score would be recorded and the next target would be shot.  During this period Derek Peckover developed the resetting Nockover target which has become the standard ever since.  Over time rifle technology advanced and the availability of higher powered optics started to take over from the rifles used to control vermin and the sport became what it is today.  Although originating in the UK, FT has spread across the world and is found in the USA, Poland, Russia, South Africa and a number of other countries as well.  One of the issues with FT as an international sport is that local legislation for air rifles varies tremendously from country to country and although the format is common, the power of the rifles and the size of the targets are not.  It's because of this that it's remained a fairly low key national based sport (although each year there are European and World championships) and does not feature in high profile international competitions such as the Olympics.

What is FT?
The objective of FT is pretty simple, there are metal targets between 25mm and 40mm diameter which you have to shoot.  Specific rules vary depending on the type of event, but typically there are 40 - 50 targets on a course with 20 - 25 firing points known as gates.  The line of fire between the gate and the target is known as a lane.  Each gate has 2 targets, with a 2 minute time limit to shoot both lanes and only 1 shot per target.  There's usually an additional lane with a chronograph which will check to ensure your air rifle does not exceed the 12ft/lb power limit. 

FT does not involve shooting any kind of animal, in fact all BFTA affiliated clubs ban the shooting of live quarry on their ranges and will suspend any member that ignores this rule.

There is no restriction to where targets can be placed, some are at eye level and others may be up a tree, in fact they don't even need to be next to each other but they must be between 8 and 55 yards from the gate and not be obscured in any way.  Most of the targets are 40mm diameter but ones closer than 35yards  can be as small as 25mm, these are called 'reducers' or 'mini kills'.  The targets are numbered 1 to 50 and must be shot sequentially, hitting a target out of sequence counts as a miss.  Most of the targets are shot from a sitting position on a bean bag, but up to 10% can be compulsory standing with another 10% kneelers and all shots must be taken without any additional support.  The layout varies from shoot to shoot, sometimes the gates are arranged in a long line, other times they meander through a wood.  The only restrictions are distance and safety as you need to consider where the pellet could end up.

Sporting class
2006 saw the introduction of a new sporting class which will allow most rifles to shoot competitively with low magnification scopes (maximum of 12x although they can be magged down to meet this limit).  This allows many air rifle shooters to compete in the GP series without having to upgrade their equipment to become competitive.  Any sub 12ft/lb rifle can be used but the scope is limited to 12x and cannot be adjusted once you look through it.  Before starting you can adjust any aspect of the set up, so you can change the focus, the turret settings and the magnification, but both of the targets in that lane must be shot with the same settings.  At the next lane you can re-adjust before you look through it.  Scoring is the same as FT.

Grading method
Being an outdoors sport, weather plays a big part as we shoot regardless of wind, rain or snow.  These conditions really make life much harder, so to add some kind of consistency the highest score of the day is awarded 100% and all other scores are graded as a percentage of the best score.  So on a really windy day the best score may only be 20 out of a potential 40.  This now becomes the benchmark scoring 100%, so another competitors score of 10 is awarded 50%, and 5 would be 25%.  At the end of the season, all BFTA members are graded based on their average.  An average of over 80% gets you a much sought after AA grade, 70% is A, 55% is B and everyone else is C grade.  Recently D grade has been introduced for those new to the sport or have yet to record a score.  This method allows good comparisons of skill from across the world and under very different conditions and levels of course difficulty.  Everyone enters the system as grade D and depending on your performance during the previous season can progress through to AA grade.  Not all of us have the ability to reach the upper levels of the sport, and the grading method means that there is a high level of competition going on within each grade with prizes awarded for wins in each group.  If you don't achieve AA grade there is still just as much fun (and trophies) to be had within your grade.

What's the difference between FT and HFT?
In the UK there are 3 main types of competitive air rifle, 10 metre, Hunter Field Target (HFT) and Field Target (FT).  10m shooting is a highly technical indoors sport and apart from using an air rifle shares no other real similarity to either HFT or FT.  There is an excellent club near Fareham that caters for 10m rifle and air pistol that has both national and international champions as members, regrettably we do not have the facilities to cater for this specialist sport.  The basics of HFT and FT are very similar and an outline of the key differences can be found on the guide to HFT page.  Essentially HFT is designed to allow competition with pretty much any air rifle and scope and uses more general purpose equipment, although it's becoming common to spend more on HFT kit than FT equipment.  The distances are shorter and number of targets fewer.  Bean bags are not permitted and scoring is different from FT.

List of excuses why you recorded a low score
Make no mistake, even with top level equipment FT is a difficult sport.  To help you overcome a poor performance, here's a list of excuses to explain why it wasn't your fault.

1 It was really windy / The wind was really deceptive

2 I'm sure that some of the targets were over distance

3 My gun was shooting very low / high

4 I must have knocked my scope on the way to the competition, it was way off zero

5 I had a bad batch of pellets / I must have dropped the tin

6 The targets were stuck / the numbers were poorly placed

7 I hit something on the way to the target (also referred to as 'twigging') possibly an insect or large grain of pollen

8 My scope was mis-ranging due to the temperature (Leupold's only)

9 It was too dark / foggy to range accurately (any other scope)

10 It can't possibly be overpowered, it was absolutely fine when I checked it a year ago/ I only had it serviced in 2001/ the bloke I bought it off at the weekend said it was fine

11 I was carrying an injury / the voices told me to do it

If another competitor using the same rifle/scope as you has also recorded a low score it is possible to team up and blame your equipment as it is unlikely that 2 top competitors would record poor scores.  If you can find at least another 2 competitors to collaborate with, this becomes a slightly more believable excuse.  You can always pre-empt a bad performance by announcing to everyone that there is a major problem with your kit before you start shooting, but this is a limited opportunity as sooner or later someone will ask why you've not got it fixed some 6 months after you first announced it.

NB None of these are really credible, but you hear them none the less!  In general you are advised to select one of the above per competition and then stick to it.

Send mail to Robert at webmaster@sbftc.co.uk with questions or comments about this web site.
Last modified: 08-Oct-2007 09:30