Halloween is traditionally about the fabled creatures of the underworld. Ghosts, Ghouls and Zombies take many forms in the imagination. Increasingly, it has become acceptable for Halloween costume design to move away from the traditional spirit, under world, fairy story and magical themes, and to move on to just plain having fun.
And that’s just what Guyana Sport Shooting Foundation (GSSF) did last weekend when for the third year, BM Soat Auto Sales backed the GSSF in its annual themed competition, which was a very keenly contested one, all within the confines of the safety rules and watchful eyes of Range Master, Dallas Thomas and his Team of Range Officials.
The Timehri Range was transformed just after noon as members turned out in their costumes, with appearances from the Hunter, a Sport-Shooter, a Construction Worker, a Rifle Shooter, the Black Panther, a Biker, Lara Croft, the Gold Tooth Gangster and even Count Dracula risked the afternoon sun to come out and participate, all doing so within the safety confines of the sport.
Shooters were placed in two squads shooting two stages simultaneously: ‘Related” with nine IPSC Targets and four Steel poppers set out behind various screens and “Big Barricade Mash Up” which consisted of 10 metric targets, seven no-shoot targets, five plates and four poppers.
On start signal, competitors were to engage targets 1-7 identified from behind a barricade and thereafter proceed to either shooting box set on the left and right of the barricade and engage the targets in front of that corresponding box.
After doing so, the competitor had to proceed to the remaining box on the other side of the barricade and engage the remaining targets. The shooters came up with various strategies to engage these targets in both stages so as to beat the clock and register good hits to score.
Participants then converged on the final and third stage for the afternoon ‘Quad Standards” which seemed like a final easy stage to end the afternoon with four targets set up down-range and three shooting lines set up at varying distances in front of them.
Shooters started at the first line set up 120 feet away from the targets and had to engage the targets with only one round, make a mandatory reload and then engage again with only one round freestyle.
Participants then had to proceed to Line Two, engage with only one round, make a mandatory reload and then engage with only one round strong hand only.
Then finally participants had to proceed to Line One which was set 45 feet from the targets, engage with only one round, make a mandatory reload and engage with only one round weak hand only.
The action continued as shooter after shooter took the sandy walk to reset the stages and disappointingly, zero-ed the stage because of the misses discovered after.
Only two shooters managed to secure a positive hit factor in this stage, thereby changing the dynamics of the possible match outcome: Vidushi Persaud-McKinnon and Lennox Braithwaite.
Scoring for practical shooting is done by recording the competitor’s time with an electronic device which ‘hears’ the shots and records the time from the audible beep which signals the start to the sound of the last shot fired. The targets are then checked, recorded and the total score gained is divided by the time recorded for that competitor the result of which is termed a Hit Factor (HF).
The highest HF will win the stage, the total match points are an accumulation of all of the competitor’s stage points. All scoring at GSSF pistol events are computed using scoring software specifically designed for the discipline since this is done atomically it aids in efficiency.
Ultimately the scoring in practical shooting rewards the winners who can have a balance of accuracy within the shortest possible short stage times as against other competitors within the division.
Below are the Overall Match Results.
Limited Division
1st – Pravesh Harry (212.547 points)
2nd – David Dharry (209.0814 points)
3rd – Lennox Braithwaite (206.478 points)
Production Division
1st – Vidushi Persaud-McKinnon (262.0026 points)
2nd – Ryan McKinnon (245.623 points)
3rd – Dallas Thomas (108.1096 points)
Chairman of the Practical Shooting Committee and the Match Director for this event Mr. David Dharry, expressed appreciation to the Management of B.M. Soat Auto Sales of Lot 9 Croal Street, Georgetown for their continued support to the promotion and building of the sport in Guyana.
The Board of Directors wishes to commend the Match Director, Range Master, Stats Officer, Range Officers and the shooters for ensuring an efficient event.
Special thanks also to the Guyana Defence Force, Chief of Staff Brigadier Patrick West, Commissioner of Police Mr. Leslie James, OC Mr. Guy Nurse, the ranks of TSU and the Guyana Police Force, the Media, the Management of Clear Waters and GSSF members for their support in promoting practical shooting locally. Sincere thanks were extended to Mr. Rameez Mohamed of BM Soat Auto Sales.
