NSRA British Airgun Championships

The first meeting was held in 1974 at the National Sports Centre, Sofia Gardens in Cardiff. It moved to Manchester in 1990, prior to Great Britain hosting the European Airgun Championships at the same venue in 1991, and to the Association’s National Indoor Shooting Centre at Aldersley, near Wolverhampton, from 1992 to 2001. The meeting is now held at the Lord Roberts Centre at Bisley.

The meeting includes both air rifle and air pistol events and runs from Friday to Sunday. It is normally held in late-February/early-March, but the timing may be adjusted if the European Airgun Championships are held at about that time. The meeting is run to modified ISSF Rules, but the British Open Championships adhere to full ISSF Rules. The meeting currently attracts about 300 competitors.

All competitions are fired at 10 metres.  All shooting is on Sius electronic targets with the exceptions of all competitions for Class D competitors and all competitions in Sporter Air Rifle which are shot on paper targets.

The principal competitions are:-

• An Aggregate in five classes of two 60 shot matches.

British Championships in Air Rifle and Air Pistol:

• British Confined Men’s (60 shots)
• British Confined Women’s (40 shots)
• British Open Men’s (60 shots + final)
• British Open Junior Men's (60 shots + final)
• British Open Women’s (40 shots + final)
• British Open Junior Women's (40 shots + final)

Various other individual matches are fired concurrently with the Aggregate or Championship matches. Team matches for club and county teams are fired concurrently with 10 metre individual competitions. Home Country Internationals are fired concurrently with the British Championships.

For Sporter Air Rifle shooters there are two 40-shot standing competitions plus an 80-shot Aggregate.

Scores achieved at the meeting are frequently taken into account by British Shooting and some Home Country Unions for purposes of international team and squad selection.

Separate meetings are held for 10 metre Running Target, Air Rifle for the Blind and Sporter Air Rifle Three Positions.

Shooters with Disabilities

Shooters with disabilities, whether shooting with an IPC Shooting Classification (SH1, SH2) or in accordance with an NSRA Dispensation Certificate, may enter most competitions and take prizes in the general prizelists.  There is, however, a separate prizelist for SH2 Air Rifle shooters in Class X of the Aggregate (Comps 6, 7 and 8).

There are Open Championship events in the following categories:

• British Open Air Rifle SH1 (60 shots + final)

• British Open Air Rifle SH2 (60 shots + final)

• British Open Air Pistol SH1 (60 shots + final)

• British Open Prone Air Rifle (60 shots)

Changes for 2015

Open Championships

The Junior Men's and Junior Women's Open Championships for Air Rifle and Air Pistol have been reinstated in this meeting, having taken place in 2014 during the British Pistol Championships in September.

As the Women's and Junior Women's Championships Qualification stages will be shot on 40-shot/50-minute relays, they cannot be shot concurrently with either of the Aggregate competitions.

Home Country Internationals

All Home Country Matches continue to be shot concurrently with the Qualification stage of the British Open Championships.

The Main Home Countries Match (60 shots) will now be a Men's Home Country International, in which competitors in the Men's, Junior Men's and men in the Disabled SH1 Championships are eligible to be team members.

The Junior Home Countries International will be split into two matches - a Junior Men's International (60 shots) and a Junior Women's International. Entrants in the relevant Junior and Disabled SH1 Championships are eligible to be team members.

Other Competitions

All other team and individual competitions will be shot concurrently with one or other of the Aggregate competitions, as follows:

• Concurrent with Aggregate Comp. 6 or 26 - County Team, County Champions Championship, Help for Heroes. 
• Concurrent with Aggregate Comp. 7 or 27 - Club Team, ASI/Feinwerkbau Competition, Junior Development. 

The ASI/Feinwerkbau Competition has been increased from 40 shots to 60 shots.

This content has been sourced from the NSRA website. For more information and bookings please visit the NSRA website.