British Pistol Club refugee's

The recent post by FC60 about historical articles and such struck a kind of nostalgic note.

I started pistol shooting in the UK in about 1970 (age ~15) at an indoor "small-bore" club in the small town of Redditch where I went to school. I was recently able to re-connect via TargetTalk with the top shooter at that club at that time, Brian Girling, who shot rapid-fire on the UK National Team.

Got a Firearms License as soon as I hit the minimum legal age of 18 (at college) and shot at various clubs around the country till I got posted overseas at the end of 1980 - never lived in UK thereafter - and sold my guns on a short trip back to UK in about 1982. I shot matches for a couple of years only, mostly out of the Galley Hill Club in Surrey near where I lived/worked at the time. The equivalent of Camp Perry in UK was held at the Bisley Ranges in Surrey, I think I did that once, probably in 1979 - probably got some info somewhere, but not here with me at present.

I was quite proud at the time to get into the British Pistol Club and still have a couple of decals from the BPC. I don't remember the details of membership qualification, but I guess that it was similar to getting a "Distinguished" badge here in USA. I did not shoot at all whilst living/working in Asia, till I found myself in Oregon a few years ago and shot my first Bullseye match in Springfield in March 2019. I am, of course, now totally obsessed with Bullseye!


I wonder whether there are any other BPC "refugees" lurking on this forum?

Born in Middlesbrough and shot at ICI club once there before coming to US.  I still have my dad's UK pistol license book and one of the guns listed in it.  I found Bullseye in '16 after he passed away.

Back when I shot SB Prone, we did a postal with an English club

Greetings Radjag,

I, also, was born in the UK. A little town near Halifax, Northowram, many years ago.

Since you are in Oregon, there is a good chance we will cross paths in the near future.

I look forward to making your acquaintance.

Cheers,

David

Aprilian wrote:Born in Middlesbrough and shot at ICI club once there before coming to US.  I still have my dad's UK pistol license book and one of the guns listed in it.  I found Bullseye in '16 after he passed away.

We here in West Virginia are very proud of our West Virginia University Rifle Team Coach, Jon Hammond. Jon arrived as a WVU Rifle Team Member in 2002 and later, assumed the role as volunteer assistant coach and in 2006 became head coach. Jon is from Aberdeen Scotland and coaches a collegiate rifle team that has won the most NCAA National Championships in history--19, with Jon responsible for six of those recent championships. In the off season when not attending to recruiting duties, Jon can be found at his folks home in Scotland, assisting his father teaching blind people shooting skills at their local shooting club.
Competitive shooting offers opportunities to rub shoulders with folks from other walks of life and countries that one would not ordinarily meet and many lifelong friendships are formed. Just another pleasure derived from competitive shooting. Shooters are a welcoming fraternity.

This is great, now I can use British slang and pretend we'll all understand.

Aye lad, that new Eley two-two is the dog's bollocks!

I had to look up dog's body today I knew nowt bout it.

Outstanding!! (The dog's B......, that is!).

You've got me going now. 

Shot a Two Thousand, Seven Hundred as usual today. The Two Two was as smooth as a Bairn's Bum. But the Three Two was a disaster, a complete Dog's Breakfast (definitely not to be confused with the Dog's Bo...... above!). Then the Four Five was also not good, all over the shop!

Packed up and went home in my hatch-back. 

--------------------------------
Dear Moderators, sorry, this was not quite the path I expected this thread to follow. I will stop using this alien language now and return to sober, serious stuff. Sorry.

The two-two and the three-two are not unfamiliar to me as those were in common usage when I grew up as an Army brat in the British Commonwealth (India)...your post above made me think of not just British slang but some very unique Indian-English slang...pretty funny. Thanks.

Too many durn furriners in this here place.

I started at around age 13 shooting at Cottingham rifle club. Did some shooting with the cadets through my school years but after Dunblane it all got way too difficult and I was into ocean racing by then anyway.

The accent gets some very interesting double takes on the line at Perry. Best one I can remember was 2014 when I got the "you aren't from around here are you"? and I replied "nope - Texas". Which was true as I was shooting in the state team that year. I could see the cogs turning as the statement was processed. I don't think he ever really reconciled it.

straybrit wrote:

The accent gets some very interesting double takes on the line at Perry. Best one I can remember was 2014 when I got the "you aren't from around here are you"? and I replied "nope - Texas". Which was true as I was shooting in the state team that year. I could see the cogs turning as the statement was processed. I don't think he ever really reconciled it.

My late husband (born in West Sussex) would get the same question.  His response was “no—Tierrasanta which was the neighborhood in San Diego where we lived.  He said there were some that you could almost see smoke escaping from their ears while their brains were processing.

I am blessed with a fairly strong, but "neutral" British accent and very frequently get the "Ooohh, I love your accent!", most often from supermarket check out staff. I play the same game and, when asked the usual question, will say "No, I'm from Bandon". This generally leads to a puzzled look, usually because the sweet, but dumb, enquirer does not know this small town in their own State, occasionally because they wonder why I don't have an Irish twang if hailing from the original Bandon in "the old country". It always makes me smile!

Is this tread limited only to "refugees" from Commonwealth?  

AP

Hey, welcome, the more the merrier! (Till the thought police shut us down🥵)

radjag wrote:...Packed up and went home in my hatch-back. 

Any technical discussion on the differences between hatch-back, estate, saloon, and shooting-brake should be moved to the Equipment sub-forum.

How about the stepney in the boot of my vehicle? I guess that’s equipment too...

Any technical discussion on the differences between hatch-back, estate, saloon, and shooting-brake should be moved to the Equipment sub-forum.

Where we can further educate the colonials on the correct use of Lorry, Truck, Artic and Double Decker.

Then we can move onto the deep philosophical meanings behind bonnet, wing and windscreen.

I'm probably misquoting Churchill here but I do like "2 countries separated by a common language"

Two Nations divided by a common language...

According to two different internet family tree traces, one of my ancestors signed the Magna Carta.    But I lost the accent years ago.

Two nations separated by a common language.

straybrit wrote:I'm probably misquoting Churchill here but I do like "2 countries separated by a common language"

Oh, dangit, you beat me to it!

As an example - the following would probably elicit very different responses depending on which side of the pond you were on ....

"I'm just popping out for a fag, when you find the rubber give me a ring".

George Bernard Shaw never even got close to envisioning that.....

I figured the Eley range reps would come up here...He would come over to shoot the Nationals since the UK banned his sport. 

An agreeable chap until you asked him about cleaning, then watch out!

Having a Sr moment, l can't recall his name. It'll come.