BY PATRICK KELLEY, TY-14401

In 1997 our British brothers inpractical shooting took a hit whentheir government squashed theiraccess to handguns, effectively

eliminating practical shooting as wehave come to know it here in theUnited States.

Practical shooting has many forms,so with dogged determination and astiff upper lip, a true stand-alone formof practical shooting has come of age inthe U.K. and its name is Practical Shot-gunning.

My wife Karen and I made our firstjourney across the pond and foundourselves in the midst of the bestBritish practical shotgunners at the2005 British Open Practical ShotgunChampionships!

The 2005 British Open was hostedby the Shield Shooting Centre, con-structed as a dedicated practical shoot-ing facility during the reign ofpractical pistol; this venue hasbeen well adapted to theneeds of the practical shot-gunner. The facility, cut outof 425 acres of working farm-

land, features multiple bays on thelower level most with semi-permanentprops and vision screens. The Shieldalso has an exceptionally picturesqueupper range consisting of once-farmedopen green areas bordered by lush for-est. This “little slice of heaven” as mygirl called it, is owned and maintainedby a longtime practical shooter StevePike.

Steve took special pride in makingsure the competitors had a good timeduring the match even providing a“hay ride” via his farm tractor andtrailer to the upper range. My lovelybride Karen commented that Steve’sefforts and the beauty of The ShieldShooting Centre provided a holiday-like feel to our working vacation.

Practical Shotgunning is not a sub-stitute for pistol shooting, nor is it asub-category of practical shooting. It is,my friends, as witnessed in the U.K., acomplete and complex thinking man’ssport! In talking with our brothers incompetition it was apparent that I hadonly scratched the surface on the ver-satility of the shotgun and the manyways to employ it on the field of prac-tical shooting.

The 2005 British Open consisted of12 stages requiring 115 rounds of bird-shot, 42 rounds of buckshot and 32slugs. Over the 12 stages targetsranged from 11 to 65 yards and wereengaged standing and kneeling, usingboth shoulders, and if you wanted tolead the pack, shot on the move.

The international paper target, re-plete with its smaller scoring zones,was punctured by both slug and buck

14

British Open2005

Gamin’ it up in theMotherland of

Shotgun

Arvid Elstroot proudly dis-plays his F-numberedUSPSA membership card.Pat Kelley reports that quitea few of the Britons hadmemberships in bothUKPSA and USPSA.

Terri Price leans out for a weak-shoulder target. Terri shoots on thetop-ranked European ladies’ practi-cal shotgun team.

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for score. Yes, paper targets shot with00 buck with the two best hits count-ing for score. One needed to knowone’s choke and pattern lest the callwould not be “two alpha.” One stagefeatured two very tough slug shots onhanging clays at 25 yards along with aself-activated paper swinger. A Coopertunnel was even in use on the 24-roundslug stage.

Our British brothers are not afraidof accuracy work with birdshot. Choketight and pick off the steel “shoot” tar-gets from around the tightly spacedand overlapping “no-shoot” steel usingonly part of your payload for surest re-sults. This is the everyday stuff that theUKPSA throws at its members. Nowonder they are among the best! “Thebest” is not an idle statement, as weshot with members of the 2004 Euro-pean Championship Ladies team.

The governing body in the U.K.and counterpart to the USPSA is theUKPSA. One of the movers and shak-ers in the UKPSA is Neil Beverley. Thischap is driven to broaden, improve and

promote practical shooting in ALL itsforms.

Having researched, interviewed,queried, cajoled and conquered all theobstacles that go into writing a com-prehensive international rule book,Neil has recently completed the IPSC’sshotgun competition rule book. In hisspare time he designed a safer andmore reliable steel target stand, a de-tailed drawing of which can be foundat www.ipsc.org . Neil is currently theIPSC course reviewer for Level III and

above matches and knows a thing ortwo about practical shooting. Addi-tionally, Neil functions as a walking en-cyclopedia of IPSC history and knowl-edge.

According to Neil, shotgunning as apractical discipline made its debut inthe U.K. at various Practical Riflematches as a side event in the spring of1979. With practical handgunning the

Shooters gather around the “wail-ing wall” at the Shield shootingcomplex.

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dominant discipline at the time and lit-tle initial support from IPSC the onlyway to get this “new” discipline out ofside match status and into the main-stream was through grass roots efforts.

A group of competitors with a passionfor practical shotgunning workedwithin the UKPSA to establish the Prac-tical Shotgun Commission in 1981. Itsduties were to promote, organize andmonitor PSG events giving shotguns alegitimate place in practical shooting. Ithink the efforts have paid off!

You will find that most sportsevolve over time and PSG has too, asmany of our British practical shootingcompatriots will attest. Today many of

the shooters involved with PSG havenever fired a pistol. To them, “practicalshooting” is a shotgun sport that somepeople play with pistols! It seems thatPSG as well as the other practical disci-plines have mellowed over the yearsand are less physically demanding. Forclarity, Neil took me on a sightseeing /fact-finding trek into the back woodsof the Shield complex pointing out the“Jungle Run” streambed. According tolegend, stages had been run, or rather

Ade Sell strikes fear into the hearts of other pump-gunners.He’s a whiz on the Benelli Nova. Note the shell carriers sewnto a padded belt.

Europe’s top female shotgunners were on hand, burning down many acourse of fire. Above we see Lorna Jones, and at right, we see Helen Ken-neth unleashing the fury as the timer rolls. Note how Lorna’s shell carriersdo not wrap all the way around each shell. This lets her peel them straightout and onto the gun, rather than lifting them.

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swum, while enduring minor flood wa-ters up to one’s waist! Methinks thingshave gotten better.

Other than driving on the otherside of the road, what might a U.S.practical shotgunner find different? Inoted at least one loading techniquethat I had not seen before used by anumber of competitors at the Open. Itis an adaptation of the Wall Low Rollthat you may remember from past is-sues of Front Sight. The British versionhas the shotgun in the same position atthe waist, but the shotgun is flippedover (instead of maintaining a firinggrip) and the strong hand pinches thereceiver with the fingers on the top andthe thumb holding the loading gatedown. It may seem like a little thing,but not having to depress the loadinggate with every shell makes for a fastload! Combine this technique withcleverly modified and/or created beltmounted shell holders that clip ontothe shell (think of a standard plasticshell loop cut in half), this innovationallows the rounds to be stripped out ofthe clips as the competitor moves theloading port to meet the shells whilemoving the gun along the belt.

Another notable UK difference wasthe start position. Here in the UnitedStates we have many regional, andmatch director-based variations of“high ready,” “low ready,” and “port

arms.” In my experi-ence, no clear defini-tion outside of themilitary has been es-tablished. Heck, it’shard to find a consen-sus from squad tosquad at a major 3-Gun match! Enterthe “at trail” start po-sition.

Defined here inthe latest edition ofIPSC shotgun rulebook:

Standing erect and re-laxed. With the shot-gun in the ready con-dition held naturallyin the strong handonly, barrel parallel tothe ground, muzzlepointing downrangewith fingers outsidethe trigger guard andweak hand hanging naturally at theside.

I found this start position intrigu-ing, and will make use of it at my Oct.1, 2005 Practical Shotgun Challenge

Ade Sell performing the “British Low Roll.” Ade’s ver-sion is unusual in that he puts a round on the carrierfirst, then uses the next round to push it into the magtube. Since the Benelli Nova’s carrier stays downwhen you push it down, the Nova works particularlywell with this technique.

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held in Ephrata, Wash.

The Standard Auto match winner and fellowAmerican Kurt Miller has worked his evil waysinfecting the British with the weak-hand Col-orado (a.k.a. the Rhoads High and Tight)method of reloading. This “foreign” technique,adopted by the locals, was put to good use by2nd and 3rd place Standard Auto competitorsBarry Sullivan and Mike Darby.

A strong field of pump gunners was in themix and it looks like the new Benelli Nova is theManual Standard tool of choice. Ade Sell tookthe match win in this division in no small partdue to his “two shell” version of the British LowRoll. Here is Ade’s twist: taking advantage of theNova’s loading gate (which once depressed staysdepressed) and the Nova’s extra long loadingport (to accommodate 3.5” shells) he loads twoshells at a time by dropping one on the depressedgate and pushing it in with the second shell. Sim-ple, neat, and highly effective. So much so that“Mr. Weak Hand Miller” commented that on a number ofstages where loading was at a premium, this pump gunnerwas able to out-load him! A Winchester 1300 pilot and pastBritish Open Champion Iain Guy took his well used Ameri-can icon to 2nd place. Another in the cadre of Benelli userswas Graham Hill, no, not the F1 driver; although he diddrive his newly-acquired Nova to 3rd place.

As mentioned previously, the 2004 European Champi-onship Ladies team was in full force and rightfully took thetop spots with Vanessa Duffy 1st, Helen Kenneth 2nd, andSharon Strowger 3rd (Terri Jones is the fourth member ofthe team). Watching these ladies shoot made me feel less ma-cho about my handling of the “last great power tool” ofpractical shooting. All demonstrated superior recoil man-

Kurt Miller did the Americansproud, winning high StandardAuto at the 2005 British Open.

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agement and gun handling skills whichmightily contributes to their team’swinning ways!

In addition to the Open divisionwon by Richard Ingram, the UKPSA /IPSC recognizes a Modified division.Akin to the IPSC pistol modified divi-sion, shotguns may be fitted with com-pensators, porting and extended mag-azines provided the gun fits “the box.”With no specific limitation on capacity,short shells are the hot ticket for a fewmore rounds on board. However,POWER FACTORS are in place with520 as the minimum floor for ALL di-visions! Modified division bars the useof optical and electronic sights and thesame goes for detachable magazinesand speed loaders. This class was wellrepresented at the Open with goodnumber of competitors willing to ma-neuver a longish shotgun for a substan-tial reduction in reloading and an ad-ditional reduction in recoil. This hotlycontested division was won by NeilSmith with Colin Alden in second andDave Clegg working for third.

The 2005 British Open proved to

be a worthwhile reason to make myfirst venture out of North America.Not only did this make for a wonder-ful holiday but gave me some insightinto what practical shotgunning cangrow to be here in the United States.With IPSC now fully behind the effortand working to promote this great dis-cipline, Level III matches are hosted invenues as exotic as Bali, Italy, andGreece — where the 2006 EuropeanPractical Shotgun Championships willbe held. This level of participationdemonstrates the rest of the World’scommitment to practical shotgunningas a stand alone discipline.

The accomplishments of UKPSA inthe face of a potential total gun bancannot be overstated. They found thecourage to move ahead through partic-ipation and their governing capacity,broadening the appeal and world-wideacceptance of the practical shotgun insport. For this I say thank you.