N.I.F.T.A
N.I.F.T.A was formally reconstituted in Oct 2009 when the Down field target club and the Mid Ulster air rifle club, held a meeting and voted in a new committee.
The purpose of N.I.F.T.A
Too facilitate competition shoots being held at any venue in which all the members can participate under a common format.
Too represent its member’s within the W.F.T.F voting on any constitutional matters keeping all informed of any core rule changes.
N.I.F.T.A in no way shall have any influence on the clubs or its members.
Too allow the clubs to work together in furthering the sport of air rifle target shooting in Northern Ireland.
The committee.
- Chairman: Greg Ferson
- Sectary: Andrew Sizer
- Treasurer: Dermott Ross
What do we do, what do we use, what do we shoot at.
The sport to simplify it is using an air rifle to shoot a metal silhouette target which will have round the centre a hole (killzone) on the other side of the killzone is a metal paddle if you get the pellet through the hole it hits the paddle causing the target to fall over (surprisingly quite satisfying) the target has a cord attached so it can be reset. There are usually 40 or 50 targets on a course, these are in lanes each lane will have on average 2 targets in league or competition shoot’s there is a time limit of 2 min’s per lane from when your eye goes to the scope, the scoring depends on if you are shooting hunter class which 2pt’s for a hit (target falls) 1pt for hitting the silhouette face plate (target stays up) 0pt’s for a complete miss. FT gain 1pt target falls marked as an X 0pt’s target stands marked as an O.
The equipment we use is really quite varied the majority of shooters use hunting air rifles so you will see all the major manufactures such as air arms, daystate, falcon, theoben, and ripley ect. Power level’s for the hunter’s varies from 12ftlbs up to 40ftlbs cal in any calibre. Hunter can use any scope even iron sights but can not adjust the scope once they start the course.
There are also FT air rifles used these must comply to a maximum power limit of 12ftlbs any calibre is allowed but most use .177 as this has the flattest trajectory at the power limit imposed, where they differ most from hunter rig’s is the scopes, which can be used to range find the target, high magnification and good glass is a requirement if you want to do it with any success so they tend to be pretty big.
The clubs shoot on Sundays with the 1st and 3rd Sunday each month being competition shoots at that weeks designated club. The other Sundays are club shoots.
If it fancy giving it a try contact one of the clubs they are always happy to hear from anyone interested you can arrange to go down to the club and see if it’s for you, if you have an old air rifle bring it along there’s plenty of help and your sure to have a great time.