The Quigley Shooting Asssociation

QUIGLEY SHOOTING ASSOCIATION

400 YD MINI QUIGLEY SHOOT – 10th FEB.

 

          The 2018 Quigley season got under way on Sat 10th February with the Mini-Quigley competition. Once again we fired the comp on our standard Quigley buffalo paper silhouette target. Drifting fog and an extremely bitter wind made shot placement difficult to say the least. Shot at a range of 400yds, this comp was restricted to pistol calibre underlever rifles.

 

          An orange coloured marker was made in advance for the firers to range in on. Then the competition consisted of four non-convertible sighters and ten rounds to count at the bucket zone scoring 5pts for a hit on the bucket and 1 pt for a hit on the backer. This was  followed by ten rounds at the buffalo silhouette using the scoring zones. Barrel rests were permitted, but iron sights only were allowed in the spirit of the original.

 

          Buckets proved very scarce on stage 1, Sammy Clarkson being the only one to actually hit one although several scored 10’s  and 9’s.

          Scores improved on Stage 2 with Darren Wallis and Ken Hall each scoring 30 ex 50, and Steve Hodge on 19 ex 50. When scores were tallied, Ken Hall just pipped last years winner Darren Wallis to take the Silver Buffalo Trophy home for the year.

 

          After the competition it became apparent that, while all lever action rifles are accurate enough to perform well at ranges below 300yds, some amount of after market improvement is necessary in order to shoot well past this range, especially in adverse conditions. The following points were noted, but the list is by no means complete.

 

1. Sights.               A ladder type sight mounted on the barrel, or a tang-mounted peep sight is to be recommended.

2. Calibre.             Not really conclusive as no-one competed with a calibre smaller than .44!

3. Ammunition.      Loads were generally the same as those normally used at 100yds and no particular difficulty was experienced in the rounds reaching the target.

4. Bullets.              It is interesting to note that everyone used standard round nosed flat profiled bullets. Perhaps some other profile could be more successful when loaded singly, and not in the tubular magazine for obvious safety reasons. As QSA rules require lead only bullets, they need to be very hard cast and would probably benefit from a tumble in alox lube to reduce leading. The exception being anyone using black powder, when a softer 20:1 or 30:1 bullet tends to perform better.

5. Barrel length.     Firers using carbines with barrel lengths of only 20in achieved respectable scores, so whilst 24in barrels might seem more accurate, the truth is it matters less than you would think.

6. Rifle.                 Winchester, Rossi, Marlin and Uberti were all represented and all performed admirably, choice of sight and ammunition was of more importance.

 

Results

 

 1.      Ken Hall         Winchester ‘73  .44-40 Black Powder

                

 2.      Darren Wallis               Marlin .44Mag

 

 3.     Steve Hodge                 Marlin .44Mag