New member alert

[Krish]

Hello there

Many thanks to Mack The Knife for inviting me here.

Name's Krish and am in Middlesex, UK. I shoot full bore rifles, mainly at Bisley and am into old service rifles. I also dabble now and then with airguns.

Hope to stay in touch and learn more. Congratulations for setting up a great site.

Have a nice day.

Krish

[Mack The Knife]

Hi Krish,

Great to finally have you onboard. I still cannot understand how I forgot to send you the link to this site earlier.

At the risk of severely embarassing Krish, I would like to relate how I came to meet him.

About three years back the house was being painted and I was sleeping or rather trying to sleep on the living room carpet. Since sleep wouldn't come I checked my e-mail at something like 2:30 a.m. and there was this e-mail from a chap I vaguely knew off from the Airgun BBS.

The gist of the e-mail was that he knew I was a big fan of the Weihrauch HW77K and that he would like to gift me one. Not just any ordinary HW77K either - it was a full blown custom Venom HW77K Target Trophy.

I am afraid greed got the better of me and I accepted. It did not stop there either, he has helped me numerous times for which I am very grateful.

In the end, I never did manage to get that air-rifle to India but I got to know a gem of a bloke.

Welcome aboard Krish and I do hope you will be a regular poster.

Mack The Knife

P.S.: Sorry for embarassing you but you did instruct me not to mention the above on the Airgun BBS. However, this is IFG.

[mehulkamdar]

Welcome Krish!

Any friend of Mack The Knife's is sure to be a friend of everyone else's as well.

As you will see when you participate here, this place does get addictive and you would find members in the UK who are keen shooters and hunters whom you could meet up with like we do in other parts of the world. And, of course, if you visit Chicago, you would be most welcome to shoot with us here.

I am personally a big fan of the non ISSF shooting sports and service rifle matches are something that I have participated in though I do not own a service rifle myself. I have friends who do the various courses from WW-1 and WW-2 rifles to custom M1s and AR 15/M 16s and NAren, one of our members is actively into shooting the ARs along with his friend DOug who also posts here occasionally.

If possible and if you have time, do post pictures of your matches in either the Photographs or the Non ISSF sports section for the benefit of members in India.

Welcome again and do post very often. Friends are always welcome here,

Mehul

[Krish]

Cheers gents Thanks for the warm welcome.

Mack The Knife, old chap, you have seriously lost some brownie points in my book You really will have to work hard to recover them

Mehul, I rarely shoot competetively. Shooting for me is a personal thing and I enjoy the time I spend with my rifles in the great outdoors. It's more elemental than anything else and if I manage to hit the target along the way, it's an added bonus

However, I do presently have a Long Lee-Metford, SMLE, Swede Mauser and Swiss K31 amongst other things. This is a serious pruning from a couple of years back when I had 5xLee Enfields, a Snider and a couple of Martini Henrys. But as you probably can empathise, rifles keep coming and going and only the favourites tend to remain longer.

Thanks again for the kind words.

Krish

[Mack The Knife]

Mack The Knife, old chap, you have seriously lost some brownie points in my book.

It was worth it, Krish.

Grumpy and Vikram are two of our regular posters from the U.K. and jolly fine bunch they are too. So do get together when time permits and as a personal favour to me take Vikram along to Bisley the next time you go there. I don't think he has been there yet but knowing him, he will love it.

Mack The Knife

[mundaire]

Welcome aboard Krish Hope to see you post here more often.

Cheers!
Abhijeet

[mehulkamdar]

Krish,

Speaking of competition, I remember a shoot that some friends organised where they filmed themselves shooting various guns with a Youtube-ish professionalism and someone asked us why they didn't film any targets. A serious question asked by one of the gentlemen who participated was, "What? Were we supposed to hit anything?"

I understand your love of service rifles. If you make it to Chicago, I have a good friend whose collection includes several of the service rifles of the two World Wars and we could drive down to Appleton and shoot some of his rifles. I am partial to sporters built on service rifle actions myself, not to the service rifles as they are, but that is a personal preference.

Best wishes,

Mehul

[Grumpy]

Hi Krish. Glad to see that the UK is beginning to catch up with the US based members with a representative sample.
"Rifles keep coming and going" eh ? Tell me about it ! It`s taken me years to find just a single favourite.......

[Vikram]

Hearty welcome Krish. Nice set of rifles you have. I am in Coventry at the moment. It would be great if we members in UK can get together.We look forward to you posting here often.

Mack The Knife, thanks very much for the good words and your suggestion to Krish, though I would not like to burden him.Thanks a lot.

Best-
Vikram

[Krish]

Mehul, I would fit right in with that lot with no problems On a serious note, I shoot with some specialist clubs and we have competitions ‘in the spirit of the original’ and these events are great fun. For instance, the Mad minute and snap shooting at 300 & 600 yards is a favourite of mine! I try to do my best of course I can understand your affection for the ‘service sporter’, though I am not partial to it myself. However, I do like messing about with actions and stocks and recently built a BSA Martini .22 into a custom carbine.

Grumpy & Vikram, Hello there It would be great to meet up with you guys one of these days at Bisley. Do you have FACs?

Vikram, it wouldn’t be a bother, really. I know for a fact that there are Asian shooters in the UK, but I have rarely come across one at any of the shooting events that I attend. In fact, I have yet to see one in action apart from me at the same time or place. I usually stand out like a sore thumb at arms fairs, etc because I tend to be the only Indian bloke there.

Grumpy, yes, guns do come and go in my case The trick is to impress your FEO that you are a genuine and dedicated shooter and if you can satisfy the safety & storage requirements then things should be ok. Like most shooters, my restriction is of course the finance and cabinet space to store all my new acquisitions. So, I prune my collection every now and then according to the frequency of usage. But, my firm favourites have remained with me despite the ups and downs, I am happy to say.

Have a good day gents

Krish

[mehulkamdar]

Krish,

You may not know this but Grumpy is an expert on shotguns and holds an RFD license though he is into guns more as a passion than as a business.

I like the idea of your snap 300 and 600 yard shooting. I participated in the Big Game Rifle Club matches last year and was completley smitten by the very practical courses of fire that the matches laid out. Until then, I considered shooting at targets as just a way of sighting a rifle in and checking it from time to time.

I have a simple reason for loving "service sporters" as you describe them - the extreme reliability under all circumstances that these guns are built for. The reason I don't have service rifles is that I am on a limited budget and if I were to start collecting military guns, I would never have enough sporters. BTW I am just one gun away from being completely contented and this has been the case for a long time. I don't sell my guns anymore and these days I am happy to know that whoever gets my guns after me would get to make that decision.

I have been talking to Grumpy about building some custom Martinis in the future on the BSA actions though I just haven't got round to it. Hope to do that in the near future, very soon. Do post pics of your rifle when you find time.

Cheers!

[Grumpy]

Krish, talk about coincidence - I`ve just bought a BSA Martini 12/15 to `sporterise` as well. I got one for a friend in California for that purpose and was rather taken with the concept so aquired one myself. I was going to rechamber it to .22 Hornet but my latest thinking is to either leave it as a .22lr or to rechamber to .22 WMR.
I like what Mehul says about my dealing in guns being more a passion than a business.......it`s not supposed to be that way !!

[Krish]

Mehul, I agree with you on the military action sporters. They are no frills, dependable shooters and I guess you can buy the ammo rather economically too? But, I think compared to UK, milsurplus rifles are very cheap in the USA. For the money I have spent buying mine, I could have easily purchased triple the amount on your side. As for pics, I'll try to sort out pics one of these days.

Grumpy, the 12/15 is a lovely rifle. Mine shoots extremely tight groups at 50yds when I do my part, which is not often. The Martini action works quite well for either 22Hornet or 22WMR but then it depends what you want to use it for. IIRC, a friend who hunts favours his .17HMR over the .22Hornet; personal choice of course. I find for informal target practise the rimmy is more than adequate. I love the Martini action and use them exclusively for 25m target shooting at the club. I think, I am the only chap who is still using a Martini in my local.

It’s great to know that you are into shotguns. Do you advertise on any of the magazines here? I have only ever fired a shotgun once, at the clays at Bisley and found it exhilarating. But have decided to stick with full bore rifles for the time being. However, I have made some enquiries into Practical shotgun as I seriously fancy a high capacity pump action on my FAC.

Mehul’s statement works for many of us I should think. Firearms have always been a passion of mine. That’s why I buy them for an arm and a leg and sell them for a little toe

Krish

[eljefe]

Krish,
Welcome aboard , would like to shake your hand -before you pay for your pasion-Wish I could say the same...
Good luck and here's hoping to hear lots from you.
Best
Axx

[Grumpy]

I love my .17HMR - it shoots so flat and groups so tightly. Superior in every way to the .22lr in my opinion.
I used to shoot Practical Shotgun - first with a SPAS and later with a Benelli. Something I grew out of I guess. You`ll have to join a club first as the licencing authorites really don`t like high cap, short barelled shotguns.
The Martinis are just so elegant - as are nearly all falling blocks. It`s only the Swiss type target rifles that have no appeal to me.
The BSA Martinis are just a joy to use and the removable action - the whole mechanism including the extractor dropping out completely as a one piece unit - makes cleaning an absolute doddle. It`s a shame that the Internationals were designed will so little regard for form......there`s nothing elegant about a brick !