2019 RSN10 Air Arms Memorial Shoot

In the world of HFT there are some great events, these range from competitions, like the HFT World Championships, The new European Championships, The Air Arms International in Holland and the UKAHFT National series, however, one event that holds a special place for a large number of shooters is the RSN10, which is held at Scantlings farm in deepest darkest Sussex.

Every year 100+ shooters turn up at this wonderful venue and are met with hot tea, bacon rolls, and wonderful lunch and at the end of the shoot, enough cake to sink a battleship. On top of this feast, there is also a shoot, but to be honest, for me, it’s more about the cake.

The RSN10 is the brainchild of Claire West (the MD of Air Arms), and it's designed to not only embrace everything great about the world of Airgun shooting but to honour the memory of the late Bob Nicholls. Bob was not only the founder of Air Arms, he was also Claire’s father, and without his input into the sport in the early days of competitive shooting, I do not believe we would have the sports of FT and HFT that we have today.

The RSN10 is two courses of 25 (Blue and Red) and over the years we have learnt that if you do well on one, (either the lake or the wood) then you can almost guarantee to get destroyed on the other. Over the last 5 years, these courses have been set by Buxted’s very own Andy Simpson, but for 2019 a new team of course setters have taken on the mantel, Charles Peel, Jean Greatrex, Rogger Dibbins, Roy and Babs Pearce, Mike Burgess,Vince Guy and Lol Moore plus a whole army of other shooters, had taken time from work to make this event happen.

Both Red and Blue were a delight to shoot, the woods course was dark and brooding, with targets that were technical and required pinpoint accuracy from shooters (as you had to shoot through tiny gaps in the tree line) which messed with the shooter's ability to range find. Then there was the lake course, this was open and exposed to the wind and was again hard to range find as shooting across the water is always difficult and many shooters saw their pellets sail past the targets and go thudding into the ground as they had shot at the completely wrong range. 

The RSN10 is open to all shooters and we always have a wonderful selection of rifles from Anschutz, Daystate, Steyr and Weirauch, plus a large selection of Air Arms. In 2018, (for the first time), Air Arms had managed a clean sweep and won every class, so could this be done again in 2019?

Well, yes it could, in the Open class, Charles Peal took the win with his FTP-900.

The Recoiling competition saw Gary Chillingworth take home first prize with his TX200HC.

In the ladies, Debbie McNaught won with her HFT-500.

Mike Burgess took first place with in the veterans competition with his FTP-900.

Ethan Dally took the win in the Juniors with his HFT-500.

Finally, after the prizes had been awarded, there was a chance to win a coveted HFT-500 as the main prize and for the 2nd year in a row, this went to a member of Wendover Wolves and Mark Walker became a very happy shooter with a new gun.

The RSN10 is a wonderful shoot and if you have never shot an HFT event before, then this is the one to try. It is a true celebration of everything great about our sport and a fitting tribute to Bob. Air Arms is a wonderful company and under Claire’s guidance, they continue to promote the sport and go from strength to strength and me for one, thank them for everything they do. I hope to see you all next year and please don’t eat all the Strawberry Cheesecake, It’s my favourite.

A huge thank you to the volunteers on the day. 

Course setters: Jean Greatrex, Laurence Peal, Roger Dibbens, Roy Pearce, Barbara Pearce, Mike Burgess, Vince Guy and Lol Moore.

Marshals: Gary Chillingworth, Nick Byrne, Roger Dibbens, Mike Burgess and Graeme Cargan.

Scoring: Brigitte Vant. 

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