Full Bore Rifle Shooting

Target Shooting as a Sport, particularly Full Bore rifle shooting, has been around for well over a century in our little part of the world. We reached our Zenith when it was introduced into the Commonwealth Games held in Jamaica in 1966, as it attracted the second highest number of countries entered; only athletics had more entries.

Since then it has not really grown but it just will not die, mainly because there are a few fellows in Barbados, Guyana, Jamaica, Trinidad and Bermuda who are determined to keep it alive. Bermuda joined the fray in 1989 and Antigua more recently. We all continue to send teams to Bisley, Connaught and the Commonwealth Games, but our lifeline has been our Regional Tournaments, which started with the Anchor Cup in 1928.

With the advent of Federation in the late forties, Jamaica sent a three man team to the West Indies in the early fifties, and a West Indian team was sent to Bisley. With the disbandment of Federation in the sixties there was a lull in our activities, but happily in 1973 the Benson and Hedges Cup tournament was introduced, with six man teams from Barbados, Guyana, Jamaica and Trinidad shooting ten shot competitions at La Sieva over 300, 500 and 600 yards. This cup was shot for every year until 1996, with the venue rotating from Trinidad to Barbados to Guyana and finally Jamaica.

In 1978 the number of shooters per team was increased from six to eight, and in 1989 the venue was changed from La Sieva to Tucker Valley. Ronald Brown Jr. shot a perfect 150.24v in Trinidad in 2001, and Richard Fields 150.17v in Guyana in 2007. That the average winning score has climbed from 138.3v to 144.4v per shooter, on smaller targets, is due no doubt to better equipment and ammunition. These have all been glorious years. Let us hope that the next 80 years will be even better.