Out of interest, classify a 'Competitive Shooting Match'

[Jackaroo]

Out of interest, what would you classify as a 'Competitive' shooting match?

'During a compliance period in which the person has only 1 kind of pistol--the person must participate in at least 6 shooting activities of an approved pistol club that are competitive shooting matches'.

[bladeracer]

Out of interest, what would you classify as a 'Competitive' shooting match?

'During a compliance period in which the person has only 1 kind of pistol--the person must participate in at least 6 shooting activities of an approved pistol club that are competitive shooting matches'.

I would read that as being a scored shoot among a number of people. Not a day of practicing on your own. The licence is granted on the basis of you being interested in competition shooting against other people, not simply to allow you to own a handgun.

[Jackaroo]

Yes, but classify more.

An attendance at a club calendared match would absolutely qualify.

Would you consider three (3) members getting together and shooting a match to the rules and submitting scores on a non calendared match day as qualifying?

The NSW Act only states "that are competitive shooting matches" like most regulations relating to the shooting sports it doesn't quantify exactly what constitutes a competitive shooting match.

Yes, I could ring FAR clubs unit with a verbal question (I'm a Club Secretary) but you could ring five times and speak with five different FAR customer service representatives and get five different verbal interpretations to the question (unfortunately though they are very helpful this happens too often).

Yes, I could write and ask for quantified answer in writing but they are generally loath to put anything in writing and quote verbatim the legislation.

Just interested to see what other peoples takes are on what constitutes a competitive match for the purpose of yearly compliance reporting.

[bladeracer]

If such a shoot is sanctioned as a club event I would say yes, if it's just three mates having a fun shoot-out I would say no. Police want to see evidence supporting your claim to be interested in shooting competition events.

Yes, but classify more.

An attendance at a club calendared match would absolutely qualify.

Would you consider three (3) members getting together and shooting a match to the rules and submitting scores on a non calendared match day as qualifying?

The NSW Act only states "that are competitive shooting matches" like most regulations relating to the shooting sports it doesn't quantify exactly what constitutes a competitive shooting match.

Yes, I could ring FAR clubs unit with a verbal question (I'm a Club Secretary) but you could ring five times and speak with five different FAR customer service representatives and get five different verbal interpretations to the question (unfortunately though they are very helpful this happens too often).

Yes, I could write and ask for quantified answer in writing but they are generally loath to put anything in writing and quote verbatim the legislation.

Just interested to see what other peoples takes are on what constitutes a competitive match for the purpose of yearly compliance reporting.

[Jackaroo]

If such a shoot is sanctioned as a club event I would say yes, if it's just three mates having a fun shoot-out I would say no. Police want to see evidence supporting your claim to be interested in shooting competition events.

By 'sanctioned shoot' you mean a calendared match?

Not 100% sure what you mean by "if it's just three mates having a fun shoot-out I would say no" other than that being a practice shoot?

But three members shooting a discipline and the match to the rules and submitting their scores to the Club Scorer, I see as a 'Competitive shooting match'.

[bladeracer]

If such a shoot is sanctioned as a club event I would say yes, if it's just three mates having a fun shoot-out I would say no. Police want to see evidence supporting your claim to be interested in shooting competition events.

By 'sanctioned shoot' you mean a calendared match?

Not 100% sure what you mean by "if it's just three mates having a fun shoot-out I would say no" other than that being a practice shoot?

But three members shooting a discipline and the match to the rules and submitting their scores to the Club Scorer, I see as a 'Competitive shooting match'.

I mean as in a match that is advertised to club members that can sign-up to attend. If it's just a few blokes calling each other to see if somebody wants to go for a shoot I can't imagine Police considering that to be a competitive shooting match. I don't know what calendared means. I know Collector club shoots have to be advertised ahead of time but I don't know whether that applies to standard CatH competitions. If there's a weekend free and somebody sends out an email to all the members asking if there's any interest in getting together on the weekend for an organised shoot, that might be considered a competitive match.

I used to go to the club on my own on weekdays, set out some different courses of fire I'd been playing with in my head (including incorporating my own bike or car and using non-competition holsters), spend the day shooting, then clean up all the props and go home - I did this much more than I ever attended IPSC comp shoots. I found it far more enjoyable that having to function within the constraints dictated by IPSC. It definitely would not be considered an "attendance", especially as there were no records of private attendances at the club. If I'd asked some mates to come and join me, and we scored ourselves and declared a winner, it also would not have been considered a shoot. Back then, attending club events like working bees would get you an attendance - I don't think that is allowed nowadays. It was rare to ever see somebody else up there during the week. Sometimes one of the sponsored shooters might come up and burn through a case of ammo setting up a race gun or something, but it was generally just myself, and a mate that came occasionally.

Compulsory attendances are the metric by which you support your genuine reason and show that you are actually partaking in club shoots, if you aren't then your genuine reason is not valid. We can own rifles and guns for decades with no requirement to ever fire them, but handguns have compulsory attendance requirements.

[Larry]

I realize that there is a vast difference in how competitions can be run between handguns and rifles. However I do think it has to be a scheduled and calendared event to be considered a competition.
In the rifle sports the conditions on what constitutes a competition is much more strict.