WHAT IS F CLASS BISLEY?
Most of us are familiar with the term “Bisley shooting” which refers to a formal type of target shooting done from the prone position at distances of up to 900m. Traditionally open sights, or actually peep-sights, were used exclusively in this shooting discipline.
Originally, modified military-type Lee-Enfield bolt-action rifles, chambered for the .303 British cartridge, were used. When the Lee-Enfield became outdated, shooters changed to other bolt-action rifles and the 7.62x51 or .308 Win cartridge. In South Africa, Lyttelton’s single-shot RSA target rifle became very popular (these were later built or assembled by Musgrave in Bloemfontein). Shooters commonly referred to these rifles as “plankgewere” (because of their wooden stocks) and some even referred to the Bisley discipline as “Plankgeweerskiet”.
In those days most high schools had a “cadet programme” and Bisley-type target shooting with BSA single-shot .22 rifles was part of it. All shooting was done from the prone position at 25 yards (22 metres). The old BSA rifles with their
