I shot high power rifles competitively from the early 1960's until about eight years ago, when I developed osteo-arthritis and could no longer assume the positions required. Since then, I have developed a problem with my right eye which precludes aiming with it.

In competition, which involved shooting at ranges from 200 to 600 yards and beyond, only iron sights were allowed. This could be the issue sights on military rifles or commercial receiver sights. At 200 yards, the black portion of the target was a circle 13" in diameter, which contained a 3" "X ring", used to break ties, a 7" "10 ring" and a 3" wide "9 ring".

At 300 yards the scoring rings were the same size, but the black portion of the target was extended to include a 3" wide "8 ring", for a total black diameter of 19".

At 600 yards, the black portion of the target is 36" in diameter, and includes a 6" "X ring", a 12" "10 ring", an 18" "9 ring", a 24" "8 ring" and a 36" "7 ring".

From these numbers it can be seen that in the steady positions (rapid fire and slow fire prone) the "X" ring represents one minute of angle and the "10" ring roughly two minutes of angle.

The normal course of fire is 20 shots slow fire standing at 200 yards, with a time limit of 20 minutes, and 20 shots rapid fire, standing to sitting in two ten shot strings, with a time limit of 60 seconds each, including a required reload. When you figure approximately 12 seconds to assume the position and five seconds to reload and resume the position, that leaves about 43 seconds to fire ten shots, or a little over four seconds per shot.

At 300 yards, the match consists of 20 shots rapid fire, standing to prone, in two ten shot strings, with a time limit of 70 seconds each, including a required reload. Again, subtracting the time required to get into position and to reload, there are approximately 53 seconds left, or a little over 5 seconds per shot.

At 600 yards, the match consists of 20 shots slow fire prone with a time limit of 20 minutes.

In my younger days, standing scores in the low 190's were not unusual, nor were sitting scores in the high 190's. Prone rapid fire and slow fire resulted in scores in the low 190's, although on more than one occasion I managed to shoot perfect scores of 200 at 600 yards. I averaged around 97 points out of 100 throughout the matches, a respectable, but by no means outstanding score.

In Africa, my heavy rifle, a .505 of my own design, was equipped with iron sights only, and I never felt handicapped by having to rely on my trusted Lyman 48 receiver sight.

However, even with a scope I never attempted shots beyond 300 yards, for the simple reason that a bullet takes a perceptible amount of time to travel 300 yards and beyond, and that means that there is always time for the target animal to move while the bullet is in the air, resulting in a gut shot, rather than one in the heart/lungs area. This happened to me once, shooting at an oryx at around 300 yards, and we had to track the wounded animal for miles before we recovered him.