Hi Adam,

We note the contents of your email. The Portuguese proposal was however that the BFTA rules only serve as a basis for discussion and development of more comprehensive WFTF Rules. All your concerns/suggestions will of course be considered and be included/excluded by majority vote of our RGB’s in the process of developing the new set of rules. The same goes for inputs from all our WFTF RGB’s.

I hope that this clarifies Sergio’s proposal.

Kind regards,

Johan.

In Portugal we also have a high power division.
IMHO, it makes all sense to create that division but we should leave this debate for later.

At the moment, I believe our focus should be approving solid basis for discussion and development of more comprehensive WFTF Rules in a near future. The BFTA rules will provide us what we need before entering in the RGB's proposals.

Best Regards,

Sérgio Rita
FPT Chairman
Portugal

We do not feel that the acceptance of the BFTA Rules as the WFTF Core rules is a necessary step. If we simply agree to use the BFTA rules as the framework, that would be adequate to start the process of modification. Once Johann feels we have reached a point satisfactory to all RGBs, he would call for a vote on the acceptance of the new WFTF Core Rules.

It seems like the process has already begun and the RGBs appear to be looking over the BFTA rules and finding sections that they feel may need modification in order to be accepted as World rules. The Board of Governors here in Canada is already going through this process and will bring our suggestions forward once we complete the process.

Canada favours the use of the BFTA rules as a framework to create a new set of Core Rules for the WFTF.

Tim MacSweyn
CAFTA Chairman
Canada

Dear RGB's

I 've been following your inputs after Mr. Johan Jansen put forward of Sergio to us all as a starter base of this discussion. Malta's position on the rules irrespective of accepting BFTA's regulations as a frame work or not, is one.

" Like all other sports there should be one set of regulation to which all nations forming part of WFTF should and must follow."

With this I mean that BASIC TECHNICAL SHOOTING REGULATIONS THAT DEFINE FT AS UNIQUE SPORT.

Legal and legislative conditions should not be merged within the regulations.
New Zealand mention the issue of insurance, there are other similar issues within different countries. It is important for WFTF to know the status and requirements for each country and the provisions needed to be taken to host world events in all countries, but should not enforce a legal statment within the BASIC CORE RULE.

Just a simple example.
FT according to BFTA rules is for sub 12ftlbs air rifles the main reason is that sub 12ftlbs air rifles do not require special permits or licensing in the UK. In other countries can be similar but in others its not. In Malta even a simple pee shooter requires a shooting license, an insurance and an active club membership in a registered club, but this is still not enough, once the target shooter aquires this he can shoot air rifles of any power but again there is another restriction which is "in authorized shooting ranges only".

What does all this mean?
We cannot pretend that other countries follow the same regulations that we have, but as WFTF members we must ensure through local authorities that we can host you, with your air rifle ownership and regulations. If there are high power classes then the hosting nation must do all that is legally possible within its country to host such classes and shooters that do not need any permits to hold air rifles in their respective country.

I think we should sit down together and work on a foundation towards common basic FT regulations. The FT regulations as each nation is using are either BFTA regulations or adapted from. We are doing the same.

We agree with the proposal to start discussion and give FT a higher standard.

Best regards
Stanley Shaw

Chairman
MAAC Malta.

Dear Mr President and fellow representatives,

We like the way Stanley has addressed the rules issue. Clever man that Stan !

We have also had a look at the BFTA rules, chopped and changed them a little and attached the result ... just our thoughts on some basic rules.

There are also a few points which we would like to bring to everyone's attention ...

1) We (NFTAC) have been represented at most of the World Championship events since 1992 (excl. USA) an have seen a few changes over the years .

2) Once upon a time there were 45mm, 40mm and a handfull of 25mm targets. In fact I can't recall one when Terry Almond won at Newbury. But, we always got a result.

3) Our theory - if you're good enough to win, you've got a pretty good chance of doing just that. Kill zones under 25mm are not neccesary - match nerves and weather conditions are enough to contend with.

4) 75% of competitors don't have a cat in hells chance of ending up in the top 10 however, we want these people to come back year after year (have you noticed how we never reach entrant capacity at the world's anymore ? ). Give them targets that they can hit reguarly enough to keep the interest going and they'll be back next year. Make it nigh on impossible for them to achieve a respectable score and we'll eventually lose our customer base - understand ?

5) We believe 3 shooters per lane upsets concentration, and should be restricted to 2, giving a limit of 150 shooters for the competition, unless some dead lanes are introduced as holding lanes - or even a "paper" lane to check zero - 1 shot only (?). Perhaps one dead/paper lane for every 5 fives lanes extending the total competitors to 180 max. At the 2005 World's in England, there were 272 competitor's results published - that's 3.6 people per lane (!). Where was everybody ? any ideas ? We think it's 5 years since max entries were achieved ... is this a sign ? As you all know, FT was mimicking airgun hunting in a competition environment. In the field, if you weren't hitting quarry you'd check your zero wouldn't you ? Or have we sadly buried that train of thought in our politically incorrect subconscious ?

6) We heard rumours of a four day competition mentioned in Hungary ... just rumour ... but a sensible rumour all the same. Like Moto GP and the like, the competitors have a practice round on the first day (not just zero check on paper- where the range is ALWAYS hogged...) to ensure the equipment is working over an extended period after the attack of the airline baggage handlers, temperature change, humidity change, nappy change etc etc... If anything is wrong, there's 24 hours to fix the problem ... not 24 minutes. Good idea whoever you were !

Thanks for listening ;o)

Andy & Co

NFTAC

PS. If you all want to be on our exclusive christmas card list, we need addresses ;o)

Thankyou Tim, Andy and Stanley,

Nothing you have said is in disagreement with NZAFTA's position at this time.

"BASIC TECHNICAL SHOOTING REGULATIONS THAT DEFINE FT AS UNIQUE SPORT".

Yes This is what we would like too at the International competition level.

Define format, kill zone sizes, distances, difficulty factors such as inclines and shaded areas, technical shooting positionals, disabled positions,....and etc.

And as Tim said, we do not feel adopting the BFTA rules as a starting point is prudent, rather use the framework and best parts then reassemble what all RGB's actually want.

As Stanley has said, legalities should be left for host nations to negotiate with the incumbent President, who I would suggest should have a little discretion to sanction exceptions in special circumstances. It would be easier to announce one or two variations at an upcoming Worlds than to try to understand a whole new raft of host rules mixed with core rules overlaid.

Where laws allow, and further down the track, we would like to see a high power class reintroduced to bring shooters back into the sport who have not bothered with 12 ft/lbs since the adoption of that limit. Just as Women's, Senior, Junior, springer classes, we would feel (where legally appropriate) it should not detract from the overall World Championship title which should be shot at 12 ft/lbs limit.

I think we are all on the same page:

BASIC TECHNICAL SHOOTING REGULATIONS THAT DEFINE FT AS UNIQUE SPORT.

We look forward to Norway's proposed redraft, so that we may consider. We like that idea as opposed to adopting BFTA rules first.

This open discussion has been good and constructive.

Many thanks.


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Adam Welsh
Secretary
NZAFTA