HIGH POWER RIFLE
by
Mark Bradley

I would like to make everyone aware of a new rifle shooting discipline that a few people are trying to introduce in to the UK. It is called Highpower Rifle and it is currently the most popular form of rifle shooting in the United States.

Highpower is a target shooting sport but it differs from most other types of target rifle shooting in that it is positional shooting with a typical match consisting of the following:

200 yds: 2 sighters + 20 standing (20 minutes) No slings allowed

200 yds 2 sighters + 10 sitting (60 seconds) shot twice

300 yds: 2 sighters + 10 prone (70 seconds) shot twice

600 yds: 2 sighters + 20 prone (20 minutes) No bipods permitted

A full match will comprise 88 rds including sighters and the maximum score is 800 pts.

Targets are all American NRA bull's-eye targets with a X ring in the center surrounded by 10, 9, 8, 7, 6 & 5 rings. X rings are 1MOA and 10 rings are 2MOA at all relevant distances.

The rifles most commonly used in Highpower in the US are the M16/AR15, M1A/MI4 and Ml Garand. Although many people compete with bolt action guns such as Remington 700's and Winchester Model 70's. There are at present two main classes, Service Rifle and Match Rifle. Service Rifle must be of a standard outwardly appearance although various modifications are allowed, ie. triggers and floated barrels but nothing that makes it look any different from the original.

In Match Rifle class any modifications are allowed such as sights, stocks and barrels. The only real stipulation being that all guns use open sights, as optics are not permitted. With the AR15 rifles here in the UK gaining in popularity, quite a few shooters are beginning to experiment with match ammunition and replacement parts and are starting to realise the accuracy potential of their chosen firearm. 

Most of these components were developed for Highpower and there have even been a couple of books written on the subject. It was from reading these books that I thought of the idea of having a go at this mystery sport, and after voicing the idea to a couple of people on the PR circuit (Dave Green & Steve Hooper) it turned out that they had been thinking along the same lines, so we decided to give it a go. The only real problem was that we wanted to use the correct targets but couldn't get them anywhere in this country. So, after a couple of frantic phone calls to the US, Mr. Derrick Martin of Accuracy Speaks Inc. kindly sent me some samples which I had copied at short notice. This was easier said than done, (ever tried to have a 6'x 6' target photo copied?) but we succeeded anyway and the copies turned out very well.

Recently about 10 of us got together and put on a try out match to see if it would work and it all went very well except for the horrendous rain storm that we had to endure and the courses of fire went smoothly after a fair amount of debating as to what was right or wrong. Not everyone had iron sights but we just wanted people to turn up with what they had and see how they liked it.

The general opinion was that it was very enjoyable and certainly very challenging In fact, at 200 yds standing, the iron sights gave nothing away to scopes, and even at 600 yds although the front sight post was 3'' wide, respectable scores were still possible.

As to the future, we would certainly like to carry on with Highpower as I believe it can only make you a better shooter. We would like anyone with any iron sighted rifle with a capacity of at least 5 rds to come along and have a go, you might enjoy it and have a use for that old SMLE or No4 after all.

This could be target rifle for the Practical shooter.

If you want to give Highpower a go, or would like more information, Please Visit: