The passion for shooting, especially with rifled rifles, has expanded exponentially in recent decades and, bureaucracy permitting, there are many private facilities that offer shooters a way to practice their passion. Perhaps we have to limit ourselves to the canonical distance of 100 meters, but already in this way there are many satisfactions, allowing us to verify the complex of factors in the field: equipment intended as weapons, optics and attachments, cartridges and finally, personal skills. In our areas it is often the areas at the foot of the mountains that provide the right territory with the appropriate shelters given by the orography as a function of side wings and backstops. The arrangement of the targets usually also takes into account the shooting of a handgun and therefore the 10/20/25 meters are the first sight for those who enjoy themselves with the various types of pistols or revolvers; then it is the 50 and 100 meters that give vent to those who try their hand at .22 LR carbines, spending negligible amounts on ammunition and always fun, demanding and performing even at the greatest distance, that usually used with rifled rifles with fired cartridges without forgetting how this base is the norm for muzzle-loading long guns.
Val Chiusella is one of the many that dot the Canavese area, a few tens of kilometers from Turin, and Vidracco is a small town perched on the first crags of an area where rocks and vegetation alternate in a pleasant way. A congregation of friends gave birth to the association again in the 90s, structuring the system on the basis of about fifty members currently managed by Mr. Ezio who ensures the smooth functioning of the whole structure.
From the main road, a short detour, again with an asphalt surface, leads to the car park where you can park your car and conveniently unload the equipment. The Secretariat and other meeting rooms form the reception complex to then pass directly to the shooting lines: the very intimate valley is surrounded by verdant broad-leaved woods where tranquility is total. Practice shooting stalls for shooting standing up or from support by setting up the tripod with the long one for target control. In addition to the outdoor lines, other indoor lines are available, obviously the most popular during the winter season. Alongside and suitably separated is also the area for practical shooting.
The visit was specially timed to conduct the test of an express of the Chapuis in 8x57 JRS, but our friend Claudio who placed it at our disposal wanted to delight us with two other specimens of this splendid category of shotguns: therefore two more express rifles produced by those superb British manufacturers in the very early 900s appeared from the scabbards. Thus, a .450 Nitro by the Scottish Alexander Henry and a .500/3” by the English Cogswell & Harrison take to the field, or rather on the shooting benches. Both see the system formed by the lock designed by Henry Jones, also known as the English T, and by the external hammers: the Henry locks show the plate and spring forward system while the English one adopts the plate and spring back . To make subtleties we will say that the former favors the sturdiness of the stock in the grip, the latter the integrity of the action frame and greater gentleness in cocking the locks. However, both have proved to be totally reliable over the years.
In our humble opinion, the class of the Edinburgh builder is difficult to match and the whole is revealed as something sublime. Likewise, the cartridge with an elongated and slightly tapered shape, with a rather long lead ball deeply sunk into the case, has that charm of the old fashioned which brings to mind the places and hunts of an Africa that has disappeared forever. Eley continues to supply original said loads nitro for black where the original black powder propellant is replaced by the right amount of a modern compound nitro powder to maintain the pressure within the levels of an original charge. We get ready to shoot and rotating the lower handle throwing up the breeches of the barrels opens the mind to dreams as well as admiring the grooves and then the two bottoms with the wordings of the caliber protruding from their chambers. Arming the dogs is another tactile and auditory delight: the clear and clean click is certainly not a secondary part of the magnificent sensations peculiar to these express. Now it's a question of lifting the rifle by fully engaging the muscles: together we sharpen our vision by sighting the rear sight and front sight on the target at 25 meters and paying maximum attention to the shot. Is one! A moment's pause, just a moment to simulate a realistic shot and here is the second. The distance between the two holes comforts us: Henry has done his duty and we are satisfied with our contribution. One consideration: older triggers probably lead to a more dilated inter-time between percussion and shot departure than we are used to normally detecting.
Now let's move on to Cogswell & Harrison where the cartridges with half-inch bullets and three-inch cases make a good impression, creating an expected recoil which, although not equal to that of today's full loads, will certainly be well above the .450 just tried. Here too efforts are made to raise the rifle, keeping it as far as possible in the line of sight with the rear sight and front sight aiming at the orange round of the target: here too the shots are excellent and the shot is timely fired. With the standing posture, the recoil imparts a certain torsion to the torso reflected in the spine: in short, even with the charge softened, the .500/3" is still a vigorous caliber with which all the dangerous wild animals of Africa and the India. The double shot is even tighter than that obtained with the Henry and the pleasure is remarkable: it goes without saying that shooting with these pieces of gunmaking history grants wide-ranging satisfactions surrounded by thoughts from which it will then be difficult to break away.
We thank our friend Claudio who put everything at our disposal and the kind Mr. Ezio to whom we owe the availability of the Vidracco shooting range, a facility where technique and Nature allow us to practice the art of shooting in complete serenity.