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Shooting community hails King Charles III in Harrogate

A gun salute celebrates the Coronation in style, while there are big plans to grow the Northern Shooting Show for next year’s event

A gun salute to welcome King Charles III from the line at the Northern Shooting Show

The shooting community gathered together at the Northern Shooting Show in Harrogate on the Saturday of The King’s Coronation and celebrated the event in some style with a gun salute from a signal cannon and a line of shotguns. 

“It was a great event,” said Duncan Thomas, BASC’s North regional director, adding: “It never fails to deliver.”

The show was held over the Coronation weekend and saw more than 22,000 people descend on the Yorkshire Event Centre for a weekend of shooting entertainment that included mini rifle shooting, .50 calibre have-a-go, big prize money clay shooting competitions and the World HFT Championships. BASC-accredited coaches also provided 120 clay shooting lessons, raised £500 for the Gamekeepers Welfare Trust and oversaw almost 1,000 people signing up to the Act Now campaign.

From next year, the show will have a new name, too. “The show has come a long way since its inception, and we are thrilled to rebrand it to the National Shooting Show to reflect its growing popularity and nationwide reach,” said organiser James Gower, Stable Events’ managing director.

Stable Events also puts on the Game Fair (28–30 July, Ragley Hall), the GWCT Scottish Game Fair (30 June – 2 July, Scone Palace), the GWCT Welsh Game Fair (9–10 September, Vaynol Estate, Bangor) and the prestigious World Gunmakers Evening on 8 November at the Royal Artillery Company HQ in London. Recently, Stable has announced that it will also be running Blenheim Palace International Horse Trials going forwards.

It has also announced ambitious plans to grow the newly named National Shooting Show next year, with promises to introduce further competitions and opportunities to pull the trigger alongside the largest selection of shooting retail available at any specialist show in the UK. The number of disciplines on show and available to try will also increase dramatically, claims Stable, including a dedicated, enhanced zone for stalking and another for pest control