Jamshedpur, Oct. 29: A steel city rifle club has lined up two goodies for shooters aiming for a world-class experience and a bull?s eye at national meets.

The Jamshedpur Rifle Club, one of the oldest clubs of erstwhile Bihar, has acquired a pair of imported weapons, as part of its golden jubilee bonanza. The weapons from two renowned European manufacturers, Steyr and Fnerbow, have entered the steel city rifle club circuit to groom budding Anjali Bhagwats and Jaspal Ranas.

?We will soon introduce both weapons at the club. One is an air rifle from Fnerbow, a German company, and the other is a Steyr?s air pistol from Austria,? said Uttam Chand, secretary, Jamshedpur Rifle Club. ?Both the rifle and the pistol, worth Rs 1.5 lakh each, have a .177 bore and are primarily used for sporting events. Till now, we have been using Indian-make weapons, which were acquired from National Rifles, Ahmedabad. They were not suitable for the national level competitions and our shooters missed out on the national front,? Chand said. According to the officials of the rifle club, the absence of world-class rifles and pistols was a stumbling block for shooters at national meets.

?The revolvers and pistols of .22 bore and .32 bore cartridges of Indian-make were being used for sporting events. Air pellets are easily available in the Indian market for the new air rifle and air pistol,? he said. He added that shooters who had the calibre were not able to attain the necessary accuracy level due to the absence of these weapons.

?We have four good trainers. The club can get more but the weapons were crucial and now we have overcome that as well.? Now with the new weapons, the club has set its eye on national meets.

?Out of the 25 good shooters we have here, there were only a couple of them who made it to the nationals every year. With the newly acquired air rifle and air pistol we can produce at least ten national level shooters every year, from the city,? the secretary said.