Grandmaster Lesgar Murdock in action. - Contributed

Despite achieving Jamaica's best-ever placing at the World Shoot Tournament, Grandmaster Lesgar Murdock believes the island's shooters are at a distinct disadvantage because reloading is not permitted locally.

Murdock is of the view that if reloading - which is the process of building bullets - was allowed locally shooters would be able to get in more practice and hence achieve better results on the international stage.

"Things here in Jamaica are pretty expensive. Those guys (in the other countries) do reloading, so it is way cheaper for them," Murdock expressed. "They can make their own rounds while we can't do it here in Jamaica, as the relevant authorities haven't given the go-ahead for that."

He added: "So we have to be purchasing factory ammunition, while over there they buy the components and build their own ammunition, which is much cheaper. I think if we are able to make our own ammunition it would go a far way in improving our performances."

Jamaica Rifle Association president, Colonel Audley Carter, believes the current situation faced by local shooters allows the cream of the crop to rise to the top.

"We don't have the capacity, but that hasn't adversely affected preparations, it is just a bit costly," Carter declared.

"But I suppose it helps to weed out the genuine competitors from the others," he added.

He, however, conceded that the local competitors are at a disadvantage compared to their overseas counterparts, but though pointing out that this is a reality local shooters are going to have to live with for a while, he expressed an intention to apply to the Ministry of Sports and the Firearm Licensing Authority for permission to do reloading.

"We are thinking about it (applying), but we have to be very careful as to how we proceed, because we need to have serious justifying arguments and we have to consider the other situations in the country," he added.

Murdock placed 36th out of 364 competitors in the open class category at the 16th World Shoot tournament held in Rhodes, Greece, from October 3 to 8. He emerged as the top Caribbean representative, with the other regions present being Trinidad & Tobago and Aruba.

Jamaica's other representative in the open division, Anthony Johnson, finished 116th, while Orville Henriques placed 61st in the standard division.

The open division was won by Frenchman Eric Grauffel, but Murdock believes it all comes back to the disparity in preparation.

"He is shooting like around 10,000 rounds per week, while I'm just shooting about 1,000 rounds per week," Murdock pointed out.

Murdock will next be in action locally on November 27, when he competes at a tournament called 'The fast and the furious' in May Pen. Internationally, he will be shooting at the Florida Open in February.