I thought it may be a good starting point to discuss the equipment I personally use. A number of items I am using are of a high end nature and so may be more expensive than some other options. However at the level I intend to compete it is important to have good equipment.
The rifle I use is a Steyr LG110. I really like this rifle, its a good quality rifle but the biggest thing which is an advantage to me as a blind person is the connect version comes apart so it can be packed in a small case for easy transportation. Also the loading mechanism on this rifle will not interfer with the scope being mounted on top.
The Swarovski ZEB618 scope is the only item which is specialist to blind people. This scope contains electronics to convert the amount of light it receives into a varying pitch tone which one can listen to through headphones. There isn't much more to say on the scope itself, other than to note it needs a power supply and it does not contain a volume control for the headphones, therefore you probably will want to ensure your headphones have an inline volume control. The other thing to be aware of is that the size of the scope may get in the way of some rifle loading mechanisms, however there are plenty of rifles where this is not an issue. On some where the loading mechanism is an issue, it may be possible to make adaptations but this is probably not recommended unless you really know what you are doing.
I power the Swarovski scope with a PP3 9V battery. This required a cable to connect the battery to the DC input socket of the scope to be made and some velcro to fit the battery to the rifle. Some of the advantages to using batteries is that it removes mains hum from the output sound and also reduces the number of wires coming from the rifle, which is a big advantage when doing free standing.
I use a set of Sennheiser HD280 headphones to listen to my Swarovski scope. These are probably much better than are really needed, although I am certain I can hear a difference between these and some of the cheap headphones when I do shooting. These headphones lack a volume control so I needed to buy a inline volume control for them.
There are also items such as the lamp which is used to illuminate the target, but as that is provided by the club I have little details on those.
As I do free standing shooting, I do use items such as a shooting jacket, shooting glove and shooting boots. I won't list these now as I am in the process of getting a shooting jacket and trousers and so intend to discuss them and give photos for your amusement in a later posting. So please check back if you want to see some of the strange things us free standing shooters wear.
