IT takes something to hit a target half the size of a 5p coin with a rifle, especially when you have little or no vision at all.

That’s the challenge the Blackburn Rifle and Pistol Club acoustic shooters are pitted against.

Its members, who are visually impaired or completely blind, use a special technique to hit a target 10 metres away.

It involves them aiming their air rifles towards the target which converts into soundwaves.

While wearing headphones, the shooters judge where their rifle is pointing by the pitch of soundwaves, the higher the note, the closer to the centre of the target they are.

The acoustic shooting group has 17 members and was introduced 11 years ago, with members coming from across East Lancashire and beyond, including Liverpool, Morecambe and Lancaster.

The club, based at Audley Hall Mill in Dickens Street, Blackburn, has entered several national competitions over the years, and member Stewart Nangle finished sixth in the 2016 Paralympic Games in Rio.

Ernie Millward, 75, and his wife Annie, 68, from Shadsworth in Blackburn, who are both completely blind, have been coming to the club for two years and both said its a great club to be a part of.

Ernie said: “The shooting is great fun. We had never done anything like this before we tried it, and we were hooked from the off.

“It’s great to take part in something you could never normally do.

"The people at the club are the greatest people you will ever meet and without them this could not happen.

Annie said: “We both love the social side of it, we get to come down to the club and chat with like-minded people.”

The club offers rifle, pistol and crossbow shooting, the only club in the UK to offer all three, and has 10, 25 and 50 metre shooting ranges.

Each shooter has a ‘spotter’ to help them load and reload the gun, but the aiming comes down to the participant.

Charles Howarth, one of the club’s spotters, said: “These athletes are incredibly talented as there’s a large amount of skill that goes into this.

“For each millimetre of movement the shooter makes, it has a 10 millimetre impact on the target, it makes the difference between winning and coming second.

“Each shooter has to trust in their spotter and everyone around them to make sure everything is set up, they have to make sure their feet are positioned correctly and their heart beat is controlled.

“It’s a great social occasion for the members and it means members get to go out and take part in something they otherwise couldn’t do.”