And it’s the lads from Border Barrels who are making it.

Not only do the boys make high-quality rifle barrels using a 500- year-old method, but they all compete in the Great Britain F class long-range shooting team as well.

Competing may seem like a bit of a busman’s holiday for Lee Tomlinson, Adam and Daniel Brough, Gordon Waugh and Les Bacon, but it’s certainly paying dividends as far as national honours are concerned.

Lee, 29, lives in Jedburgh and has been shooting since he was six.

He told TheSouthern: “I started out with an air rifle. My father Ray was an active rifle and pistol shooter at the time and introduced me to the sport.”

Shortly after leaving an SVQ level 2 engineering course in 1999 under the tuition of John Murray at Borders College in Galashiels, Lee joined the local rifle barrel maker and only a year or two later began to take part in local shooting competitions in order to promote the products the company makes.

He added: “It was a bold decision to make at the time as no other rifle barrel manufacturer in the world actively has employees that shoot their own products in F-class shooting.”

As the years passed, Lee collected several gold, silver and bronze medals, and in 2005 helped take ‘Team Border’ to first place in Scotland. He was also part of the Scotland team that won gold at the European F class competition in 2007.

After finishing in the top 10 in the UK league shoot in 2008, he was put forward as a potential shooter for the GB team.

In July this year, Lee was joined by workmates Adam, Daniel, Gordon and Les for the World Championships at Bisley, where 145 of the world’s top F class marksmen took part. In the individual events Lee came seventh, Adam ninth, Daniel, 12th and Gordon 17th.

At 48, Les is the senior member of the outfit. He competes in F class TR, and shot in a separate competition in Bisley where he came 42nd out of 67.

Lee, Daniel and Adam were then selected to join the team of eight, picked from the cream of British shooters, who then went on to win the World Championship for the first time, beating the United States into a comfortable second by 59 points. Defending champions South Africa were third, Ireland fourth, Germany fifth and the Netherlands sixth.

In the Imperial Meeting which preceded the event, the local lads gave further evidence of their world-class abilities, usually figuring in the top 10 of the prize lists while Adam won the St. George’s match outright.

And last week Daniel, 29, and Adam, 19, two of four brothers who live in Newcastleton, took part in the European F class long-range rifle shooting championships.