Roseville Rifle Club Australia

Archive for November, 2014

Over 210 competitors from around Australia competed is this year’s event over five days.  Numbers were boosted by the Veteran State Teams who used it as a warm up for their events the following week. Everyone got on well together even with the trying weather conditions.

Members attending were Andrew Martin (FTR), Robert Kozminski (FCB), Allan Humbert (FCA), Angus Martin (TRC) and his school mate Tim Hanner (TRC), Mike Hodder (TRB), Tim Walter (TRA), Phill Hodder (TRA) and Mark Buchanan (TRA).

600m after the rain

Wednesday dawned with heavy high misty clouds and the forecasted winds and temperatures in to the high 20’s eventuated. The whole competition was shot on “paper” targets as the clubs have insufficient electronic targets for such an event. The lead-up RA Rolph was shot over two days. 3, 5 & 6 on the first, 7 and a double 8 on the second day with each day’s last range a 15 shot match.

Thursday was warmer at 35^o+ and the cloud burned off quickly. Copious quantities of water were consumed by all sensible contestants during the day with a change of liquid in the evenings as you can imagine.

Friday was the start of the Queen’s proper which saw the temperatures even higher and the wind was a little more predictable, at times! 3, 5, and 600 all 10 shots as the Tiverton Cup 4 person team shoot followed in a reduced format from 15 down to 10 shots.

The second day came with a welcomed 10^o+ drop in the heat and at times readable winds with occasional surprises, often not welcomed if the results were anything to go by. Ten counting shots at 7, and a double 8. Heavy drizzle became rain in the afternoon continuing throughout the night.

By the time it was time to shoot on Sunday, the outlook was very bleak. A couple of heavy showers and followed by a deluge mid-morning resulted in a large number of very wet shooters and their gear, and those who managed a shoot at 500 were in most cases relieved when the range was abandoned. Shooting restarted at 11 o’clock at 600. Still with tricky wind changes and wet flags that were rapidly drying.

F Class lead-up saw Robert and Allan see-sawing in each of the ranges with Robert 7 super bulls ahead after the two days.

Mike entered in B grade and had a modest two day shoot with a best range at 800, 69.1 (4^th) and 48.4 (5^th) at the first 800. Definitely room for improvement.

Mark and Phill competed in A grade. Phill’s best range was at 500 with a 50.5 (8^th) finishing in 13^th position for the Rolf scoring 341.35. Among Mark’s highlights were 75.7 (1^st) at 600 and 75.10 (1^st) finishing 4^thwith 344.38.

Angus and Tim

Now to the highlight results for the Queen’s series in my opinion. Angus Martin shone in C grade after a “warm-up” first day. His 50.6, 49.7, 50.6 and 2^nd day Agg 149.19 netted two firsts and a second for the ranges and 1^st for the day. He was 2^nd on the last day and ended the Queen’s in 2^nd place two points behind the winner. Well done!

His school mate Tim in his first shoot away from Hornsby range and first competition got a 3^rd on the last range leaving him in a creditable 7^th place. Hope you both can come for the lead-up as well next year.

Andrew joined our other two F Class shooters choosing to compete in FTR. An interesting choice after so little shooting due to injury and family commitments. His best score was a creditable 58.4 at 700 gaining 11^th place. Shows how tough this relatively new grade is. More practice will help, but a good effort non-the-less.

Robert’s best score of 59.4 at 700 gained 5^th, with four 60’s ahead of him. Allan’s best was 59.1 at 800 also for 5^th, just 3 X’s away from the leader.

Mike finished the 1^st day with 139.6 for 6^th. Three 49’s on the second day (the last at 800 for a range 3^rd) and 3^rd for the daily aggregate. This moved him up the board to 2^nd for the two days at 286.18. Equipment failure in the final day’s only range killed the dream of winning, and a new barrel as the prize.

The A grade competition was fierce with 90 competitors.

To give an idea how hard this grade was, Tim’s 48.3 at 300 and 49.4 at 700 gained only 63^rd and 69^th!

Phill’s best scores were three 50’s on the second day (50.7, 50.7 and 50.6, 18^th, 11^th and 9^th) giving him 4^th that day. He ended 33^rd for the Queen’s and 15^th for the Grand Aggregate.

Phill’s Rolf Badge

Mark was our best performer. His possibles at 300 (16^th), both 800’s (5^th& 16^th) were all great shoots. He ended with Queen’s badge 6^th and 2^nd in the Grand. Well done Marcus!

Mark’s prize

Roseville entered one TR team in the Tiverton Cup with Mark, Phill, Angus and Tim the firers and Mike coaching the first shooter, Mark coached the rest. Our scores were Mark 50.2, Phill 48.4, Angus 48.1 & Tim 46.4, which was reasonable but no match for a very strong West Wallsend, who won with a fine score of 198.21/200! We finished in 5th place on 192.11. Special comment must be made of Angus’s  performance in the team. He was a late inclusion, this and the fact it was a very prestigious match, didn’t faze him and he shot extremely well under pressure with his score of  48/50!

Finally, thanks to all our attendees. Thanks for all you friendship, advice and companionship. It’s a great part of our club.

Uncle Mike

Seventy nine (79) competitors took part in this year’s NSDRA Open Prize Meeting on Sunday 2^nd November, with shooters coming from as far afield as the NSW North Coast and Central West. Roseville was well represented with 10 members competing in Target Rifle and F-Standard categories. Once again Roseville performed strongly, especially in B-Grade and C-Grade Target Rifle.

Mark, Phil, Dmitri, Jon, Rob, Mike, Angus, Alan, Gary and Michael all took part in this annual event on home soil.

The day started at 500m with Dmitri posting 50.5, Mark with 49.4, Jon with 49.3, Phil 48.3 in A-Grade and Rob coming second in B-Grade with 48.3, followed by Mike who took third place with 47.4. Angus Martin took second place in C-Grade posting a strong 50.1.

Mark

Rob

Alan shot very well, posting 59.5 in the first match to take out third place in F Std A-Grade.

The second match at 600m saw Mark score 50.4 narrowly missing a place. Rob and Mike dominated B-Grade with 49.2 and 46.3 respectively and Angus took out third place in C-Grade with 46.2.

Phil scored a very strong 50.7, however just missed out on 3rd place on count back in A-Grade on the last match of the day at 700m. Mike took first place with an excellent 50.5 and Rob with 49.4 to take second place in B-Grade.

Gary and Michael redeemed themselves in the last match at 700m and took first and second place in F Std A-Grade posting 60.4 and 60.3 respectively as well as winning the pairs.

Mike

Allan

The final placings for the day’s aggregate saw Mark take 5^th position with 148.12 in A-Grade Target Rifle. Rob won B-Grade with 146.9 and Mike came second with 143.12, together with Angus who came in 3^rd in C-Grade with 141.4.

Alan shot consistently high scores throughout the day and came 4^th in F Std A- Grade with 174.10, only just missing out on 3rd place by one super centre and first place by one point.

Michael Cuda