Roseville Rifle Club Australia

Or a funny thing happened on the way to the rifle range

 Dmitri and Tim headed off from Dmitri’s about 7.15am on Friday 31 October for about a 5 1/2-hour drive to Armidale, stopping at Oliver’s at Wyong for a much-needed coffee.

Tim’s TomTom took us via Bucket’s Way which saw some beautiful scenery along a constantly winding road with frequent climbs and descents.

Arriving at the Hideaway Motor Inn at Armidale about 1.00pm, Reception was not attended so Dmitri and Tim drove into Armidale for lunch at the Whitebull Hotel.

After lunch Dmitri and Tim took a wander around the centre of Armidale and were saddened to see so many empty shop units and other shops which were closed. Tim took the opportunity to get an overdue haircut.

After returning to the Hideaway Motor Inn, they discovered that their booking was for a Budget Queen Room which only had one double bed. Fortunately, another room with two beds was available.

After settling in, Dmitri checked all the entries for the prize meeting as the shoot was to be conducted on four HEXTA targets.

Later in the evening Dmitri and Tim booked an Uber to take them to the centre of Armidale for dinner, however Google maps placed the centre of Armidale at a different location to the Town Centre and our Uber driver, whose name we later discovered was Habib ^{name has been changed}, spoke very little English and did not seem to understand what Town Centre meant!

Eventually, we made it back to the Whitebull Hotel and had a good steak upstairs at Manny’s Restaurant. The steak was cooked very differently from the traditional recipe and had a delicious, original flavor.

After dinner we booked an Uber and who else but 1our friend Habib arrived, this time with his 11 old son to act as interpreter!

Next morning saw some fine weather following some rain overnight.

The rifle range is about 40 k from Armidale and our intrepid travellers turned off too soon and found themselves in Oxley Wild Rivers National Park. Dmitri’s sharp eyes observed a waterfall in the distance, but more of that later.

The rifle range proved to be only about 7 minutes away and we arrived just before 8.00am and completed our entries.

By this time the weather had changed to rain and the first range at 500 yards was delayed until 10.00am.

The wind conditions at Armidale are very tricky with frequent left and right changes over zero and varying in strength. Scores at the first two ranges were as follows.

After a break for lunch the first 600 yards match was shot. By this time the rain had intensified into a thunderstorm and shooting had to be halted when lightning came close.

Dmitri shot in pouring rain and got mag pie after being called first down and shooting was halted after his 7^th shot. He resumed shooting after the break to finish 5, X, 5 and a score of 46.2.

The rain proved intense and with about 13 shooters on each target it was clear that we would not finish the range in time for dinner and to shoot the second 600-yard match around 7.30pm, so the first 600 yards match was abandoned, and Dmitri’s great effort proved to be in vain.

Following the first 600 yards match, we had dinner on the range provided by Armidale Rifle Club and waited until around 7.30pm for the second 600 yards shoot which was conducted at night under lights.

Shooting target rifle at night is challenging as you cannot see your rear peep, although you can see the front ring highlighted on the target very well.

Some shooters went to the firing point with torches on their heads so they could see their sights and their head movements caused the lights to flash around which caused Tim difficulty when the lights flashed in his left eye as he was on aim. After putting his third shot on the wrong target, Tim decided to retire from the match. Dmitri handled the challenging conditions well.

After packing our wet gear into Tim’s car, Tim drove back to Armidale at a somewhat slower pace than the trip out to the range when Dmitri was driving, and back at our Motel we decided to dry things out as best we could and set our rifles up for the two final ranges at 700 yards scheduled for Sunday. One bottle of red was shared before we went to sleep after a tiring day.

Next morning, after grabbing a coffee and a pie at Ampol Foodery, we arrived at the range 10 minutes after the scheduled starting time of 8.00am and quickly prepared our gear for the first 700 yards match.

Dmitri was surprised that his first sighter was a high outer and his second sighter a high magpie, but he found the bullseye for his first counting shot.

Although the weather was now fine, the wind still proved very tricky for the first match and the final match which was 15 counting shots.

Following completion of the shoots we again had lunch on the range and waited for the presentation. Although missing more than a few in wind, Tim was quite pleased his elevation at the final range, so he showed his plotting sheet to Dmitri. This showed that Tim’s shoot was shot at 500 yards, not 700 yards, and Dmitri then discovered that Target 1, which Tim had shot on, was set at 500 yards instead of 700 yards and none of the shooters or scorers had noticed this!

The presentation was suspended while Dmitri made the necessary changes and Dmitri then noticed that the shoots on Day 2 were recorded as 600-yard shoots not 700 yards. Raising this with the organisers, Dmitri was told that Day 2 was shot at 600 yards, not 700 yards as originally intended.

Apparently, this change to the program was made just before Dmitri and Tim arrived a little late to the range so they were unaware of the change and thought they were shooting at 700 yards! Scores on Day 2 were as follows.

This explained Dmitri’s high sighters at the first 600 yards range!

Following the presentation Dmitri and Tim decided to have a look at the waterfall Dmitri had spotted on our drive to the range on Day on our way back to our motel.

These turned out to be the Wollomombi Falls. With a drop of over 200m, these falls are some of the highest in NSW. We found a lookout with a fantastic view of the falls and the vast gorge below.

Later, at our motel we booked an Uber to take us into the White Bull Hotel for dinner and Mourad, our faithful Uber driver, duly picked us up for the third time and took us to our destination where we had a great steak.

You can guess who took us back to our Motel!

We slept well after what Tim at least, found to be a fairly tiring couple of days shooting and departed the motel about 7.30am stopping for breakfast at the “Alternate Route Café” in Uralla, which not only has excellent coffee and food but a very interesting, printed tin ceiling, which was only discovered recently whist refurbishing the building.

Tim had insisted we return by the New England Highway rather than through Thunderbolts Way, as he did not like the winding road, but we struck roadworks and later heavy traffic, which was unfortunate, although it gave us the opportunity to stop at Wallabadah to see Hugh Bloore, who did some repairs to Dmitri’s shooting jacket.

Great country hospitality and a well-run meeting by Armidale Rifle Club in challenging conditions made for an enjoyable few days away.

HEXTA performed perfectly in the wet and windy conditions.

TR-A Grade was won by Kathryn Sweegers with an incredible 274.28/275, one point ahead of her husband, Rob Sweegers with 273.23/275.

I don’t know how they do it!

Tim Walter.