Roseville Rifle Club Australia

“You’ll never never know if you never never go”

June saw intrepid members Alan & Eva Patrick take the trip to the Top End to test the best. When asked by caravaners from all over Australia how long it took to get to Darwin we said, “about 4.5 hours”. A much preferred travel time than the usual 7 days heard from many.

The 2 day lead up shoot called the Lou Hook saw Eva take out the lead up in FTR with a 335.14 while Alan shooting in TR ended in 10^th place with a 287.22.

The lead up allowed everyone to get their zeros for the tropical and dusty range for the Queen’s. The range is positioned in a forest of trees, wild animals, crocodiles, birds and frequent fighter jets and various warplanes doing their manoeuvres. Wind came from various sides with gusts causing 2 minutes plus, change quickly.

Day 1 of the Queens had shooting at 2 x 500 & 2 x 600M. Alan produced a 193.20 to end 7^th and Eva a 232.9 finishing 1^st. An outstanding start for day 1. The TR leader for the day was Steve Negus who was the only person not to drop a shot ending with 200.32.

Day 2 saw outstanding blazing sunlight with winds that challenged everyone. Current Target Rifle world champion Steve Negus ended with a 195.29. The day’s leader Mick Forsberg (NT) ended with 198.23. Alan ended 8^th with a 193.14.

Eva did not stop performing well delivering a 224.13 ending in 3^rd place for the day.

Day 3 challenged all with 2 stages to finish at 800M and 900M.

Eva focussed on everything at 800M and came up with a 58.2(4^th). Alan kept them with a 50.3 (6^th). Donna Negus from Bungendore Rifle Club surprised even her husband with a 50.7 and finished 1^st for TR at this stage.

The ever challenging 900M gave the system a shake up and Eva delivered a 54.2 (3^rd place) and Alan 48.3 (7^th place). No one on the range kept all their shots for 900m which says a lot about the difficulty of this stage.

The washup is everyone on the range had a fabulous time and the hospitality, facilities and catering was excellent.

The results were exceptionally outstanding for Eva who took out the NT Queens FTR No1 Badge and the Grand Aggregate.

Alan had a 7^th place in TR which was a pleasing result for a usual recent FTR shooter.

The by-line for this adventure is the teams’ event which was a made up compilation of 2 member teams from each State, called the Dyer Teams Match.

Alan and Jim Jeffries teamed up to shoot a coached stage at 700M and through an addition of individual results through the Queens a team’s result was created. Representing NSW Alan and Jim came 3^rd with Jim coaching Alan to a winning 700M score of 50.9 and 50.6.

The individual results for the Dyer were Mick Forsberg of Darwin Rifle Club had the best result with 594.74, Steve Negus 592.29, Jim Jeffries 588.58, Donna Negus 588.58 and Alan Patrick 584.55.