Roseville Rifle Club Australia

Intrepid Rosevilleans – Uncle Mike Hodder (support team), and competitors Mark and Sam made their way to Campbell Town, central Tasmania for the 2026 Kings Series.

Uncle Mike – was on (slightly) early reconnaissance, via a Virgin flight to Launceston.  Sam & Mark, followed slightly behind on a similarly late departure to last year on Qantas.

We ran into John Weigel from Gosford in the Launie airport – who was on the same flight, and had a good natter whilst awaiting the shooting irons to arrive at the surfboard counter.  Mark, Sam and Mike shared a rental car from Bargain Car Rentals – just off airport, but costing significantly less than the mainstream rental companies.  Our pickup bus was there as soon as we got out of the terminal.  Car pickup was straight forward.  We made out way to our very comfortable AirBnB in Campbell Town via Perth for some essential shopping.

We had a pub meal on the first night at the Campbell Town pub – where many competitors stay in the attached motel.  We ran in to several of the Canberrans, and Matt Shepherd and his wife.

A couple of cleansing ales, a greasy meal – then early to bed for the first day of competition – Day 1 of the Tiger Cup.

Now – I must acknowledge the photographers – Rodney (Windie) Winwood – who is a huge supporter of rifle shooting – and was recognised by a TRA life membership award at this years proceedings.  Uncle Mike took a few – and some scraped from the web…

If you follow ‘Tasmanian Shooting History Then and Now’ on Facebook (run by Windie) – you will get a ton of shooting news and history from around Australia.

Full scores can be found on the NRAA website – for those who want that detail…

So – I haven’t been to that many full bore ranges in Australia compared to some, but on the ones I have been to, Campbell Town is a close second to Canberra for wind difficulty.

Scores reflected this.

Anyhow – Mark and Sam did well in the Tiger.  No daily aggregate prizes are awarded in the Tiger – just the 2 day aggregate.

Tiger Summary

The Tiger Cup is only 2 years old, and is made from Huon Pine, and is five sided.  One side for each category of competition – TR, FO, FS, FTR, Sporter.  You can’t see it well in this photo, but there is a bronze Tasmanian Tiger on the top of the trophy.

Tiger Cup winners

Mark # 1 Badge Tiger TR

Sam # 1 Badge TRB

Mostly we had home cooked up meals in the evenings – with take away supplied by our recently minted Taswegian mate Phill on one evening.

Sam led the cooking efforts, ably supported by Uncle Mike.  Mark tried washing up, but due to unsatisfactory performance, we resorted to using the dishwasher. Mark’s focus after a days shooting is cleaning his shooting iron – occasionally in his underwear, wine, cheese and TV – not necessarily in that order.  TV on most mornings immediately on rising which played havoc with Uncle Mike’s hearing aids and ability for any morning conversation 🙂

Pasta Bolognaise, bangers and mash and roast chicken dinner were on the menu.  Sunday night everything is closed for the ‘8 hours day’ public holiday on Monday – so roast beef dinner at the range. – quite delicious.

We did insist Mark turned off the TV while we had evening meals, to which he begrudgingly agreed 🙂

On to the Kings Prize:

Whilst wind was lighter than during the Tiger, it was more changeable – sometimes 3 left to 3 right.  We had 9 minute winds during the Tiger….  On the last day we got a little reprieve.  The 900yds was the best conditions of the meet and again scores reflected this.

The 1000 yds was also not too difficult, although Sam managed to somehow pull an outer – which cost him the Kings.

Rosevilleans did not uphold the long held the tradition of cross-firing (at least on their business shots).  Mark did manage to get his first 1000 yds sighters on his 900yds target (2 targets to the left).

I was taught a little about wind – by Ex World Champion Steve Negus – who was on my target.  It resonated – and not to repeat here – but for anyone who is interested – I am happy to share.  It did help me.  Many of my early groups were bullseye elevation (occasionally V Bull elevation), but very wide…:-( so I sought some advice from Steve.

Kings Summary

Lead up and Kings is a big commitment in effort, ammo and money, and is not for the faint hearted, but the fellowship of Rosevilleans and the community make it enjoyable.  Congratulations to the TRA for organising such a smoothly run event.   Thank you to the range staff, kitchen staff and all attendees.  Hope to see you all next year!

Sam and Marks Haul

Worth noting Phill got #5 badge in the grand

Sam Houston

Comments are closed.