Roseville Rifle Club Australia

What can we say about the Queensland Rifle Association (QRA) competition in August? We think the state should change the motto to “Queensland; beautiful one day but NOT the next”. What a time. Unlike the recent past, Roseville had only 3 people that went to Brisbane in August, but only 2 were competing in the Kings.

Janet Beale flew to Brisbane for the Australian FTR team trials – quite a few the people could not make it to this trial – but it was “optional”. Janet flew in just for the one day (Tues 13th) – and of course it rained and things got problematic. But she persevered. After a reasonable shoot at 300yds they did a rapid fire shoot, then went back to 1000yds where there was the occasional pause in shooting due to heavy rains obliterating the target. What a day!

Dmitri Kazakov and Mark Buchanan were in Brisbane for the Kings Series shooting in Target Rifle A-grade which had 56 competitors. Wed 14th was day 1 of the Lead-up (The Duncan) and the QRA had this message for competitors “It’s a wet Wednesday morning at Belmont Shooting Complex and at 7.00am there are only a few contenders for Duck Racing on the Duncan Range! Skippy is undercover and even the rest of the waterfowl have sought cover! Most of us are eyeing up the weather radar in hopes it all moves through pretty quickly. The rain band is currently right over the top of us and moving southwards.” Then later “DUNCAN MEMORIAL UPDATE – MORNING SESSION CANCELLED. There will be a meeting at 10.00am to reassess what the afternoon will bring. Until then, enjoy some time with old mates and new!“.

Dmitri, Mark, and Janet sheltering from the rain

Fortunately the weather eventually improved, but it is too bad the rain/sun-gods, temperature-gods and the wind-gods couldn’t always agree on what to give the shooters. Hexta shows the temperature in the 5 day competition ranged from 25c to 39c with the worst of the heat and wind saved for the 1000 yds. It certainly took its toll across the field with results highly dependent on what happened when you actually got down to shoot.

Our valiant duo of Mark and Dmitri held their own with 9 possibles combined (score of 50 out of 50 often with 6 or 7 V-bulls) over the various details. The worst part of the shoot for our Roseville competitors? Hands down, it was the last detail at 1000yds. The best part of the shoot? The “Après Shoot” comradery with jokes and drinks at the end of the day.

Janet Beale