Roseville Rifle Club Australia

Archive for 2015

Roseville Rifle Club wishes all a safe and prosperous festive season and New Year.

Mark Buchanan, Phill Hodder, Mike Hodder, and Allan Humbert attended the McIntosh Rifle Range in Canberra for the Grand Aggregate between 11 and 15 November 2015.

Stephen Tofler and Tim Walter attended for the Queen’s Aggregate.

Conditions were the easiest seen in Canberra for years and scores were high.

R A ROLPH AGGREGATE

QUEEN’S AGGREGATE

Much the same conditions applied for the Queen’s, although there was a light shower on the morning of Day 2.

Phill Hodder was the best performer in A Grade.

Had Stephen realised he could have entered B Grade, he would have, and had he done so, he would have finished 2^nd in B Grade! Next time Stephen!

GRAND AGGREGATE

Well done Allan!

No gold medals were won for individual range scores, but Allan came 2^nd at 700m in the Rolph Stage 2 and 3rd at 600m in the Queen’s on Day 2.

Mike came 2^nd at 600m on Day 3 of the Queen’s and Tim came 3rd.

Tim was lying in 4th position in B Grade going into the last range, but a poor finish saw him fade to 9^th place.

Tim

Competitors were greeted on Sunday morning 25th Oct by overcast cool, calm conditions. The bush flys were also there to greet them!!

Phill after the shoot-off

By the time shooting commenced the flags picked up from the right and were twitching around the poles, the calm conditions had left. Mark and Phill were the attendees representing Roseville, Mark started off strongly winning the first match @500y with a 50.6, Phill coming third with a 50.4.

The conditions got a little more tricky for the first 600y as the low scores showed. The range was won by John Baxter (NSWRA Chairman, 2015 Australian Palma Captain and Lithgow RC member) with a 50.3, the next two shooters could only manage 49’s! Phill shot a 48.1 and Mark 47.2.

There was a break for lunch and to give the markers a well earned rest and a feed. Phill was one of the first to shoot after lunch in the more readable conditions as the sun came out and it started getting hot, he took advantage scoring a 50.6, which ended up the highest score. Going into that stage he was coming third, one point and two centres behind Nick Cock (Bathurst RC) and two centres behind John Baxter. As he watched the other competitors finish their last stage he watched Nick only record a 49.3, Mark shot another possible scoring 50.5 for second position, and John shoot a 50.4 good enough for third place. This meant that both John and Phill finished on the same aggregate score for the 3 ranges 148.11. A shoot-off was needed to decide the winner.

Phill and John got ready on targets 3 and 4 and shot the mandatory 5 shots. Phill recorded a 25.3 to John’s 24.2, meaning Phill won the shoot-off and the Bathurst Prize Meeting in their Centenary Year!  Mark  finished fourth on 147.13. Scores can be found at: http://www.nraa.com.au/bathurst-rc-annual-opm-2015-nsw-results/

Phill receiving his prize from John Baxer

Mark Buchanan, Dmitri Kazakov, Rob Trodden, Andrew Martin, Angus Martin, Tim Walter, Gary Faulkner, Michael Cuda, Alan Humbert, and Robert Kozminski, all attended the NSDRA Championships on 7/8 November 2015. Phil Hodder and Steve Tofler shot on Saturday only. Recent heavy rain changed the programme somewhat and Day 1 saw shoots at 600m and 700m.

600 metres.
Mark started off with intent, winning A Grade with 50.8. Angus Martin won B Grade  with 49.2 with Tim in 3^rd place with 48.3.

700 metres
Phil Hodder came 2^nd in A Grade with a fine 50.8 to a hot Malcolm McKenzie with 50.10. Mike Hodder  came 2^nd in B Grade with an excellent 49.8. Alan came 3rd in FS/B with 58.3

Day 1 Aggregate.
Mark topped A Grade with 100.13. Angus came 2^nd in B Grade with 98.5 with Tim in 3^rd place on 97.5. Alan Humbert came 3^rd in FS/B with 113.6.

Day 2 was shot over 600m, 600m and 700m.

600 metres – 1
Mark came 3^rd in A Grade with 50.7, Angus came 2^nd in B Grade with 48.6 and Mike came 3^rd with 48.2.

600 metres – 2
Mark dropped a point on his second last shot for 49.5. Angus came 3^rd in B Grade with 47.3. Gary came 2^nd in FS/A with 58.5 and Michael Cuda came 3^rd with 58.4.

700 metres
Tim won the range in B Grade with 50.5, with Angus 3^rd with 50.4. Gary won FS/A with a beautiful 60.7. Alan came 3^rd in FS/B with 57.3.

Day 2 Aggregate.
Mark came 5^th with 149.18, Angus 2^nd in B Grade with 145.13 and Tim 3^rd with 143.12. Gary came 2^nd in FS/A with 176.17.

Grand Aggregate.
Mark finished 2^nd with 249.31, just overtaken by Evan Jones who finished with 50.9 to win the championships with 249.34.
Angus came 2^nd in B Grade with 243.18 and Tim came 3^rd with 240.17.
Gary came 2^nd in FS/A with 290.22, a point  behind Alexina Bunt on 291.22.
Alan came 3^rd in FS/B with 280.15

Masters Match
Mark fired a fine 50.9  but amazingly, was beaten on count back by both Jim and Mitch Bailey.

Teams Matches.
The Roseville TR team of Mark, Dmitri, Angus and Rob won the TR teams Match with 197.23. The Roseville FS team of Gary, Robert, Michael Cuda and Alan were unfortunate to finish 2^nd, with 226.10, just one point behind the winning team.

A good weekend was had by all and it was a welcome return to the 2 day format for the Championships.
Rain threatened, but mainly stayed away. One fancy vehicle became bogged after the shoot, but it was extricated by some kind hands on rescuers!

Congratulations to the NSDRA organisers, particularly Kathy and Adrian, Grumpy, Len and Jeff, and others who gave up their chance to shoot to help run the meeting.

Tim

The following is a brief summary and impressions from the three weeks Angus (Shooter), Mark (Shooter) and Mike (Manager) spent as members of the Australian Under 25 and Veterans’ Teams at Camp Perry (Cleveland Ohio) for the USA, World Individual and Teams shoots including the Palma match.

Crack of dawn Monday saw Mike and Mark at Border Control (previously Australian Customs Service), Mascot. Clearances made despite Mike forgetting his Firearms’ Licence. On to United’s counter for check-in. An hour later and we were aboard our B777 for the 15 hour flight to LAX. (Angus made his way with the Under 25 team)

Arriving on time, we thought that our three hour transfer time would be adequate. We were so wrong! Luggage hall is gigantic with our main cases arrived on a carousel at one end, our rifle from a hole in the wall at the other end. Then a very long walk from Terminal 1 to T7 taking our cabin bags and rifles, only to be confronted with more chaos and lines (sorry, queues) eventually getting to our planes gate for the onward flight to Cleveland. Our plan for everyone to meet and board the same flight didn’t work as over a dozen of our group missed the connection. {A note of caution, when flying to USA, try to enter USA in almost any other port than LAX. It’s the pits!!!}

A 4 ½ hour flight saw us arrive early evening. While collecting our luggage we noticed that all our groups’ luggage had arrived – without all passengers! Arrangements were made for those who were delayed to be safely stored pending their arrival. We collected our rental cars and drove 90 minutes to our Port Clinton hotel arriving around 7pm. A quick meal and drink and off to bed.

Next morning we found the rest of the group. They had checked in at 2 am – and we thought we’d had a long time away from a bed. Our team of 12 shooters, captain, manager and coaches and four partners spent the next few days were spent recovering from jet lag, visits to the range, sight-seeing, shopping and trying to find (unsuccessfully) healthy food. A highlight was a visit to a nearby South Bass Island’s Put-in-Bay where we saw the Perry Peace Memorial, 317 feet (97m) high and a delicious lunch on Lobster Bisque followed by more lobster.

We also made a day trip back to Cleveland we visited the Crawford Auto Aviation Museum http://www.wrhs.org/research/crawford well worth the visit with several hundred cars, bikes and planes amongst the exhibits. Next door is a mansion turned in to a museum with a large number of great exhibits.

General observations: -This part of Ohio is a huge flat area on the Northern side of Lake Eire (currently suffering from green algae), the shallowest in the Great Lakes Chain. The lakes are the largest inland fresh water in the world. As such, they have their own climate and while we were there mostly benign. However, we did experience a couple of spectacular thunderstorms with heavy rain which caused flooding and power outages. There have been thousands of ships wrecked on the lakes, many of which were extremely large. Around the roads lakeside are a series of warning sirens mainly for storms.

Camp Perry is a pleasant 20 minute drive along the foreshore from our hotel.

Impressions of Camp Perry: – It is huge, 642 acres (250 hectares) in area. Boasts to have the largest outdoor range in the world. Two main full-bore ranges with about 300 targets up to 1000 yards. With no butt-stops, bullets end up in Lake Eire on the Northern Boundary. It is training camp for National Guard, home of The Civilian Marksmanship Program. Also small-bore and pistol ranges to give a total of 15 ranges, most of which can be used simultaneously. The Davis-Besse Nuclear Power Station is about 10 miles away from the range. The 150 metre cooling tower is clearly visible on the left of the range and from the foreshore near our hotel. There is a huge wind turbine next to the range, but this was inoperative while we were there.

Every morning there is the Colors (sic) Ceremony. Following a count-down, the canon is fired and the National Anthem is played throughout the range. Everyone stands to attention and service and ex-service personnel salute, even if not in uniform. There is a roll call before shooting starts every morning. At the start of every range, there is a recitation of safety rules, standing orders and match rules. Blow off shots are allowed each morning. The sound of several hundred shooters firing three or four shots aver a short period of time was deafening.

Shooting: – For the first 4 days, there were other competitions going on which unfortunately didn’t involve us. We finally got to fires some sighters at 300 yards on Saturday 1^st August around 5pm. It made a long day waiting around due to program delays and we didn’t get back to the hotel until after 7pm. It was however good as it got us in the habit of early rises and long days.

Each day were involved in shooting, we were at the range before 7am and usually back to the hotel between 5 and 6pm. Twelve hours to shoot 60 counting shots (over in about 30 minutes!). We were in large squads as the organisers could only get markers for around 70 targets.

Sunday was a free day with the “Meet and Great”, finger food and drinks in the evening. The next three days were the USA Individual Championships with three 15 shot matches each day over 300, 600, 900 and 1000 yards with our “Veterans’ Dinner” on Tuesday 4^th August. Here Matt Pozzebon from West Wallsend Rifle Club came out victorious following Ben Emms; success last year. Mark was 23^rd in the Veterans.

Thursday and Friday were the Veterans WC Teams and Tony Loughnan Memorial Teams matches each four 10 shot matches over 300, 600, 900 and 1000 yards. The Australian teams were placed 4^th and 3^rd respectively. Angus picked up the bronze in the Under 25 individuals. A great effort.

Saturday 8^th saw practice in the morning and a 15 shot match at 800 yards to start the WILRC. Followed by three more days with 15 shots at 800, 900 and 1000 yards culminating with a final ten shooting off at a 1000. Benn Emms won the event with after a nail biting final with Nigel Ball (GB) and Matt 2^nd and 3^rd. A great way for Mike to celebrate his 68^th birthday with Mark participating in some sleight of hand with greetings from those left behind in Sydney.

Wednesday was a practice day for the Palma Teams. We did some chores including a much needed trip to the Laundromat. That evening we had our team dinner at Brandy’s Steakhouse, great food and drink and fellowship after an exhausting fortnight’s shooting.

Thursday and Friday (13^th and 14^th August) had the Palma Teams match. 15 shots over 800, 900 and 1000 yards each day. Australia started well each day but faded badly particularly at the longest range where Great Britain with consistent shooting and great coaching showed the other teams how to do it.

We took Steve and Carolyn Williams (Bathurst) to Toledo late Saturday morning and visited the new maritime museum http://www.inlandseas.org/museum . It is an amazing set-up with interactive exhibits as well as memorabilia. Anchored alongside is the Col. James M. Schoonmaker, a 613 foot (200 metres) lake freighter built in July, 1911. We spent some time clambering over and around this fine old vessel. Then we had a late seafood lunch on the riverside and off to our hotel.

Sunday, our last whole day before flying home was spent doing last minute washing and packing. Monday was an early start with Mike taking Steve and Carolyn to the airport at 3am. Then back to the hotel for a rest. Then the long trip home started with a delayed flight back to LAX and onwards to Sydney, arriving early Wednesday morning and the joy of long queues at Boarder control and home.

Lasting impressions: – The real honour of representing Australia in the world competitions; the friendship and acceptance of the Veterans Team; the cohesive nature of our team and their traveling spouses (particularly with scoring duties, and luncheon supplies); support and continuous encouragement from family, friends and club mates; meeting old friends; making new ones; camaraderie, particularly with the Great Britain Veterans who were at the same hotel; being ragged about the cricket results; the helpful volunteers and staff of the NRA; daylight from 4:30am until 8pm; hot and humid conditions; massive rain storms; willingness of the Palma Team Members to assist us, particularly during our team events; seagulls by the hundreds so far from the sea; and last and not least – our green golf cart, decked out with Australian flags, ever ready to transport team members and their gear to and from the range, ably driven by Mark and Mike, together with several team members, and of course John Schafferius.

 Uncle Mike

The Arn Hammond Memorial Shield is an inter-club championship held on the Hornsby Rifle Range between each of the Clubs of the NSDRA. It is held over the shooting year, on each range from 300m to 800m. Unfortunately this year the 500m shoot was cancelled due to rain, so the competition was decided over the remaining 5 ranges.

Team No1, left-to-right: R. Trodden, P. Hodder, D. Kazakov, M. Buchanan, T. Walter., S. Tofler., I. Hutchinson

The Roseville No 1 team put in a commanding performance by achieving on the highest score at each individual range. The final result was a convincing 34 point lead over the 2^nd placed Hornsby Team, with Manly coming in third only a further 23 points behind. The solid core of this winning team was Mark Buchanan with an average of 69.5 out of a possible 70, Phill Hodder with an average of 69, and Dmitri Kazakov with an average of 69.2. Mark’s average centre count was 9 out of a possible 14; a very commendable result.

The Roseville No 2 team needs to be congratulated also. They are often left with whoever is available and have a constant re-shuffle of members. In spite of this they came in 4^th place out of the seven teams, with some outstanding performances. At 700m they came in 2^nd place to the No 1 team and helped stamp Roseville’s superiority on the District. They also provided constant pressure as to who was going to be included in the No 1 team; a very healthy situation for our club.

On the Handicap results, Manly secured first place, Roseville No1 second place, and North Sydney third place. Roseville No2 was in 5^th place.

The AJ Leighton Memorial Shield used to be shot separately and from memory, on a Sunday. In recent years it was decided to score in concurrently with the same shoots as the Arn Hammond, but only over 600m, 700m and 800m. With Roseville No 1 winning each range, they obviously took first place in this competition also on 1036.96, Hornsby No 1 was second on 1007.75 and Manly third on 1000.78. Roseville No2 again came in 4^th place, at 990.68.

Roseville’s F Class Team did extremely well  again this year beating Hornsby by a margin of over 30 points, 1593.086 to their 1561.080! They had a steady performance all year and showed again what a strong F Class membership Roseville has. The main core of the team was Graham, Ian, Michael, Bob and Gary.

I would like to note here a special thank you to those who have put their hands up for these teams events as Captains, entrusted with organising the rabble, and as Coaches to be used as the fall guys. You know who you are, and your efforts are very much appreciated.

Text Mr T.

Approximately 50 shooters took part in the 93rd Mudgee DRA Open Prize Meeting over the Easter long weekend on Saturday 4^th and 5^th April 2015. Roseville was well represented with Mark Buchanan, Phill Hodder, Tim Walter, Gary Faulkner and Michael Cuda making the pilgrimage west to compete in this annual event. Tim’s son Ian Walter also joined the group to provide moral support and enjoy all the fruits that Mudgee had to offer.

Saturday morning saw storm clouds descend over the range with persistent rain plaguing shooters throughout the day.

Despite the inclement weather, Mark started strongly in A Grade TR on Saturday at 500yds scoring 49.6, followed by 50.6 to take 3^rd position in the second match and finishing with 49.4. Day two at 600 yds saw Mark score highly with 50.4, 50.6 and another 50.6 to win the last match and take second position for the day’s aggregate. Mark finished the weekend in second position for the grand aggregate with a total 298.32, only narrowly missing 1st position to West Wallsend’s Duncan Davies who scored 300.40. Mark also took out 1st place for the Veteran’s category.

Phill started strongly in A Grade TR on Saturday at 500yds, only dropping 2 points, with 148.13 in the daily aggregate, followed by 144.12 for Sunday’s aggregate at 600 yds and finishing overall with 292.23.

Also in A Grade TR, Tim shot 141.9 in the aggregate on Saturday and 141.8 on Sunday, however towards the end of the weekend he discovered that his rifle had a loose butt plate that had been causing problems with his hold. Tim finished the weekend 282.17.

In F Standard A Grade, Michael took third place in the second 500yd match on Saturday with 60.5, however Orange Rifle Club’s Brett Bond took first place with 60.8 and dominated most of the matches throughout the weekend. Day two at 600 yds saw both Gary and Michael break Brett Bond’s winning streak – tricky winds during the last match on Sunday caused havoc with most F-Class shooters, however Gary took first place with 58.6 and Michael third place with 58.2. Michael scored 59.4 and 60.4 in the earlier matches on day two and took 1^st place for Sunday’s aggregate with 177.10, narrowly beating Brett Bond with 175.18. Michael finished the weekend in 3^rd place in the grand aggregate with a total of 348.17 closely followed by Gary in 4^th position with 344.22. The grand aggregate winner was Brett Bond who scored 353.38

Three Rosevillians traveled overseas to the Apple Isle and competed in the 118th Tasmanian Queen’s at Campbell Town 65km’s south east of Launceston. Tim and Phill traveled by air and Mark by land and water to compete in this event at the windswept sheep grazing range. We stayed in the small town of Ross only 9km’s away which has one main street, a Post Office, 3 bakeries and various other small tourist shops and an information center.

The conditions for the Davis Lead Up Shoot were not considered favorable with high, very changeable cold winds from the right which changed direction and strength very quickly.

There were some initial high scores but that soon stopped and by the end of the second day, where if you got a low to mid 40 you were doing OK!!

Mark gained 3^rd place for 600y with a 47.3 and another 3^rd at 700y with a 47.0. Phill managed 1^st place at that 700y with a 49.4! Mark finished Day 1 of the Davis in 3^rd place 188.9, Phill 9^th 180.11 and Tim 16^th 171.8.

Day 2 saw Mark again get a 3^rd place with his 42.0 at 1000y, the days agg saw Phill in 4^th place on 82.4, Mark 9^th with his 79.3 and Tim 15^th on 75.2. The Roseville placings for the Davis Agg were Mark 4^th 267.12, Phill 7^th 262.15 and Tim a valiant 16^th 246.10.

Dawn broke on the first day of the Queen’s with a calm and clear day, the wind had dropped and was more consistent, care still was needed to watch for inevitable drops offs and changes of direction. Owing to the calmer conditions the 50’s flowed with ease with every range of day 1 and most of day 2. Mark shot very well at the second 500y with a 50.9 for 1^st place! The day 1 agg saw Mark in 4^th with 195.20, Phill 10^th with 192.16 and Tim 16^th on 188.12.

Day 2 of the Queen’s started with equally pleasant weather which improved during the day, there were times where it was nearly getting hot in the sun!! Phill started off well in the first 700y with a 50.6 for 1^st place, Mark gained 3^rd place for the 1^st 800y with his 49.4 and Phill 4^th with 48.5. The end of Day 2 saw Phill in 7^th on 189.14, Mark 12^th on 188.12 and Tim 15^th 184.11.

There was some light drizzle early in the morning of the last day which cleared up in time when shooting commenced. Temperatures were higher again and the wind eased. Mark was again 3^rd with a 50.4 at 900y and 3^rd at 1000y shooting a 48.2, and Phill 4^th on 50.3 at 900y. Mark tied for 1^st place in the final days agg with Grahame Berman with 98.6! Phill got 5^th for the agg on 97.7 and Tim finished 17^th on 93.3.

Now to the Queen’s final placings. Mark finished a very credible 4^th place on 481.38 behind the eventual winner and local shooter and CRO Mark Walters who shot an excellent score of 487.40, Phill 6^th on 478.37 and Tim 16^th on 465.26. The Grand results for the Roseville shooters were Mark 3^rd with 748.50, Phill 6^th on 740.52 and Tim 17^th with his 711.36

Full results can be found at http://www.nraa.com.au/tasmanian-queens-prize-meeting-results/

The long weekend saw 6 Roseville members contest this year’s Festival Of Sydney OPM at Malabar, Mark Buchanan, Mike Hodder, Gary Faulkner, Fernando Gregorio and Rob Trodden for both days and Phill Hodder for day 2.

Rob’s Grand prizes

The weather stayed fine for the whole comp but high temps made shooting less than relaxing.
With over 100 shooters, there was plenty of competition in all grades and although winds remained reasonably constant there were still a few tricky patches to contend with. Mark started well with a 50.9 and 50.6 taking out the first range in A grade. Mike, Fernando and Rob all had shaky starts however Rob posted a 50.6 to win the 2^nd range in B grade.

Most of the team found some form on day 2 at 7 & 800 with 15 shot matches at each and a second 10 shot at 800.

Rob and Mike shot well in B grade with Rob winning all 3 ranges with 73.10 @ 700 and 49.5 & 74.7 at 800 with Mike taking 3^rd at the first range and 2^nd at the 1^st 800 with 73.4 and 49.2

Gary’s Badge

Mark again started well on day 2 with 75.12, 48.4 and 74.9 and Phill who joined us for day 2 continued his new found form with an excellent 75.13, 50.8 & 74.7 taking 3^rd in the 1^st range and 1^st in the 2^nd range in A grade.

Phill’s Badge

Gary, our only F class entrant, shot well both days but dropped a couple of points on day 2 finishing with a 2^nd, 3^rd and 3^rd in the grand after a shoot off.

All in all it was a great weekend with Roseville again able to hold our heads high winning 6 ranges, 2 2^nd and 2 3^rd , 2 daily aggs, and 1 Grand !

WELL DONE TEAM! And congratulations to Rob, who after winning the event in C grade last year backed up this year to win both days and the Grand in B grade.

Full results can be found here

Text Rob Trodden