Roseville Rifle Club Australia

The National F-Class Teams competition was held directly after the ACT Kings event. Three disciplines (FTR, F-Standard, F-Open) covered distances of 700m, 800m x 2 and 900m x 2 over 3 days. This year was a record number of entering teams – with the “usuals” (Vic/NSW/Qld) supplemented by NQRA, WA, SA, ACT, TAS. So the only state not accounted for was NT. Not all states entered teams in all three disciplines. The winner for the event was F-class shooting overall as it showed the strength and depth of the field across the country.

Roseville had 3 competitors (Allan Patrick, Eva Patrick and Janet Beale) selected for the NSW State Team – which shows the quality of our Roseville shooters. But alas, the Patricks had unavoidable grand-parent duties and had to miss the event. They were missed but were very much in the team for the year. There were several others from Hornsby Rifle range and some ex-Roseville members also in the NSW teams.

Team shooting is great – as a shooter you don’t have to read the wind, just cope with the mirage….and there was plenty of mirage. But this competition was as much about strategy as it was about shooting. For example:

• shoot on left-to-right mirage or right-to-left mirage?
• the 20 shot match in F-Standard was shot in the afternoon over 2.5 hours. There was full sun and heavy mirage. Queensland and SA waited it out and shot at the end of the time allotment when there was less mirage and their results were head and shoulders above the rest.
• At 800m, better results were achieved if you shot when you waited for the occasional cloud cover (ie less mirage).
• At 700m early in the day – get all shooters through FAST before the mirage kicks up.

Strategy, teamwork and communication between shooter and coach!

So at the end of the 3 days, the winners were:

Well done all.

Janet Beale