Saturday presented hot, humid, and calm, with well-illuminated targets and a mild mirage providing excellent conditions for shooters in a Double 700m Match.

In the first 700 metre match Neil Attwood opened the Full-bore Target Rifle (308 cal., non-telescopic, manually-supported) competition and quickly found two consecutive 5-point centre-bulls.

Unfortunately, though he found one more bulls-eye, he fell away with an up-and-down string of 2-, 3- and 4-pointers due to a loosening rear sight that made consistency impossible, and closed with an, at the time, perplexing score of 35 points (out of 50, this 10-shot match) with two centre-bulls.

Rob Wearne followed, and though the mirage did make its presence felt to all shooters, especially due to passing clouds that shadowed the targets, he found the conditions to his liking, opening with two bulls-eyes and closing with another five, including one centre-bull.

Unfortunately he two dropped shots, a 3- and a 4-pointer, impacted upon an otherwise fine effort with a score of 47/1 to set the standard for following shooters.

Mal McKellar was next down, and as with previous shooters opened with two 5-pointers – a bull and a centre-bull; again, as for others, a dropped shot upset the momentum.

However he quickly recovered to pull a mix of six more bulls and centre-bulls, before dropping in another 4-pointer on his final pull, to edge Wearne for the lead with a score of 48/3.

Veteran Ron Schild was last down, and, showing a surprising lack of confidence, accepted his first 4-point ‘sighter’ as his first-to-count.

He then pulled seven 5-pointers including five straight to finish, broken mid-match by a pair of mirage-induced 3- and 4-pointers, and slipped into third place behind Wearne by just one point handing the first match win to McKellar.

Norbert Schmidt opened the F-Class Standard (308 cal., telescoped and bipod-supported) category in impressive style with five straight ‘super’ centre-bulls (the very centre of the centre), but then dropped four points in his final five pulls to close with a disappointing 56 points (out of 60 this 10-shot match, for F-Class) with 5 centres.

In the second 700 metre match Wearne opened for Full-bore (Attwood having withdrawn with his mechanical problems), again with a centre-bull and a bull. But then two 4-point ‘inners’ and an up-and-down series of bulls, centres and inners ate away at his chances, and he closed with a disappointing, for him, 51 points (out of 55, this 11-shot match) with 3 centre-bulls.

Schild followed, but could not find the strong finishing-form of his first match and frustratingly opened with four 4-pointers interspersed with two 5-point centre-bulls.

He settled towards the end, but dropped in another ‘inner’ with his last pull, to close with a respectable 50/3, again just one point behind Wearne.

McKellar was last down and was bent on both a match and a competition win for a change. He opened with a string of four centre-bulls and two bulls-eyes, and closed with another two centres and a bull, but a surprise 3-point ‘bird’ mid-match (was it the mirage?) and a frustrated 4-pointer shortly thereafter saw the match tighten considerably.

Nonetheless, McKellar went on to take the second match win by just one point, with a reasonable 52/6. Schmidt’s second range for F-Class saw him lose his impressive earlier form but improve his consistency and he dropped just two points to close with a very respectable 64 points (out of 66 this 11-shot match, for F-Class) and 1 centre-bull to take the F-Class match win.

The Full-bore Target Rifle Double 700m Match was taken by Mal McKellar with 100 points (out of 105) and 9 centre-bulls, over Wearne second on 98/4, and Schild third with 96/4.

F-Class was taken by Norbert Schmidt with 120 points (out of 126) and 6 centres.

The Club meets every Saturday at 1pm at the Mossman & District Rifle Club Range mid-way between Port and Mossman. Visitors are always welcome. 

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