by Malcolm McKellar

Saturday brought hot, glary conditions with a vicious mirage and lightly-illuminated targets, making for difficult conditions for shooters in a Double 600m match.

In the first 600 metre match Neil Attwood opened the Full-bore Target Rifle (308 cal., non-telescopic, manually-supported) competition with a string of 4-point ‘inners’ just outside the centre circle, but then found three 5-point bulls-eyes before again slipping outside the centre to close with a respectable score of 42 points (out of 50, this 10-shot match) with no centre-bulls.

Veteran Ron Schild followed, shooting very competitively now with a new barrel in place, and opened strongly with two 5-point centre-bulls and two 5-point bulls-eyes (the centre-bulls being used to separate ties on a count-back) before losing his way towards the end with a wayward 2-point ‘outer’ and a string of three 3-point ‘birds’ to finish with a disappointing score of 39 with 2 centres.

This result reflected both the difficulty of finding the centre with the glare of the background sky behind the targets and the variability of the strong mirage swapping from left-to-right and right-to-left across the targets without warning.

Young visitor, Liam Stanborough, from the NSW Central Coast (with his father Carl manning the targets) was next down, and opened in impressive fashion with a 4-point ‘inner’ followed by a 5-point centre-bull on his sighting shots, but then the difficulty of the conditions and the weight of the rifle in a borrowed shooting jacket and sling took its toll.

He shot an up-and-down round, which included another bulls-eye, to finish with a very respectable, given the circumstances, 29/1.

Mal McKellar was last down and was in the centre of the target from the outset, opening with a string of six straight centre-bulls, but then he too suffered from the glare and the mirage dropping in three 4-pointers towards the finish to close with a match-winning but, for him, disappointing 47 points with 6 centres.

In the second 600 metre match Attwood again opened for Full-bore, and pulled a string of intermingled 3- and 4-pointers before settling to close with two 5-point bulls-eyes in his last three shots, and a score of 43 points (out of 55, this 11-shot match) but still no centre-bulls.

Stanborough followed, again struggling with the conditions and the borrowed setup, but shot credibly under the circumstances to post a 15/0.

McKellar was next down, but an early wayward 3-point ‘bird’ was a major set-back, and though he found the centre on five occasions thereafter a string of four 4-pointers at the end saw him collapse under the conditions with just 48 points with 2 centres, leaving the door wide open for Schild.

Ron Schild saw the opportunity and his experience came to the fore, opening with two 5-point bulls-eyes. The three 4-pointers that followed, however, saw the opportunity start to slip away. He regained his composure, pulled his hat brim down low over his face to ward off the terrible glare from the smoky sky, and dropped just one point in his final six pulls to take a commanding and worthy match-win with 51 points and 1 centre.

In summary, under challenging conditions, the Full-bore Target Rifle Double 600m Match was taken by Mal McKellar with 95 points (out of 105) and 8 centre-bulls over Ron Schild 2nd on 90/3, and Neil Attwood 3rd with 85/0.

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

Please note however that the Range will be closed next Saturday 8 October as shooters will be attending the Annual Prize Shoots at Ravenshoe (Saturday) and Herberton (Sunday). We will be back in action at Mossman on Saturday 15 October.