After a week of rain, Saturday presented clear and sunny, and with the sun now a month into the southern hemisphere it lit up the face of the targets for the first time in six months giving shooters a much clearer sighting picture.

The downside was that a difficult mirage was induced, varying rapidly back and forth from very minor to one that made the aiming disk of the target shimmer almost out of visibility, and complicating conditions for shooters in a Double 300m match.

In the first 300 metre match Steve Cruickshank, just back after a lengthy absence and with a still healing wrist injury, opened the Full-bore Target Rifle (308 cal., non-telescopic, manually-supported) competition with a not-unexpected string of 2- and 3-pointers.

But then, to his credit, he found the centre with a 4-point ‘inner’ and two 5-point bulls-eyes, before again slipping outside the centre to finish with two more inners and two 2-point ‘flyers’ to close with a very reasonable score of 34 points (out of 50, this 10-shot match) with no centre-bulls.

Veteran Ron Schild followed, and confirming the difficulty of the mirage surprisingly found the centre just once amid a string of 3- and 4-pointers to lift the challenge for following shooters by only 4 points to 38/0.

Mal McKellar was next down and he too struggled with the mirage, and though he pulled four 5-point bulls-eyes towards the end, three early 3-point ‘birds’ saw him also set a surprisingly low 41/0.

Neil Attwood then took the mound and shot very consistently with a string of six 4-pointers followed by two bulls-eyes. Unfortunately his second last shot was a 2-point ‘flyer’, but he closed dramatically with his final shot, pulling a 5-point ‘super-V’ (the very centre of the centre-bull) to match McKellar on points and move into the lead on count-back with a score of 41/1.

Rob Wearne was last down, and bracketed the centre with his two sighting shots. Then, despite the difficult mirage, opened strongly with a bulls-eye and four centre-bulls (including two super-Vs); a wayward 3-point ‘bird’ and two 4-point ‘inners’ accompanied another bull and centre-bull to finish, giving him a dominant and well earned 46/5 to take the match win.

In the second 300 metre match Cruickshank again opened for Full-bore, and though struggling with both the mirage and his injury, managed another creditable score of 37/0 (out of 55, this 11-shot match).

Schild followed, and once more found the centre just once amid another string of 3- and 4-pointers, to close with 42/0.

McKellar, with some adjustments to try to accommodate the sun-lit target centre, began with a centre-bull first-sighter, and managed a bulls-eye and three more centre-bulls before finishing with a disappointing string of 4-pointers to post a much-improved 49/4 to move into the lead.

Attwood went down and again shot very consistently, opening with a bull and a centre-bull, but then he too slipped into a long string of 4-pointers broken only by an inexplicable 2-point ‘flyer’, to close with a 44/1.

Wearne once more was last down, and confidently cut his 5- and 4-point sighting shots, but then opened with another 4-pointer. However between there and his eleventh pull, eight of the ten were 5-point bulls-eyes or centre-bulls (including one ‘super-V’), and he shut out the opposition with an impressive 52/4 to strangle the match.

With great seeing but a very challenging mirage, the Full-bore Target Rifle Double 300m Match was taken in dominant style by Rob Wearne with 98 points (out of 105) and 9 centre-bulls over Mal McKellar 2nd with 90/4, and Neil Attwood 3rd with 85/2.

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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