by Steve Cruickshank

Saturday saw another beautiful day in paradise with a very vigorous mirage at the range with a handful of shooters turn up to hone their skills in the lead up to the yearly prize shoot to be held next month.

First on the 600 metre mound was Neil Attwood shooting in the Full Bore (manually supported 308 calibre with peep sights) match. Neil opened with a 4 and a 5, he cut the 4 and then went on to shoot a mixed bag of 3’s, 4’s and 5’s with one V bull( dead centre) to score 42/1.

Ron Schild was back on the range after having quite a long spell off from shooting due to his heart surgery. Ron opened with a 3 and a 2, he cut them both, then had a few more shots only to retire early as he couldn’t hold his rifle steady enough to find the centre target.

Mal McKellar was next on the mound in the Full bore comp. Mal opened with two V bulls as sighters which he kept and then went on to shoot five 4’s and five V bulls to post a final score of 45/5.

Neil Attwood was back for his second 600 metre match. Neil opened with a 3 and a 4, he cut them both and then shot a fair few low numbers to post a second round score of 36/1 out of 55.

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Mal McKellar was back for his second range shoot. Mal opened with a 5 and a 4 which he chose to cut then went on to shoot a very mixed bag of shots due to a vigorous and vicious mirage.

The mirage was causing the target to appear 30 centimetres above where it actually was, thus causing the shooter to hit high and score low. Mal posted a second score of 48/3 out of 55.

Anthony Capogrecko shot very well for a first time shooter, hitting the target 4 times out of 5.

In summary, a good day was had by all with Mal McKellar taking first place with a combined score of 93/8 and then Neil Attwood in second place with a score of 78/2. Ron Schild failed to post a score.

The Mossman Rifle Club would like to thank the markers and the scorers for their input and would also like to invite anyone who would be interested in having a go at this challenging sport to come along to the club which is situated half way between Port Douglas and Mossman on the Captain Cook Highway every Saturday at 1pm.