Saturday was clear and very hot, with a sun-illuminated target and a persistent and vigorous mirage to make life difficult for Target Rifle shooters in a Double 600m Competition.

In the first 600 metre match Ron Schild opened the Full-bore Target Rifle (308 cal., peep-sight, manually-supported) competition with a 4-point ‘inner’ and a 5-point bullseye as his two sighting shots, which, given the conditions, he decided to keep as his first-to-count.

The difficult conditions saw just two more 5-pointers - a bullseye and a centre-bull, in his remaining eight shots, amid a string of 4-point ‘inners’ and two 3-point ‘birds’, and he closed with 41 points (out of 50 this 10-shot match) with 1 centre-bull for the match.

Mal McKellar followed, and opened with three 5-point super-centres and two 5-point bullseyes in his first six shots. However, the mirage worked its confusion on him also and he managed just one more 5-pointer amid three 4-pointers, including two to finish, to take the win with a less-than-stellar 46/4.

In the second 600 metre match Schild again opened for Full-bore Target Rifle, and though he lifted his percentage marginally despite the persistence of the mirage, he found the centre just twice in a string of 4-point ‘inners’ to post a score of 45 points (out of 55, this 11-shot match) with one centre-bull.

McKellar was last down and he too lifted his consistency marginally, though super-centres were harder to find, and he dropped just three points on his way to a second match win with a grudgingly reasonable 52/3.

Several visitors tried their hand at a shoot and went away happy and excited.

In summary, in difficult conditions, the Full-bore Target Rifle Double 600m Competition was taken by Mal McKellar with 98 points (out of 105) and 7 centre-bulls, over Ron Schild 2nd with 86/2.

The club meets every Saturday at 1:00pm at the Mossman & District Rifle Club Range mid-way between Port and Mossman. Visitors are always welcome.