Saturday was clear and calm, but with a moderate mirage and well-shadowed targets to challenge Target Rifle shooters in a Double 400m Competition.

In the first 400 metre match Neil Attwood opened the Full-bore Target Rifle (308 cal., peep-sight, manually-supported) competition with a 4-point ‘inner’.

He then found the centre and followed with six 5-point bulls-eyes, including a centre-bull, interspersed with another ‘inner’, a 3-point ‘bird’, and disappointingly a 2-point ‘outer’ as his penultimate shot, to post a creditable 43 points (out of 50 this 10-shot match) with 1 centre-bull.

Ron Schild was next down, and recognising the variability of the mirage, he kept his two 4-point sighters. He then pulled a consistent string of 4- and 5-pointers, including one centre-bull, to edge Attwood by one point with a fine 44/1 to take the lead.

Mal McKellar was last down and struggled with the mirage, pulling two 4-point ‘inners’ to start, followed by a bullseye, a 3-point ‘bird’ and another 4-point ‘inner’.

He finally settled down to close strongly with three centre-bulls, including a ‘super-centre’, and two bulls-eyes, slipping into the lead by just one point over Schild, and taking the match win with a 45/3 in a closely fought contest.

Norbert Schmidt opened the F-Class Standard Target Rifle (308 cal., telescoped and bipod-supported) category with a 6-point centre-bullseye followed by a surprising 4-point ‘inner’, but he then went on to pull six more centres, including five super-centres.

Unfortunately he dropped three points in his last three pulls to close with a reasonable 55 points (out of 60 this 10-shot match, for F-Class) with 5 super-centres.

Cheap, easy, and long lasting - check out The Newsport Classifieds

Robert “Gus” Gusmeroli put his new rifle on the mound for zeroing, and once he found the target he shot an up-and-down match including a super-centre bullseye, a centre-bullseye and two bulls-eyes, to close with a creditable 45/1 for his first match, handing the match win to Schmidt.

In the second 400 metre match Attwood again opened for Full-bore Target Rifle but could not find the consistency of his first match and dropped his percentage closing with a disappointing 42 points (out of 55, this 11-shot match) with one centre-bull.

Schild again followed and was keenly aware that with the first match place-getters separated by just one point each, he was in with more than a reasonable chance for both the second match and the aggregate wins.

Surprisingly, he found the centre just once in his eleven pulls, and as with Attwood, dropped his percentage and posted a disappointing 41/0 for the match.

Once more McKellar was last down, and accepting his centre-bull second-sighter as his first-to-count, he went on to pull nine more bulls-eyes, including two centre-bulls and two super-centres, dropping just one point to post an excellent match-winning 54/5.

Schmidt’s second range for F-Class Target Rifle saw him fade marginally from his first-match form, pulling just two super-centres, but he found the ‘inner’ ring just once in a more consistent match to close with another match-winning score of 60 points (out of 66 this 11-shot match, for F-Class) with 2 super-centres.

Gus Gusmeroli was improving his form and lifted his second match percentage from 75 to 81%, posting another creditable score of 53/1, but was no match for Schmidt.

So, in mirage-effected conditions, the Full-bore Target Rifle Double 400m Competition was taken by Mal McKellar with 99 points (out of 105) and 8 centre-bulls over Neil Attwood second with 85/2, counting out Ron Schild on centre-bulls third with 85/1.

F-Class Target Rifle was taken by Norbert Schmidt with 115 points (out of 126) and 7 super-centres, over an improving Gus Gusmeroli second on 98/2.

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