Calm, clear, and cool conditions with consistently-shadowed targets typical for this time of year provided perfect conditions for Target Rifle shooters in a Double 500m Competition.

In the first 500 metre match Neil Attwood opened the Full-bore Target Rifle (308 cal., peep-sight, manually-supported) competition by accepting the second of his two sighting-shots, a 5-point bullseye, and then proceeded to pull four more 5-pointers mid-match, including two “as-good-as-you-can-get” super-centres, before falling away towards the end with a string of 4-point ‘inners.’

He managed to post a none-the-less challenging and competitive 45 points (out of 50, this 10-shot match) with 2 super-centres, to throw down the gauntlet for following shooters.

Mal McKellar was last down for Full-bore and, as with Attwood, also accepted a 5-point second sighter before pulling four more 5-pointers for the match.

However, too many 4-point ‘inners’ mid-match saw him tie Attwood with a 45/2 but hand the match win to Attwood on count-back with Attwood’s two super-centres beating out two centre-bulls.

Norbert Schmidt opened the F-Class Standard Target Rifle (308 cal., telescoped and bipod-supported) category with a 6-point super-centre, and went on to pull an exceptional seven more super-centres in his next nine shots, dropping just two points for the range to close with what proved to be an unbeatable 58 points (out of 60 this 10-shot match, for F-Class) with 8 super-centres.

Cairns visitors Bruno Gabutto, and David Adams with sons Ben and Miller, challenged Schmidt with their telescoped 25/06 and 270 calibre field-class weapons, and though they were consistent, David Adams was the only one to come close to Schmidt’s score with a very creditable 52/0.

In the second 500 metre match Attwood again opened for Full-bore Target Rifle, showing promise with a starting 5-point centre-bull, but it was all downhill from there, with a string of seven 4-point ‘inners’ dancing around the centre and punctuated by a confidence-shaking 3-point ‘bird’, dropping his percentage and seeing him close with a disappointing 45 points (out of 55, this 11-shot match) with just 1 centre-bull.

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McKellar was again last down and he found a sweet-spot, pulling eight straight 5-pointers from the opening ‘sighter’, including two centre-bulls and two super-centres, and closing with another bullseye.

Two lazy 4-pointers on his ninth and tenth shots diminished an otherwise first-class shoot, but he closed with an unbeatable 53/4 to take the second match win.

Schmidt’s second range for F-Class Target Rifle saw him fade marginally from his first-match form, pulling just three super-centres, but in again dropping just two points he lifted his percentage slightly to close with another excellent match-winning score of 64 points (out of 66 this 11-shot match, for F-Class) with 3 super-centres. There was no competition from other shooters.

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

We would like to take this opportunity to thank last week’s working bee participants for an excellent job, and to advise that the Club’s Annual Prize Shoot will be held on Saturday 26 May commencing at 930am.

We expect around 40 nominations from around the region and from interstate. Interested observers are welcome. We also wish Ron Schild well for his heart surgery in Brisbane this coming week.

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