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[b]Bathurst Rifle Club Inc 19 July 2014 J Sibera Trophy, 500yards[/b]

The cold miserable weather and the lure of warmer climates again kept numbers down at the second of three stages of the J Sibera trophy over 500 yards on Saturday. The conditions although freezing did little to detract from the scoring as the A grade contingent demonstrated.

The day started in bright sunshine but the sun did little to dull the bitterly cold breeze which wafted across the range at various stages of the afternoon. Graeme Bright led out with a 50.08 possible, his best stage for several weeks. This was followed by Steve Williams with a 50.06, and Gordon Shepherd, after fifteen weeks off with a serious leg injury, almost made the perfect return dropping just one point for a 49.06. 

The second stage, shot in increasingly overcast skies and rapidly decreasing temperature, did not deter the experienced shooters as first Bright 49.03 and then Williams 49.04 took to the mound. However the second stage belonged to Shepherd, shooting as though he had not missed a week, laid down a 50.04 possible. The Cock of the Walk was decided on centre bulls eyes with the three contenders all scoring 99’s with Bright’s eleven centre bulls eyes just pipping Shepherd and Williams on 99.10 apiece.

B grade was a not nearly as close with Dennis Lavelle more intent on trying out his new acquisition, an Omark .308, which required swapping of sights and other paraphernalia. His first stage 44.01 with the old rifle was well off his latest resurgent form but a much improved 47.02 with the new rifle was very encouraging. John Coghill won B grade with scores of 46.02 and 48.04 but the cold took its toll as there was no fluidity of movement in his trigger finger and he jerked several shots, fortunately however just avoiding the dreaded magpie three. 

Geoff Willis was the only F class competitor and he experienced an unusually wayward day dropping several points including an inner four, despite collecting ten super V’s. With the days getting longer and the weather likely to improve, attendances should pick up in coming weeks. 

The J Sibera trophy will conclude next week at the 600 yard mound  

Scores: G Bright TRA 99.11 (1 ½) 100 J Coghill TRB 94.06 (6) 100 G Shepherd TRA 99.10 (1/2) 99 ½ S Williams TRA 99.10 (1/2) 99 ½ D Lavelle TRB 91.03 (4 ¼) 95 ¼ G S Willis FSA 113.10 (1/4) 94 ½

[b]Bathurst Rifle Club Inc 12 July 2014 J Sibera Trophy, 300yards[/b]

Local competition has been virtually nonexistent of late with washouts and intra and interstate competitions sapping the attendance at the Bathurst range. However Steve Williams, attending the National Rifle Association of Australia (NRAA) Queens Prize Meeting in Queensland performed up to expectations winning badges in all the events he entered. 

As the only local competing in “The Nationals” Williams kept the Bathurst Rifle Club name on the board with badges in the lead up event the Presidents Cup (24th), the Queens Prize (16th), the Royal Kaltenberg Cup-1000 yards (12th), and the Grand Aggregate (15th).

The Champion of Champions weekend in Sydney was a bitter disappointment with the electronic targets constantly malfunctioning and the manual marking not up to standard. The Country versus City competition went ahead however with country winning both the target rifle and F-class matches. The Blue Mountains DRA representative Mark Bunt withdrew from the Champion of Champions after a serious target malfunction.

The first full day of local competition in three weeks saw shooting begin in blustery westerly winds and ending with the first drops of a rain squall. Williams was the best of a sluggish lot finishing in calmer conditions late in the day with a 49.07 for a days’ total of 95.10. Graeme Bright finished with 92.04 whilst in B grade Lavelle continued to challenge the A grade contingent whilst holding total sway over his B grade competitors with a 93.06. John Coghill and Ron Gibson again struggled, Gibson having to change his dirty eagle eye lens between stages.

In F-class Grahame Willis showed his liking for the 300 yard range dropping just one point in each of his two stages and proved too strong for Lyndhurst visitors Bruce Rowlands and Greg Emms although Rowlands ruined a target chopping a 2.5 cm hole out of the middle of the target with a run of six super centres in seven shots. 

    Ben Wright an experienced shooter at fly competitions tried F-class for the first time and performed exceptionally well with his well used, scoped .243 BSA hunting rifle.

Lavelle won last weeks’ C R Kelly Cup on the basis of 100% handicap points in the only round of three to be completed. Geoff Willis was second on 99 ½ points.

The second round of the J Sibera trophy will be at the 500 yard mound next week. 

Scores: G P Willis FSA 118.6 (1 ¼) 99 ½ J Coghill TRB 88.01 (10 ¼) 98 ¼ D Lavelle TRB 93.06 (4 ¼) 97 ¼ S Williams TRA 95.10 (2) 97 G Bright TRA 92.04 (3 ¾) 95 ¾ R Gibson TRB 83.05 (10) 93 G Emms FSA (Lynd) 116.4 B Rowlands FSA (Lynd) 113.9 B Wright 105.2

[b]Bathurst Rifle Club Inc 21 June 2014 C R Kelly Cup 700yards[/b]

 The first round of the C R Kelly Cup was poorly attended with some members at the National Queens Prize in Queensland and others taking a winters break overseas or in warmer climes.

However the weather could not have been kinder to those who chose to contest the Kelly Cup with brilliant sunshine and little or no breeze. The one drawback was a strong mirage which bounced about, regularly turning the full 180 degrees in an instant.

The mirage did not seem to affect Geoff Willis as it did all the other shooters and his telescope seemed to mask the rapid mirage changes. Willis kept his group within the V bull ring, managing to collect three super X bulls on the way to a 60.3 possible. Bruce Rowlands also using the scope dropped two points but his tight group resulted in a high X count 58.6 score.

Of the target rifle group Graeme Bright and Dennis Lavelle were beaten down by the rapid changes of direction and strength which the mirage produced under the bright sun, but they were not defeated. With scores of 46.02 and 45.01 they had the wood on John Coghill and Ron Gibson who could not take a trick, as they amassed outer twos, magpie threes and inner fours at will.

The F-class shooters came back to earth in the second stage but still managed some respectability with Willis notching a 57.2 and Rowlands 56.1.

 Bright picked up his accuracy a little, scoring a 48.01 which set a difficult target for Lavelle to chase. Shooting later in the day Lavelle left himself a huge task when he fired an inner four first shot, which required him to shoot clean for the remaining nine shots. A sequence of four bull’s eyes was followed with a V-bull, two bull’s eyes, finishing off with two V-bulls, to snatch the Cock of the Walk from Bright for a very unlikely win.

Coghill and Gibson had days they would rather forget, both producing scorecards which they will probably destroy as soon as they can get their hands on them.

The second round of the C R Kelly Cup will be at the 800 yard mound next week. 

Scores: D Lavelle TRB 94.04 (7 ¾) 100 G S Willis FSA 117.5 (2 ¼) 99 ½ G Bright TRA 94.03 (5) 99 J Coghill TRB 81.0 (12 ¾) 93 ¾ R Gibson TRB 79.01 (11 ½) 90 ½ B Rowlands FSA 114.7

[b]Bathurst Rifle Club Inc 14 June 2014 F A Wilde Trophy, 600yards[/b]

 Competitors at the final range of the F A Wilde trophy experienced almost the full gamut of weather conditions from bright and sunny to dark overcast, from rain squalls to blustery freezing wind, finally emerging with a mild dull winters afternoon.

The first stage was played out in conditions which started sunny with a whisper of right breeze and a mirage which played with shooters sanity, then turned to dull and rainy before returning to a light breeze with the tricky mirage, intervening when the breeze dropped.

The target rifle shooters were a little non-plussed and couldn’t come to terms with the quick changes, all achieving scorecards which looked more like a cricketers score with inner 4’s every second or third shot. Graeme Bright was the best of the group with 46.02, John Coghill next on 45.02 with Ron Gibson 44.02, just ahead of Dennis Lavelle on 44.0, there being only five centre bulls’ eyes in forty eight shots.

In the F-class group Grahame Willis was the standout in somewhat better conditions but Geoff Willis 57.4 and Jeff Eppleston 55.1 struggled as the weather churned. The conditions in the second stage turned it on for the F-class group as the temperature dropped 10 degrees and the wind picked up from the south west. Strangely enough the number of super V’s (X’s) increased as the wind maintained a mostly steady velocity. Eppleston didn’t raise a yelp as the Willis brothers went head to head with just the odd bulls eye five breaking up the X’s. Geoff Willis shot seven X’s in his 58 but it was not enough to topple Grahame who took the Cock of the Walk by a point after finishing with a 57.5.

Bright returned to the mound in vastly better conditions than the first stage rain squall he battled, as the sun came out and the breeze and mirage died away to a very readable state. Bright made the most of the conditions with a 50.03 possible to seal the COW before any other contestant had fired a shot. Lavelle made a play for the B grade with a 47.01 but Gibson started on fire and despite two late inners, a final shot bull’s eye grabbed the lead with a four centre bulls’ eye margin. Coghill had a disastrous 44.02 finish after encountering reload problems. 

Grahame Willis won the F A Wilde trophy by ¾ of a point over Bright.

The first of three rounds of the C R Kelly Cup commences next week at 700 yards. 

Scores: G Bright TRA 96.05 (3 ¾) 99 ¾ G P Willis FSA 116.8 (2 ¼) 98 1/2 G S Willis FSA 115.11 (2 ½) 98 D Lavelle TRB 91.01 (5 ¾) 96 ¾ R Gibson TRB 91.05 (5 ¼) 96 ¼ J Eppleston FSA 111.2 (4 ¼) 96 J Coghill TRB 89.03 (6 ¾) 95 ¾

[b]Bathurst Rifle Club Inc 7 June 2014 F A Wilde Trophy, 500yards[/b]

The weather was the talking point at the second round of the F A Wilde trophy on the 500 yard mound on Saturday. With hardly a breath of breeze, little or no mirage, and bright sunshine the conditions for target shooting were as near to perfect as could be hoped for.

However only Grahame Willis took full advantage and produced a shoot to match the days’ conditions. Shooting both early in the day and again late in the afternoon Willis shot high super bullseye (X) possibles putting 60 percent of his shots in the tiny 65 centimetre X-ring.

Willis’ feat was almost matched by his brother Geoff who just missed out on a double when he dropped a point midway through his first stage and from that point on he was always playing catch up. A 60.5 second stage possible was in vain as Grahame had his measure, completing his double with a big 60.7 final stage. The brothers are in a trio of F-class shooters, which includes Club Champion Jeff Eppleston, who swap the Cock of the Walk honours week in, week out, in a very even competition.

Aaron Smith and Clint Mills shared their Remington target rifle with varying degrees of success. Smith did best of the pair with a 108.4 and both improved as the day wore on. 

In target rifle Graeme Bright was the only A-grade shooter and he put the B-grade group in their place. Brights’ 48.06 was pipped by John Coghills’ 49.04 in the first stage but he firmly reasserted control with a 50.05 second stage. 

The B-grade COW was a closely fought out affair with Coghills’ early lead cut back significantly after he muffed his second stage, compiling just 45.02. Ron Gibson was the first to challenge but he fell one point and three centres short leaving Dennis Lavelle the difficult task of overcoming his poor first stage 45.03. Needing a possible or at least a high centre count 49 Lavelle dropped a point mid stage and could not quite slot the centres needed to topple Coghill, falling short of a win by just one centre bulls eye.

The third and final round of the F A Wilde trophy will be at the 600 yard mound next Saturday.  

Scores:
G P Willis FSA 120.12 (1/2) 100 A Smith FSB 108.4 (15) 100 R Gibson TRB 93.03 (7 ½) 100 G S Willis FSA 119.6 (1/4) 99 ½ G Bright TRA 98.11 (1 ¼) 99 ¼ J Coghill TRB 94.06 (4 ½) 98 ½ D Lavelle TRB 94.05 (4 ¼) 98 ¼ C Mills FSB 93.2 (19 ¼) 93 ½: