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Bathurst Rifle Club 11th July The C R Kelly 900 yards

An almost balmy winter day presented some good shooting conditions for the last 900-yard range of the C R Kelly cup.

There were however, a number of missed opportunities, as shooters could not quite master the small but subtle variations throughout the afternoon.

John Coghill lost a rare opportunity to top the day, missing vital wind shifts in both stages and then compounding the situation by disbelieving the wind change in the second. Stages of 49.03 and 48.02 couldn't hold out Graeme Bright who, despite dropping two points in his first stage, came home strongly with a second stage 50.02 possible to take out the Cock of the Walk. 

Gordon Shepherd fell foul of the breeze in both stages, missing either side of the bulls' eye, for third on the day with a pair of 48's, which included 7 centre bulls' eyes. Dennis Lavelles' A-grade debut started slowly with a 47.01 and his second stage 48.05 was book ended with inner fours despite a run of 5 consecutive centre bulls' eyes. 

In B grade Ron Gibson began well, shooting 48.02, but his second stage 46.02 late in the day suffered in the rapidly fading light, a magpie three almost the killer blow. Jan Sibera was not on the ball early, shooting 44.02, and a 47.03 second dig was not enough to trouble Gibson for the B grade COW. Keith Redding did not enjoy a good days shooting although his collection of inner fours, magpie threes, and even a couple of outer twos was a talking point on the mound.         

Geoff Willis was the sole F class shooter and he chose to try out various loads in the ammunition for his .223 rifle. With a chronograph, Willis plotted his projectile speeds and his scorecard showed up the huge variation in accuracy with the various loads. Scores of 52/60 and 49/60 were way below par.       

 Steve Williams represented the Blue Mountains District Rifle Association at the NSW State titles in Sydney last weekend and shot brilliantly. Williams shot stages of 50.07 at 300 metres, 49.07 at 600 metres, 50.07 at 700 metres and 48.06 at 900 metres A spike in the weather conditions at the start of the last range caught out most shooters and despite having the highest centre bulls eye count Williams fell one point short of the State Champion of Champions title, eventually finishing 4th behind winner Jim Jeffries of Lyndhurst. 

On the Sunday the City versus Country match was held with the Bathurst pair of Williams and Bright helping the Country team to a win over City by 12 shots.    

Next Saturday is a lay day at the Bathurst range, shooting to resume on the 25th July with the J Sibera Trophy at the 300 yards mound.    

Scores:

J Coghill 97.05 (3 ½) 100

K Redding 90.05 (19 ¼) 99 ¼

G Bright 98.05 (3/4) 98 ¾

R Gibson 94.04 (4 ½) 98 ½

J Sibera 91.05 (7 ¼) 98 ¼

D Lavelle 95.06 (2 ¾) 97 ¾

G Shepherd 96.07 (1) 97

G Willis 101 (13 ¾) 95 ½