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Bathurst Rifle Club Inc 18th June 2016 C R Kelly Cup, 700yards

            The exodus of shooters to warmer climates continued on Saturday with fishing and Northern travel the main excuses for their failure to attend. The rain which had been falling over the past two days held off for the afternoon but the dark clouds hung around all day and blotted out the mirage as well as severely affecting sighting, particularly later in the day.

           The light breeze which drifted in from the west-northwest fiddled around between the two hundred yard mound and the target but was more consistent between the three hundred yard mound and the firing point. No doubt the large earth mounds on the SSAA shooting range had a turbulent effect on the wind.

           John Coghill, as has been his recent form started well but fell away dropping four points late in his stage partly due to the fiddly breeze. Dennis Lavelle and Ron Gibson fared better but it was Gordon Shepherd who showed the way with a fine 50.06 possible. Shepherd who used to be the master of the “birds and bulls” range when the inner four ring was very narrow, worked very hard to avoid his customary inner four finish. 

           Grahame Willis and Geoff Willis pushed each other all the way in F class as is customary when they meet and as with the earlier target rifle shooters both found starting was easy but finishing was a lot harder. A newcomer to target shooting Robert Wallace a very experienced bush shooter took a little time to get the feel of the game but when he changed to a bipod instead of a bag front rest showed that he knew his craft and could hold his own with more experienced target shooters.

           The second stage was shot in increasing gloom and apart from Geoff Willis who snatched the F class Cock of the Walk by a point from Grahame Willis with a 59.3, most competitors had difficulty with the light. Coghill shot a little earlier in reasonable light but still had trouble reading the breeze and Shepherd stumbled after a good start dropping two points.

           Gibson fell afoul of the light for the second week in a row and dropped out of contention and Lavelle started with a magpie three but fought back to hold the B grade COW in his hand, until a three inner finish in fading light handed the prize to Coghill. Shepherd’s clinic showed the B graders how it is done.

           The C R Kelly Cup continues next week at 800 yards.

Scores: 

G Shepherd TRA 98.09 (3 ½) 100

D Lavelle TRB 91.04 (11 ¼) 100

G P Willis FSA 113.4 (7 ¼) 100

G S Willis FSA 114.4 (5 ¼) 99 ½

J Coghill TRB 91.05 (8) 99

R Gibson TRB 87.03 (12) 99

R Wallace FSB 91.0