News

Bathurst Rifle Club Inc. 28th July 2018, J Sibera Trophy, 500yards

             One could be forgiven for thinking winter has finished as the weather dished up on the Bathurst Rifle Range on Saturday was perfect with little to no wind or mirage and a very comfortable temperature. It was a great start to the second round of the Championship but although there were some good scores no one took full advantage, the closest being Steve Williams  99.07/100 and Col Howell 117.6/120.

            The target rifle group seemed to cope better than the F-class competitors and it wasn’t until late in the day that Steve Williams and Geoff Willis managed to shoot clear stages, in Williams’ case ensuring the TR Cock of the Walk. That was not the case with Willis whose first stage 55.1 meant Colin Howell with consistent stages of 58.2 and 59.4 ran out a comfortable winner of F class.

            Howell who had his first statewide event two weeks ago in the City v Country challenge (which country won) is now amongst the leading local shooters week in week out. Ben Wright is getting a little more shooting and starting to get better consistency which showed with his pair of 56’s whilst Phil Mahon got through two stages without too much trouble but still has a lot of work to do on his reloads.

            Target rifle produced tight finishes in both grades with Graeme Bright pushing hard right to the last shot where he stumbled with an inner four. Gordon Shepherd, consistent as ever, with a pair of 48’s is upset with his latest tendency to fling a shot or two and is still waiting patiently for the new barrel for his second rifle to see if that overcomes the problem. It doesn’t stop him shooting centres however and he topped that tally again.

            John Coghill still sticking with TR managed to top 90 again but he seems only able to hold it together for the first five shots before waywardness sets in. Coghill finished his first stage with 4 inner fours in a row and then repeated the dose in his second stage after going clear in his first 5 shots. His next 4 shots were inners before finishing with a bulls eye which as it turned out was the B grade winning shot. Ron Gibson made his task much harder with a magpie three amongst his first stage errors but fought hard to fall just short after a second stage 46.02

            Next week is the final J Sibera Trophy and the second 600 yard Championship range.

Scores:  
S Williams TRA 99.07 (1 ¾) 100
J Coghill TRB 91.03 (12) 100
C Howell FSB 117.6 (3) 100
B Wright FSB 112.5 (7 ½) 99 ½
G Bright TRA 98.05 (1 ½) 99 ½
R Gibson TRB 90.05 (9 ¼) 99 ¼
G Shepherd TRA 96.08 (3 ¼) 99 ¼
G S Willis FSA 115.7 (3 ½) 98 ¾
P Mahon FSB 91.1 (12) 85 ¾

by John Coghill

All scores/plots can be found Here.