Sent by Target Rifle Victoria for members and subscribers only.
May 2014 Edition
Winter is upon us, footy has started, the wood has been chopped and stacked, flannelette sheets have been fitted to the bed, and our shooting calendar is starting to get very busy. With the Warren Potent, Graham Lawler and new Australian 50m Benchrest and 25m Air Bench postal competitions kicking off at the start of this month, the weekends can be easily filled in attending various shooting competitions.
If this is the first time you have received an email newsletter from TRV, welcome, I have now added all TRV members email addresses to this newsletters mailing list. If your name is spelt wrong, or not your preferred name please email me at website@trv.org.au and I will update your details. If you don't wish to receive any of these emails, please click on the unsubscribe link at the bottom of this email.
Funding Opportunity....
If you or anyone else in you club knows of any available grants please email them to website@trv.org.au and I will add them to the next newsletter.
Change of Guard
This will be my last newsletter as Xavier McLaurin has generously agreed to take on the role as newsletter editor for a term. Thanks to everyone who has put up with my dribbles as newsletter editor for the past couple of years, I apologise for all my speling mistakes! I would like to wish Xavier all the very best in the role.
Cheers,
Chris.
Something Interesting...
Have you seen the new ISSF iPad Magazine? Please take the time to check out the blurb on you-tube from this link
Do you read the TRA EMag? It is very interesting and informative, please click here to read the latest issue.
This is a pretty cool general target shooting site, check it out here
Thanks to Mike Jarrad for pointing out this website, they have some cheap electronic targets, check them out here
Have you found any good shooting sites worth sharing with others? If so please email them to website@trv.org.au and I will add them to the next newsletter.
Upcoming events:
South Australian State Championships Saturday 17th and Sunday 18th of May, held at Adelaide (ISSF Events Only) For more info click here
MISC 58th Anniversary Open Saturday 24th and Sunday 25th of May, held at MISC For more info click here
TRV Congress Starts 1pm Saturday 31st of May, light lunch from 12pm. Held in the John Taylor room of the Kilmore Library.
Warrent Potent and Graham Lawler Round 2 Sunday 1st of June, held at MISC. 9am start, come along for the chance to win $75 in the handicap competition. Prone and Air.
North West Victorian Championships Saturday 7th and Sunday 8th of June, held at Mildura For more info click here
TRV State Championships Part 2 - Inc TRV Presentation Dinner Saturday 21st and Sunday 22nd of June, held at Hamilton. For more info click here
Warrent Potent and Graham Lawler Round 3 Saturday 5th of July, held at MISC. 9am start, come along for the chance to win $75 in the handicap competition. Prone and Air.
TRV Training Camp Saturday 19th and Sunday 20th of May, held at Frankston For more please check the website closer to the date
Portland Annual Prize Meeting Saturday 26th and Sunday 27th of July, held at Portland For more please check the website closer to the date
RBA Nationals
For those aware, interested or did attend the Nationals held at MISC in February 2014, you became aware of the extent and interest in this style of shooting.
As you are aware benchrest shooting has progressed from a limited number of shooters who were either interested in it as a shooting sport or graduated to it from prone. Either climbing up and down from the ground level or deteriorating eyesight are two factors that have caused people to consider shooting benchrest to enable them to continue with their shooting sport.
The 2014 National was conducted as part two of three pre-qualifying shoots for possible selection in the Australian team for the Third World Championship in July 2015. The 2014 National was run by Target Rifle Victoria on behalf of Target Rifle Australia. Here shooters were given the opportunity to compete in four separate disciplines namely, 25 metre Bench Air, International Sporter, an 8.5lb rifle no tuner 2.25 wide front fore stock and 6.5x scope, Light Varmit, 10.5lb model unlimited scope, 3 inch wide fore stock and finally HV 14lb limited scope power and 3 inch wide fore stock.
Great scores were shot by a lot of shooters in this event as can be seen from the results listed on the TRV website.
What comes out of this is a need to maintain momentum in this shooting discipline. To that end there is a further pre-qualifier in Brisbane on the 31st January – 1st February, 2015. Why go? Well there are many places open. Those who are anxious to pre-qualify and may not have had a good shoot in either Sydney or Melbourne may seek to resurrect their chances. The selection of the team for Brisbane July 2015 is on the basis of the best two sets of scores from the three pre-qualifiers. There are very few shooters who potentially can qualify in all four disciplines and as a consequence a greater number of shooters will be able to participate.
Do shooters need help in Brisbane in July 2015? Yes. We will need people coming up to help particularly to run this international event. Australia has a reputation of running great events and this is the first time that a major Australian team of more than a selection of 12 persons can participate in this international event. For those who have little knowledge of this competition run by WRABF it is necessary to do some research and find that at the moment there are approximately 25 nations signed up to WRABF making it a truly international organisation. The shooting will be competitive particularly with teams coming from America, Europe, South East Asia, the African continent, South America and Australasia.
Where is it heading? In 2017 there will be European championships in Slovenia and following on from Brisbane there will be qualifiers for formation of a team to go to Slovenia. The Fourth World Championship will be held in South Africa in 2019. Watch this space for team selection details.
What is the future? The future is that people who are interested in brenchrest are developing up their knowledge on wind reading, perfecting their rifles and equipment and testing to establish good supplies of ammunition. It is a growing sport and carries on the legacy from prone shooting of a friendly group of people getting together, competing and having a great time.
Editor: Thanks to Richard Lightfoot for this report, and a special thanks to all the TRV members (particularly Mike Jarrad) who donated their time to help range officer, change targets, score targets and help make the nationals a success.
2014 Nationals
A team of 40+ Victorians (including WAC’s – Wives and Children) headed to Adelaide over Easter to compete in the National Championships.
The usual Victorian BBQ took place on the Friday night at the Highway One Caravan park, there was lots of seafood, sausages, salads, chips, potato bake and sweets for all to enjoy. A number of activities including trivia, bingo and ball swinging were enjoyed over the night. A special thanks to Sue, Ruth, Val, Michelle, our expert BBQ chef’s Trevor and Dean as well as everyone else who pitched in to make the night enjoyable for all.
Big Kev’s bent barrel award got a work out, with Chris Lott winning it for not checking his sight tube during the 3x20 match, it was lose and cost a number of shots. Then Chloe Romanoff decided she wanted it and won it by not realising she had a spent shell in her rear sight’s antiglare tube! Another couple of nameless Victorians were solid contenders for placing two 20m paper targets up behind each other. Trevor and Tina did very well in the Saturday night dinner raffle winning a massive jar of easter eggs and a very unique looking doll.
The first event contended was the 3x40 match, three Victorians competed in this match, with Chris Lott wining B Grade and finishing 7th overall with his score of 1102. James Daly and Ken Hart also shot, with James finishing in 10th place and Ken in 12th place. Tuesday’s events were 3x20 and Class 1 Benchrest. Alethea Sedgman did very well in the 3x20 event to finish in 4th place with her score of 564, this gave Alethea a position in the final. And it was in the final that Alethea decided to put the hammer down to eclipse her opponents and win the final a by a commanding 5.4 points, so well done Alethea! Our other Victorians in the match were James Daly, Chloe Romanoff, Ken Hart and Chris Lott. In the benchrest class 1 match 3 Victorians competed, Ken Wilson finished with 1148, Gerhard Maya scored 1147 and Alan Collins with 1134. These scores gave Ken and Gerhard 2nd and 3rd places in B Grade respectively.
Wednesday saw the Air Rifle and Benchrest class 3 competitions. Chloe Romanoff was our only contender in the women’s air rifle and she scored 326.5. For the men’s air rifle Victoria had half the entries with our field of 9 shooters, we may not have done as well as some of the other states, but we sure did have as much fun as the rest of them! In the air rifle standing R4 category Victoria certainly did very well with Jason Maroney and Luke Cain finished in first and second places, and Jason’s match score of 632.6 was world class! It was a great job from both Jason and Luke to fly the Victorian flag proudly and bring home the medals.
A great contingent of 15 Victorians competed in the 50m Class 3 bench rest matches, Mildura’s Alan Collins cracked in a 600.50 on the second round to come in second place for that day by two centrals, both Richard Bourke and Gerhard Maya were snapping at Alan’s heels with their scores of 599.54 and 599.47 respectively. After the completion of both rounds of the bench rest, Alan finished in second place with his total of 1199.96, this score gave Alan first place in the Veteran category as well, so a fantastic effort from Alan! Paul Janicki and David Ball collected 2nd and 3rd places in B Grade, while Andrew Ball and Lucy Romanaoff took out first and second places in the Junior category. The Victorian State team of Richard Lightfoot, Graham Bickerdike, Lucy Romanoff and Alan Collins finished in second place behind South Australia, so a nice effort from our Victorian team.
Victoria had 9 competitors in the Open Air rifle match, and it was Victoria taking out the C grade section with James Daly 1st, Mike Jarrad 2nd and Ken Hart in 3rd place. Like wise in D grade we had Chris Foster in 1st, Cameron Paterson 2nd and Alex Cameron cleaning up his dad Craig to take the 3rd place award.
Moving onto the 50m prone PQS event it was our R6 category shooters who did the best, Darren Nicholson won his event with his decimal score of 598.6. For the womens prone event, Alethea Sedgman won the event with her score of 608.1 and Janine Chick took out 3rd place with her score of 603.8.
There were a total of 64 competitors in the prone dual range event, Janine Chick and Cameron Paterson did very well to finish in 1st and 2nd places of B Grade, Cameron was only a mere 1 point behind Janine, so very nice going from both Victorians. Chloe Romanoff and Craig Cameron collected 2nd and 3rd in C Grade, and Luke Crozier finished 2nd in D Grade, Luke also won the under 16 category and Kyle Janicki came 2nd, Alex Cameron came 2nd in the under 18 category and Cameron Paterson came 2nd in the Junior category. For the 20m component of the prone dual range Victoria’s Emma Crosser actually won D Grade, but due to a clerical error she unfortunately was not awarded the prize, she shot extremely well for her first ever 20m competition, so well done Emma!
For the Class 3 dual range bench rest match our Vice President Richard Lightfoot missed out on the first place honours by a count back of 6 centrals, Richard shot 1199.79. Susan Burke had no count back issues to win B Grade by a clear 4 points. And Lucy Romanoff pipped Andrew Ball by 1 point to take out the junior dual range championship.
The last event was the Jim Smith 50m prone match, James Daly led the charge for Vitoria to finish in 5th place with his score of 1171, a great effort of scoring 582 on the second day in some extremely challenging windy conditions. Janine Chick cleaned up B Grade by a clear 7 points, so it will be bye bye B Grade for Janine! Chloe Romanoff and Craig Cameron came 1st and 2nd in C Grade respectively. Emma Crosser cleaned up D Grade by a massive 22 points, well done Emma! And Luke Crozier collected 3rd in D Grade, so a nice nationals from Luke as well. Our president Mike Jarrad took out the Jim Smith Veteran top placing, and our local legend Janine Chick finished 2nd for the Jim Smith women’s section, and Luke Crozier and Kyle Janicki finished 1st and 2nd in the under 16 section of the Jim Smith match.
A special thanks to Ken Hart for organising the awesome team shirts, he had the caption "Victorian Long Range Paper Punching Team", these shirts really made Victoria stand out during the nationals, and there were even a couple of the other states asking where they were purchased from! Also as usual a special thanks to Trevor Drage for his excellent work as Team Captain, Trevor was at the range everyday from the start of competition to the end, he was keeping an eye on all the Victorians and making his team selections for us, great work Trevor!
Victorian State Teams
3x40 Open
Chris Lott
James Daly
Ken Hart
3x20 Open
Alethea Sedgman
Chris Lott
James Daly
3x20 Junior
Alethea Sedgman
Chloe Romanoff
Benchrest 50m
Richard Ligthfoot
Graham Bickerdike
Lucy Romanoff
Alan Collins
Air Rifle Men
Mike Jarrad
Chris Lott
James Daly
Dual Range Prone Open
Mike Jarrad
Xavier McLaurin
James Daly
Dual Range Junior Prone
Cameron Paterson
Alex Cameron
Dual Range Benchrest Open
Alan Collins
Graham Bickerdike
Richard Bourke
Gerhard Maya
Dual Range Benchrest Junior
Lucy Romanoff
Andrew Ball
50m Prone Open
Chris Lott
Xavier McLaurin
Mike Jarrad
James Daly
50m Prone Ladies
Janine Chick
Chloe Romanoff
Emma Crosser
50m Prone Junior
Cameron Paterson
Chloe Romanoff
Champ of Champions
Russell Crosser
TRV State Champs Part 1
On Saturday and Sunday the 1st and 2nd of March TRV hosted the State Championships part 1 at MISC. Part 1 is where all the ISSF events are contested, as well where we find out who our State Champion for 50m prone and bench will be.
This year TRV introduced two new events, the first was 25m air bench, and the second 10m air supported. Both events seem to be gathering popularity and it is great to see members competing in an event they have not done before. Saturday’s weather was mild with light winds, and Sunday presented much of the same.
There were 35 entrants for the 50m prone match on Saturday, and it was MISC’s Russell Crosser who broke through the pack to become the 2014 Victorian 50m State Champion with his score of 588.26. A brilliant effort from Russell who has only been competing for a short while now, looks like we will see some big things from Russell if he continues to improve this way. Oakleigh’s Mike Jarrad was as usual towards the top of the results list, coming in one point behind Russell to finish in second place with his score of 587.26.
Shepparton’s Alex Cameron had a nice score as well, Alex shot 576.18 to win him first place in C Grade as well as second place in Junior’s. First place in Junior’s was collected by the ever improving Chloe Romanoff, Chloe shot a very tidy score of 581.27 which placed her in 4th position over all. Chloe had the equal highest centre count for the match, so some very accurate and consistent shooting from the young Frankston Junior.
It seems the marksman gene must be fairly strong in the Crosser household with Russell’s wife Emma also shooting well to win D grade with her score of 559.09.
There must have been some wind affecting the shooters in the air rifle range, as the majority of competitors scored below their averages. Wangaratta’s Sam Foster came out on top with his score of 562, this was still at least 10 points lower than where Sam normally scores. Numurkah’s Lindsay Braybon shot a little above his average to finish in second place with his score of 559, this score also gave him first place in B Grade, nice going Jack! Chloe Romanoff won the 40 shot air event with her score of 361. Gerhard Maya won air supported with his score of 553.
A special thanks to Reg and Val McCready for organising a lot of the range setup and prizes before they departed on holidays. And also to Mike Jarrad who had worked tirelessly at MISC for the couple of weeks leading up to the State Championships. As well a big thanks to Trevor Drage, Rob Spratt, Sue Lott, Tina Arnold, Richard Lightfoot, Dennis Peacock, Bev Braybon, Lindsay Braybon, Dean Romanaoff, John Hopkins and whoever else I have missed that helped out running, scoring and range officering the State Championships.
Shooters from all across the state flocked to Stawell for the annual small bore prize shoot. With over 40 shooters making the trip which made for strong competition. The outdoor range at was finally fully completed and was great to see so many shooters using the facilities.
Competition started Saturday with 50 metre prone, 50 metre benchrest and 10 metre air rifle competitions held. The outdoor range was tricky with gusting winds making for tuff shooting.
Prone shooter handled conditions well with 50 metre being an extremely tight competition with just 11 points separating the top 10 shooter and only a centres count back separating the top 3 shooters. Chris Lott from Shepparton came out on top with 583.33, from James Daly from Kyneton with 583.29 and unlucky in 3rd Darren Crozier from Kyneton who had 583.28.
The 50 metre bench rest was just as strong and saw new style of benchrest target that’s just been introduced. Chris Karamoshos from port fairy took first place with a potential record on the new targets of 739.24. Julie Holcombe, also from port fairy was strong in 2nd with 728.17. Richard Lightfoot from MCC rifle club Melbourne was in third with 723.26.
Last on Saturday was indoors for the 10 metre air rifle. Chris Lott was dominate with 571 for his 2nd win of the day. 2nd again was James Daly with 560. Kenneth Hart from Lilydale was in 3rd with 535.
Sunday saw not only the wind drop but also the targets moved back to 90 metres. Chris Lott capped of a fantastic weekend with another win in the 90 metre prone shoot. He managed 582.08. He piped out rival Michael Jarrad from Oakleigh rifle club with 581.16. Paul Janicki from Casterton had a very strong shoot producing 577.05
90 metre bench was as competitive as ever. Chris Karamoshos kept his strong form going with an amazing 598.17. This was another personal best for Chris. Another count back was needed to separate the minor places with Ern Mulcahy from Shepparton taking 2nd with 595.23. Richard Lightfoot was in 3rd with a 595.10.
Stawell rifle club would like to thank everyone for help and support.
Stawell rifle club would like to thank Daryl Mair, Whose tireless work and effort has helped make the shoot a success. Thank you Daryl your help is greatly appreciated.
Editor: A special thanks to Daniel Crawford for writing this piece, and as mentioned a greate effort from all the club to run a enjoyable and successful Prize Meeting.
What do you do for a living? I was a GP for a number of years as well as working in hospital administration. Currently I work as a Clinical Tutor at one of Melbourne Uni’s Clinical Schools.
How did you get started in shooting?
When I was in primary school my family lived in suburban New York and I went to summer camp at the end of grade 3 and 4. We did all types of outdoor activities but the thing I liked best was target shooting. Now I know more about it, I can say that it was open sight prone rifle. We moved back to Australia and I would find my favourite thing at Moomba or The Show would be the shooting games. One evening at a Christmas function about 6 years ago, a group of women were sitting around discussing what they would do when their children finished school and they had more time. It was the first time I voiced my interest in learning to shoot other than to my husband. The silence was deafening but a few days later I got a call from the husband of one of the women present who had himself been a pistol shooter. He knew Val & Reg McCready and organized to take me to MISC to meet them. The first time I went was the day after my youngest child’s final Year 12 exam.
What disciplines do you shoot?
Benchrest rifle (HV, LV, Sporter and Air)
How often do you shoot?
Wednesday evenings and most Saturdays.
Greatest achievement?
Improving. Especially in the wind.
Most memorable moment?
There was a calm clear Wednesday evening after I had not been shooting for very long and was still thinking I couldn’t possibly own a rifle when Richard Lightfoot persuaded me to use his Walther. That was my first 600 and I ordered my Anschutz soon after.
What is the furthest you have travelled to compete?
I went to Plzen in the Czech Republic in 2013 for the WRABF World Cup.
What do you enjoy most about the sport? I have made great friends and had lots of fun. The sport lets me be me - I can be as obsessive and detail focussed as I like and people don’t think it’s weird. I enjoy the challenge of learning to hit the centre all the time, in all conditions and all circumstances. I like solving the problem of why did I miss and how do I avoid that next time. It also takes me out of my comfort zone – I have to drive on unmade country roads where there is no phone reception, I have to wear shorts with hiking boots in summer and I have even slept on the range in Brisbane with only an outside bathroom. I had no idea I would need to do these things when I started (which is probably just as well).
RICHARD'S RANTINGS
Over the next few issues of the Target Rifle Victoria newsletter, I seek to provide a few insights into the information and experience I have gained since commencing benchrest shooting in approximately 2008.
So, if you are interested in benchrest shooting, what have you tried, how full is your shed of purchases of equipment that you have acquired over the years in your pursuit of a 250 score. Yes we all are the same. My shed is no different to yours. For those starting out before you do anything, go and have a chat to the guys who shoot benchrest in your Club and ask them a little about how they have got to where they are, the equipment choices that they have made and if they had their time over again what would they do? Some may say, it has been an expensive exercise, some will comment that they have had a great time, some will say, hey my next piece of gear is a Turbo, Hall, Stiller, Walther or whatever action. They may have lined up different barrels or things like, look at websites, visit a few shooting ranges and decide on a selection of flags. All this is in pursuit of the magical 250, 25x. If you search the world forums you will find it is an elusive goal but really something worth trying to achieve.
So lets start. It is best in the first issue to concentrate on two things. Reading list to provide some basis of questioning of information provided to you by others and also the knowledge of the rules of the game.
To that end I suggest that you look up on the World Benchrest Rimfire and Air Federation (WRABF) website and either read or download the current set of the Rules. If you do that, you then have a folder and can always refer to it more from a point of view of knowledge rather than becoming a bush lawyer based on what others have told you. Further it is necessary to understand the Rules governing the sport whether is it WRABF, ISSF, Australian modified rules or indeed Firearms Act and Regulations. All this is information that is necessary to be acquired as then discussions are held on a factual basis and not hearsay.
So let’s get reading. What references are there? Well, the “Rifleman’s Guide to Rimfire Ammunition” by Steve Boelter provides interesting technical information about ammunition. Then we have the bibles of shooting, namely the “Book of Rifle Accuracy” by Tony Boyer. Now Tony Boyer has considerable experience shooting in America and he has even shot in Australia. Again this provides useful technical information.
For those who have looked at websites and rimfire accuracy or the world accuracy forum, the name of Bill Calfee comes out and his book, “The Art of Rimfire Accuracy”. This book is an interesting read in the sense that it combines humour, emotion, sketches of his artwork but if you delve deep enough and are discriminating then there are some gems of wisdom in this book. It is a long read of some near 700 pages and some would say good bedtime reading.
Though we have started to talk a little bit about rimfire accuracy, the topic of ammunition, the rifles and wind flags need to be addressed. Why use wind flags? Well, specifically designed wind flags do give a little bit more wind information than the two streamer flags that are specified for ISSF shooting. Are there books on wind? Yes. The “Wind Book for Rifle Shooters” by Miller and Cunningham is another interesting read, provides all sorts of insights into the wind’s velocity, the angle of the wind and the potential of it effecting the flight of the bullet.
Though we have started with an introduction to benchrest , the next time we will specifically discuss wind, as this is the one factor that surely effects the flight of the bullet and the subtly of what score you achieve. The wind is not your friend.
Okay guys, well best of luck, see you at the range.
Editor: A special thanks to Richard Lightfoot for generously donating his time to create this article.
