Goulburn Valley District Rifle Association Open Prize Meeting and Karramomus Picnic Shoot
This weekend was a Double Header, On Saturday was the GVDRA OPM and Sunday hosted the Karramomus Picnic Shoot. This is always a fun weekend with great friendly competition and this year was no different.
Saturday had 4 ECDRA members shooting, Terry Gee shooting F-Open, Graeme Kerr shooting F-T/R, David Wallace and Brian Houlihan shooting F- Standard. The Course of fire on Saturday was 3 Ranges of 10 scoring shots all fired from 500 yrds top score possible 180.30. The weather was very deceptive as the wind was quite strong with the wind flags flying horizontal however it was a strangely consistent wind which meant some very good scores being posted.
500yard mound at Karramomus with the Goulburn Valley District Rifle Association Prize shoot in full swing. Note the red danger flag on the right standing out from the pole, an indication that wa quite a strong cross wind right to left as we see it, at times during the shoot.
However the conditions still managed to play a big part in the match with only two of the 67 shooters posting maximum scores in F class shooting and one maximum in Target Rifle. It would seem that Karramomus has a fickle wind just like Violet Town and it was very hard to pick. The hard luck story of the day was that of David Wallace who on the first stage put a shot on the wrong target costing six points and then he went on to not drop a shot for the rest of the day. The shot on the wrong target was the maximum 6 points. A score that would have seen him as the top scorer across all Disciplines for the day. There was better news for Graeme Kerr placing second in F t/R
Sunday also had 4 ECDRA shooters this time Terry Gee and Neal Hambridge shooting F-Open, Graeme Kerr shooting F-T/R and David Wallace shooting F- Standard. The wind had picked up and now there were patches when drop offs caught shooters out as they normally occur quickly and the more than occasional gust.
The Course of fire for this program was a little different to normal with 15 scoring shots to be fired at 400 yrds and 500 yrds with a nice BBQ lunch served in between the ranges. Again the maximum possible score was 180.30.
Graeme shot a brilliant 177.12 points. In doing this he took a very gutsy gamble assuming the weather was the same as the day before and cut his first two sighters which were both the maximum score of 6 in hope of achieving super centres. In hind sight after the shoot Graeme said "it was not a day for cutting sixes in favour of the possibility of an extra 0.1, the light conditions were good but the fishtailing wind from behind proved to be a real challenge"
Graeme's gamble cost him a point but he still managed to come home with the first place prize shooting a 172.12.
Brian, Neal, Terry and David didn't make the podium finish places but had a great day shooting and always learning and improving with every shoot especially when in the company of so many other great shooters and on different Ranges.
A special mention should be made of the two guys that had just arrived back from shooting at Bisley and were still jet lagged. That is really supporting your local clubs.