Terry Gee shoots in the South Australian Queen’s Prize
Terry Gee from the East Central District Rifle Association made the long trip to Adelaide last week to contest the South Australian Queen’s prize competition and acquitted himself very well with some brilliant shooting and some mixed results in a field of very high standard shooters in his F Open Class.
Twice at 300m he shot the possible 60 points the first with 8 super-centres and he was forced into 2nd place by a count back then 9 super-centres and yet again to be forced into second place by a shooter scoring the maximum (perfect) 60.10 points. At 700 meters in “The Hunt” competition he shot 60.3 to yet again be pushed into 4th position. A good example of the strength of competition was when in the Queen’s at 700 yards he shot a brilliant 59.5, dropping just 1.5 points, only to find himself in 15th position.
The South Australian competition is in three parts “The Hunt”, The Queen’s Prize and the Grand Aggregate. To say the least this is a very full week of shooting that tests the very best shots and it was only two years ago that Terry made a clean sweep of the competitions in F standard. However after a two year break from shooting due to a serious back injury and changing classes to the very competitive F-Open Class its nearly back to square one.
Well done Terry. The range at Lower Light is one of the hardest in the country with winds that can literally tear the 6m long wind flags from their poles. All this on the top of a very long drive. We still can’t believe a 60.8 and a 60.9 and only second place.
Meanwhile back home on the Violet Town range those not traveling to South Australia. On Saturday the conditions really began to challenge the shooters, the good rain on Thursday nigh certainly cleared air and by Saturday the cooler conditions meant the mirage was harder to see and the cloud that parted from time to time meant changing light both combined with a very strong gusty wind gave the shooters a real challenge.
Neal Hambridge checks the conditions before taking aim at 500 yards on the Violet Town range before he shoots 60.5 the top off-rifle range score for the day on Saturday May 5. The artificial grass is proving to be both very popular and very comfortable.
The shoot was the first club championship shoot for 2018 and was shot over 300, 500 and 600 yards. The E targets made the range management easy but fitting in three ranges in one afternoon is still a challenge in logistics. Fortunately the shoot was over in good time for a cuppa before the trip home. The results from the Club Championship will be determined for the different classes at the end of the 2018 season, we can say it got off to a great start with Neal Hambridge taking 500 yards with a 60.5 on a count back from Marty Kelly who also shot 60,5. Looks like we could be in for some tough competition during the year.