The first round of the handicap shoot is on Sunday 9th March. The handicaps are calculated from an average of your previous scores multiplied by 0.93 (same as golf) and subtracted from 500. Currently they are:

Olivia B 11
Derek B 13
Ben G 10
Lainey B 13
Alan C 15
Bruno K 33
Pennie L 50
Tony H 25
Bill Y 55
Peter J 41
Vanessa S 55
Teon J 49
Darren S 36
Sandy C 70
Osha J 35
Liz D 79
Doug B 44
Kevin S 70
Rodney S 42
Dave S 48
Chris C 20
Alan N 22

Welcome back for another year of fun shooting!  A good turnout today for our first shoot of the year with some excellent scores, particularly in the centrefire.  We also had 2 first-time shooters Cody and Cassie who quickly picked up some marksmanship skills and had a great time on the range.

Ole Smokey rimfire benchrest (Club record 493/500 by Ben G in May 2024.

Alan C and Lainey B equal first on 492, followed by:

Ben G 489, Olivia B 487, Tony H 476, Darren S 459, Pennie L 446, Bill Y 438, Alex C 419, Liz D 415

100 yard centrefire grouping, best group of 3 shots (Club record 8.4mm by Tony H in 2024).

All but one entrant shot a group under 25.4mm, which equates to 1MOA and is commonly regarded as the marksmanship standard for hunters.

Lainey B came close to the Club record with an excellent 9.4mm.

Bruno K 10.3mm, Ben G 14.0mm, Darren S 16.8mm, Tony H 24.0mm, Derek B 25.0mm, Olivia B 34.2mm.

200 yard centrefire grouping (Club record 17.3mm by Derek in 2024).

Again some excellent scores, with most shooting under 1MOA.

Bruno K leads the day with 19.3mm, equating to 0.4 MOA.

Ben G 26.9mm, Tony H 32.3mm, Olivia B 38.5mm, Darren S 48.8mm, Derek B 52.0mm, Lainey B 104.0mm.

Our next shoot is on Sunday 9^th March at Dairyville, which will be the Handicap shoot, the Ladies’ competition, and Junior Shield.

The 2025 program is now available on the website for printing or download. See you at our first shoot at Dairyville on Sunday 2nd Feb!

Our first shoot for 2025 will be on Sunday 2nd Feb at Dairyville, starting at midday.

We’ll kick off with round 1 of the Ole Smokey shield, followed by Centrefire grouping at 100 and 200 yards.

I’m away until 20 Jan, and will send out more details when I get back. Regards, Derek

The Club held its Christmas BBQ and presentation of awards last Sunday, followed by a silhouette shoot. This was won by Vanessa S, who received a $50 voucher from Coffs Guns and Rural supplies. This was our last shoot for the year, and we’ll be posting our 2025 program early in January.

The prizewinners for 2024 are listed below. Congratulations to all!

Ole Smokey Benchrest

1st   Ben G   493/500, 2nd  Olivia B 490, 3rd Alan C  488

RO Davie Light Rimfire

1st   Ben G   488/500, 2nd Olivia B 483, 3rd  Alan C  478

George Joannidis Field Rifle

1st  Olivia B   451/500, 2nd  Ben G   436, 3rd  Darren S  424

Gleniffer Shield

1st   Derek B  449/500, Equal 2nd  Ben G and Darren S 429, 3rd  Alan C  401

Handicap 2024               

1st  Sandy C  521, 2nd  Tony H  510, 3rd  Alan C  501

Ladies’ Competition

1st  Lainey B  489/500, 2nd  Olivia B 487, 3rd  Vanessa S   452

Junior Shield 2024

1st  Lainey B  486/500

Centrefire Grouping 100 yards

1st   Tony H  8.4 mm, 2nd  Bruno K 15.4 mm, 3rd  Alan C  17.4 mm

Centrefire Grouping 200 yards

1st  Derek B  17.3 mm, 2nd Alan C  18.8 mm, 3rd  Tony H  21.8 mm

Military Rifle Grouping

1st  Ben G   55.8 mm, 2nd  Alan C  56.8 mm , 3rd  Derek B   58.8 mm

A good turnout today for our last competition shoot of the year, with benches almost full and some good scores.  The tricky winds brought the scores down a little for the 4^th round of the Ole Smokey rimfire benchrest match:

Derek B 486/500, Chris C 479 (beat his Dad by 4 points), Alan N 476, Alan C 475, Tony H 472, Peter J 454,  Pennie L 453.

The centrefire match was shot at 100 and 200 yards, with the smallest 3-shot group winning.

At 100 yards Alan C was the narrow winner with 17.4mm, followed by Derek 17.7mm, Olivia B 19.1mm, Bruno K 21.2mm, Tony H 21.4mm, Kevin 27.8mm, and Brett H 45.4mm.

At 200 yards Derek’s trusty CZ 223 managed a group of 17.28mm, with Tony’s Lithgow doing 21.83mm, Olivia 31.29mm, Bruno K 33.82mm, Kevin 42.46mm and Brett H 64.65mm.

These are all excellent groups with hunting rifles off the bench.

The Christmas BBQ lunch will be held on Sunday 15^th December at Dairyville, and we will also be presenting prizes and awards for the year’s competitions, followed by the popular silhouette shoot so bring your .22 along also.

Great to see some new shooters at the range – father & son team Glen and Jett.

The Ladies’ Competition saw only 3 entrants today:  Lainey B 489/500, Olivia B 487, and Vanessa S 452.

The Handicap shoot was hotly contested, with Alan C winning the day with an adjusted score of 499, followed by Olivia B 496, Lainey B 493, Tony H 486, Darren S 482, and Doug B 479.

There was only one entrant in the Junior Shield:  Lainey B with 486/500, an excellent score.

Catch-up targets for the Ole Smokey Benchrest were entered by Alan C (484/500), Darren S 471, and Vanessa S 442.

The day finished with some .303 shooting, as it often does.  Alan had his trusty 1942 Lithgow SMLE (complete with matching bayonet), Derek a cantankerous Enfield No. 5 “jungle carbine”. Our next shoot is at Dairyville on Sunday 17 November at midday, with some marksmanship revision followed by Round 4 of the Ole Smokey Shield, and Round 3 of the Centrefire 100/200 yard grouping.  This is the last competition shooting day for the year before the Club Christmas Party and prizes/awards day on Sunday 15^th December, so come along and boost your scores.  Range Officers for the day are Alan N and Olivia B.

The Bellingen Branch October shoot will now be on Sunday 13th October, at the Coffs Harbour Dairyville range.

The previously programmed shoot at Macksville on Saturday 12th October is now cancelled.

The range session started with some education by Tony on shot placement when hunting, then into round 3 of the Ole Smokey benchrest competition with 50 scoring shots at 50 metres from any rimfire rifle.  Tricky winds brought the scores down, but still some good results.

First was junior Lainey B with 487/500, followed by her father Derek on 481, Tony H 478, Doug B 462, Rodney S 455, Dave S 448, Pennie L 442, Bill Y 428, Kevin S 425, Liz D 416, Alex C 403.

The next match was Centrefire Grouping at 100 and 200 yards.  The clear winner was Tony H who shot an excellent group of 8.38mm at 100 yards, all shots touching, equating to MOA of 0.32, using his trusty Lithgow LA102 .308.  Derek B shot 19.1mm, Darren S 21.7mm and Lainey B 27.4mm.

At 200 yards the groups opened up with the breeze.  Tony’s group was 33.4mm (0.63 MOA), Derek 60.8mm and Lainey 60.9mm.

Our next shoot is at Macksville on Saturday 12^th October, with the Ladies’ Comp, Junior Comp, and Round 3 of the Handicap shoot.

Saturday 10^th August

A small group today at the Macksville range , a shame because it was a perfect shooting day with no wind and mild temperatures.

First was the Gleniffer Shield, any rimfire rifle “off the elbows” without any front or rear support, which at 50 metres is fairly difficult.  First was Derek with 449/500, Col Fitz on 365 and Tony H on 338.

This was followed by the R O Davie Light Rimfire, using a sporter or multipurpose rimfire rifle with the scope magnification set at 6.5x.  First was Alan C on 478/500, followed by Derek on 471, Col Fitz with 467, Tony H on 455 and Bill Y on 443.  The current high score is still held by Ben G on 488/500.

Our next shoot is at Dairyville on Sunday 8^th September, with the 3^rd round of the Ole Smokey Benchrest comp (Ben G is ahead on this one also with 493/500) and the second round of the Centrefire 100m & 200m (it will be difficult to match Alan C’s 200m group of 18.8mm or 0.37 MOA).