SSAA NSW

6 Sporting Shooters Association of Australia (NSW) Inc. 2018 Big Game Rifle State Titles: Rankins Springs The shoot began on the afternoon of Saturday 29 September with the Pot Rifle (2) match which is shot with .22 rimfire rifles. This is one of the supplementary matches available in the Big Game Rifle rule book intended to allow clubs which do not run Big Game Rifle events to try out the general competition format with rifles people might already own. Pot Rifle (2) was followed by the Special Snap event which requires eight shots in 35 seconds something that is easy to do with a rifle that holds eight or more rounds, but the rule book does not allow more than four shots in the rifle at any time, ensuring that those with single shot rifles are at no disadvantage. Special Snap is a very lively match and feels a bit like going a quick round against Bruce Lee. The last matches for the Saturday were the Nitro Group One (in which competitors use such calibres as the .338 Winchester Magnum and .375 Holland & Holland Magnum), and Black Powder Express, in which we saw double rifles, and single shots which included a Zulu Wars vintage Martini-Henry. Big Game Rifle enthusiasts are classic rifle aficionados and are just as capable of being happily eccentric as any Black Powder or Western Action shooter. Saturday evening everyone joined together at the Rankins Springs pub for a dinner and chin wag. Topics of conversation ranged from post mortems on the day's shooting to what we need to do to save the world, and all the shades in between. Greeted at the range by Marianne's smile and the provision of fresh coffee with cooked breakfast, shooters entered the Sunday competition fortified and contented. The first The little town of Rankins Springs is a bit of a "cut lunch and a water bag" seven-hour drive from metropolitan Sydney. A seven-hour drive might sound like a long haul but I remember back in my younger days that the young lady who would later become my wife was sent to the town of Kalgoorlie in Western Australia a full seven hour drive from where I was living. Curiously I found it no hardship to drive up every weekend to see her for the months she was there. The lesson in this being that if there is a worthwhile reason to do the drive then the drive is not hard to do. The members of the Rankins Springs Club made sure that they provided a State Titles weekend that would make it worthwhile for people to travel from anywhere in NSW, and in fact we also had a Victorian and a Queenslander who were willing to make the trip. They were rewarded by taking home the bulk of the medals on offer. In all there were a dozen competitors and the rifle rack at the range always held rifles of great interest in calibres one doesn't see often, such as 450/400 Nitro Express or 470 Capstick. The key people behind the 2018 Big Game Rifle State Titles were a number of SSAA NSW Griffith Branch members who had made the trek to be a part of the 2018 National Championships held in Mudgee, earlier in the year, and they applied the lessons they learned about organising a major Big Game Rifle event in a way that can only be described as faultless. Not only was the organization faultless but there was breakfast and lunch provided by an ever-smiling Marianne De Waal. There are few things more likely to draw a crowd of shooters to a match than a breakfast that includes an elegant sufficiency of crispy bacon. Graham Picton looking happy with his shooting

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