SSAA NSW

40 The weekend of the 1st and 2nd of May 2021 saw the skies clear and the breeze very light, to make for great conditions under which to shoot the NSW Lever Action Rifle State Titles. The mood was most cordial, the dinner at the Golden Sea Dragon Saturday evening much enjoyed. Some juniors, along with older members, had some fun running the targets out with volunteer Luke Mitchell's side-by-side truck. Preparations started on Friday 30th April, while one of our Full-Bore shooter friends was hard at work on an air-seeder in a paddock to our rear, in readiness for the rain predicted on the following Tuesday. Concurrently, half of the field were at practice in preparation for the full-on competition of the weekend. DAY 1 Two new local shooters, Alan Norton and Stephen Coe, were added to the field facing the targets on Saturday morning in the 50 rounds Open Lever Action Rifle match. Both Stephen and Alan performed creditably in this match, their very first for a full course of fire, having fired only sufficient shots to be graded two weeks earlier. Because courses of fire vary, the masters of yore set up two targets as grading targets, compulsory for any match. These are the same 50 metre targets the pistol clubs use, shot from any field position at 100 metres and off-hand at 50 metres. There are also national medals issued, based on the total scores of these two targets and NSW State medals based on the buffalo head target at 100 metres and the feral cat at 50 metres. These local shooters were talked into shooting as a C grader can do well in such a competition. This proved to be the case as both Alan and Stephen, who both own lever actions and have done a bit of 'paddock' shooting, found themselves in the C grade placings, first and second, respectively. Alan was also a winner of his first national medal award, a bronze. This was the only national or state medal awarded for the weekend. Overall results were: 1. first, Steve Hurley (Albany, WA); 2. second, Craig Knox (Northern Rivers); and 3. third, Don Chesworth (Northern Rivers). Within the Open match is a Traditional Rifle category for basically equipped lever actions, Jim Buckley (Silverdale) won this event with Kerry Guinea (Townsville) runner up. Martin Williams (Open A Grade Gold and Classic B Grade Gold) and Craig Knox (Open AA grade Gold, Classic A Grade silver).

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