F-Open Diary - NSW Queens

[AlanF]

Time for another one of these folks. I am doing this courtesy of Geoff Roberts who is also camping at the range and unlike me he has a NextG connection. Geoff is the webmaster of the NRAA website for those who don't know.

In F-Open we have 5 in the leadup, actually better than I expected at one stage. There will be at least 4 more in the Queens from what I know, so while it ain't that good, it ain't that bad either. Apart from me (6.5-284 with tuner!) we have Dennis Shallis (243Win), Mal Henderson (243Win), Michelle Knudson (6BR), and a first-timer, Peter Bourke who has a very nice Tubb 2000 in 6XC.

At 300m most of us found things a little tricky apart from Michelle who scored 97. At 500 I had a good one with a 98, and at 600 Mal scored 141 ex 150. The daily agg was a tie between Mal and myself on 329, and we both agreed a shoot-off would be good way of getting extra practice. We were level on 48 after 5 shots, then Mal got a 9 to my X. Michelle was 3rd on 320. Dennis had a bad day by his high standards, but I reckon he'll be taking the Queens more seriously.

In F-Open Dennis Drew won the day, but not by much. As usual you can expect him to get better at the longs.

Catch you tomorrow night.

Its now tomorrow night - missed Geoff last night. Leadup is over and Mal prevailed with 653, Michelle was over the moon with second (649), myself third on 644.

Weather was reasonable this morning then very easy this afternoon with strong and steady NE wind.

Have seen Bob Eager and Geoff Miners here for tomorrow, but no Kel apparently.

Catch you at the end of Queens day 1

Alan

[RAVEN]

Will be watchin Al
Good luck to all
Cheers
RB

[AlanF]

Hello - its me again. We have a field of 10 for the Queens - so not too bad compared with recent years. Rod Davies used a 22BR with flat based bullets today, Rob Eager used a 6 Dasher, Ken Larkin a 6x47, Geoff Miners a 6.5x55, and Steve Rigby a 6BR, with the leadup shooters staying with the same.

In general, the wind was from the north, increasing during the morning and stopping at a steady 12mph, so pretty good and the scores reflected it. Rob Eager had a 100 at 300, the only one of the day, and he shot well all day to take the daily agg. Rod Davies was only 2 behind, and the is bunch of us around 6 behind the leaders Geoff Miners is out of contention for the Queens Agg - had a big problem getting onto (and staying on) the target at the last range - despite many "great" minds trying to diagnose the problem, we ended up none the wiser.

There was a 5 way shoot-off in F-Std, all dropping just 2 points for the day. David Hancy kept his cool and won (others were Paroz, Drew, Moritz and Peters).

So its all very close in Open, with 8 points separating 1st from 8th places. Should be a good contest as the ranges get longer.

Catch you tomorrow night.

Alan

[AlanF]

Hello again - its all over - sorry for missing last night's report - I got in with a bad crowd and went to the local RSL. If you don't know what happened here are the FULL RESULTS.

Congrats to Rod Davies on a good win in F-Open in his first Queens - a very convincing win - we're going to see a lot more of him I think. Just for information, Rod used a 284 Win for some of the longer ranges. He used flat based bullets in both the 22BR and the 284. Steve Rigby was another who brought out a second calibre, a 260 I think.

And in F-Std, Matt Paroz had his first win in that class - congrats Matt - it makes some of us F-Open shooters who you used to try to keep up with you feel a bit better...

As for the weather, there was a dirty northerly patch during the 800 yesterday, and it rained for all of the 500 today. Otherwise conditions were reasonably good.

Most of the Open field are intending to be at Canberra in November - with quite a few I know of coming from Vic, it could be a very good field there, particularly if some locals who weren't able to make it last year turn up.

Alan

[VickiMcc]

Seems your barrel tuner worked ok. Are u still a sceptic??

[Ben C]

Well done to Rod Davies and Matt Paroz. Congratulations to you both for your fine wins . Matt, looks like you've found you're groove in F-Std

Regards
Ben...

[Woody_rod]

Well done everyone.

Great to see a big field of F class guys and girls shooting in competition. Hope we see the same here in WA the end of this month.

[RAVEN]

Congratulations Rod and Matt
Cheers
RB

[AlanF]

I'd like to say a special thanks to Dennis Shallis and Mal Henderson who fully sponsored the F-Class Open trophies. Well done fellas - shooting needs more like you.

Alan

[AlanF]

Seems your barrel tuner worked ok. Are u still a sceptic??

I used the tuner and errant barrel in the leadup only. I got some good scores with it e.g. 98 at 500m, BUT couldn't work out a pattern and had some BAD elevation with it at some ranges, so decided not to risk it in the Queens.

I still want to do more testing with it.

Alan