Great Southern DRA Meeting - Albany WA

[Woody_rod]

I will attempt to collate details of equipment while people are here. This will be part of the blog over at the http://www.wurgabup.webs.com.

I have my new 6BR barrel running (has 40 rounds through it) and the 260 INCH. 308 std barrel here also just in case.

Hope it is extremely windy, otherwise the advantage of the 260 INCH won't be realised at the longs.

[Woody_rod]

A quick update on the Albany meeting so far: We had the local one day prize meeting today in very testing conditions. There were around 75 shooters, including 20 odd F std shooters.

Wind was ok to start at 11am for the 400m start, coming from 7-8 oclock and about 10-15 km/h. The wind increased steadily after that to gusts of about 30-40km/h with drop offs. Interesting stuff at 800m.

There were no possibles shot by F Class competitors at all, and only one by a TR guy, showing the difficulty of the day with some good shooters in attendance.

More to follow.

[actionclear]

Sorry guys for the lack of updates. Will will give you a full run down when the shoot has finished.

What I can tell you is that the Great Southern OPM has received record number of shooters, with 116 entered!

This is on par with the West Australian Queens.

We actually thought this year would be a low entry year, usually we have a long weekend too play around with, which encourages people to make the trip, and some our shooters are OS. We were expecting 85, for the whole event and received 82 for the Friday shoot alone. This is the reason for the lack of updates on here and our website.

The conditions have proven to be extremly testing. Very few possiables have been scored in both TR and F Class.

What I can tell you with F Class.

We have 5 Open shooters. Terry Sheedy, Ted Bower, Rod Shehan, Andrew Lockwood, and lockys Tyro mate Woodgate (Sorry his name escapes me at 2am when I write this) Mark Hammersly has made the trip down, and was sighted briefly on the range Friday.
Unfortunately, his ribbing of the Chidlow boys "camping it rough" has backfired, and from the comfort of his hotel room, has managed to
injury his neck, leaving him in alot of pain.

Mark we wish you a speedy recovery.

F Standard has 9 in Divison 1 and 8 in Divison 2.

We did have 3 other entries, unfortunately illness and injury has prevented them from competing this weekend, even though they have made the trip down.

I am thinking these guys are actually the smart ones of this event.

700 and 800 yards in the morning. (hmm makes that a few hours)

Lets hope the wind gods will be kind.

[actionclear]

This is the reason for the lack of updates on here and our website.



Well actually the reason is because I am flat out in the office.

[alocky]

Just thought I'd stick my head up. Thanks to the event organisers for a very well run meet - especially Linda who seemed to be everywhere at once collecting scorecards and chasing up laggards, as well as finding the time to shoot.
Albany taught me one very good lesson - never stop watching the flags, as the shift from an X to a 4 can happen in the time it takes to reload.
Congrats to Terry Sheedy for a well deserved F open win; in particular his final round of 60.6 at 800m, with a twitchy 1 to 3 moa crosswind - great stuff.
A very pleasant atmosphere, and I enjoyed meeting up with the other F class characters in WA - even Rob . I hope Mark gets well soon - but I'm pretty sure I profited from his absence!
Thanks again - and I can report that Alec is seriously chuffed with his new cleaning rod. Hopefully we'll get him along to a few more prize meets.
cheers,
Andrew

[actionclear]

Well the shoot is over for another year.

Fatigue has set in, and I am about to crash into bed.

Winners were:

Target Rifle : Gerry Austgen

F Standard: Rod Rees

F Open: Terry Sheedy

We will blog this tomorrow.

[actionclear]

Congratulations on your silver medal Andrew.

I'll post it to you, and your winnings when we get back from holiday.

So glad you both enjoyed the shoot.

[Woody_rod]

I enjoyed meeting up with the other F class characters in WA - even Rob

If you mean me, that would be ROD with a D. Hence my user name....

You disappeared after the final range, I was going to get you to shoot in the teams match. We were cleaning up the F Std guys, but our last shooter dropped 10 points using some dodgy 6BR thing of Terry Sheedy's..

[alocky]

It was good to meet you too Rod (sorry - I don't know why I wrote 'Rob'). I had to dash back to Perth as soon as I'd finished - my wife is 8 months pregnant and was sounding especially grumpy on the phone.
Only dropping ten points in that &$^$*(%^ of a wind isn't too shameful, particularly with an unfamiliar rifle.
I look forward to the next match, although domestic pressures may limit my availability this year.
cheers,
Andrew

[Woody_rod]

It was good to meet you too Rod (sorry - I don't know why I wrote 'Rob'). I had to dash back to Perth as soon as I'd finished - my wife is 8 months pregnant and was sounding especially grumpy on the phone.
Only dropping ten points in that &$^$*(%^ of a wind isn't too shameful, particularly with an unfamiliar rifle.
I look forward to the next match, although domestic pressures may limit my availability this year.
cheers,
Andrew

Ok, pregnant wife might just be a good enough excuse for disappearing....I suppose that means you are unable to come to Wurgabup in April? This was going to be my next question....

Can you provide details of your and Alec's gear for our blog? Action, barrel, stock, chambering all that....just PM me no need to post it here. I have the other gear info for the FO people.

[actionclear]

alocky, my appologies, I have left your medallion (and my box of "everything you need to run a prizemeeting") in our caravan which we left in Albany.

I will forward to you as soon as I am able to retrieve it.

[alocky]

No problems! Hope you had a good holiday.