OzFclass

Hello from Belmont. Time for another F-Open blog. I actually arrived a day early - never done it before, but will certainly try to do it when possible - its great to have the time to get settled before the shoot.

I've already bumped into several shooters; Rod Davies, Brent and Meichelle Knudsen, and it seems most of the very big field from last year will be here. As was the case at other recent Queens, F-Open will be squadded in with TR and FS. So it may be a little difficult for me to talk to them all, in fact I won't know for sure who is shooting Open till the range 1 scores go up.

Weather for the Duncan is looking pretty bad, probably some rain on both days, so don't be surprised if we don't do the full program, and it may keep some of the locals away too - just as I speak its started raining !

So I'll get back with more info tomorrow night.

Alan

8:30am and it's pissing down. It might be an idea to put the projectiles in little boats and float them down the range...

The radar doesn't look real flash either.

http://www.bom.gov.au/products/IDR661.loop.shtml

Hello dry people. We all got very wet here today. The rain got steadily worse over the day, in fact at 600 it was continuous. The program was changed to 2 x 300yd and 1 x 600yd.

We are expecting about 16 Open shooters in the Queens, but only had 8 today. I haven't caught up with them all yet so don't know much about equipment. I can say that both Knudsens were using 6BR, Rod Davies a 6 Dasher, and me a 6.5-284.

Here's some preliminary scores - Rod Davies card for 600 was lost but he thinks he got a 57.5 so its based on that :

Rod Davies 60.6, 60 7, 57.5 177.18
Alan Fraser 60.8, 58.6, 58.5 176.19
Andrew Pearce 57.3, 58.3, 60.3 175.9
Chris Bell 56.1, 59.2, 57.6 172.9
John Tracey 58.5, 58.5, 55.2 171.12
Brent Knudsen 54.0, 58.3, 58.2 170.5
Meichelle Knudsen 57.0, 54.0, 58.1 169.1
David Reddan 56.2, 56.4, 54.1 166.7

Forecast was pretty right for today, so I guess we can expect more rain, but improving over the course of tomorrow. They will try to run the 600 we missed today first thing tomorrow, then the 900 and 1000 as programmed.

When the lost cards etc. are sorted out, results will be HERE.

Back tomorrow night.

Alan

You're not missing anything.
It's bucketing down here at the moment also.

Unless it stopped while I was sleeping, it has now been raining continuously since about midday yesterday ! However, by the look of the radar, it might get heavier for a short time then fingers crossed, fine up for the day's shooting.

Alan

Rain has cleared, but....

Looks like we may only be allowed to use the 1000yd mound today because the parking areas of the lower ones are very wet. There's a meeting at 9 to tell us what's going to happen...

Duncan aggregate resultsx are HERE.

As you can see, we had 2 ranges of 1000. Conditions were a bit patchy actually. The wind was dropping off then picking up, for some many times in their shoot. Rod Davies had a magnificent 59 at the last 1000 using his 7mm, and a clear win in the Duncan. He even finished ahead of F-Std, quite an achievement of late.

So tomorrow the main event starts. This is going to be good. Cameron has arrived, the Elliots are expected. Kel Bell has a sciatica and won't be shooting, but the next generation of Bells will be here.

Weather will be quite windy, but being the shorter ranges, should be manageable.

Back tomorrow night.

Alan

I've been stuck helping with a wedding at this week..... Worst timing ever.....

Hello again from Belmont. More extreme weather today, this time not rain but wind. I gather from the locals that it was unusually severe. Looking through the RESULTS for all classes, there were some big surprises both with good and bad scores.

I can give some info about calibres now.

Rod Davies 6x47, 284 Win, Cameron McEwen 284Win, Alan Fraser 6.5-284, Ken Larkin 6BR, 6.5*55AI, John Tracey 284Win, Julie McEwen 6BR, 6x47, Andrew Pearce 284Win, Chris Bell 6.5-284, Barry Lewis 6x47, Meichelle Knudsen 6BR, Tim Larkin 243, Jim Dunsmore 6BR, David Reddan 243Win, Brent Knudsen 6BR. I still need to get info from Kerod Lindley and Annie Elliot.

Rod Davies has opened up a bit of gap, and given that his hummer barrel hasn't come out yet, he may take some catching. However Cameron has won this event for the previous 2 years, so the next couple of days will I think be a great competition.

Back tomorrow night after the double 900s.

Alan

Keep up the good work Rod.

Alan, it's about time you screwed your good barrel in.

See you soon Alan.

Cheers
Paul

paul,
he's keeping his good barrel for the sara queens.
it takes a good barrel to win a new barrel.
the other thing is that he will need the best barrel he has down here, because the competion is so much fiercer.
bruce moulds.
p.s.
when you shoot out of 100.10, the barrel has to be so much better than out of 60.10

I'm wondering if some sort of bullshit protective device would be the most important thing to take to SA .

Weather was quite windy again today, but improved over the course of the day and the last ones down would have felt very fortunate. Well things are hotting up in F-Open. We have a 3 way battle for the lead at the end of day 2. I had a good day and took the daily agg ahead of Cameron and Julie McEwan. RESULTS

In the progressive points for the Queens Agg, I lead Rod Davies by 1 with Cameron 1 further back. About 7 further back in 4th is Julie, whom I distinctly remember saying when I first met her on Wednesday that she wasn't any good at the longs. Her score today was 11 better than yesterday! Chris Bell was another one who made good ground today.

We're expecting placid conditions in the morning so the 1000 may not be too hard.

Back tomorrow night for the wrap-up.

Alan

congrat's on day 2 Alan keep it up m8

Hello again from Belmont. Time for the wrap-up. Weather was beautiful today, and conditions pretty easy at times, except when the fish-tailing was on, and some got badly caught by that. I had a very hard-fought win in the Queens by 3 points over Rod, with Cameron back a further 7. There was only 1 point between Rod and I coming into today - I was down first at 900 in very nice conditions and got 60. Rod used his 6 Dasher and did the same later (as did Andrew Pearce who counted us out for the range win). At 1000, I was last down on my target, so when Rod got a 56 with his 7mm, I also needed 56 to stay ahead because of his much higher X count. I thought it looked very achievable until the wind changed just as I got down. However the new condition settled after a few minutes with very helpful mirage, and my 58 was good enough.

Given the credentials of the other shooters (e.g. top 4 all multiple Queens winners), I would have to rate this win as my best. It was marred a little by equipment trouble (Cameron and to a lesser extent Rod) had more problems with elevation than I did, but I guess its all part of the game to have your gear sorted.

It was great meeting up with some of the "names" I knew from the results sheets e.g. Cameron and Julie McEwan, and seeing a few first-timers in Queens as well.

On the subject of mixed squadding, I had a discussion with James Corbett, and he is very much in favour of it. I'm starting to see the benefits of it now - the down sides are obvious, but the benefits will be gradual - one will be that we should start to get a few F-Std and TR shooters joining F-Open as they get the opportunity to look at and discuss the gear etc. When we were squadded in our own group it was probably fairly intimidating for outsiders to take an interest.

Well, I'll be starting the long drive home in the morning, if road conditions allow, down the western side of NSW I hope.

Thanks for tuning in.

Next blog will hopefully be from WA.

Alan