National Queens F-Open Blog

[AlanF]

Hello to all of the F-Open shooters not here (that means BOTH of you ),

I'm here early for this one, and so are all of both FCWC teams because we have a full day's team practice tomorrow. In fact most (all?) of the FO team won't be shooting the first day of the leadup because we're doing another day's team practice instead. This is the first time the full team has had practice, so we're making the most of it.

I had a 16 hour drive to get here, and other than hitting a roo it was fairly uneventful. Actually, the damage to the Sube was minimal, and the roo hopped away to cause another accident one day... Still it made me think that flying may be a good option next time.

As far as the first day's gossip, maybe Tony Berry (ecomeat) will oblige, and I'm sure he'll capture a few embarrassing photos as well.

Catch you later in the week.

Alan

[ecomeat]

Whoo hoo ! It would be a pleasure to assist , Mr Webmaster.i will see what I can do re a short report and a couple of photos.
Hopefully I won't embarass myself or any one else.
Just a reminder to everyone that we will be trying to track you down with a short, easy "Equipment List" questionnaire that we ask you to fill in and get back to me so that Alan can publish it for all of the interested parties out there who are keen to see what makes up the starting line at a typical high quality F Class line-up.
Something like 1900 views of the one we got posted after the QRA Queens last August, so I think it pretty clear that a lot of shooters are quite interested to know what everyone else is "using".
Tony

[Southcape]

Well you will drive a SubaROO. i am about to head to the airport. See you guys in the morning!

[Paul Janzso]

Gee, I thought I could get away unnoticed.

Enjoy the practice, listen to your coaches and manager.

Cheers
Paul

[Norm]

Hello to all of the F-Open shooters not here (that means BOTH of you ),
Alan

Yeah, rub it in!
Good luck to all the competitors. Have a great time.

[Paul Janzso]

Any news yet?
Cheers
Paul

[ecomeat]

Any news yet?
Cheers
Paul

Paul and others ,
I am just waiting on Catherine at NRAA to emai me the days final "tally"of the results, in PDF format so that I can post it here
The FCWC F Open team didn't compete today, due to a Team practice day out at Ipswich Rife Club, but The whole F T/R team all seemed to be competing.
F Standard was also well supported and there were some good scores shot. I know Ernie Mace , an F Standard A grader, shot a 60-6 at the first 500 yards, when the wind was quite difficult . The wind all day was actually quite tricky. The first 300 it was just a constant, an even 1 to 1.5 moa from the right. Still tricky, but also fairly consistent . There were 5 or 6 of us shooting F Open with 60's.
Then the first 500 it was far less "constant" , so everyone had to work for a decent score.
Some got to shoot in decent conditions.......and some weren't so lucky. When we broke for lunch at that stage, I am fairly sure there was still 5 or 6 of us, separated just by X's.
The second 500 straight after lunch sorted things out a bit. The wind had changed 180 degrees and was now coming from the left, or East. That was a bit scarey when the forecast for Moreton Bay was 35 knot Easterlies......thats about 40 mph.
I dropped two, but Mark Fairbairn shot a 60, as did Matt Paroz I think.
Then the final 600 yds was a real mix. Some got to shoot in near perfect conditions whilst others , again, we're not quite so lucky.
I was with Mark Fairbairn watching Matt Paroz finish his day, dropping two points with his 280 AI that had been in superb form all day. Mark pointed out that the exact same conditions last Sunday at Natives OPM had seen very good shooters looking at zero wind on EVERY FLAG except the third one in the centre, and where a small flutter on it, whilst everything else hung loose, saw lots of 4's and even 3's being scored.
I guess it's just a case of "welcome to Belmont"
I am only just in the door at home, an hour or more drive from Belmont, so give me an hour or two, and I will get some photos up.
I know that Mark Fairbairn only dropped one point for the day, and shot a couple of different calibres to do so. I am virtually certain that he would have had to have taken the days honors, but will confirm that with the formal results shortly (I hope !!!!)
Tony

[bruce moulds]

well done tony.
you do this well.
bruce.

[ecomeat]

I am still waiting on the promised email, so at nearly 9 pm i had better face reality......its not looking good !
The following are the scores from the final range today, at 600 yards and was compiled from photos i took of the scoreboards. I am sorry that at this stage its a full mixture of F Open, F T/R and F Standard, but it will hopefully serve to give you a bit of an idea as to how the day went.

600 Yards -Range 4- at Presidents
Mark Fairbairn 60.6
Lyle Tillack 60.4
Col Sutton 60.3
M Hallaran 60.2
Greg Warrian 59.5
Kelvin Bell 59.4
J Mayers 59.3
Ben Ferrara 59.2
Tony Berry 59.1
R Betts 58.5
Ernie Mace 58.4
Steve Lazarus 58.4
Brent Noble 58.4
D Blocksidge 58.3
Niki Slee 57.3
Jenni Hausler 57.2
P Brown 56.5
H Jarc 56.5
S Sharp 56.4
C Hodges 56.3
B Kinnear 56.3
Rod Mahon 56.2
Darryl Barlow 56.2
D McNamara 56.1
M Willment 55.3
L Crombie 55.2
B Southern 54.3
A Seaman 54.1
J Koch 53.1
C Carbery 53.0
Josh Reid 51.1

Sorry that there are quite a few "first names" that i just dont know , because i have never met the shooters .
Dave McNamara from Cairns will be shooting from tomorrow....and i understand that the D McNamara listed above is his dad.


Dont expect to see the Belmont flags looking like this for very long. They lasted for all of 3 seconds today !!


This one serious sunshade that Barry Southern uses :


Greg Warrian had a pretty good shoot today at all ranges. He drives that little 6BR (I think thats what it is !!) as good as anyone that I have seen.


Col Sutton from Goondiwindi ( seen below scoring for Greg Warrian) was another competitor who had a great shoot at 3 of his 4 ranges today.


Matt Paroz packs up a the end of today......same old bright coloured stock as last years QRA Queens 6.5 x 47 Lapua, but since then a worn 284 Win barrel has been rechambered into a hair splittingly accurate 280 AI.


Alan Fraser will be back onto his normal "Queens Blog" routine from tomorrow, so hopefully between the two of us we can get you the full results then.
Tony

[AlanF]

Here's a photo of the daily agg.

[Paul Janzso]

Great work Tony
Cheers
Paul

[Quick]

Awesome, congrats to Mark and Matt P for some good shooting and Bob Kinnear aswell as he's a fellow sandgroper and looks like he's doing well with his 7mmSAUM.

[ecomeat]

Matt set the bar pretty high at 800 yards, solid but consistent wind from the Right........60-10 !Mark Fairbairn was 59-4.
DarrylBarlow back in form in FTR with 60-6.
Will chase up other scores ASAP.....shifting back to 900 now
Following are all from the 800 yards.
Cam McEwan 60-10
Marty Lobert 60-9
Dave McNamara 59-6

[bruce moulds]

tony,
some of these guys need to visit lower light range in spring for reality check.
keep safe,
bruce.

[Paul Janzso]

Your totally right with that statement Bruce.
My problem at Mackay was over reading the near nonexistent wind and winding when I should have just shot.
I was giving Lower Light a big plug when I was at Mackay but I think people are scared to come over and give it a go.
Paul