OzFclass

Today is Day Two of the leadup event , the Duncan Series .
Full results from yesterday are up on line on the NRAA website under Results
www.nraa.com.au/qra-queens-2013-results/
I wont get there myself till the Queens itself starts on Thursday, and will try and dress it up with a few photos and stretched truths over the course of the main event.
In the Duncan Series, there are 11 in F Open, 17 in F Standard A Grade, 12 in F Standard B Grade and a total of 105 in TR (79 A Grade, 20 B Grade & 6 in C Grade)

A couple of notable interstate visitors in F Open are Spencer Dunstall from Ungarie RC, and David Goldberg from Cessnock RC who both had good results. Spencer won the 1st 500 yards range , whilst David Goldberg won both the 600 yard ranges which saw him finish the day in 2nd position in the Aggregate.
Meichelle Knudsen from Beaudesert RC was in front at the end of Day One on 235-17, with David Goldberg in 2nd place just 4 X's back on 235-13.
Brent Knudsen from Beaudesert was third on 234-18.
Paul Janszo has made the trip to Belmont from way out West, , along with Gary Towers, and Col Sutton from Goondiwindi who is no doubt itching to give his new "big boomer" a run over the longer ranges. Col has got a new 30 cal "something" going....i think its a 300 WSM but will confirm this.
In F Standard A Grade, both first place holder Nic Williamson from Emerald with 235-23, and James Blomfield from Bowen RC in second place with 235-21 would have beaten the F Open field home for the day with their great "X" scores.
In Target Rifle, Geoff Grenfell led the day with 200-30, from 3 other "possibles". Peter Schafferius in second on 200-25, his Pacific RC team mate Bill Baker third on 200-19, and Wendy Latham from Natives on 200-18.

Results online, but it was a good result for Beaudesert Rifle Clubs Meichelle and Brent Knudsen taking First and Second place respectively, with Col Sutton from Goondiwindi taking the 3rd badge on offer

F Open - FO
1 KNUDSEN MEICHELLE BEAUDESERT QLD L 351.25
2 KNUDSEN BRENT BEAUDESERT QLD 350.23
3 SUTTON COLIN GOONDIWINDI QLD 348.21
4 Goldberg David Cessnock Rifle Club Inc. NSW 347.19
5 JANZSO PAUL STEPHEN BARCALDINE QLD 345.26
6 MCGOWAN CRAIG BRISBANE QLD 345.22
7 Dunstall Spencer Ungarie Rifle Club Inc. NSW 344.23
8 PEARCE ANDREW NORTH ARM QLD 343.22
9 TOWERS GARY BARCALDINE QLD 343.19
10 BELL KELVIN BRISBANE QLD 337.16
11 SCHNEIDER LINDSAY BRISBANE QLD 326.21


In F Standard A Grade , Nic Williamson is on a role, and beat local Ernie Mace home by 4 points. Brent Noble from Ipswich took Third
F Standard - A
1 WILLIAMSON NICHOLAS GEMFIELDS QLD 352.29
2 MACE ERNIE CENTRAL QLD 348.16
3 NOBLE BRENT IPSWICH & DIST QLD 346.26

Nic's score would have won the F Open aggregate for the Duncan if he had chosen to shoot "Open". This is one class shooter !

Well done Meichelle and Nick! Thanks for the reports Tony. Looks like conditions played a part in the Queens day 1?

Alan

I see that F Standard B is leading the whole F Class field in the first days agg of the Queens.
Go for it Dennis.

jt.

Alan and Team, sorry for the blank info tonite. I will take a camera tomorrow Friday and hopefully get some decent photos.
Wind certainly had an influence today.....big time ! It ate me up and spat me out .....i scored my first ever 50 out of 60 ( a PB that i hope to never see again) at the first 600 yards. Stops, starts and let offs that were certainly cruel. And while some of us did get really foul conditions, you just cant take a thing away from the two older, experienced campaigners who showed us all just how it should be done in F Open. Barry Lewis and Kelvin Bell quite simply shot superbly in trying conditions, and finished 1 and 2 for the day.
The Top Ten in F Open were as follows

F Open - FO
1 LEWIS BARRY BRISBANE QLD 233.20
2 BELL KELVIN BRISBANE QLD 233.17
3 ATKINS WAYNE DOUGLAS CANNON HILL RSL QLD 232.17
4 MCGOWAN CRAIG BRISBANE QLD 231.18
5 TOWERS GARY BARCALDINE QLD 231.15
6 SUTTON COLIN GOONDIWINDI QLD 230.15
7 SCHNEIDER LINDSAY BRISBANE QLD 229.8
8 JANZSO PAUL STEPHEN BARCALDINE QLD 228.15
9 Goldberg David Cessnock Rifle Club Inc. NSW 228.13
10 KNUDSEN BRENT BEAUDESERT QLD 227.14

Then just coz he needed some practise, Barry Lewis shot 90-10 to beat myself (89-8 or 9) and Col Sutton from Goondiwindi (88-7, I think) in the shoot off for District Champion of Champions that had been deferred a couple of times from earlier in the year due to bad weather.
QRA had us shoot a single 15 shot match at the end of the Queens day from 600 yards to decide the winners.
In case anybody missed it, Barry would have finished a clean Second place to Dave McNamara in the NRAA Queens in June if he hadnt shot an X on the next door target when he used a borrowed pedestal rest that he wasnt used to. He will be a hard man to beat in this years F Open Queens on his home range.
My Beaudesert Club mate Lee Robinson won the TR A Grade District Champion of Champions, which was a great result . I will report of the Under 25s and Veterans tomorrow.
I will have to check this Dennis Formiatti out tomorrow and report back on him !! To win the day in F Standard B Grade with a higher score than A Grade or F Open is an outstanding result on any day, let alone one like today where the wind was pretty cruel to some.
Only two possibles in TR A Grade is a pretty fair indicator to todays conditions.
Gotta go for now, and do some reloading

Hay Tony what happened Nick from Gemfields ????.

Phil,
G'day mate. Dave Hatherell and I were talking today about how we missed you !
I understand Nic's knee sort of 'blew out" on him. Apparently it just let go, causing him to crash to the ground. I didnt see it, but it was pretty serious, apparently. He literally had to retire.
Lowell Tillack also had to retire with a troublesome neck, which was bad luck for him.

Day two at the Queens today saw us shooting 500, 800 then 900 twice. Once again the winds played a serious part of the days proceedings, with most mortals scores being closely related to the luck of the draw re conditions when they lay down to shoot.
It was still a great day to be at Belmont.


Can anyone identify this shooter of large cannons with the unique leg position ??


Barry Lewis once again had a great days shooting and leads the pack after Day Two
F Open - FO
1 LEWIS BARRY BRISBANE QLD 468.38
2 SUTTON COLIN GOONDIWINDI QLD 467.37
3 PEARCE ANDREW NORTH ARM QLD 463.24

Col Suttons performance today with his 7mm/300 when he pulled it out for the "longs" will possibly cause a rush on orders for similar big boomers. It kicks like hell, by the look of it, and has a barrel life expectancy of about 800 rounds, but with someone like Col "driving it" , it was superb to watch in the wind. The photo below was his second 900 yards.

Barry Lewis still held his own with his 284 Win though, and is an absolute pleasure to watch, shooting 180 VLDs at a pleasant 2700 fps or so. He continues to show great form.

Barry Lewis helps Craig McGowan to understand how the wind effected a costly shot of Craigs


Even though our main interest here is F Class, there is definitely something about TR that warrants a second look

North Arm marksman Colin Cole leads the TR pack at the end of day two.

Steve Small from Beaudesert RC and Phil Kraut from University of Qld RC always enjoy their TR shooting


Dennis Formiatti from Canberra RC, pictured below with his tube gun,has a huge 14 point lead in F Standard B Grade, and i will let you know what I found out about him tomorrow. I would like to be able to get some money wagered on him becoming a top grade F Open or F Std A Grade shooter within the next year.


In F Std A Grade, North Queenslander James Blomfield is continuing his great form, and has a one point lead over Bob Pedersen from Tasmania.

F Standard - A
1 BLOMFIELD JAMES BOWEN RIFLE CLUB INC. QLD 462.24
2 Pedersen Bob Hobart Target Rifle Club TAS 461.24
3 Drew Peter Grafton Rifle Club Inc. NSW 457.21

And finally for tonite, some photos, especially ones taken at 900 yards, just dont need a caption

That is bad luck. I was hopping to see you guys at the Goondi prize but I'm on shif again that weekend. I'm hoping to get to Barcaldine it a good shoot. G'day to Dave and good luck to the two of you tomorrow.

That shooter of large cannons appears to be Paul Janszo
Regards Malcolm.

It certainly is Malcolm
I only met him for the first time a couple of days ago, and I wanted to see how long it took for someone to name him, based on "style"
He is well placed, and primed for a big finish thismorning

Well done Barry Lewis and Bob Ped . Not surprised about Barry - he went very close in the Nationals. On the other hand Bob Ped has been very unwell, so has done extremely well.

Alan

I spent an hour last night on a report, then hit the wrong button and deleted it. Bugger !! I actually uttered a couple of other words.

Yesterday for the final day of the 123rd QRA Queens it was back to "the longs" at 900 and 1000 yards. Just like last year, Belmont turned it on at the 1000 yard mound to make it really, really interesting. She threw the bloody lot at us, with blustery, shifting conditions, wild and sudden direction changes and headwinds and tailwinds......seemingly at the same time ! I know i have only been at this for two years, but i didnt even know it was possible to have near perfect windage, but have massive elevation differences of 20" to 30" on successive shots . Thank you Belmont for the lesson. I think Ernie Mace is probably the most gifted wind reader that i have seen shoot fairly regularly, and when someone like him gets up after shooting a 51-1 at 1000, you just know that the rest of us are in deep doo-doos !!
There were plenty of 1's and 2's recorded, and many had the experience of correcting from a 1 or 2 on one side, and then immediately getting the same score on the far side of the target.
Still, other than than the shattering effect it had on a lot of shooters, it was a beautiful sunny day, and a capacity crowd right to the finish.


After my own devastating 50 scored at the 600 on Day1........I may need psychological help...... I lifted a rather huge monkey off my back with a 60-3 at the 900, and followed up with a 53-2 at 1000 to finish 3rd in the Days aggregate, two points behind the ever consistent Paul Janzso and Barry Lewis, who finished the Day on 115-8 and 115-5 respectively and ended up 7th overall in the Queens.
At the 1000 Yards itself, it was Craig McGowan on 56-1, followed by Paul Janzso on 55-2, and Barry Lewis on 55-1 taking the range.

McGowan and Janzso shot superbly first up, and side by side at 1000 yards

The final Top Ten for the Queens in F Open were as follows
F Open - FO
1 LEWIS BARRY BRISBANE QLD 583.43
2 SUTTON COLIN GOONDIWINDI QLD 577.41
3 PEARCE ANDREW NORTH ARM QLD 575.31
4 JANZSO PAUL BARCALDINE QLD 572.38
5 TOWERS GARY BARCALDINE QLD 571.34
6 KNUDSEN BRENT BEAUDESERT QLD 571.28
7 BERRY ANTHONY BEAUDESERT QLD 568.31
8 MCGOWAN CRAIG BRISBANE QLD 567.37
9 DUNSTALL Spencer Ungarie RC. NSW 566.38
10 KNUDSEN Meichelle BEAUDESERT QLD 565.36

It was definitely another great event with an enthralling finish, and will undoubtedly have many of us back again next year, and hoping to do a little better . Craig McGowan and I were having a beer at the end of the day, and he pointed out to me that based on the fact that 15 of the best F Open shooters in Australia were all in the USA competing at present, then if we factor that in we both did just a little bit worse than last year !
Like all events of this calibre, there were lots of old friends to catch up with, new friends made, superstars in action, and a couple of new stars discovered.

The "Grafton Mafia" held a short committee meeting. Great to see Vince Northfield back at Belmont, even if he didnt compete. His lifetime mate Tony McKenna shot in F Standard this Queens As one of the proprietors of Wild Dog Stocks, Vince has outshot most of the best in Australia at OPMs and Queens at some stage. Tony McKenna is working in the wilds of Western Australia driving trains loaded with iron ore and other valuable commodities these days, and as a "fly in, fly out" operator he doesnt get to do as much shooting as he used to.

Speaking of Masters in action, in TR, the affable Colin Cole held it all together to record an impressive win. After dropping just two for a 48-6 at the 1000 yards, he had a looooong and nervous wait till it was confirmed that he was a worthy winner of the Queens, his 496-63 putting him 3 points clear of Ashley Bidgood from Crows Nest Goombungee RC on 493-51.
All top 5 gongs for TR stayed in Queensland this year.
Target Rifle - A
1 COLE COLIN NORTH ARM QLD 496.63
2 Bidgood Ash CROWS NEST G/BUNGEE QLD 493.51
3 O LOGHLEN KIM NATIVES QLD 492.53
4 EDSER GEORGE CENTRAL QLD 492.53
5 BRDJANOVIC MIJO BRISBANE QLD 492.50



Col also took out the TR Grand Aggregate

In the "discovery section" , its hard to overlook the new boy, Dennis Formiatti. He won F Standard B Grade by a rather significant 26 points, and his score of 567-11 would have seen him finish 3rd in F Std A Grade and 9th in F Open.

This is the third Queens he has shot in, following his introduction to the sport in January 2012, but has only done 3 or 4 Club shoots since he got serious just 8 months ago and took delivery of his new toy.
Its a 308 of course, a CG Inch action, with an Archer barrel, in an Elisseo stock, and wears a Sightron S111 scope.
Dennis is an architect by profession, based in Canberra, and as the son-in-law of Queenslander Dr Michael Sweet, its a wonder he didnt get roped in years ago.

In F Standard A Grade, the 2013 Queens Top Ten were as follows :
F Standard - A
1 Pedersen Bob Hobart Target Rifle Club TAS 570.33
2 Blomfield James BOWEN RIFLE CLUB INC. QLD 570.27
3 Brook John Gilgandra Rifle Club Inc. NSW 564.31
4 Drew Peter Grafton Rifle Club Inc. NSW 564.25
5 Blocksidge Dick ALBERT DIST QLD 562.28
6 NOBLE BRENT IPSWICH & DIST QLD 561.28
7 MACE ERNIE CENTRAL QLD 558.27
8 RUSH GLENN IPSWICH & DIST QLD 558.24
9 Halloran Robert Junee NSW 552.22
10 CROMBIE LINDSAY BRISBANE QLD 552.19

Hopefully we will all be back in 2014, and if the 15 or so Open shooters currently in the USA want to go back at the same time next year and for some years to come, to visit your new friends, then thats OK with most of us.
Just do it !!

Tony Berry

Here I am at Augathela, still 340 kms from home and still wide eyed and buzzing from the totally enthraling, gob smacking experience of shooting on what I would rate at what I have experienced as one of the toughest wind challenging ranges that has been surveyed in Australia.
I have not shot, yet on a lot of Australia's ranges but I have shot on some very challenging ranges, wind wise but this last QLD Queens has been a real eye opener, a great challenge , a real learning curve and a great opportunity to meet some more real great shooting competitors.
Cheers to the winners, all the shooters, the RO's, the people that made such an event happen. What a great complex and staff that run it and make it happen.
Cheers
Paul Janzso

paul,
you are subverting the image of lower light!
bruce.