North Arm, Qld Open Prize Meeting

[ecomeat]

North Arm and Lilley Districts held their 92nd OPM over the weekend at the Davison range at North Arm, just inland from Queenslands beautiful Sunshine Coast.
As proven today, "North Arm"'s winds can truly test any shooter, with a fair percentage (probably 30-40%) of the range protected from todays Westerly winds in the centre of the range by large trees and farm structures ,. but both ends subject to everything that mother nature can throw around.
I arrived at the range this morning to hear numerous stories of the pain inflicted by Saturdays winds on a quality field of F Class shooters, and it certainly looked as though today would be no different. Temps of 22-23 degrees, and dramatic changes in wind velocity and direction were the order of the day for a total field of 64 shooters that included 27 F Class entrants.
Of the 27 in F Class, a total of 16 were shooting F Open and included recently returned Australian reps at Raton New Mexico Darryl Barlow, Mark Fairbairn and Jenny Hausler.
F Class shot on two electronic targets for the whole day, whilst TR shot on conventional ICFRA marked targets that were well handled by a slick team up in the butts.
Saturdays F Open shooting, done over 300 yds, 400 yds and 500 yds had been well won by Vince Northfield from Brisbanes Cannon Hill Rifle Club, who had continued the great form that had seen him win F Open events recently at both Goondiwindi and Warwick in Qld.
Ben Curley was second on 174-10, with Mark Fairbairn 3rd on 174-9.
Julie McEwan was 4th on 173-7 and Cameron McEwan finished in 5th on 172-10


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F Open for today, shot over 10 shots at 500 yards, 600 yards and a second 600 yards was taken out by Norm Arm shooter Ben Curley who beat a quality field home. Ben calls Gympie home, but shoots at North Arm as his home club. Ben achieved his great win today shooting 142 grain SMK's that are jammed some 0.020" in a 6.5 x 284 built on a RBLP Nesika K action and a 1 in 8" twist heavy Maddco barrel that is just starting to really hum after approx 200 rounds. Optics are a Nightforce 8-32 power NXS scope.
His total today of 173-15 was just enough to put Andrew Pearce on 173-13 into second place, with experienced Brisbane shooter Kelvin Bell just 2 more "X's" behind on 173-11 taking out third.
Julie McEwan was just one point away in 4th, and husband Cameron one point behind Julie again in fifth place.
The Grand Aggregate for the two days saw the F Open title go to Ben Curley again, with score of 347-25.
Vince Northfield showed great consistency to take second in the Grand Aggregate with 344-16, with Dalby/Tara's well known Julie McEwan just two "x's" away in third, on 344-14.
Vince's second is quite noteworthy, because he hadn't really intended to stay for Sunday but after shooting so well with 36 or so carefully prepared handloads on day one, he shot the first two rounds today using up a range of "left over" loads from numerous dates and differing powder charges that many of us are guilty of leaving in our ammunition boxes.
After a not-so-happy first 600 yds with his own 7mm-08 , he borrowed business partner Mark Fairbairns .284 Win and shot it for the first time ever for another 56-1 at 600, which gained him his second place in the Grand Aggregate.
Also noteworthy was Cameron McEwans consistency over the windy weekend shooting his 6 x 47 "Swiss Miss" against a field that included mainly 7mm high BC rifles in .284 Win, 7mm-08 and 300 Win Mag.
North Arm ran a very professional OPM and should be on the list for every F Classer in this part of the world who enjoys good shooting, good company and a great organising committee


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A look at my own score for the 500 yds thismorning (near the bottom of the results photo) shows what can happen if one is sufficiently disorganised.....late down onto the ground, rushing, big switching winds, winding a scope the wrong way so that the second sighter doesnt even register, overcompensating etc to drop 9 points. Much more care for the 600 yards saw a dramatic improvement in stages 2(won the range !!) and 3, but its just too far back after dropping 9 !!, More good competition at OPM's , more care and much more thorough preparation is surely needed to prevent this happening again. A good lesson has been learnt.

Tony Berry

[aaronraad]

I assume you didn't take the little 224-80gr's into a comp?

I also assumed Cameron was saving the rest of the 284-180gr's for testing instead of comp use?

Vince posted a good result but I see Mark piped him on the X count. If only Vince would seat SMK's with the boat tails into the cases instead of the meplat. At least Vince was consistent with Mark's rifle

I see Andrew charmed everyone with his pleasant nature one the first day and then decided to tear the field a new...I mean apart at 500y on the 2nd day with a bit of local knowldege. Its not so much that you don't see the switch at North Arm on the short ranges, its just double what you actually see.

I miss shooting North Arm.

[ecomeat]

Aaron,
no sorry mate, i wasn,t game to take anything other than the 284 ! If i had taken a 223 for the 500 yds it wouldnt have been much of a test going on my own fluster induced stuff up, on the day (fifty bloody one!!).
I just couldnt get there for the 300-400-500 shot on Saturday, unfortunately.

I think Cameron may have been protecting the highly competitive life of his 284 barrel when he chose the little 6mm for North Arm, although when he faced the starter on Saturday morning he may have had second thoughts . Of course a range winning 60.4 straight up at 300, and wife Julie just 2 x X's behind on 60.2 would sure give you a bit of confidence that your choices were pretty spot on !

I appreciate that as a "bullet-smith" it must be frustratingly slow getting the feedback that you need on your bullets that a number of us have been lucky enough to have been given trial quantities of. Life and day jobs keep buggering attempts to have hours available for the required trial work but those who i have spoken to will get real results back to you at the earliest possible opportunity.

[DenisA]

Great write up Tony, cheers.

Although my little 6BR and I got annihilated, I really enjoyed the weekend. I contemplated not returning for Sunday as the wind at home was bending trees. I'm glad I did. I enjoyed meeting Julie and Cam for the first time amongst many others.

I'm really happy to be mixing it up with the F-open guys because we have some great people and talent in the game. F-std peeps are not too bad either

In my opinion the weather gods turned it on at the right time. In the last 2 years shooting weekly at NARC I haven't seen the wind that strong and so inconsistant strength wise.
We're all really lucky that we didn't get the usual erratic direction changes that are so common here.

Congrats Ben, love your work and congrats to everyone else that shot so well.

Cheers

[bartman007]

Good to see Julie and Cam having a good knock.

Cam, you really need to stop helping Julie. I think she knows how to shoot now

Congrats to the winners, and the Open shooters who are raising the number of competitors at prize meetings. It makes for great competition.

Cheers.

[aaronraad]

Aaron,
I appreciate that as a "bullet-smith" it must be frustratingly slow getting the feedback that you need on your bullets that a number of us have been lucky enough to have been given trial quantities of. Life and day jobs keep buggering attempts to have hours available for the required trial work but those who i have spoken to will get real results back to you at the earliest possible opportunity.

I decided to swap 'frustration' for 'persistance' long before I started down this path, so you will notice a lack of missed messages from me. I still have to subdue the shooter in me that wants to load them all up for myself and burn out a few barrels...that's frustration

[ecomeat]

Dennis,
I was quite interested in a comment that Ben Curley made when he was receiving his "gong", about the great cameraderie in F Class and I have to say that I think it is even improved, by the use of the electronic targets. When its full on competition (when isnt it ??!!) plenty of shooters are quite interested to see how other competitors are going at certain times, and with your electronic monitors giving such a super clear view of each and every shot, in real time, milliseconds after it was despatched downrange there were lots of times when there would be a bit of a spectator gallery of sorts, keen to watch how someone was doing, shot by shot.
Thats the first time that I have ever shot a match on electronic targets, and i have to say that I loved it. Newbie nerves saw me waste a few points by not zooming in after i was satisfactorily "on paper" with sighters but Mark Fairbairn then pointed out to me that by zooming in a bit, the electronic "shot".....which doesnt change size.....gives a massively clearer view of the 6 ring. Where i had been leaving the zoom (on a really wide view of the target) the tiny 6 ring was fully obscured by just a handful of shots, so i was completely missing out on the opportunity to understand precisely where my shots had landed. Thanks for setting me straight, big fella !!

[DenisA]

Tony I agree.

When your watching a shooter dropping them into the x ring on the monitor shot after shot, it's pretty exciting and you can't help but to be cheering them on quietly.

Watching the making of Andrew's 60.6 and Ben's 59.7 got me so Gee'd up I couldn't wait to get down and have another crack. My turn came and reality hit.

Getting so much enjoyment out of watching the monitors makes me realise I need to get a life.

[Cameron Mc]

Thanks for the excellent write up Tony.

It was a great event as usual. The conditions certainly lived up to expectations.

Cam, you really need to stop helping Julie. I think she knows how to shoot now

Mike, I am a glutten for punishment

I also assumed Cameron was saving the rest of the 284-180gr's for testing instead of comp use?

You are right there Aaron. I am also trying to prove I can still be competitive with the smaller calibres More punishment!

There is always next year. Will probably learn more adjectives to.

Cameron