NTRA Queens

[AlanF]

Hello from Darwin,

My first visit here and its pretty much what I was led to expect in terms of heat and humidity. Its been about 33 every day, and very sticky in the evenings. The locals say its unusually warm for this time of year. Like Alice, the range is very well equipped with cantilever targets (competitor marking), and has very good buildings. Unfortunately also like Alice, it is under-utilised. In this the main event of the year, looks like only about a quarter of the targets are needed. The Darwin Rifle Club do a great job in maintaining it.

Again, Jan Dyer is overseeing the stats and the results are being kept up to date throughout the day on the NRAA website HERE.

F-Open calibres as follows :

A Fraser : 284 Shehane
C Bland : 6.5x47
H Jarc : 6.5x55
W Gibson : 6.5-284
M Butterfield : 308 Win

Conditions have been as tough as any I have seen at a Queens, but patchy enough to allow a few very good scores. Wind has been changing quite quickly up to strong at times, made more difficult from about 600m back because trajectory is above flag level, as at ANZAC range.

We're not expecting many (any?) more starters for the Queens in the morning. Sorry no photos yet. Back tomorrow night.

Alan

[AlanF]

My apologies for not posting last night. Thought I had actually, but mustn.t have got past the preview stage .

Anyway, its now the end of day 2 with just 800 and 900m to go tomorrow. Conditions have been pretty tough, particularly during the middle of the day, with winds getting up to strong in some parts of the range, and changing very quickly. The locals say it is unusually hot and windy for this time of year.

In F-Std, Terry Brewer, Stu Sluggett and Ron Betts are only 3 points apart in the lead, and in F-Open I have a comfortable lead over Casey Bland, who is putting up a good effort with his Rem 700 on a Harris bipod. His 123gn projectiles are only doing about 2800 MV so I reckon he' be a very tough opponent with normal F-Open gear.

Some pics from the Lou Hook Memorial (leadup).

The Mickett Creek Range. We did have to mark, but we didn't have to get the hay in (fortunately).



The shooters in front of the marker bus.



Richard Steel won the Day 1 F-Std daily agg in a shoot-off with Peter Drew, Terry Brewer third


Winners of all grades in the Lou Hook


I promise to get back a bbit sooner with some more pics after its over tomorrow. As usual results are being updated promptly HERE.

Alan

[Norm]

well done Alan.
From your tan, you look like you are enjoying the warn weather and sun shine up that way Alan. Make the most of it, as its not real warm back down this way.

[DaveMc]

Going to be an interesting story about Alans 3,0,0 (38.1) at 800m today I am sure....

Congrats to all winners

[AlanF]

Going to be an interesting story about Alans 3,0,0 (38.1) at 800m today I am sure.... ...

Didn't take long for that to get discovered.
Okay here goes :

It was a dark and stormy night...

Ah you want the truth. Well I can only tell you what I saw. In short I got a 3 at 1 o'clock for no reason in the conditions, so after checking for loose clamps etc everywhere I concluded it was the scope. Being well prepared for this possibility I rushed back to the car and got the trusty Leupold, clamped it on and used some translation tables to set the H an V turrets. Miss! Someone said it went high, so came down 5 points. Miss! Gave up on the Leupold strategy, got a 3 minute warning as the Sightron went back on. Finished shooting at 17 mins exactly, relieved to find out I was still 1 point ahead of Casey.

The storal of the mory is to practice what you preach. I'm always saying to people, its almost never the scope!

What caused the maggie I don't know, probably several things conspired in one direction e.g. conditions, bad shot, rest not settled, bad round etc. and I got spooked into thinking the scope had let go. It held very good elevation at 900 so almost certainly not the Sightron's fault. What caused the Leupold to be wrong is that I applied the windage translations to the V turret, and elevation to the H - doh! Fortunately I'll be able to have a laugh about the day's events rather than a cry.

Results are all on the NRAA website. The presentation will be about 5pm followed by a dinner. I should have a few more pics to publish in the morning.

Alan

[OuttaAmmo]

Congrats Alan on the win.
I was outclassed, outgunned and outshot. Simple as that.
On the plus side my shooting was that consistently bad that I didn't have to second guess the scope

Thanks for making the journey up here. And thanks to everyone else making it here to shoot. Special mention to Jeff from Rosedale who has been up here and shot a few times over the past year or so.

-Casey

[jcinsa]

Congratulations to all the winners !

But I must say, I'm very impressed Alan !

I can only imagine how you felt, swapping scopes, getting 2 misses, and you remained calm enough to go back to your original scope , with the clock ticking !

The mind boggles !

Talk about calm under fire !

Nerves of steel !

Seriously, an outstanding effort, great comeback !

Regards. John

[RAVEN]

Alan congratulations you were lucky to get away with that
Wll done to Terry and Richard Steel also

[AlanF]

Last post from Darwin :

...I was outclassed, outgunned and outshot...

You're too hard on yourself Casey. Out-gunned perhaps, but that's all. A warning to all you F/TR shooters, that's what Casey's got his eye on for the future. Very few people can handle a Harris bipod as well as he can, so beware.

...you were lucky to get away with that...

Agreed - if the Sightron had really let go then it would have been the end of my Queens. As it was I finished last in the daily agg.

...I can only imagine how you felt, swapping scopes, getting 2 misses, and you remained calm enough to go back to your original scope , with the clock ticking ...

Yes there was a bit of pressure, but David Durant's son is an Afghanistan vet, and he called in at the range a couple of times, and I thought, this isn't pressure - he knows what pressure is.

Despite the near disaster, and the heat and dust and wind, I really enjoyed this Queens, something quite different from the usual. I reckon only the tough would keep coming back to this one - the ones who would be opening batsmen in a cricket team!

A few pics from Richard Steel (thanks Richard), all from the main presentation :

Jim Jeffrey thought he blew all his chances on day 1 but he fought back over the 3 days to snatch victory from Lenny Hayes




Terry Brewer made up for his mistakes at Darwin to win a very close one from former Vic and now local Stu Sluggett.




A relieved me!




All the winners




Was pleasant outside for the presentation




There will be another blog from the Nats in about a week. Catch you then.

Alan

[mwbutterfield]

Well done Alan, hoping you enjoyed your stay and we see you up here again!

and I certainly have a lot of things to learn before I have another crack at a queens...

[OuttaAmmo]

Well done Alan, hoping you enjoyed your stay and we see you up here again!

and I certainly have a lot of things to learn before I have another crack at a queens...

Like "don't shoot at the wrong target"?

[Gadget]

Allan, Allan
Crocks n Socks
You are definitely Victorian.

[AlanF]

Allan, Allan
Crocks n Socks
You are definitely Victorian.

I'm tired of my rifle's appearance being bagged, so the crocs are a diversion. Seriously, if you had as many biting ants as the NT, then you'd be wearing socks too.

[mwbutterfield]

Well done Alan, hoping you enjoyed your stay and we see you up here again!

and I certainly have a lot of things to learn before I have another crack at a queens...

Like "don't shoot at the wrong target"?

yeah something like that...

still have a bit of laugh about antics down behind the butt.
"shot on target 7!"