OzFclass

Hello from Swanbourne. The first WA F-Open Queens since 2006 has begun, with the first 4 ranges of the leadup held today. When scores are available I believe they will be posted here : http://www.wara.asn.au/Queens/WARA-2010-Queens-Prize-Scores

I can tell you that there are 6 entries in the leadup and probably one or two more in the Queens. Its a start, and hopefully it will happen again next year.

Shooters and calibres : Warwick Brown 6 x 47 Lapua (115 Bergers), Mark Hamersley 6.5x55AI, Rod Shehan 223 AI, Andrew Lockwood 6.5x47 (123 Scenars), Scott Niven 220 Swift AI ( ) and yours truly 6.5-284.

Today was beautiful weather, 25 deg, bright sunshine. Light winds in the morning, then the sea breeze picked up in the afternoon, but not difficult. We had 4 ranges, 300, 700, 400, 800 and I won the daily agg by 1 point from Mark Hamersley.

There is no rain forecast for the next few days so should be uninterrupted. We have a 500 and 900 in the morning top complete the leadup, and the Queens begins in the afternoon. The electronic targets are interesting. At the end of the Queens I'll give my impressions of them, and perhaps that'll be of some use for anyone considering Kongsbergs or other electronic systems.

Back tomorrow night.

Alan

how did rod go im curious he using a rest he never used and grates on the daily agg Alan

Brad,

He had some probs initially getting used to the bipod, but by the end of the day was pretty happy. I know he had a bad second range - wound the wrong way, but had a couple of v good scores as well. Results are still not on the website - should be there in the morning.

Alan

thx Alan
If u ask me its not easy going from one disipline to another ive try it and i love TR the best but also to use strange gear is not a gd thing either but at least rod shot in the queens..... oh and i want an upgrade on that rest Rod.... My brother rings me tonight grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr he lives in perth asking can i fly over next week to start work GRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR....
Alan will call u after queens finished work has come my way

Sadly, unless I am being blind, there seems to not be any results being posted.

your not blind lyn i cant find them either

The website was upgraded, and I'm not sure where to find the scores now. I will ask Peter if the scores will on the website.

Lynn, I met your son today.

Hello again from Swanbourne. I'm sure we have the right link, but I'm assuming there's a problem with getting the results posted - maybe the statistician's just too busy with other things.

I can tell you the F-Open placings in the leadup (Duke) at least. I managed to hold off Mark Hamersley by 2 points in the end, and a fast finishing Warwick Brown was 2 further back in 3rd. Bill Hallam won F-Std. Conditions were on the whole pretty good, with very light winds in the morning then a very steady sea breeze in the afternoon.

The first 2 Queens ranges (300 and 700) were shot today, and both were won by Brett Bunyan, who is the only additional competitor in the Queens. He is using a 243AI, and hasn't shot since about 2006. He has won a WA Queens in F-Open in the past, so will no doubt figure in the results.

I found out today that the 1000yd on the last day will have a reduced field in all categories. In F-Open, its 5, so the bottom 2 will drop out, a bit like missing the cut in a golf tournament.

Back tomorrow night - may take a photo of the leader board if the website is still lagging.

Alan

Good luck to all the shooters over there, sounds like weather and conditions are great.
Why the reduced field at 1000yds?
What sort of aiming point do they have on the electronic targets?

Finally, results to date :

http://www.ozfclass.com/results/queens/wa2010.pdf

I'll scratch up a blog report later.

Alan

Blog time...

Conditions were pretty good again today. Although the sou-westerly wind was quite strong at times, I found it to be steady.

The most newsworthy item from the F-Open shooters was that Brett Bunyan, who has shot brilliantly and was leading at the time, put his last shot at 500 yds onto the wrong target. Had he not done that he would have had a 60, and been 3 points clear at the end of the day. As it is I've found myself in front with Mark and Brett 3 behind. Another shooter to watch is Andrew Lockwood, who is keeping a low profile, but is not too far back with his 6.5x47.

It looks like we might be in for some trickier conditions in the morning with south-easterlies. If its patchy, we could have some dramatic changes in the leaderboard.

As expected, Bill Hallam is at the front in F-Std. With a huge amount of experience in BR, and F-Open including in the US, maybe the rebirth of F-Open at this Queens will entice him to have another dabble at some stage.

Back tomorrow night.

WARA in all their wisdom, decided to make the program shorter and have the field reduce for the final 1000 yards.

Top 40 target rifle (I think) shoot off for top 20 badges
Top 5 F std- shoot off for 3 badges
Top 5 F Open- shoot off for 1 badge


I hope they reconsider this move next year. Shooters are complaining they can't shoot the 1000 yards. What they should have done is have ALL shooters shoot 1000 yards, then have the final shoot off at the same range.

The electronic targets are making the program go very fast. Muster is at 7:45am, and the first shooters down are heading off to lunch at 10:30am!


I like how Alan says todays conditions were easy....a look at the scores will tell you a different story.

Its very late, but here's my wrap-up of the 2010 WARA Queens. Final F-Class (unofficial) results are HERE.

Today's forecast looked like it would be south-easterlies, which are known to be trickier than the westerly sea breeze. Early on it was reasonable, but towards lunchtime it switched over from east to west, and there were some horror stories during the "switchover" as some call it here. One of the victims was Brett Bunyan, who'd already suffered a wrong target miss yesterday. He got a 47 at 900, and said he really had to work for that . I sometimes get accused of having more than my share of luck with conditions - while I don't actually agree with that in general, but today the gods smiled on me and I had good conditions at both 500 and 900. Going into the 1000 yard final, I had a lead of 8 points over Mark. In the 1000 yd Queens Final, the top 5 F-Open shot concurrently with the top 5 F-Std. By this time the westerly "Fremantle Doctor" had set in and conditions were steady, so the order didn't change.

Only the TR winner got to speak at the presentations, so I have a few things I'd like to say, and this forum is a good place to do it. I want to dedicate this win to my gunsmith Gary Hunt. He's been working his butt off for me and a lot of other shooters over the last year or two, and takes a genuine interest in how his "stable" is going. This one's for you Gary. I also want to thank Rod Shehan of Action Clear/Woody Engineering and Mark Hamersley for working with WARA to get F-Open back onto the Queens program, and also for their sponsorship of F-Open tropies. In particular, Action Clear put up $500 for the Grand Agg. That is a very generous amount, and I really hope it's all for a good cause, and F-Open stays on the program in future years.

The other person I want to thank is Sgt Chamberlain at the Eucla police station. Without his help I wouldn't have made it to the WA Queens. For some reason the WA Govt has decided to have a very strict policy on interstate visitors bringing firearms - only they will know the reason why WA needs it and no other state does. I started the process of getting a permit through the Licensing Services division about 2 months prior to the Queens. About a week prior I finally had the permit application form ready to fax, only to be told (in a very smug tone) that I was too late and should have done it a month prior, because the person who processes these applications is away . Not to be defeated by this officious pen-pusher, I did some research and found that it is acceptable to call in at the first available police station on entering WA. So I rang Eucla Police, and Sgt Chamberlain agreed to help. On arriving in Eucla, he was able to process my application in 20 minutes or so. I wouldn't recommend this as the best way to do it - better to nail down the Licensing Services Branch WELL in advance, but full marks to Sgt Chamberlain for his no bullshit and helpful approach.

Finally I want to commend the WA shooters for putting on a great Queens, and excellent hospitality. The range was in superb order, the mounds I used were all quite firm, and 50mm spikes were plenty long enough. I've come away with a much more positive attitude to electronic targets. We had minimal hiccups with them over the 4 days, and the way they were set up for the 1000 yd final, with slave monitors for the spectators, indicates how the lack of involvement of spectators can be overcome.

Well, I've decided to make a dash for Adelaide and should get there in time for the main event, so get those 7mms smokin' fellas. There'll be a well-travelled 6.5mm coming to try and spoil your party .

Its goodnight from Swanbourne.

Alan

Congrats to Alan, nothing below a 57 Congrats also to Mark Hammersley and Andrew Lockwood. Commiserations to Brett Bunyan, you will just have to drive east for a shoot or two to get a fresh start.

Well done to Bill Hallam for taking out the F std class and to Gary Carlsen for taking out the Target rifle.

Big ups to the WARA for taking the plunge with electronic targets, can you give us more info on them, what the aiming marks are like etc.

Ive gotta get my family over there for a holiday sometime, and next year I might just have to pack my gun in my luggage.

Just edited, as Woodyrod says, it is the sponsors who deserve the biggest thumbs up. There are enough people in the industry out there who are very quick to take money from the sport, precious few who put money back into it.

I will post a longer message later, but just a short note from me now:

Well done to the other shooters in F Open, for turning up and paying their entry as much as anything else. Without the competitors, there would have been no event. This is one reason I shot in the FO division, to make sure there were numbers.

In my eyes, the only VIP's at a range are the shooters. They are the purpose of the event, where the funds come from for the meeting and prizes (apart from sponsors).

I also wanted to mention that there was a $500 cash prize for the winner of F Class (FS or FO) for the grand agg. This was not mentioned by the MC at the time, which is extremely disappointing from the sponsors point of view - this was our big opportunity for positive marketing, which was lost due to the ignorance or incompetence of people within WARA.

The cash prize was the biggest ever given in any F Class event in the history of the sport in WA from my understanding. This was not mentioned by WARA or its officers at the time. Based on the outcome of what reasons WARA can come up with for not properly recognising the prize and F Class in general, we may well not sponsor WARA again. We only sponsor events for the benefit of the shooters.