RIFLE SHOOTING

Southland Times, Issue 23436, 17 February 1938, Page 16

RIFLE SHOOTING

BIG MEETING IN SYDNEY

By

BULLSEYE

A number of Southland marksmen will be leaving for Wellington at the end of the week to take part in the Wairarapa and National Rifle Association meetings. The former is a oneday meeting and will be fired on the Trentham range on Wednesday and the other meeting starts on Friday February 25. An added interest in the Wairarapa meeting this year is the fact that the British and South African rifle teams will take part. The South Africans will also compete at the National meeting but the British team sails for home the day the meeting opens and will not be competing. It will, however, take part in a triangular match against New Zealand and South Africa on the Thursday over five ranges. At the time of writing the result of the first stage only of the Empire match, fired in connection with the big sesquicentennial rrieeting in Sydney, is to hand. The match is fired in two stages. The first stage fired on Monday was 10 shots each at 300, 500 and 600 yards, and the teams consist of eight men each. The members of the New Zealand team are:—R. H. Nichol,’Wellington, F. Bowes, Auckland, J. Farley, Wanganui, F. Jeune, Gisborne, H. Croxton, Wellington, W. West, Blenheim, E. Wrigley, Masterton and F. Soler, Wanganui. At the end of the first stage, Australia is leading with an aggregate o£ 1128, an average of 141 out of the possible 150 a man, Britain was second with 1126, an average of 140.6, New Zealand third, with 1121 an average of 140.1, and South Africa 1119, an average of 139.9. There is a difference of only nine points befween the four teams and as the final stage is over 700, 800 and 900 yards the final is very open. The averages are not very remarkable. One would expect them to be at least a couple of points higher from teams of this calibre, especially as the weather is reported to be ideal. These) averages are often beaten by individual marksmen on Southland ranges. There has been something said about the reduced bullseye, but the size of the bullseye at 300 and 600 yards is the same as used on New Zealand ranges. At 500 yards there is a reduction from 18 inches to 15 inches, and at this range the reduction should not make a considerable difference to good marksmen.

F. Bowes headed the list for New, Zealand with 47-49-48—144, Wrigley,49_47_47_143, Jeune, 48-45-48—141,-Nichol, 49-46-46—141, Croxton, 48-46-46—140, Soler, 46-45-48—139, Farley, 46-48-43—137, West, 45-44-47—136. W. Masefield, C. Nix, H. Cromie and J. W. Feast, four of the Dominion’s finest marksmen, are not shooting in the team. It seems that they had not struck their home form in Sydney. They will probably be acting as coaches to the team. MACKENZIE SHIELD The competition for the Mackenzie challenge shield which was fired at Gore last Saturday resulted in a decisive win for the Invercargill Club, its A and B teams finishing first and second with the fine aggregates of 490 and 486. Thirteen teams competed and the Clinton team which scored 475 won the cup for the best country team. The Invercargill Club has now won the shield six times and still holds the re- 1 cord score of 492 which it made on the, occasion of its second win. The City Guards A team shot well for third place with 479 which should have been 484, but for' one of the team putting a bullseye on the wrong target. The Clinton team put up a good performance to score 475 as it had a 27 at 300 yards and a 30 at 500 yards that let it down a bit

Mataura did not shoot up to expectations although its score of 473 was quite a good effort and was made in a steady manner. It had two 96’s, two 94’s and a 93. The Wakatipu team also shot steadily for 469. Its totals at the first two ranges were creditable but 148 at 600 yards set it back. The Cromwell team had a consistent shoot of 150, 160 and 154 for the three ranges, but it was too low to have any chance with the leading teams. Gore had a day off and performed much below its usual form. There were some excellent individual scores made. A. A. Ford, Invercargill, topped the list with 101 and he was closely followed by S. L. Wall (Invercargill), R. M. Milley (Invercargill) and S. Robertson (Clinton) who made 100 each. J. Archer and F. E. Broom (Invercargill) made 99 each. There were no 98’s but eight competitors made 97 each. The best range scores were:—At 300 yards, W. Semple (Clinton) made the possible of seven bullseyes while S. L. Wall (Invercargill), J. Archer (Invercargill), H. Mackenzie (Queenstown), F. E. Broom (Invercargill) and Major P. Mackenzie (Queenstown) made 34 each. Semple’s diagram is as follows: — 300 yards

5 5 5 5 5 5 5—35 At 500 yards W. Milley (Invercargill) and S. Robertson made possibles while A. Ford, S. L. Wall, A. R, Wills, T. E. Broom (Invercargill), B. Broomfield, J. Tansley and R. W. Henderson (City Guards), J. A. Munro (Mataura), H. MacKenzie and Major MacKenzie (Queenstown), H. Redmond and J. Cutts (Gore) made 34 each. The possible diagram of Milley and Robertson is here shown: — 500 yards

5 5 5 5 5 5 5-35 At 600 yards A. A. Ford, R. M. Milley, W. A. Diack (Invercargill), J. Burnett (Gore) and F. Norton (Gore) made 34 each. The latter had the best count and his diagram is as follows:— 600 yards .

5 5 4 5 5 5 5—34 V. Buttsworth (Queensland) won the £525 King’s Prize at the Sydney sesquicentennial meeting, with the record score of 347 out of a possible 355. The previous record was 346. This was a splendid performance, to drop only eight points in 71 shots over all ranges.