RIFLE NOTES

Southland Times, Issue 21091, 24 May 1930, Page 19

RIFLE NOTES

(By

“Spotter.”)

Good musters and good shooting again last week at Otatara. Both the local clubs are hard at it just now practising for the teams match on June 3. The Invercargill Defence Club fired another round for the cup to be given for the highest scores at 300, 500, and 600 yards during May. The City Guards Club fired the first stage for Mr J. Strang’s trophy. After lunch on Wednesday everything promised to a good shooting afternoon, the City Guards Club had nine members out and the Invercargill Club had five, but at two o’clock a light drizzle set in and before three o’clock it was raining heavily and all hands made for shelter. The City Guards had five men through before shooting ceased and the Invercargill five had also finished, but the last pair in both clubs.finish*d in heavy rain and had bad conditions, the targets appearing only a blotch in the distance. At half-past three it was still raining and the City Guards’ targets were taken down and put away. About four o’clock the rain eased off and the Invercargill members fired at 600 yards, the first pair, Diack and Clark, firing in a light drizzle. The conditions were a little better when the others went down, but the light was bad. The City Guards decided that they could not, get the remainder of their men through at 500 yards and finish at 600 yards, so their shoot was abandoned for the day. On Saturday afternoon the shooting conditions were good up to four o’clock when it commenced to get dull and the men who fired after that found correct sighting difficult. The wind wds patchy at times, a four to six degrees allowance being necessary, but the changes were easy to follow on the flags. The light varied at times, but if the necessary allowance was made for the changes elevation was not lost. Right throughout the afternoon there was no change in wind or elevation sufficient to put anyone outside an inner. Those who were able to judge the slight changes were getting bullseyes and those who were not were getting inners and a few bulls and that just about represents the shooting conditions.

At 500 yards on Wednesday, W. Milley 33, C. H. Wilson 29, A. R. Wills 29, were the highest for the Invercargill Club, and of those of the City Guards who finished W. McChesney 33 and J. Buttolph 31 were the best. The highest scores of the Invercargill Club at 600 yards were: A. R. Wills 32, W. Milley 30, C. H. Wilson 30, W. E. Diack 29, all good scores under the conditions, The highest aggregate was obtained by W. Milley 33, 30—63, a good score under the conditions.

On Saturday the Invercargill Club had 14 members out and the City Guards had twelve and some good scores were put on. At 500 yards W. S. Ayson was top for the Invercargill Club, making 33 with a two bull finish. A. Lyall 32, W. Henderson 32, C. H. Cunningham 32, and H. H. Moss 32 being the next highest scores. R. Ure was top for the City Guards at this range with the possible 35, J. Ure was next with 34 with a five bull finish, then followed R. J. Timpany 33, A. Ford 32. At 600 yards M. Sheehan was top for Invercargill, putting on a fine 33 with a six bull finish, ~R. D. Anderson being next with 32, then followed H. H. Moss 30, C. H„ Cunningham 30. The highest scores for the City Guards at this l"ange were W. McChesney 33, J. Ure 32, J. Tansley 32, R. Ure 31, R. J. Timpany 31. The four highest aggregates for the week went to the City Guards, W. McChesney, J. Ure and R. Ure making 66 and R. J. Timpany 64, W. Milley (Invercargill) being next with 63. H. H. Moss is coming back to form, his 33 at 500 yards last Saturday was a glimpse of the Moss of old. Bert is using glasses how for shooting and the results of the last few weeks lead one to believe tnat the ex TSouthland champion will soon again rank with the foremost shots in the province. J. Clark is another of- the Invercargill Club who is shooting well just now. His

scores of 31, 32, and 33 are just the ones to get there when the totals are made up. Last Saturday the Mataura Club held a handicap competition for both A and B grades, the conditions being ten shots at 300 and 500 yards. The afternoon was fine but a bright sun shining in the eyes of the competitors made correct sighting • very difficult. At 300 yards R. C. Barclay was in good form and put on a' fine 47 out of the possible 50 on the reduced bulls-eye (7J inches)? At 500 yards S. H. Parker was top with 45, F. Munro, L. Ross and C. Goodwin being next with 43. R. C. Barclay headed the list for the two ranges with 47, 42—89 the next highest being S. H. Parker 41, 45— 86, F. Munro 42, 43 —85. In the B grade C. Johnstone was top with 42, 40 —82 followed by J. Quilter 40, 37 —77. A circular issued by the secretary of the Southland Rifle Association to Southland rifle clubs this week gives a rough estimate of the cost of running the Mackenzie Challenge Shield match on June 3. The estimate, based on an entry of twelve teams, shows an estimated deficit of £9 and to meet this deficit it has been decided to make a levy of £1 on each club competing, any balance to be set aside for future competitions. This decision is quite reasonable as the competition must be made to pay its own way. There is one condition of the Mackenzie Shield competition that the executive would be wise to look into again and that is the time of commencement of the match. The ■match is set down to begin at 8.30 a.m. and this, is going to be awkward for some of the members of country teams. A number of the members of the country teams are farmers by occupation and have stock to attend to in the winter mornings and it will be impossible for some of them to get to Otatara by 8.30. The expense incurred by coming to Invercargill the day before and staying over night will put that way over the difficulty out of the question. If the match was to commence at 10.30 it would give the country clubs time to come in and the three ranges could easily be finished by half-past two. It should be the aim of the association to encourage as many teams as possible from each club, but it can hardly be expected that ifiore than one team will come to Otatara at half past eight in mid-winter. The association will find that every club in Southland will be there if possible to show their appreciation of the Mackenzie family’s generosity and it is only a matter of arranging the conditions to suit those coming from a long distance. M. Sheehan’s 33 at 600 yards on Saturday was a fine effort. Commencing with a three for his first shot he kept his remaining six ehots without the 18-inch bull. This was a* good shoot and it was hard luck getting a magpie first shot and then finishing out with bulls. R. D. Anderson put on a good shoot for a young shot at 600 yards, his 32 on Saturday being a really good performance at this difficult range. The Invercargill Club has-good material here; a man who can put on 32 at 600 yards has the necessary qualifications of a good marksman. C. H. Cunningham is shooting consistently, his 32, 30 last week is the kind of score to keep an average up. H. H. Moss is still showing improved form, his 32, 30 following on his good scores for the past two or three weeks will keep him with the leaders at the end of the 'month.

R. Ure was in fine form again last Saturday. At 500 yards he rattled on the sevenshot possible and then set out to make the ten. This'he successfully accomplished and then put another shot in the bull before he broke, the twelfth shot being just out. Bob is shooting at the top of his form just now.

J. Ure was in good form on Saturday, his 34, 32 —66 being a good even shoot. R. J. Timpany is getting into form, his 33, 31—64 being a good shoot for 500 and 600 yards. In another three months it will take "good scores to head this City Guards member.

J. Tansley and A. Ford are keeping up their form, these two young shots each putting on 62 on Saturday. Rifle Club have received a circular from the secretary of the Southland Rifle Association giving a rough estimate of the cost of running the Mackenzie Challenge Shield on June 3. The estimate is based on an entry of twelve teams at £1 ner team and after deducting markers expenses and allowing for. trophies for the winning team a deficit of £9 is shown. To m€et this loss it has been decided to make a levy of £1 on each club competing. This is a reasonable decision as after all the competition must nav its own way.

It has been decided to use single targets for the Wakatipu Shield Match and each team is to be alloted a target. This is all right if not more than twelve teams are competing, but what is going to be done if the number of teams exceed the number of targets available? If the entries exceed twelve and the teams draw for places it will not give an even chance to all. Much as single targets are preferable it would be better in- this ease to use double targets with two teams on each target, then all teams would be shooting under the same conditions. It is quite on the cards that more than twelve teams will be competing. It is freely rumoured that the -Invercargill Club is entering four teams and the City Guards three and some of the country clubs will have more than one team.

Now. that the winter has fairly set in it would be well for the two local clubs using the Otatara range to come to some arrangement as regards the time to finish the-first range. During the past few weeks both clubs have been firing seven shots at each range instead of ten and it. would be in the interests of both parties if the second range was to commence at half-past two or a quarter to three. This would enable the last range to be completed a little after four, o’clock, and this is late enough for shooting during the winter months. The men > who have to shoot after four o’clock at this time of the year do not have a fair spin, especially if it happens to be a dull day. , ’ The following are the range' fixtures at Otatara for June: I'

June 3 and 7—Open. June 11 and 14—300 and 600 yards.

June 18 and 21—500 and 600 yards. June 25. and 28—300 and 500 yards.