Service Rifle Nationals at Waiouru

60 shooters attended, including the Army's Combat Rifle Team, over Easter, 2 days on the Taylor Range and a day on the Old Class Range. Matches at 50, 75, 100, 200, 300 metres and 500 and 600 yards. A couple of bolt action entries, need a few more to try that next year and get a bit of competition going, I think about 16 in Tactical and the balance in Service class. Some heavy rain on a couple of squads and plenty of variation in wind for most matches. An ASRA shooter in his first Nats took out the overall Service class with consistent results through most of his matches, bloody well done. I had a mare with faulty primers first day, clawed back some respectability on day 3 with a possible (10 x V) in the sustained fire at 500 in Tactical, along with another shooter.

One of the great things about SR competitions is that a novice who manages to have an absolute blinder in a single match can come away with a gong, even if he shoots shite for the rest of the comp, as each match has individual medals. That's really encouraging for new shooters.

Some pix...
Gongs
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Hard working squads in the butts
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Old Class from the 600 mound
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yes I have had a certain Nelson shooter trying to convince me into entering next year by waving shiny medals and trophy under my nose when I call in for coffee this afternoon.

Ah yes, "BH", another member of the JP Rifles owners club... :thumbsup:

Good work Ray sounds like you had a good time......wernt winny primers by any chance:).I know that range intimately even the hills behind them from when the range is Clear of course and I o yous from wen the Sgt reads out the scores:D.

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Originally Posted by Neckshot

Good work Ray sounds like you had a good time......wernt winny primers by any chance:).I know that range intimately even the hills behind them from when the range is Clear of course and I o yous from wen the Sgt reads out the scores:D.

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Nah mate, Murom primers with ball powder, not a reliable combination... I'll bet there's a good many grunts done their time on Old Class. But the mounds beyond 300 don't get much use with the Steyrs in service these days, and there's weeds on the backstop from frame 13 onwards. They just don't put the numbers through now. Bloody sad.

First time I missed it since I got into sr,pissed me off big time.

Pitty the army boys had to use worn out rifles. (With round counts that would just be wearing a AR in)

Ohh this looked like a good time...
I remember that range too, but not the building, that must have been built in the last 20 years! :P
Grant

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Originally Posted by res

First time I missed it since I got into sr,pissed me off big time.

Pitty the army boys had to use worn out rifles. (With round counts that would just be wearing a AR in)

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The army lads did okay and got a good distribution of gongs. Their rifles are in good nick, some have better than the standard 1.5 scope fitted. With the exception of their coach and manager, they are probably not yet up to the standard of their team last year, mostly new faces, given time and practice they will improve heaps. There were some very good marksmen in their team last year when one of them won the overall Service Class.

My understanding is that the army guys did not get to use there main rifles(already on there way to oz) and had to make do with some very worn rifles and had a lot of issues with double feeds etc.

No disrespect was aimed at Paul and his lads

Yep, this is a cool event. Malcolm and I competed three years ago i think. Malcolm shot with his .303 and ended up getting beaten by Nicole by only a point or two. Was really close. I shot in open class with my Sako. For the most part a bolt action can keep up with the semi until you get to the real rapid events. I ended up second in open on the back of a shit rapid event performance. Easter weekend can be a bugger though, right in the middle of the roar...

more photos, more photos, more photos.... get the hint ;)