Saturday was the final round of the Castlemaine Rifle Club’s Championship for 2022-2023.
The event consists of eight stages contested over 12 months to determine the Club Champions in ‘Target Rifle’, ‘F Class’ and ‘F Open’.
Distances from 300 yards to 900 yards are shot over in all types of weather from hot to cold, wet and dry, and varying degrees of wind and mirage.
The winners, ‘The Club Champions’ are the shooters who can shoot with the most accuracy and skill in all of these conditions over the twelve months, proving to be the best shooters at the club.
Shooting was over the long distances of 800 and 900 yards in pleasant conditions.
At the first range, Club President Richard Ruddick started well with 49.2 in Target Rifle.
In ‘F Class’ Sam Swagemakers scored 55.2 to lead Greg Brown with 54.1.
In ‘F Open’ Dan McColl had the best score of 57.3 to lead Tony Skinner with 53.2.
The next range was our longest distance being 900 yards.
Target Rifle was again led by Richard Ruddick with 53.6 followed by Chris Jolme with 39.0.In ‘F Class’ Greg Brown scored 62.1 with Darren Trevena next with 58.2.
In ‘F Open’ Tony Skinner scored 59.2 followed by Dan McColl with 59.1.
Final results for the day saw Richard Ruddick win Target Rifle followed by Chris Jolme.
Chris won the handicap from Richard.
In ‘F Class’ Greg Brown won the day with 116.2 followed by Sam Swagemakers with 111.5.
Sam won the handicap from Greg.
Dan McColl won ‘F Open’ with 116.4 from Tony Skinner with 112.4.
Tony won the handicap from Dan.
The next was the totals to determine this year’s Club Champions.
The ‘Target Rifle’ winner was Richard Ruddick from Chris Jolme and Gary Ryan.
Chris won the handicap from Richard and Gary.
The winner in ‘F Class’ was Greg Brown with Darren Trevena second and Sam Swagemakers third.
Sam won the handicap from Greg and Darren.
This was Greg’s first win in the Club Championship.
F Open was won by Dan Mc- Coll.
This was also the first win for Dan.
Second place went to Jamie Griffin with third Phil Smith.
The handicap was won by Jamie Griffin with Dan second and Phil third.
It was a tough fought contest in all grades with the winners deserving the title of ‘Club Champion’.
This weekend is the second round of the Victorian Precision Service Rifle Series commencing with a practice on Saturday.
This event has really grown in popularity around Australia with entrants coming from many parts of Australia to Castlemaine to compete.
For more information on the sport of big bore rifle shooting call the Captain on 5474 2552 or see Max at Castlemaine Fresh.