BFTO

Saturday 28th June saw the first, 3 card outdoor benchrest tournament held at the club.

The objective was for our members to have the opportunity to shoot in near national competition conditions. Our normal monthly competition is a one card shoot, which can be biased to certain benches due to wind conditions.

A 3 card competition means that shooters would shoot in all 3 parts of the range (left, middle, right) at some point during the day. The winner would be the shooter with the highest 3 card score. The shooters had already been randomly selected into 4 teams or details as they are called. Their first bench allocation was also randomly selected. From then on in, rotation 2 and 3 they would move 2 benches each time as is quite common in national comps.

The organising team had already prepared the range and clubhouse on the previous night and arrived bright and early. A one way system of movement through the range had been devised to maintain safe passage, increase flow and remove congestion. The clubhouse and range had signage and rotas, directing people to the correct places. A higher level of range etiquette would be in place and maintained by the range officers.

So we were all set and expected to learn a lot during the day.

The safety brief and an outline of the day was given by Mike Barkus and then we were off. The first detail were invited onto the range. Once wind flags were positioned and shooters seated with rifles in position, the 1st detail were ready to go. With no talking allowed, phones on silent during shooting, no movement from the benches allowed, no bystanders peering over your shoulder, the range appeared eerily quiet, empty of clutter and sleepy calm, unlike most other days.

20 minutes later out of detail 1, Stuart Woods took an early lead with a fantastic score of 248. Detail 2 saw a few in the mid 240’s and it wasn’t until detail 3 that we saw some signs of a chasing pack. Carl Broadis and Paul Speller both put in impressive 247’s.

Rotation 2 saw the wind start to play its part, with most people’s scores dropping. Stuart had a 241, Carl also a 241 and Paul a solid 246, things were warming up, and this was already looking like a 3 horse race. Glen Jones in detail 4 had a very respectable, 244.

So to round 3 how would this playout? Could Paul hold on to his 4-point lead over Stuart. With Stuart on bench 1 and Paul on bench 3 in their respective details, it was going to the wire. Stuart made a great comeback, with a 245 and had to wait another hour to find out if he had won. It wasn’t quite enough with Paul edging it by 1 point. Top shooting sir!!

The club had kindly provided awards for the top 3 shooters and the final placings were;

1st Place – Paul Speller (735, 24X),

2nd Place – Stuart Woods (734, 24X)

3rd Place – Carl Broadis (732, 22X)

The scorers were busy bees all day, scoring 66 cards of 25 targets each and collating the final results. We all had a fantastic day, which also saw Megan Huckle sewing up the club bags during her down time and Richard, her father taking a very sneaky power nap in the shade. Well done to Paul Speller our winner and thanks to the organising team for the event.

What’s next you may ask, well keep your eye on the Benchrest notice board over the next few weeks!