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The range at Coffs Harbour was the ideal site to host the NSW State CF Four Gun benchrest championships. Surrounded by lush rainforest and supported by excellent facilities including a dry, protected reloading area, dedicated scoring and office area, covered walkways so that you wouldn’t get wet if it rained, and, a housed “wailing wall” for competitors to review their targets.

Day one was the Experimental class, mostly rail guns but there were a couple of heavy class guns that required bags. Michael Thompson was the overall winner of the combined 100 and 200 with an excellent aggregate of 0.2803.

Day two saw the shooters line up to contest the Sporter class. Again, Michael Thompson took the win with an overall aggregate of 0.2247, a great result by anyone’s standards. Michael managed to win both the 100 and 200 categories.

Rain had been predicted for day three and while there were many cloudy periods, it managed to mostly stay dry. The wind, however, was choppy, and often the range flags were showing both red and green depending on where you were looking on the firing line. Bruce Hawkins took the win in the 100 and Michael Thompson won the 200. The overall winner was Michael with an impressive, combined aggregate of 0.2176.

The last day was again slated for rain, plenty of it! The weather gods were kind however, and it didn’t start raining until the shooting was finished and the flags had all been retrieved. This last day was the Heavy gun, and while the wind remained tricky, there were some excellent scores recorded. Robert Evans managed a 0.114 at 100 and Damien Fry shot a 0.266 at 200. The overall win, however, went to Keith Sewell with a combined aggregate of 0.2308.

It was then up to the scorers to determine who the overall winner of the event was. It was no surprise then that the title of State Champion was awarded to Michael Thompson. With wins in three of the categories and a second place in the remaining one, the title of State Champion rightly belonged to Michael. For a more detailed list of all the winners, at both 100 and 200 as well as smallest group in each category, please go to the Benchrest Australia website (https://benchrestaustralia.com).

Here are a few pics from the weekend, if you didn’t get a chance to attend this time, make sure you keep an eye on the calendar in Benchrest Australia, so you don’t miss out next year.

 

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