The 41st Metallic Silhouette 200-Metre Big Bore State Championships were hosted by the Narrabri Pistol Club from Friday, March 19, to Sunday, March 21, which saw more than 30 competitors come from as far afield as Brisbane in the north to Batemans Bay in the south and all points in between.
Handgun 200-metre Big Bore Metallic Silhouette is a 40-shot match utilising animal shaped metallic targets – 10 chickens at 50m, 10 pigs at 100m, 10 turkeys at 150m and 10 rams at 200m.
The targets have to be knocked from their stand to score.
The rams weigh approximately 25kg, requiring a fairly heavy cartridge load to accomplish this.
Championship aggregates are made up of four categories – Revolver, Production, Standing and Unlimited with Unlimited Full Scale as an extra match.
Each match takes about an hour to complete.
To add a degree of difficulty, the Unlimited match is shot on half scale targets which are half the scale of the full-size targets, meaning they are only one quarter of the size in actual area (the half scale chicken is about the height of a Coke can).
In the event of tied scores, these targets are also utilised as shoot-off targets at 200m.
The standard of competition was very high with members of the Queensland, NSW and Australian teams in attendance.
The strong wind on Friday provided very testing conditions for the competitors. Fortunately, the wind eased across the weekend which provided much more pleasant shooting conditions.
While there were a number of Narrabri members competing, from ex Australian team members Tim Anderson and David Dewsbury to first match competitors Jeff and Jayden Hamblin, two in particular stood out.
One was Jason Anderson who won the Production State Championship after a six way shootoff with five other competitors who had all scored the maximum 40/40.
The other was Jack Ford who won the Revolver State Championship with a score of 39/40.
Results from the event are as follows:
2021 NSW State Champions:
Revolver – Jack Ford (Narrabri) with 39/40, Production – Jason Anderson (Narrabri) with 40/40, Standing – Kim Emery (Mt Lindesay) with 31/40; Unlimited – Jake Davey (Inverell RSM) with 39/40, Unlimited Full Scale Tim Davey (Inverell RSM) with 40/40.
The Four-Match Open Aggregate was won by Emery who totalled 144/160 and the Four-Match Women’s Aggregate was claimed by Judy Harding (Toogoolawah) who totalled 126/160.
Grade results for Narrabri Pistol Club members are as follows:
Production:
International grade: first – Jason Anderson, third – Tim Anderson; AA-grade: first – Ben Dewsbury (now residing in QLD).
Revolver:
International grade: third – Jason Anderson; AAA-grade: first – Jack Ford; AA-grade: first – Ben Dewsbury.
Standing:
AAA-grade: second – Jason Anderson; AA-grade: first – Jack Ford; A-grade: third – Ben Dewsbury.
Unlimited:
International grade: third – Tim Anderson; AAA-grade: second – Jason Anderson; AA-grade: second – Ben Dewsbury, third – Jack Ford.
Full Scale Unlimited:
Third – Tim Anderson.
Narrabri Pistol Club said that the local Lionesses provided fantastic catering, which was greatly appreciated by the competitors and spectators.
They kept everyone’s appetite satisfied with fare from the barbecue, a variety of sandwiches, cakes and slices as well as hot and cold drinks.
