By Robert Boutcher and Blake Jarrett
‘Australia’s sportiest town’ has done it again – Narrabri has produced yet another national champion.
A group of seven Narrabri Pistol Club members recently travelled to Canberra, where they competed at the 34th annual Pistol Australia Metallic Silhouette 200-metre Big Bore Pistol National Championships event from Friday to Sunday, September 16 to 18.
Narrabri’s Jason Anderson took out the revolver match with a perfect 40/40 score to be crowned national champion, and his Narrabri clubmate David Dewsbury placed third following a five-way shoot-off with a score of 37/40.
Anderson was the only competitor out of the 40 in total who shot in the 200-metre revolver match to produce a perfect score.
In that match, the competitors are required to shoot at targets at different distances, including 10 chickens at 50 metres, 10 pigs at 100 metres, 10 turkeys at 150 metres and 10 rams at 200 metres.
A target must be knocked down to earn a point, and Anderson was able to knock down all 40.
It was the first time he had shot a perfect score in the revolver category since 2019 in Narrabri, which was the last time the Metallic Silhouette 200-metre Big Bore Pistol National Championships were held.
He was taken to a shoot-off back then and was beaten following a gun malfunction, so this year’s victory felt so much sweeter for the Narrabri man as it was three years in the making.
He was thrilled to earn his maiden national title.
“It’s very humbling,” Anderson said.
“It’s my first national title. I’ve got a couple of state titles and a couple of top gun wins in the past.”
Adding to Anderson’s success at the 2022 national championships were wins as a NSW state representative in the open revolver teams event, alongside Mt Lindesay’s Kim Emery, and in the production open teams event, alongside Inverell’s Glen Anderson, who is of no relation.
Those three men also shot their state into an overall aggregate teams win at the event with a score of 281. The NSW team also included Narrabri’s Jack Ford and Inverell’s Tim Davey, who were reserves.
Anderson also impressively finished seventh overall out of a field of 41 in the 200-metre open aggregate, which takes into account scores from the individual shoots in four matches – revolver, production, unlimited and standing.
“I did put a lot of effort into it, so I’m reasonably happy,” he said.
“Like any shooter, one or two more would’ve been good.
“My production, which I made the NSW team for, I’d shot seven perfect scores in a row and then I only shot 38 out of 40 on the day. It was my lowest in a year-and-a-half.
“But it’s still a good score, and I’m quite happy with my results.”
Results from the Pistol Australia Metallic Silhouette 200-metre Big Bore Pistol National Championships event go towards selection onto the 2023 Australian national team that will travel abroad to New Zealand and Hungary to compete.
Anderson said that being selected onto that three-man team was one of his goals. He will now have to perform well at the City Versus Country shoot next month to gain selection onto his maiden national team.
The 2022 Pistol Australia Metallic Silhouette 200-metre Big Bore Pistol National Championships event was hosted by the ACT Pistol Association at the SSAA-ACT Pistol Club, situated on the outskirts of Canberra.
Competitors came from as far afield as Childers in the north to Melbourne in the south and all points in between to take part.
Anderson, Dewsbury, Ford and their fellow Narrabri Pistol Club members Tim Anderson, Paul Wilkins, Matt Burke and Billy-Dean Borodzicz were among the competitors, and their clubmate Robert Boutcher was the official judge.
Boucher told The Courier that the standard of competition at the event was extremely high, with state teams from Queensland, NSW, ACT and Victoria competing.
Conditions at the event were very cool to cold temperatures with strong southwesterly winds, ranging from 30-50km/h, across the three days of competition.
“This provided very testing shooting conditions,” said Boutcher.
Despite those conditions, Narrabri shooters performed exceptionally at the event. Just ranked behind Anderson on the individual four-match aggregate were Tim Anderson in ninth place and Dewsbury in 10th. Those three men all placed in the top 10 in various matches.
Grade results for Narrabri Pistol Club members are as follows
Revolver:
Int – Jason Anderson (first), David Dewsbury (third).
A-grade – Matt Burke (first), Billy-Dean Borodzicz (second).
Production:
A-grade – Billy-Dean Borodzicz (first).
B-grade – Matt Burke (first).
Standing:
AAA-grade – Jason Anderson (second).
A-grade – Billy Dean-Borodzicz (first), Matt Burke (third).
Unlimited:
AAA-grade – David Dewsbury (third).
A-grade – Billy-Dean Borodzicz (first).
B-grade – Matt Burke (first).
Unlimited Full Scale:
AAA-grade – Jason Anderson (first).
AA-grade – Billy-Dean Borodzicz (second).
A-grade – Matt Burke (first).
