Tomorrow Sunday the 20th of January our range is hosting the Interclub IRB championships, this is a 3 card Rimfire shoot each card consisting of 25 targets with a 6mm bullseye. The Interclub shoot is almost 10 years old now and attracts shooters from as far as Kooringhat to the South and Glen Innes to the west.
The range won’t be available for general shooting, please check your calendar for available days.
With all of the old piers gone we had a clean slate, helpers here shown moving the blocks along the line to take some load of our bricklayers.
Next the bench positions were marked and holes drilled in the slab to support 16mm reo bars which where them chem-set (glued) into place.
Everything was ready for our bricklayers who made short work of levelling everything out and standing all 60 piers, a big thanks to Dean at Lipo’s bricklaying who provided great rates then backed up and donated a day to help us place the bench tops.
The new pier tops are level east west and north south, providing a solid foundation for the 20 new benches.
Next the bench tops were man handled into position, each sits on a bed of mortar to hold it in place and aid in levelling.
With a very positive growth in club members the extra 5 benches will make it quicker to get a shot on busy days, it also helps the club with State and National shoots which are wonderful events to host.
During this entire process the range was only unavailable to members for 3 hours, one Wednesday morning.
More work to come still many posts needed to be moved and with 20 benches you need 20 targets so new target frame and foundations came next.
Sunday February the 10th midday will be our first fly shoot, a 22LR Rimfire, 5 card 200yd event scored on points and group size open to 20 shooters. It will be a casual affair with no sheep stations involved, main prize being bragging rights till next time.
Next the new blocks were delivered, the tricky forklift driver straddling the path to get the 2 pallets up to the firing line.
The footings were dug and formed up for new post placements.
Then knocked the first bench over, just as a test run.
It was well reinforced and took some bashing, thankfully the following benches didn’t have the same with no reo inside they were easily knocked over and just needed to be broken up and moved away.
Not many to go now….
Each benchtop (250kg) was removed and all pillars demolished to make room for 20 new benches.
More to come next week.
Here is the 2019 calendar, a hard copy will be posted to your nominated mailing address.
Happy New Year.
A lot has happened in the last few months the club saw a need to increase the number of shooting benches on the line, firstly this would allow us to accomodate more members on shoot days but also allow us to continue to hold State and National shoots where competitor numbers are growing annually. The decision was made to increase the range from 15 to 20 benches. An extra 5 benches sounds easy enough but that means moving every bench to compress within the same area, it also means 5 new target frames at each distance a new gateway and heaps of new wind flags. A lot of time was taken to ensure the benches would not be too close together.
The job all started with some extra reloading benches and stools, for the extra shooters.
As this was happening the boys at HQ Concrete had been busily shaping up 20 new concrete benches in a formwork built by Andrew one of our range officers and using donated steel reinforcing from Coffs Reo.
Over the next few weeks you will see here how it all went.
To all members of SSAA Coffs Harbour Branch.
On 5/12/2018 before our scheduled Committee meeting your Committee met with 3 Committee members of the NE Hunting Club. We had previously sent them an email and letter listing our concerns with them continuing using SSAA Dairyville range.
The main bone of contention and reason agreement could not be reached was that they could not guarantee their membership would agree to join the SSAA. We have a Branch rule that after 3 visits a person must apply to join the SSAA this also applies to P650’s, after 3 visits a person must apply for a shooting licence.
The main reason for your Committee terminating NE Hunting Club using our range was our members pay $90 to be a member of SSAA, if they visit the range 3 times during the year it costs that member $120, on the other hand a non SSAA member from NE Hunting Club only pays $30 for the same privilege, this did not sit well with your Committee, we continually work hard to improve all the conditions for our membership at Dairyville range and we could not let a situation continue that disadvantaged our members.
All the improvements at the range are the result of our members being paid up SSAA members and the range fees paid when visiting the range. I hope this clears up some misconceptions regarding the reason for NE Hunting Club no longer shooting at Dairyville, no way did they get kicked off our range.
Our membership comes first everytime. The members of NEHC who are SSAA members can still attend on Wednesdays and Sundays between the hours of 9 am and 12 midday.
Rod
President CH SSAA
So it’s almost goodnight to 2018 and welcome the new year, the range is now closed until the 9th of January a normal Wednesday practice day.
Coffs Harbour SSAA would like to wish all of our members and their families a very happy Christmas and a wonderful new year, may it be spent with the ones you love and the ones you love to shoot with.
Nominations are now open for the interclub IRB January the 20th 2019.
The cost is $25 per person for the first class and $20 for the second, Juniors $15. Lunch is provided as is tea coffee and biscuits.
Please complete the online nomination form below
Wednesday the 6th of December will be the last Wednesday for the 2018 year, Wednesday practice will resume on January the 9th 2019. Any extraordinary shoots over the Christmas holiday period will be advised here.