National Benchrest Championships 2008
20-24 March 2008
Jarrahdale Range

David Kerr left, presents the Steve Brown Trophy to
Paul Sullivan for his win in the Custom Rimfire event.


Five shots with a rimfire into .130 by
Paul Sullivan in the Custom event.


Michael Huebner concentrating hard in the
Sporter event.


Rob Carnell, left, accepts the Den-Lo Park
Trophy from Paul Sullivan after winning the
Sporter Class event.


Craig Whittleton took a monster haul of the
trophies at the 2008 Championships.


Latest inductees into the Hall of Fame are
David Kerr, left, and Michael Huebner.The 2008 Benchrest Nationals were held over the Easter break at the Jarrahdale Range complex in Western Australia. The tyranny of distance meant that numbers were down this year, but the actual competition was just as hard fought as those held on the Eastern seaboard.

Traditional Rimfire
Unfortunately, there were only six entries in this event, as many Rimfire shooters have embraced the Custom Class. Nevertheless, those contesting it were dead keen to obtain a good result. At the end of the day, it was a Paul Sullivan benefit, as he most comfortably won the Grand Aggregate and both the small groups and Aggregates at the two yardages.

Custom Rimfire
In contrast to the Traditional event, there were 41 entries in the Custom Rimfire. This class allows for rifles up to 14lb and unlimited scope power. As usual, there were some very fancy outfits on the benchline, with expensive ammunition to match.
On the second relay at 50m, Phil Jones put down a tidy .198 group, but on the third relay Paul Sullivan put down an insane .130, which no-one looked like beating. The tough conditions were reflected in the Aggregate sizes and Paul Sullivan topped the list with a .7560 from Nick Catlin and Ira Rolley.
The longer yardage proved to be the downfall of many, as the tricky Jarrahdale winds played havoc with the little rimfire bullets. Keeping five shots less than 1" was difficult enough, but on the last card of the day, Ira Rolley managed to keep five into .487 for smallest group. The yardage was a hard fought affair, but Phil Jones hung on with .7484 to hold out Paul Sullivan and Maureen Edwards.
Paul won the ‘daily double’ by taking out the Custom Rimfire Grand Aggregate with .8135 from Phil Jones and Maureen Edwards.

Experimental Class
Experimental Class requires 10-shot groups and usually makes for a long day. Keeping 10 shots less than 0.3" was required to win any of the individual relays and the best of these was shot by Craig Whittleton with a .186 on the last card of the morning. The Aggregate went to last year’s Overall Champion David Kerr, whose .2676 held out Craig Whittleton and Barry Edgley.
The blustery conditions at 200 yards did not seem to bother some shooters, with the usual suspects going on their merry way. Craig Whittleton again shot the smallest group of the yardage with an amazing .362 10-shotter and Paul Sullivan won the Aggregate with .2627 from Craig, with Ron Sinclair in third.
Winner of the Ron Marsden Trophy for 2008 was Craig Whittleton, with Paul Sullivan and David Kerr filling the minor places. A check of the scores below will show just how much of a jump on the field that the leaders had obtained. Nine of the top 10 used rail guns, as permitted by this class.

Sporter Class
Easter Saturday was set down for Sporter Class - 9lb rifles with unlimited scopes. Don’t ever think that this is a junior class, as these guns can really shoot.
All of the small groups in the individual relays were less than two tenths of an inch and the best of these was a .157 shot by Michael Huebner. The battle for the Aggregate went down to the wire and Barry Warwick shot a .199 on his last card to seal the win with .2748 from Rob Carnell and Michael Huebner.
Now there were a couple of dramas being played out in this event. Rob Carnell has been competing since around 1976, but had yet to score a Hall of Fame point - would today be the day? The other one was the fact that Michael Huebner needed only one more point to be inducted into the Hall of Fame - if today was going to be the one, he would need to win this Aggregate or the Grand to get there.
Away we went, and all of the small groups in the relays were under half an inch – the competition was fierce. Michael Huebner shot the smallest with a .342 and was on track for the Aggregate, but Rob was still in the mix. Down to the last target and when the results were calculated it was Paul Sullivan spoiling the party with an Aggregate win on .2935 from Rob and David Kerr third.
There was much back slapping and congratulations as the results were announced that Rob Carnell had won the Grand Aggregate and the Den-Lo Park Trophy with .2917, from David Kerr and Paul Sullivan.

Light Varmint
The two Varmint events each count towards qualifying for the International Teams and are keenly contested.
We started at 100 yards and small groups were hard to get. It wasn’t until the C targets that anyone managed to get one less than 0.2". On the D targets, David Kerr managed a .141, which no-one beat. The Aggregate saw a good battle between several shooters, but it was Stuart Elliott who rose to the top with a .2726 from Craig Whittleton and Steve Brown.
The 200-yard section was a tough event and only one group made it less than 0.5". Paul Sullivan shot a .412 to seal that one, but the Aggregate saw a runaway win to Craig Whittleton with .3160 from Paul Sullivan and Fergus Bailey.
The Grand Aggregate and IBS Shield went to Craig Whittleton on .3058 after he blitzed the field at 200 yards. Paul Sullivan and David Kerr filled the minor placings.

Heavy Varmint
The day started off cold with plenty of wind and it was going to be another hard day at the office. Ray Edwards started off with a pair of 0.1s, which left many of us believing that he was ‘touched’. His first group, a .140, was the best of the morning.
The Aggregate leaders came and went, but at the end, it was Michael Huebner (now on 10 HOF points - the required number) winning the Aggregate with .2842 from Craig Whittleton and Brendan Atkinson.
The longer yardage destroyed a few people, as one lost shot could really make a mess of an Aggregate. Keeping five groups less than 1" was the order of the day. Even so there were some remarkable groups shot and the small groups on the A, B and C targets were all in the 0.3s. A .326 shot by Craig Whittleton was the smallest. The battle for the Aggregate saw Craig and Paul fight it out right to the last shot and Craig eventually triumphed with a .3402 Aggregate from Paul and Alan Peake third.
Once again, Craig Whittleton had won the Grand Aggregate and the HV IBS Shield with a .3197. Paul Sullivan and Michael Huebner filled the minor placings.

Hall of Fame inductees
As a result of the 2008 Nationals events, Michael Huebner and David Kerr have now amassed the necessary 10 points of qualify for induction to the Australian Benchrest Hall of Fame. Congratulations to them both.

Scroll down or click to go to: Custom Rimfire Class - Rimfire Class - Experimental Class - Sporter Class - Light Varmint Class - Heavy Varmint Class - 2-Gun Aggregate - 3-Gun Aggregate - 4-Gun Aggregate

Junior shooter Richard Shugrue with the trophy for Top Junior Shooter in the Rimfire event.	The Top 10 in the Four-Gun - the usual suspects were all there at the end.

Custom Rimfire Class
	Name	State	Yard	A	B	C	D	E	Agg.	Grand Agg.
1	Paul Sullivan	QLD (HoF)	50	0.535	0.345	0.130	0.564	0.316	0.7560
			100	0.767	0.836	1.210	0.616	0.926	0.8710	0.8135
2	Phil Jones	QLD (HoF)	50	1.089	0.198	0.370	0.313	0.564	1.0136
			100	0.540	0.780	0.956	0.827	0.639	0.7484	0.8810
3	Maureen Edwards	WA	50	0.761	0.316	0.437	0.326	0.495	0.9340
			100	0.737	0.954	1.347	0.662	0.809	0.9018	0.9179
4	Ira Rolley	QLD	50	0.419	0.386	0.486	0.466	0.455	0.8848
			100	0.712	1.600	1.053	1.301	0.487	1.0306	0.9577
5	Stuart Elliott	QLD (HoF)	50	0.468	0.511	0.533	0.362	0.377	0.9004
			100	0.981	1.747	0.856	0.775	0.916	1.0550	0.9777
6	David Kerr	WA	50	0.563	0.290	0.500	0.505	0.427	0.9140
			100	1.488	0.732	0.709	1.410	1.219	1.1116	1.0128
7	Karl Kuehn	NSW	50	0.562	0.765	0.366	0.284	0.332	0.9236
			100	1.898	1.809	0.646	0.859	0.724	1.1872	1.0554
8	Ray Edwards	WA	50	0.344	0.638	0.544	0.485	0.764	1.1100
			100	1.005	1.189	0.969	1.203	0.773	1.0278	1.0689
9	Robert Booth	WA	50	0.673	0.389	0.720	0.359	0.533	1.0696
			100	0.598	1.183	1.028	1.660	1.012	1.0962	1.0829
10	Nick Catlan	QLD	50	0.338	0.459	0.420	0.414	0.346	0.7908
			100	1.035	1.295	1.176	1.944	1.500	1.3900	1.0904

Rimfire Class
	Name	State	Yard	A	B	C	D	E	Agg.	Grand Agg.
1	Paul Sullivan	QLD (HoF)	50	0.391	0.395	0.416	0.467	0.701	0.9480
			100	1.257	0.715	1.065	0.787	0.908	0.9464	0.9472
2	Karl Kuehn	NSW	50	0.457	0.663	0.620	0.745	0.558	1.2172
			100	1.020	0.884	1.693	1.869	1.095	1.3122	1.2647
3	Greg Crawford	WA	50	0.676	0.972	0.643	0.496	0.396	1.2732
			100	1.294	2.177	1.049	1.757	1.538	1.5630	1.4181
4	Ira Rolley	QLD	50	0.563	0.586	0.654	0.543	1.170	1.4064
			100	1.669	1.472	1.642	1.675	0.867	1.4650	1.4357
5	Robert Booth	WA	50	0.745	0.672	0.558	0.863	0.556	1.3576
			100	1.488	1.518	1.449	1.580	1.694	1.5458	1.4517
6	Les Martin	WA	50	0.868	0.917	0.842	0.908	1.088	1.8492
			100	5.000	5.000	1.706	1.598	2.163	3.0934	2.4713

Experimental Class
	Name	State	Yard	A	B	C	D	E	Agg.	Grand Agg.
1	Craig Whittleton	WA	100	0.284	0.324	0.288	0.292	0.186	0.2748
			200	0.443	0.666	0.362	0.685	0.487	0.2643	0.2696
2	Paul Sullivan	QLD (HoF)	100	0.314	0.262	0.369	0.348	0.310	0.3206
			200	0.583	0.553	0.527	0.487	0.477	0.2627	0.2917
3	David Kerr	WA	100	0.278	0.248	0.242	0.287	0.283	0.2676
			200	0.743	0.520	0.700	0.532	1.097	0.3592	0.3134
4	Barry Edgley	QLD	100	0.358	0.357	0.280	0.360	0.232	0.3174
			200	0.624	0.618	0.522	0.758	0.820	0.3342	0.3258
5	Ron Sinclair	WA	100	0.330	0.384	0.412	0.367	0.286	0.3558
			200	0.775	0.550	0.627	0.676	0.524	0.3152	0.3355
6	Ira Rolley	QLD	100	0.425	0.450	0.308	0.274	0.246	0.3406
			200	0.804	0.677	0.799	0.560	0.680	0.3520	0.3463
7	Ray Edwards	WA	100	0.333	0.300	0.236	0.329	0.437	0.3270
			200	0.749	0.528	0.878	0.760	0.830	0.3745	0.3508
8	Barry Warwick	NSW	100	0.294	0.489	0.382	0.317	0.319	0.3602
			200	0.852	0.485	1.067	0.604	0.937	0.3945	0.3774
9	John Wyatt	WA	100	0.396	0.530	0.483	0.376	0.403	0.4376
			200	0.897	0.670	0.795	0.587	0.840	0.3789	0.4083
10	Michael Huebner	VIC	100	0.339	0.335	0.560	0.333	0.380	0.3894
			200	0.808	1.079	0.741	1.104	0.547	0.4279	0.4087

Sporter Class
	Name	State	Yard	A	B	C	D	E	Agg.	Grand Agg.
1	Rob Carnell	NSW	100	0.214	0.278	0.346	0.188	0.405	0.2862
			200	0.577	0.551	0.765	0.427	0.652	0.2972	0.2917
2	David Kerr	WA	100	0.327	0.249	0.356	0.196	0.350	0.2956
			200	0.600	0.725	0.457	0.595	0.706	0.3083	0.3020
3	Paul Sullivan	QLD (HoF)	100	0.280	0.387	0.234	0.253	0.460	0.3228
			200	0.364	0.537	0.608	0.670	0.756	0.2935	0.3082
4	Michael Huebner	VIC	100	0.343	0.184	0.157	0.385	0.380	0.2898
			200	0.634	0.342	0.548	0.795	1.040	0.3359	0.3129
5	Brendan Atkinson	SA (HoF)	100	0.212	0.355	0.370	0.210	0.493	0.3280
			200	0.634	0.780	0.504	0.792	0.607	0.3317	0.3299
6	Barry Warwick	NSW	100	0.237	0.325	0.411	0.202	0.199	0.2748
			200	1.114	0.813	0.908	0.540	0.492	0.3867	0.3308
7	John Wyatt	WA	100	0.397	0.283	0.365	0.262	0.329	0.3272
			200	1.044	0.589	0.826	0.366	0.633	0.3458	0.3365
8	Ray Edwards	WA (HoF)	100	0.347	0.319	0.191	0.372	0.313	0.3084
			200	0.683	0.794	0.813	0.868	0.503	0.3661	0.3373
9	Peter Fleming	NSW	100	0.290	0.371	0.395	0.255	0.530	0.3682
			200	0.512	0.559	0.750	0.518	1.089	0.3428	0.3555
10	Stuart Elliott	QLD (HoF)	100	0.395	0.280	0.202	0.450	0.350	0.3354
			200	0.780	0.996	0.758	0.917	0.442	0.3893	0.3624

Light Varmint Class
	Name	State	Yard	A	B	C	D	E	Agg.	Grand Agg.
1	Craig Whittleton	WA (HoF)	100	0.213	0.309	0.433	0.284	0.239	0.2956
			200	0.726	0.540	0.706	0.624	0.564	0.3160	0.3058
2	Paul Sullivan	QLD (HoF)	100	0.243	0.359	0.570	0.323	0.419	0.3828
			200	0.764	1.080	0.412	0.600	0.789	0.3645	0.3737
3	David Kerr	WA	100	0.283	0.667	0.276	0.141	0.401	0.3536
			200	0.638	0.789	0.785	0.863	0.882	0.3957	0.3747
4	Fergus Bailey	VIC	100	0.429	0.402	0.567	0.337	0.240	0.3950
			200	0.866	0.656	0.765	0.834	0.785	0.3906	0.3928
5	Ira Rolley	QLD	100	0.334	0.420	0.422	0.250	0.254	0.3360
			200	0.776	1.016	1.237	0.623	0.882	0.4534	0.3947
6	Stuart Elliott	QLD (HoF)	100	0.284	0.347	0.226	0.178	0.328	0.2726
			200	1.238	1.190	0.910	1.183	0.823	0.5344	0.4035
7	Brendan Atkinson	SA (HoF)	100	0.342	0.340	0.404	0.416	0.323	0.3650
			200	1.054	0.709	0.893	0.885	1.129	0.4670	0.4160
8	Ron Sinclair	WA	100	0.355	0.354	0.284	0.418	0.319	0.3460
			200	0.992	0.913	1.002	1.560	0.617	0.5084	0.4272
9	Ray Edwards	WA (HoF)	100	0.219	0.376	0.196	0.924	0.332	0.4094
			200	1.010	1.209	1.113	0.500	0.650	0.4482	0.4288
10	Michael Huebner	VIC	100	0.223	0.530	0.380	0.478	0.224	0.3670
			200	1.714	0.733	1.035	0.666	1.144	0.5292	0.4481

Heavy Varmint Class
	Name	State	Yard	A	B	C	D	E	Agg.	Grand Agg.
1	Craig Whittleton	WA	100	0.338	0.305	0.309	0.244	0.300	0.2992
			200	0.627	0.326	0.930	0.480	1.039	0.3402	0.3197
2	Paul Sullivan	QLD (HoF)	100	0.265	0.396	0.370	0.436	0.173	0.3280
			200	0.380	0.749	0.570	0.828	0.936	0.3463	0.3372
3	Michael Huebner	VIC	100	0.267	0.343	0.272	0.297	0.242	0.2842
			200	0.646	1.366	0.372	0.990	0.842	0.4216	0.3529
4	Alan Peake	SA (HoF)	100	0.415	0.518	0.207	0.358	0.300	0.3596
			200	0.728	0.775	0.702	0.464	1.039	0.3708	0.3652
5	Fergus Bailey	VIC	100	0.213	0.407	0.694	0.260	0.272	0.3692
			200	0.674	0.902	0.963	0.520	0.818	0.3877	0.3785
6	Ira Rolley	QLD	100	0.453	0.240	0.232	0.334	0.518	0.3554
			200	0.648	1.292	0.853	0.711	0.765	0.4269	0.3912
7	Ray Edwards	WA	100	0.140	0.178	0.500	0.503	0.400	0.3442
			200	0.911	0.809	0.900	0.658	1.263	0.4541	0.3992
8	Dave McKinnell	WA	100	0.343	0.356	0.354	0.559	0.338	0.3900
			200	0.900	0.899	0.582	1.204	0.758	0.4343	0.4122
9	Graham Keppie	WA	100	0.224	0.479	0.608	0.247	0.309	0.3734
			200	1.176	0.974	1.017	0.578	0.768	0.4513	0.4124
10	John Wyatt	WA	100	0.328	0.330	0.426	0.253	0.430	0.3534
			200	0.922	0.786	1.297	1.073	0.740	0.4818	0.4176

2-Gun Aggregate (John Dark Trophy)
	Name	State	LV	HV	Agg.
1	Craig Whittleton	WA	0.3058	0.3197	0.3128
2	Paul Sullivan	QLD (HoF)	0.3737	0.3372	0.3554
3	Fergus Bailey	VIC	0.3928	0.3785	0.3856
4	Ira Rolley	QLD	0.3947	0.3912	0.3929
5	Michael Huebner	VIC	0.4481	0.3529	0.4005
6	Ray Edwards	WA	0.4288	0.3992	0.4140
7	David Kerr	WA	0.3747	0.4550	0.4148
8	Brendan Atkinson	SA	0.4160	0.4203	0.4181
9	Stuart Elliott	QLD (HoF)	0.4035	0.4416	0.4226
10	Alan Peake	SA (HoF)	0.5019	0.3652	0.4336
11	Rob Carnell	NSW	0.4627	0.4316	0.4472
12	Ron Sinclair	WA	0.4272	0.4676	0.4474
13	John Wyatt	WA	0.5046	0.4176	0.4611
14	Ray Beavis	NSW	0.4514	0.4784	0.4649
15	Jason Farcic	WA	0.5174	0.4295	0.4734
16	Graham Keppie	WA	0.5984	0.4124	0.5054
17	Phil Jones	QLD (HoF)	0.5141	0.4972	0.5056
18	Dave McKinnell	WA	0.6119	0.4122	0.5120
19	Annie Elliott	QLD (HoF)	0.4903	0.5393	0.5148
20	Barry Edgley	QLD	0.4787	0.5629	0.5208

3-Gun Aggregate (Max Coady Trophy)
	Name	State	SP	LV	HV	Agg.
1	Craig Whittleton	WA	0.3834	0.3058	0.3197	0.3363
2	Paul Sullivan	QLD (HoF)	0.3082	0.3737	0.3372	0.3397
3	Michael Huebner	VIC	0.3129	0.4481	0.3529	0.3713
4	David Kerr	WA	0.3020	0.3747	0.4550	0.3772
5	Fergus Bailey	VIC	0.3779	0.3928	0.3785	0.3831
6	Ray Edwards	WA	0.3373	0.4288	0.3992	0.3884
7	Brendan Atkinson	SA	0.3299	0.4160	0.4203	0.3887
8	Ira Rolley	QLD	0.3959	0.3947	0.3912	0.3939
9	Rob Carnell	NSW	0.2917	0.4627	0.4316	0.3953
10	Stuart Elliott	QLD (HoF)	0.3624	0.4035	0.4416	0.4025
11	John Wyatt	WA	0.3365	0.5046	0.4176	0.4196
12	Ron Sinclair	WA	0.4405	0.4272	0.4676	0.4451
13	Phil Jones	QLD (HoF)	0.3805	0.5141	0.4972	0.4639
14	Barry Warwick	NSW	0.3308	0.5881	0.5186	0.4791
15	Annie Elliott	QLD (HoF)	0.4169	0.4903	0.5393	0.4822
16	Barry Edgley	QLD	0.4129	0.4787	0.5629	0.4848
17	Gavin Marshall	QLD	0.4217	0.4870	0.5638	0.4908
18	Dave McKinnell	WA	0.4819	0.6119	0.4122	0.5020
19	Peter Fleming	NSW	0.3555	0.6617	0.4927	0.5033
20	Karl Kuehn	NSW	0.4249	0.6427	0.4793	0.5156
21	Phillip Brenzi	WA	0.5260	0.5871	0.4697	0.5276
22	Graham Keppie	WA	0.6045	0.5984	0.4124	0.5384
23	Jeff Freckelton	WA	0.5482	0.5628	0.5969	0.5693
24	Ken Melgaard	NSW	0.5276	0.6268	0.8564	0.6702
25	Nick Catlan	QLD	0.6195	0.6262	1.0825	0.7760

4-Gun Aggregate (Chas Brown Trophy)
	Name	State	SP	LV	HV	EXP	Agg.
1	Craig Whittleton	WA	0.3834	0.3058	0.3197	0.2696	0.3196
2	Paul Sullivan	QLDHoF	0.3082	0.3737	0.3372	0.2917	0.3277
3	David Kerr	WA	0.3020	0.3747	0.4550	0.3134	0.3612
4	Ray Edwards	WA	0.3373	0.4288	0.3992	0.3508	0.3790
5	Michael Huebner	VIC	0.3129	0.4481	0.3529	0.4087	0.3806
6	Ira Rolley	QLD	0.3959	0.3947	0.3912	0.3463	0.3820
7	Rob Carnell	NSW	0.2917	0.4627	0.4316	0.4090	0.3987
8	John Wyatt	WA	0.3365	0.5046	0.4176	0.4083	0.4167
9	Ron Sinclair	WA	0.4405	0.4272	0.4676	0.3355	0.4177
10	Brendan Atkinson	SA	0.3299	0.4160	0.4203	0.5188	0.4212
11	Stuart Elliott	QLD (HoF)	0.3624	0.4035	0.4416	0.5014	0.4272
12	Fergus Bailey	VIC	0.3779	0.3928	0.3785	0.6056	0.4387
13	Barry Edgley	QLD	0.4129	0.4787	0.5629	0.3258	0.4451
14	Barry Warwick	NSW	0.3308	0.5881	0.5186	0.3774	0.4537
15	Annie Elliott	QLD (HoF)	0.4169	0.4903	0.5393	0.4265	0.4682
16	Phil Jones	QLD (HoF)	0.3805	0.5141	0.4972	0.5076	0.4748
17	Gavin Marshall	QLD	0.4217	0.4870	0.5638	0.4684	0.4852
18	Peter Fleming	NSW	0.3555	0.6617	0.4927	0.5056	0.5039
19	Dave McKinnell	WA	0.4819	0.6119	0.4122	0.5710	0.5192
20	Graham Keppie	WA	0.6045	0.5984	0.4124	0.4769	0.5230
21	Phillip Brenzi	WA	0.5260	0.5871	0.4697	0.5912	0.5435
22	Jeff Freckelton	WA	0.5482	0.5628	0.5969	0.6926	0.6001
23	Ken Melgaard	NSW	0.5276	0.6268	0.8564	0.7424	0.6883
24	Nick Catlan	QLD	0.6195	0.6262	1.0825	0.6678	0.7490