New Zealand Service Challenge 2009
8-11 January 2009
The SSAA NSW-sponsored team of Nick, Robert,
Pete and Andrew. SSAA NSW sponsored a Service Rifle team to contest the New Zealand Service Challenge and Charles Upham (NZ VC winner) tournaments. The team comprised of Nick Abrahall, Peter Brown and Andrew Brown from Grafton and Robert Irving from Southern Highlands.
Qantas did their bit, with a five-hour delay in departure from Sydney, but kindly allowed the team to use the club lounge. Arrival in Wellington was smooth from the licence point of view, thanks to prior arrangements by Michael Cole, the New Zealand Police Firearms officer.
The Ministry of Agriculture & Fisheries officers, however, had a bit of a panic when a grass seed was found in Robert’s bootlace hole and they nearly blew a fuse when a tiny money spider was discovered inside a boot! The rest of the team thought this was very amusing, especially when Robert was issued with a written caution for failing to declare livestock import. The money spider was taken away in irons, fate unknown.
The Championships were held in the Masterton area at the Gladstone Range for Pistol, Shotgun and 100m Rifle, and Brancepeth for 150m and 300m Rifle. Dressed in their thick cotton NSW team shirts, the four competitors started the events on what turned out to be the second-hottest day on record - at 5pm, the temperature at Gladstone was still 38C! The day was physically demanding, with four Pistol matches, four Shotgun matches and four Rifle matches. One competitor collapsed at the end of the day and was taken to hospital suffering heat exhaustion.
Using a borrowed Beretta 92FS, Nick managed two golds and a bronze in the Pistol events, placing a close third in the overall Pistol aggregate. In Shotgun, the team stood little chance due to the practised speed of the New Zealand competitors using light self-loading shotguns, especially when reloading was involved. The Prone event, however, was different - firing slugs at a Pistol target at 50m with no reloading, Nick and Robert were among five top-scoring competitors, scoring 49/50. In the shoot-off, Nick won silver.
The only competitive rifles today in the New Zealand Service matches are .223-calibre self-loaders. In the 20 round, which comprises of 20-second series shot from a standing start or the 15-round 2-Position shoot in one minute, even SLRs are at a real disadvantage due to the level of recoil.
The rifles used by competitors included one M1 Garand, two M14 A1s, two SLRs, two Sig 550s, two Heckler & Koch SL8s and one Steyr AUG. The large majority of the remaining firearms included A4 AR15 HBars, using predominantly Elcan or ACOG telescopic sights.
2009 Service Challenge Champion Jamie Falconer
and Dave Cornick. The Classic ‘Mad Minute’ match, however, required a bolt-action rifle. It was in this match that the team scored its first and only Rifle medal on day one, with Pete Brown taking silver using a P14.
Day two at Brancepeth began with a 150m 3-Positonal shoot on figure-12 targets, with a leisurely one minute for five shots in each position. Nick won gold with a superb 74.12. The second match, 20 rounds in 20 seconds from a standing start with the rifle unloaded, resulted in a silver for Pete and bronze for Nick, with Robert two points behind in fourth position.
Back to 300m on a figure-11 target, Nick took gold in the Prone, with Robert the bridesmaid again in fourth position. The next two matches were Rapid and Snap, with none of the team in the running.
The Kiwis introduced a new wrinkle for the final match of the day. The rifle was dissembled on the mound and the magazine unloaded. The match was called the ‘Brancepeth Dash’. We renamed it the ‘Brancepeth Fumble’ though, as the result was a bronze for Robert who was unlucky enough to lose points from a number of extra shots on his target, courtesy of a crossfire and the NZRA rules, which remove the lowest then the highest and so on down to 10 hits. Pete scored fourth position, but we believe Nick is still assembling his rifle!
The second day at Brancepeth produced a silver for Andrew and a bronze for Nick in the 300m Beersheba match. Andrew scored fourth. Nick then scored a convincing gold in the Combined Sitting and Prone at 300m, scoring three points ahead of the nearest competitor.
Back to the Gladstone range for the final day of competition at 100m, there were no more medals for the team, but two close fourth positions with Pete in the Action M and Andrew in the Rapid 3-Positonal, both of which were decided on centres from the second highest score.
The winner of the Service Challenge for the second consecutive year was Jamie Falconer of New Zealand. Overall in the Service Challenge Nick placed seventh, with Pete, Andrew and Rob in ninth, 10th and 11th positions respectively.
The team would like to record their thanks to SSAA NSW for their sponsorship and to Gerry Veugelaers, Peter Miles and Steve Bain, who loaned firearms to the team.
| Service Challenge | ||||
| Name | Rifle | Class | Total | Pos |
| Jamie F | AR15 | s | 951 | 1 |
| Colin W | AR15 | s | 941 | 2 |
| Gerry V | AR15 | s | 933 | 3 |
| Matt S | AR15 | s | 904 | 4 |
| Enrico H | AR15 | s | 876 | 5 |
| Jason D | AR15 | s | 867 | 6 |
| Nick A | AR15 | s | 863 | 7 |
| Peter M | AR15 | s | 854 | 8 |
| Pete B | AR15 | s | 851 | 9 |
| Andrew B | AR15 | s | 831 | 10 |
| Robert I | AR15 | s | 757 | 11 |
| Michael K | SO | s | 739 | 12 |
| Steve B | AR15 | s | 731 | 13 |
| Lindsay S | SIG | s | 716 | 14 |
| Reuben P | AR15 | s | 680 | 15 |
| David C | AR15 | s | 622 | 16 |
| Jeremy Van B | AR15 | s | 563 | 17 |
| Ross McD | SO | s | 518 | 18 |
| Kevin L | SLR | s | 512 | 19 |
| David VJ | SLR | s | 433 | 20 |
| Mark Ba | SIG | s | 425 | 21 |
| Steve G | M14 | o | 666 | 1 |
| Stuart M | M14 | o | 601 | 2 |
| Charles Upham | NZSRA Nationals | |||||||
| Name | Class | Total | Pos | Name | Class | Total | Pos | |
| Matt S | s | 412 | 1 | Jamie F | s | 720 | 1 | |
| Gerry V | s | 407 | 2 | Matt S | s | 709 | 2 | |
| Dan W | s | 396 | 3 | Peter M | s | 704 | 3 | |
| Jamie F | s | 393 | 4 | Colin W | s | 700 | 4 | |
| Nick A | s | 393 | 5 | Pete B | s | 697 | 5 | |
| Peter M | s | 391 | 6 | Nick A | s | 695 | 6 | |
| Andrew B | s | 389 | 7 | Andrew B | s | 680 | 7 | |
| Pete B | s | 378 | 8 | Dan W | s | 672 | 8 | |
| Colin W | s | 370 | 9 | Enrico H | s | 642 | 9 | |
| Enrico H | s | 369 | 10 | Jason D | s | 613 | 10 | |
| Mark B | s | 359 | 11 | Robert I | s | 598 | 11 | |
| Robert I | s | 356 | 12 | Mark Ba | s | 576 | 12 | |
| Giles W | s | 352 | 13 | Steve B | s | 539 | 13 | |
| Jason D | s | 350 | 14 | Lindsay S | s | 517 | 14 | |
| John H | s | 345 | 15 | Mark Bo | s | 506 | 15 | |
| Mark Bo | s | 339 | 16 | Reuben P | s | 443 | 16 | |
| Michael K | s | 336 | 17 | David C | s | 440 | 17 | |
| Lindsay S | s | 333 | 18 | Jeremy Van B | s | 368 | 18 | |
| Steve B | s | 327 | 19 | Ross McD | s | 344 | 19 | |
| Reuben P | s | 324 | 20 | Giles W | s | 302 | 20 | |
| David C | s | 319 | 21 | Kevin L | s | 274 | 21 | |
| Graham P | s | 313 | 22 | David VJ | s | 211 | 22 | |
| Ross McD | s | 309 | 23 | Steve G | o | 400 | 1 | |
| John Leith | s | 297 | 24 | Stuart M | o | 289 | 2 | |
| Henry F | s | 273 | 25 | |||||
| Kevin L | s | 266 | 26 | |||||
| Jeremy Van B | s | 260 | 27 | |||||
| Hilary H | s | 251 | 28 | |||||
| David VJ | s | 190 | 29 | |||||