Paige Donald
by Media Officer Rachael Andrews
For 13-year-old Paige Donald, there is no greater pleasure than beating the ‘old boys’ at the SSAA Inglewood branch range. The shooter of just two years is a crack shot with a pistol, performing well early on and now keeping up with the best of them at the club’s Benchrest competitions.
“Shooting is fun. I like it and it’s fun to beat all of the old guys,” Paige said.
Paige has the advantage of living full-time with her grandparents Tom and Linda Donald, who also have the SSAA Inglewood branch range on their 1100-acre Queensland property.
Tom said it was important to teach the responsible use and respect of firearms early in life. The doting grandfather is pleased with Paige’s natural affinity to target shooting and hunting and very proud of how she is going with her shooting. He said the sport shooting and hunting gene must have been be inherited, as her late great-grandfather Ray Donald of Glen Innes in New South Wales was also a keen clay target, pistol and rifle shooter.
Tom enjoys spending time with Paige on the range.
“We’re a friendly club as against competitive and we enjoy the shoots and having our juniors involved,” he said. “The adults enjoy having her around and just laugh when she beats them.”
The pair also regularly go hunting on neighbouring properties. This is something Paige also enjoys doing and she always manages to bring home some meat for both the family and the dog.
“I like to shoot rabbits and give them to the dog,” Paige said. “It’s fun going out with Grandpa.”
“She is as good with a rifle on rabbits as she was with a pistol on targets,” Tom said. “We shoot for the table rabbit and hare, as well as culling foxes, feral cats and pigs.”
These days, Tom prefers the comfort of the warm ute cab, but he’s more than happy to take Paige out and see her improve with every hunt. And he’s keen to introduce Paige to other target shooting disciplines, as well as keep up their hunting activities. He said Metallic Silhouette was definitely an option, but that he needed to coach her on how to shoot unsupported first.
“We will keep her involved at a club level and let her decide whether she wants to go higher,” he said. “She’s 13 and she’s also got other social activities she likes to do as well.”
Tom has just purchased a secondhand .32-calibre squirrel gun, a muzzleloader for her to try out. She tried clays with a 12-gauge shotgun, but at this stage, it was a bit too much for her. The SSAA Inglewood branch offers a wide range of sport shooting events. It has 800 acres and with six ranges now up and running, Tom is keen for Paige to get involved in the likes of Single Action and IPSC Pistol events. Paige herself said she was keen to try the new Metallic Silhouette rifle they have just got going after purchasing a box of secondhand targets from Melbourne.
Paige describes herself as a typical teenager, who likes her music and vampire and werewolf movies. She often has her ‘townie’ schoolmates out for weekends and school holidays and loves to get them on to a quad, show off the range and get them involved in a Pistol or Benchrest event on Sundays. Many of her friends proudly go home with a target full of holes to show the rest of the family.
Home > Junior shooters > Junior member profiles > Paige Donald