SSAA Tasmania Rifle Metallic Silhouette State Titles

A very successful and enjoyable three-day break from March 11 was spent hosting SSAA Tasmania’s Rifle Metallic Silhouette State Titles at the SSAA Blue Hills range, 35 minutes south-east of Hobart. Contestants varied from ungraded to Master shooter, from school student to pensioner and things all ended up with some surprising results.

In January 2013, the range and clubhouse was burned out during a firestorm, but the site has been rebuilt over the past four years (see the June 2016 Australian Shooter magazine). SSAA Tasmania funded the production and emplacement of infrastructure for all categories of Rifle Metallic Silhouette at Blue Hills, which will enable the club to host future State and National Metallic Silhouette events.

Master shooter and SSAA ACT President Dave True was the overall winner of the 5-Gun Championships thanks to a score of 151, with Justin Dittman, from Tasmania’s Glenorchy club, hot on his heels, tallying 148. Justin had a superb run in the Hunter Class Centrefire and Rimfire and was the easy winner in that bracket. AAA-rated Andrew Hay took out the overall best score in the Rimfire match with 44 hits. The surprise performer of the event was junior shooter Tim Lindsay, an ungraded Air Rifle shooter, who snatched the AA-grade Air Rifle match from SSAA Tasmania President Andrew Judd in a shoot-out with a rifle he borrowed from Andrew. It was heard said afterwards that the rifle is now for hire only!

The whole occasion was a great warm-up for the SSAA National Rifle Metallic Silhouette Championships that will also be held at Blue Hills from September 28 to October 3. For those thinking of attending, Blue Hills has a spacious and well-appointed clubhouse with a kitchen and rooms for setting out camp beds, a large social/eating room and male and female toilets. A bench for reloaders is planned to be put in one of the rooms. If the State Championships set an example, the Nationals will be an even more wonderful social and competitive experience.

5-Gun Championships
Place	Name	Air Rifle	Rimfire	Centrefire	RF Hunter	CF Hunter	Total
1	D True	51	43	32	15	10	151
2	J Dittman	47	43	24	20	14	148
3	A Judd	46	34	28	15	10	133
	S Bowden	39	41	25	21	4	130
	A Hay	42	44	15	–	–	101
	L O’Brien	33	24	–	17	10	84
	D Howard	12	32	16	15	9	84
	T Lindsay	46	27	11	–	–	84
	R Smedley	34	20	–	–	–	54
	D Riddell	–	28	15	–	–	43
	L Riddell	–	23	13	–	–	36
	J Arnol	–	–	–	16	8	24
	J Robbins	–	–	–	17	–	17
	O Perkins	–	8	6	–	–	14
	R Tunks	–	–	–	–	8	8