Scouts shooting program takes off in SA

Australian Shooter
October 2013

Dozens of South Australian Scouts have been introduced to the sport of target shooting all thanks to the passion of their Scout Leader, who also happens to be a SSAA SA member. Brett Kallin initially ran his learn-to-shoot program with a small group of Scouts, but the feedback and popularity of the activity has meant his program has been running for more than a year and now includes regular Scout competitions and even a camp. Scout Ashley Worthley was among the group who attended the first camp and he shares his experience with the Australian Shooter.

At 9am on Saturday, May 25, I met 11 other young people and 12 adults all associated with Scouts South Australia at the SSAA SA Para Range to set up camp. We had a weekend of friendly shooting competition ahead of us, with prizes donated by C&S Sporting Arms and medals for runners-up and other awards. We had a mixture of slightly more experienced shooters, along with new guys who were learning the basics and safety of competition shooting.

We had our camp all set up and were ready to start by 11am. Our tents were set up at the bottom of the hill, our kitchen set up outside the canteen, and all of our gear was ready to go. At 11am, our new members were introduced to a safety course, while the more experienced members went off to shoot in an indoor 10m Precision Air Rifle competition shoot.

While we were having fun shooting, one of the adult members was outside making us lunch. Once we had finished our shoot in the air rifle range, we all gathered by the canteen to eat lunch and talk about each other’s scores.

With the day quickly getting away from us, we modified our plans and let the more experienced shooters have a go at teaching the newer guys some of the basics of Precision Air Rifle shooting. After we had them shooting at the target, and not just the piece of paper at the other end of the room, we gave them some time to have their match, while we went to the top range to set up targets to shoot a .22 Rimfire 3-Positional shoot. Once the beginners had finished, they came up and helped learn the scoring process and also watch how to do 3-Positional shooting while the more experienced competitors were shooting.

We finished this around dinnertime, so we closed the range, made sure all the firearms were locked away in the safe and then we sat down and had a chat while we waited for our dinner. After dinner, we all went back out to the top range and set up the Air Rifle Metallic Silhouette targets. The rifles were taken from the safe and then we spent 30 minutes sighting-in the rifles before actually shooting. When we had finished our shoot, we packed everything back up and went for a quiet night hike out in the cold, before turning in for the night.

We were awoken at 7am to a cooked breakfast of bacon, eggs and soup. Then it was onto some .22 Rimfire Metallic Silhouette competition! While the experienced guys were doing this, the newbies were on a separate range, where a range officer was spending some one-on-one time coaching on how to shoot.

Once we all finished shooting and the rifles were away, we packed up the camp area and the judges counted up all of the scores and who won what prizes. Everyone who participated in the competition won at least one medal. The winner of the Under 15 Scouts won an air rifle, while the winner of the Under 18 Venturers won a .22 rimfire rifle kindly supplied by C&S Sporting Arms in Pooraka.

Thank you to Brett Kallin, the Scout Leader at Edinburgh Park Scout Group, who spent many hours planning and organising all of this camp. This was the first of hopefully many camps for Scouts at the shooting range and we just loved the opportunity. We also could not have had a successful weekend without the help from Dennis from the SSAA Para Range, as well as Robert, Anne-Marie, Steve, Craig, Marlene, Anne, Allen and all the youth who participated in the camp.