THE Mount Gambier Gun Club held its Christmas competition on Saturday, with a field of 52 shooters out to try their luck at winning the many legs of ham on offer.
Among the winners of the day, Andrew Hoare cleaned up, taking home both the monthly and yearly high gun awards, along with the club’s yearly aggregate.
A 25-Target Double Barrel Championship was the first event for the day and a number of perfect scores resulted in shoot-offs to determine the placings.
Eventually it was Michael Williams who claimed the AA Grade honours with a perfect 50/50 from Andrew Hoare on 49, while Wally Wombwell rounded out the podium with 33/34.
The A Grade win went the way of Anthony Mulraney with 33/34, while the runner-up was Gary Schmidt with 36/38 and third place went to Heath Telford with 35/38.
Frank Kentish took out the B Grade competition with a score of 24/25 and he was followed by Andrew Ryan with 35/37 and Daniel Ashby on 34/37.
In C Grade Ian McArthur won with 23/25 over young-gun Tristan McKinnon with 21/26.
They were followed by Ian Hill who shot 20/26.
The second event on the cards was a 25-Target Side-by-Side Championship, which required shooters to use the old style side-by-side double barrel shotguns.
Good scores were also turned over in this event, with some marksmen shooting the possible 20/20.
After a lengthy shoot-off Ken Atkin took out the overall and AA Grade honours with an impressive 58/58, with Andrew Hoare not quite making the distance, finishing in second with 57/58.
A Grade was won by Andrew Aldersey with 20/20 from Trevor Wedding on 18, while B Grade saw Daniel Ashby claim the win over Brian Case, finishing with 20/22 and 19/22 respectively.
Ian Hill improved his result to win the C Grade competition with 17/23, with Kevin Dyson second with 16/23.
The next event was a novelty competition, but it still provided a challenge for shooters.
The Deauville Doubles with drawn partners required shoot-offs to decide results as scores were rather high.
Eventually it was the partnership of Darren Beyer and Heather Ryan which prevailed with a score of 25/27.
The runners-up for the event were Mark Fabris and Ken Atkin with 24/27, while Andrew Jenkins and Tristan McKinnon finished in third with 18/21.
The final competition for the day was the Annie Oakley event which saw all the shooters line up on the same meterage, taking shots in turn until they miss and are knocked out.
The last few marksmen were back to the 25-metres line, with Anthony Mulraney claiming this year’s champion title.
This meeting finished a successful year of competition, with the club now preparing for the two-day super shoot held on January 13 and 14.
Over $19,000 worth of prizes will be won over the six events of the prestigious competition.
The Mount Gambier Gun Club would like to wish all members, sponsors and the public a merry Christmas and a safe and happy new year.
