And now for something a little different

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(Edited)

If you're a regular reader of my blog you'll know I'm always looking for something new, fun and interesting to do and experience. You'll also know that I shoot a lot. Last weekend I ran a sport-shooting event as described in previous blogs which you can read hear if you're interested. Event intro post and the Event day post

The event went well although I arrived home after the weekend away feeling somewhat drained and pretty tired. Whilst the events are fun for the competitors for us organisers it's simply a lot of work. I also didn't sleep well on the Saturday night as my hotel was, well let's just say it was dodgy as fuck and leave it at that. The weekend was reasonably enjoyable for me though, nice meal at the local (pub), bonfire Saturday night with a few bro's and bro-ette's and loads of telling lies. :)

As part of our event we are always looking for interesting props to use on the practical shooting stages and so far have come up with many funky and interesting items as props from a flintstones car on rails, a plane, a western town, quad bikes, cars, a horse (44 gallon drum on springs with a saddle mounted) and many other interesting and dynamic (moving) targetry. This event was no different as you can see.

We placed this vehicle, kindly donated by a good mate of ours who was actually at the event shooting, facing down range. Whilst I would dearly love to say we were shooting the 30-cal machine gun mounted on the roll bar though, we were not. Yeah, I know, bummer. The stage involved shooters engaging an array of very small targets whilst standing in the back of the jeep resting their rifle on the roll bar. The machine gun was just for show.

The shooting position was quite awkward, which was exactly our intention, as the shooter was unable to completely move the 30-cal out of the way and the space inside the back of the jeep was quite limited. Add a ticking clock with only 60 seconds on it for the 23 targets and it made for a fairly difficult stage. 60 seconds is not a long time considering they had to mount the jeep, load their rifles, find a position, aim and hit 23 targets with two reloads in between.

The stage was a big hit although no one actually managed to hit all targets. The range was only out to 60 metres but the smallest target was only 2 inches (50mm) in size...A very small target at that range with a .22LR rifle with the time we allowed.

Now, before anyone get's too excited I have to say that the machine gun is simply a prop. It is not real...And, the vehicle wasn't driven there with the gun mounted. The Toyota jeep was purchased by my mate for $2,000 and he dropped a 307 chevrolet V8 into it last week. The gun came with it, made by the farmer who used to own the vehicle as a shooting wagon. Cool huh?

This shooting event is aimed at fun hence the need to deliver interesting props and locations. Each competition has offered new challenges as part of the course of fire together with old favourites the competitors love, albeit with new twists to keep it interesting and challenging. We cater for military, law enforcement, farmers and competition shooters from all levels and ages with the youngest on the weekend being 15 and the oldest 71. It makes for interesting times. No matter the age or competency though, they all love it and wait eagerly for the next event.

Our next event is over five hours away by car in Mt Gambier. I'll be away from home from Thursday to Sunday night for the set up, event and packdown and will probably arrive home feeling worse than I did last weekend. It's all good though. We have some dastardly shit planned for the next one, some really cruel stages, but fun! The location also has a limestone gully full of scrub (trees and bushes) and massive limestone blocks. The gully runs for about 120m and we will have a huge run and gun stage in it with concealed targets, targets that activate when others are hit and pop up (and back down) from behind cover and some that run on rails. It's a pretty huge stage requiring a lot of strategy, a reasonably good aim and loads of speed as we score it by dividing hits by the elapsed time to run it; Accuracy and speed wins the stage. It is one of the most popular stages on our calendar but this year we have some devious shit in store as well.

So, planning will begin for that event in a week or so and it deploys at the end of October. I may write about it again at the time or maybe not considering you're all probably bored shitless already. Thanks for reading.


Design and create your ideal life, don't live it by default and aim small, miss small.
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To listen to the audio version of this article click on the play image.

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I'm bummed you weren't shooting the big gun, but at least you still got to do some target practice. It sounds like you had a lot of fun!

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Was pretty cool. A 30cal like that is illegal here so if I was shooting one I wouldn't post it here, or anywhere else. Yes, it was a lot of fun...Bring in Mt Gambier. I'm actually going to shoot at that event (compete) myself as well I think so will be a full-on weekend.

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A 30cal like that is illegal here so if I was shooting one I wouldn't post it here, or anywhere else.

Smart. It's not the best idea to do illegal things and then post about it online. Or just don't do illegal stuff. Then you don't even have to worry about it. Heh.

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An impressive prop to add diversity for sure! I did not expect such a wide age differende between participants.

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We encourage everyone. The 71 year old shoots with his two sons and the young kid with his dad. It's a family event but one in which some take it very seriously too. It all depends on what the shooters desired outcome is.

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Is that place far from where you live? Just curious, because I didn't imagine your part of Australia looking so dry. I know zilch about Australian terrain though. Zilch about guns too, come to think of it :)

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It's an hour and a half away by car. The thing is that 15 minutes from my place I'm in scrub/bushland and 10 minutes I'm in the city of Adelaide. 10 minutes I'm at the beach. It's a cool place to live.

P.s. South Australia is the driest state in Australia.

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Interesting. It sounds like a place a tourist can get very confused. Unrelated, but you Australians can boast having had the pre-historic creature Megalania. I know this because my son is obsessed with this stuff. A 23 foot long creature with a pretty name. I mean, compare that to Dromornis. You can tell that thing was ugly before you even see its picture.

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I used to have a Megalania as a pet. I called him Bruce. 😂

Australia is awesome. Sure, we have some dangerous stuff but it's a beautiful and widely diverse country perfect for tourists. I have a post about some of our local fauna (written today) going live in about 11 hours. You'll love it. 😉

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In my son's book Dinosaurs vs. Beasts, Megalania was up against Therizinosaurus (the herbivore with the freaky 30 inch claws). It is something like Street Fighter, minus any humanity. Poor Therizinosaurus, he didn't even have a chance against Bruce.

It has crocodiles, doesn't it? I will check it out and prepare to be scared.

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Bruce had ninja skills so poor old Therizinosaurus was defeated. Poor bugger.

Nah, not crocs Gin, snakes! You'll see.

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Oh ok, I like snakes :)

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I'm not a big fan of them. Too slithery and bitey for my liking.

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My husband came into the room last night and said "Is there a toy snake in the hallway?" Nope. Just a three foot long, black striped, nonvenomous little fellow very lost. Their slithery tendencies are a little creepy, but I love their tongues. Something about that forked tongue and the rhythm, it reminds me they are gentle creatures...most of the time.

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The ones I wrote about aren't.

Snakes in the house huh?

Note to self: Bring shotgun to afternoon tea at Ginny's.

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Lol. Bring some crumpets too. I still want a proper crumpet.

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(Edited)
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If I make those here they will transform from a crumpet to an english muffin. It's a tough business being an American. I will just have to hop over one of these ponds and try one in their native territory.

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Looks like a great time. Love the jeep rig!

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Was good fun. We may have bush-bashed the jeep around a bit on Saturday night...Responsibly of course. [Maybe]

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